To: Governors
CC: ASEM Contact Points
From: Jean Anes
05/05/2008
6th Asia-Europe Film Meeting
24-25 January, Brussels, Belgium (Phase 1)
26-31 January, Rotterdam, The Netherlands (Phase 2)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The 6th Asia-Europe Film Meeting strived to engage participants from Europe and Asia in a dialogue through comprehensive film issues and to encourage independent film producers to increasingly collaborate in the creation of common cross-cultural work in this field.
The main aim of the film meeting was to give emerging producers the possibility to create a solid international network and to gain international expertise on how to present their projects in the international marketplace.
The film meeting had two phases. In the first one, a two-day seminar was co-organised with RITS audiovisual and performing arts school in Brussels, and explored the reality of the current Asia-Europe exchanges on independent film and the initiatives to help emerging independent film producers to explore future collaborations between Asia and Europe.
The second phase of the meeting consisted on a workshop on Asia-Europe film issues co-organised with CineMart of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) in the framework of the 5-days programme of the Rotterdam lab of CineMart.
The film meeting targeted mainly emerging film producers from the two regions: up to 20 film producers from 15 ASEM countries participated actively in the phase one and up to 80 producers benefited from the panel facilitated by ASEF during the phase two of the project. ASEF also co-sponsored a lunch where ASEF CE Director gave a brief introduction to ASEF and its film programme to around 600 audiences related to the film industry in ASEM and other countries.
The film meeting was facilitated by three main resource people, Lorna Tee (Business Development Manager, Variety Asia and Producer), Elise Jalladeau (Producer) and In-Ah Lee (Producer, Greensky Films), and counted with the assistance of up to 12 panellists and presenters from renowned film companies like Homegreen films, Fortissimo films, Kenbiroli films, Cine-@, Films distribution or The Match Factory.
This meeting was co-organised by ASEF in association with CineMart of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) and RITS film school in Brussels, and supported by Erasmus Hogeschool Brussel, Vlaamse Gemeenschapscommissie and Vlaamse Overheid.
- Proceedings
The first phase of the film meeting started in Brussels with two days of workshops/panels in collaboration with the RITS film school. Several areas of the film producing, financing and the role of sales companies and distributors were covered during the two days. While in Brussels the participants also had the opportunity to attend the private screening of The Drummer, a relevant example of Asia-Europe co-production.
In the second phase of the meeting in Rotterdam, developed in cooperation with the Rotterdam Lab, the participants joined the bigger forum of discussion and networking that is an International Film Festival as Rotterdam. Speed dating sessions, networking events, screenings, workshops, master classesetc, were part of the programme the participants had the opportunity to attend. Two Asia-Europe film co-productions were analysed during the workshop: ‘The Drummer’ by Kenneth Bi (Germany/Hong Kong SAR co-production) and ‘Shanghai Trance’ by David Verbeek (Dutch Director/Shot in China).
The Rotterdam Lab has a very diverse structure and covered all aspects of producing, something extremely useful for emerging producers as the ones taking part in this meeting. During the forum ASEF facilitated a panel discussion on the challenges and potentialities of Asia-Europe co productions. The challenges and the different aspects in the production process with a concretes example at hand were discussed.
- Assessment
ASEF’s evaluation strategy consists of qualitative analysis, with more attention to the quality of the process of organising and implementing its projects, with limited quantitative assessment. ASEF organised its activities to produce sustainable, relevant and high-impact programmes. All projects are systemically evaluated on the basis of the following criteria: relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability.
ASEF uses the following instruments/methods for its evaluation: written project agreement with the partner organisations, steering committee post-event evaluation; rudimentary evaluation questionnaires from participants; executive reports, systematically sent to the ASEF Board of Governors and ASEM contact points, reflecting the quality of proceedings and assessment notes on the event; and other project documents such as the budget, etcetera.
Apart from qualitative assessments by the organisers, this assessment is partly based on the results from feedback forms distributed to participants. The evaluation form and summary of responses distributed is provided as Annex 1.
Relevance
Based on the 13 answers received from the questionnaire distributed to the participants in the two phases of the 6th Asia-Europe film meeting programme in Brussels and Rotterdam (17), the combination of participants was suitable and constructive for the meeting and generally the professional background of the participants was relevant. All the 13 answers defined as excellent or goodthe quality of the content for discussion and workshop as laid out in the agenda.
For the majority of participants their expectations were met and had benefit from the programme (12 out of 13 answered Yes or Yes, partly). For the participants (multiple answers were possible), the meeting and interaction with other artists from ASEM countries was the more precious things gained of the meeting (12 out 13), followed by the interaction and the inputs by the facilitators and speakers (8 out 13) and the opportunity to communicate and share experiences about their own film experience (7 out 13).
The good work developed from the facilitatorsand panellists during the implementation of this meeting was also quoted by the participants, who particularly appreciated the engagement of the two main facilitators, Lorna Tee (Malaysia) and In-Ah Lee (Germany/Korea): 85% of the responsed evaluated their work as excellent and 15% as good.
With regard to the panels facilitated by ASEF, for two panels, by In-Ah Lee (Germany/Korea), Oi-Leng Lui (Singapore) and Didar Domehri (France) and the panel by Nelleke Driessen (The Netherlands), Vincent Wang (China/France), Jeremy Segay (France) and Charles McDonald (UK), 100% of the answers noted it as excellent or good. For the panel with Michel Weber (Germany), Natacha Devilliers (France), Thanassis Karathanos (Greece) and Rosa Li (Hong Kong SAR),facilitated in the framework of the Cinemart Rotterdam, 90% of the answers rated it as excellent or good, while the panel by Philippe Carcassonne (France), Philippe Brehm (Germany) and Vincent Wang (China/France) got 80% of very positive reviews.
Efficiency
The partnership between ASEF and the RITS film school and Cinemart Rotterdamwent generally well. RITS film school supported the project since the beginning, trying to facilitate as much as possible the smooth organization of the panels, visits, networking sessions and screenings. tried always to make everyone feel welcome and to ensure that everything went smoothly and that we could make the best of the time we had there.
Despite their busy schedule, the collaboration and join work with Cinemart Rotterdam for this meeting was also very easy and it always tried hard to make feel the participants comfortable while developing efficiently a quality programme.
The initial objectives of the meeting were met and the project was regarded as well implemented and organised as can be seen from the participants’ feedback on administrative support from ASEF and COMICA, reviewed as excellent (92% for ASEF, 77% in the case of CineMart Rotterdam and 75% for RITS film school Brussels).
No big problems were mentioned in the participants’ feedback with relation to the accommodation or the flight arrangements although a participant stated “it could be perfect if invitation had been earlier so that I could manage my schedule to attend on time”.
The financial contribution from ASEF to this project was estimated in 130,000SGD. About a 90% of the funds allocated will be spent, which will represent around the 65% of the total budget of the project. On the top of their financial contributions to the project RITS film school Brussels and CineMart Rotterdam kindly contributed and supported the project by providing venues for workshops, screenings, networking meetings. In the case of CineMart Rotterdam, free entrance to industry talks and screenings during the Rotterdam film festival was also granted to the participants. The meeting was as well supported by Erasmus Hogeschool Brussel, Vlaamse Gemeenschapscommissie and Vlaamse Overheid.
Effectiveness
In general, the participants noted their satisfaction on the overall good development of the project: 39% defined the design and length of the talks as excellentand 61% as good. The cocktails/networking sessions, moments extremely important for film producers as is when the deals and future collaborations are define, wererated as good or excellentin 85% of the cases. One participant was missing though time for “more networking time for producers”.
With a programme extremely packed and exhausting to make everything fit is not surprising that a 23% of the respondents would have preferred to have more free time for visits, although the remaining 77% still rated it as correct or excellent.Some of the participants comments in relation to this were: “Couple of more days could be added to the programme”, “Brussels programme was better. A bit packed but totally expected since its only 2 days. Rotterdam programme was a little bit repetitious and hectic. Wish had more time to spend with new acquainted networks both on personal and professional relationship”.
With regards to the improvement of the format and the programme some other interesting comments by the participants were: “General knowledge should be kept, as it is very insightful. And, adding one on one coaching with the experts will be beneficial for us depends on projects need”, “More case study and perhaps one-to-one meeting with panels to have personalized advise” “At times the talks in the programme tend to focus more on films on a rather big scale (e.g. with considerably high budget, multiple international partners with an aim at high international exposure e.g. at big name festivals). For many participants who do not work on that level yet at this point, while this may still be a good information to gain (e.g. for preparation), it would also be useful to have a panel that explores more on works in a smaller scale, for emerging filmmakers, as well”, “My expectations were to know more about co-production possibilities with Asia. This has not really been answered”
Impact
ASEF co-organised 4 panel discussion that attracted the attention of up to 50 participants from ASEM countries in Brussels. Several other film students and people from the Belgian film industry had also the opportunity to interact with the emerging film producers from Asia and Europe during a networking session organised by RITS film school and Vlaamse Gemeenschapscommissie
ASEF also co-organised a panel discussion in the framework of the bigger event CineMart Rotterdam that attracted the attention of up to 80 emerging film producers from ASEM and other countries. Karl Baumgartner, one of Germany’s most well known and experienced producers especially for co productions, sat in on this panel and remarked that he learned a lot from it.
ASEF co-sponsored a lunch where ASEF CE Director also gave a brief introduction to ASEF and its film programme to around 600 audiences related to the film industry in ASEM and other countries. ASEF materials were also displayed at the tables during the lunch. 850 copies of ASEF materials were distributed in the welcoming packages of CineMart guestsand more ASEF materials were also displayed during the meeting.
The ASEF logo appeared in the CineMart Dossier, and ASEF was also mentioned in the official Rotterdam film festival website and in the Rotterdam Industry Manual and Festival Catalogue.Several proposals of potential partnerships were raised after those public events in the framework of the Rotterdam film festival.
Sustainability
In our opinion ASEF shall continue to find dynamic partnerships to co-organise and support relevant film eventsand to strengthen its collaborations with organisations, institutions andfilm festivalswith programmes or interest in this field.
During the organisation of this project the organisers noticed the strong need for ad-hoc support to film festivals or events that are looking forward to add some kind of multilateral dimension (specifically Asia-Europe) to their programme,and looking thus for the appropriate support. From the ASEF CE believesa continuous support to relevant initatives in the field of film exchange is necessaryWe also feel that the scheme “Asia-Europe Partnerships Initiatives” (AEFPI) that the CE department is planning to implement from the year 2009 would be answering to the flexibility needed in the film field nowadays and would be very welcome by future potential partners.
A festival the size of the Rotterdam International Film Festival is good for a program like the one ASEF implements because it is small enough that it creates a lot of good opportunities to network. But the festival is also big enough and enjoys a great reputation for not only having the best coproduction market in the world, but also a very diverse programming with a strong focus on Asian films.
Because of that, the peoplewho attend this festival, have an interest in projects like the ones that our participants were already working on or planned to work on. Before venturing out into the field of international co-productions, it is vital that one knows their local film market, resources and industry. As much as it was helpful for the participants to learn from more experienced peers, it was just as important that they got to meet one another. Relationships and networks were formed that would not have been possible otherwise and those are instrumental assets for an independent film producer
Several institutions and festivals have approached recently ASEF regarding potential collaborationsin this field for the future, all of them with a strong Asia-Europe focus or component. Several mid-size film festivals based in Barcelona, Manila, Udine, Paris or Jakarta have manifested their keen interest to initiateor continue collaborations with ASEF.They wish to provide more opportunities for emerging and young film makers or producers to attend their events as well as to explore possibilities of co-organising specific approaches to relevant Asia-Europe issues.
ASEF is indeed in the position to, by addressing accordingly those issues, make a real impact in the film sector where,although these days many resourcesalready exist,very few of them contain a defined Asia-Europe dimension or focus orare flexible enough to respond accordingly to the real necessities of the field.
Prepared by
Jean Anes, Director for Cultural Exchange
David Ocón Fernández, Project Executive, Cultural Exchange
Annex 1 – Evaluation Form and Summary of Responses
Annex 2 – Programme Booklet (Concept, Agenda, Participants and facilitators)