Future Vision

MUSIC, MONEY AND CREATIVITY

The global music industry is on a roll, but with billions at stake, how long can it last? In this edition of Future Vision, Juliana Koranteng, founder of JayKay Media, publisher of MediaTainment Finance (MTF) and TechMutiny, and owner of exclusive media investment database MTF Monitor offers up some cutting-edge insight into the future of music media investment.

Q. Even before launching JayKay Media, you were a contributing editor at Billboard and other publications. MTF and TechMutiny each year provides exclusive coverage of investments in, and changes or disruptions to, the international media, entertainment and creative sectors. In other words, you've spent much of the last few decades looking into the business of music. What's the attraction?

A. Music is the most accessible of all the creative intellectual properties, but it is also the one that other creative sectors, including film, TV, live entertainment, sport and advertising, cannot do without. So... read more...

Future Vision: Apple Film's Dariusz Jablonski Lifts the Lid on the Pleasure Principle

INTRO: Eastern Europe’s very first co-production between three territories is now set to premiere in early June and has been picked-up for worldwide distribution by Beta Film. Multiple award-winning director and producer Dariusz Jablonski, founder and CEO of Apple Film, talks about how the production came together and why he believes it will be a success on the international stage. 

Q. You already have quite a lot of experience producing internationally with Spies of Warsaw and The Passing Bells, with BBC picking up worldwide distribution in both cases. On top of this, Beta Film obviously believes The Pleasure Principle will be another win. What about this production intrigued you? 

A.  The script was excellent and the storyline is multi-layered and fascinating. The lead detective, as an example, is a woman whose unique world view—she comes from a family of musicians—helps her solve the crime. And we don’t show much actual violence in the series.... read more...

Future Vision: Atlantique Productions Patrick Nebout

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AFTER five months of filming in the Arctic, Midnight Sun, the Leila Bekhti/Gustaf Hammerstein starred thriller has wrapped. Future Vision chats with multi-lingual multi-talented Atlantique Productions creative director and producer Patrick Nebout about the high concept series, and the major challenges facing Europe's robust new wave of drama players.

Q. This is the first Swedish/French drama co-production, and it's got some phenomenal partners on board. Canal+, SVT, Nice Drama, Atlantique?

A. Yes, and both Bekhti (Tout Ce Qui Brille/The Source) and Hammerstein (The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo/Bruno) are highly sought after star talent on the European drama landscape. As are Midnight Sun's writers and directors Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein.   

Q. Marlind and Stein were both creators and directors of the very successful Swedish-Danish co-production The Bridge as well?

A. Indeed. We were very lucky to get them. They are not only known for their unique voice... read more...

Violence and the Courage to Create: HBO's Dilemma

IN some ways, the flurry of complaints surrounding HBO's 'Game of Thrones" rape scene is heartening, in that there is, today, clearly a line that can be crossed when it comes to violence, and especially violence against women.

This is an industry that has been rushing headlong in the direction of "anything goes" when it comes to using violence to push the adrenalin buttons that jack up ratings and box office. Richard Plepler, CEO of HBO, last year speaking at the Paley Centre for Media, noted "We are in the business of building addicts."

The question now is at what point is the industry willing to take an honest look at itself and fess up. At what point does violence cross the line from being about legitimate storytelling and creative vision and wander into the less lofty territory of just being a tool for building adrenalin addiction. HBO is on the defensive right now but the discussion is one the entire industry... read more...

No Borders, No Barriers, No Limits

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CANNES - It is not often that the top decisionmakers in the business of media gather together in one room but each year, the crème de la crème of the drama co-production world do just that at the MIPTV International Drama Co-Production Summit.

Organized by Reed MIDEM, the fourth edition of the Summit, held this year at the Carlton Tuesday April 14, brought together more than 80 of the top dealmakers, creatives and senior executives for what has become an annual no nonsense, no borders, no barriers and no limits look at the business of drama co-production. Key to the Summit's success is a closed door policy, with no press invited, and a guiding ambition to move beyond competition, language and territory to discuss issues and problems common to the co-production industry. 

XFiles creator and Big Light Productions chief executive Frank Spotnitz has been at the Drama Summit for three of the last... read more...

Film Commissions Step Into the 21st Century

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FILM Commissions and film support organizations are poised to become significant players, creatively and financially, on the 21st century media landscape.

That's the upshot of MIPCOM 2014's Film Commissions Day, held October 14 in Cannes. The event featured film commissions and film offices from territories across Europe, the Middle East and Asia unveiling their latest incentives, rebates, and support packages, all aimed at luring in producers from all sectors of the audiovisual world to their territories.

"It is only in the last couple of years that the media world has woken up to the idea that film is no longer the default first window, the holy grail, in the world of audiovisual," Marlene Edmunds, chief executive and founder of Marlene Edmunds Media Consulting and Future Vision creator told... read more...

Violence and the Courage to Create

MANY times in the business of film and television, we talk about creativity but not about how much our fear that something will fail influences, to our collective detriment, creative vision.

We know, for example, that the adrenalin rush produced by gratuitous scenes of violence in our films and TV programmes jacks up ratings and box office. And we also have legitimate fear that if we don't follow the formulaic requirements of the industry for producing blockbusters or smash hit TV series, there is a very good chance we will fail.

Violence is not the issue. Rather is it how willing we are, as individuals and as an industry, to have the courage to create stories that go beyond formulaic expectations. There are thousands of iconic films and TV productions that have been and are being made where violent scenes are an integral part of the story. The Killing Fields, Apocalypse Now, and The Pacific are but a few. And there are films and TV programmes with violence in them... read more...

Drama Co-pro Toppers Stir It Up at MIPTV 2014

PASSION, trust and shared vision. That's the name of the game when it comes to original drama co-production for several major MIPTV 2014 keynoters and 60 top drama co-producers attending the third edition of the MIPTV International Drama Co-Production Summit in Cannes.

Long time colleagues Starz CEO Chris Albrecht and Playground chairman and CEO Colin Callender traded anecdotes about past and present collaborations  at MIPTV's opening Media Mastermind keynote. The two collectively have won more than 200 Emmies, Golden Globes and other awards while working together at HBO and more recently on such projects as the BBC's eight part series The Missing. 

Earlier co-productions were always "a conversation about two co-producers trusting or not... read more...

Happy 2014 - Five Hopes for a Better Media World

WHETHER  you celebrate on January 1 or another date (Chinese New Year is just around the corner) - New Year’s is a reflection of new beginnings, new hopes, and new commitments to change.  

In 2013, media achieved some amazing milestones and shed some of the trappings of tradition that has held it back from fully embracing the digital age.  Among those milestones, the mythology of film’s presumed hierarchy over television gave way, talent and money crossed freely between film and TV, media companies posted record earnings as a result of changes brought on by the Golden Age of Television, and Netflix taught us in more ways than one that embracing the digital age can only spur more creativity and more revenues.

So how can we top 2013?  Here are a few suggestions for a new and better 2014 media world.

*WOMEN AND CREATIVITY – It’s wonderful to see that Jane Campion has been named the jury president of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival but hard to believe that we still... read more...

Season of The Witch

MAGIC and witchcraft are back in again. Nearly two decades after Charmed and Buffy the Vampire Slayer put a spell on a whole generation of young women and girls, TV, film and books are alive with spellbinding tales of witchcraft and enchantment. 

What's it all about? It's not exactly rocket science when one considers that times haven't changed that much in the last  two decades since Charmed and Buffy spun coming of age tales for young women and tweenaged girls. Let's take a look.

An annual US study called the Celluloid Ceiling Report by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film found that women directors in 2012 comprised only nine per cent of helmers working on the top 250 highest grossing US films, the same level it was 15 years ago.  Only four women have ever been nominated for an Oscar for best director by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and Kathryn Bigelow was the only woman to ever win it in the academy’s 85-year history.  The... read more...
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