30 Companies RushTo FilmMart Looking For a Sign, Any $ Sign October 2014 AFM Preview really have no other choice than to pick them up,” he said. “When I watchFresh Off the Boat, when I watchBlack-ish, when I watchCristela, I am one of those families.” “Specificity is so key to great television, and you can smell it if it is not authentic,” Lee said. “These are American stories, all of them.” Robert Greenblatt, chairman of NBC Entertainment, is equally committed to diversity. “We talk about it all the time, and aside from the fact that you see three white people up here, when you go to the next level of our executives, it is a varied mix of diversities. I’m really proud of that, and I venture to say it’s probably the most diverse executive group of any network. We want to reflect the world, and we really do want to push forward on all fronts, not only the faces you see in shows, but behind the camera. We also have probably the most diverse behind-the-camera programs, from internships and directing internships, and we really try to get people into the system, which I know is the biggest barrier. It’s just been a couple of years that this group has been here to do this. I’m really proud of our record so far, and yet, it’s never enough.” Greenblatt was asked how to rebuild a network after it hits rock bottom, like FOX has currently. “First of all, you have to love the medium. You have to find the best people that you can in every area of programming and scheduling and business affairs. Every show is a challenge to put together, and it’s not just what the idea is or what the storyline is. It’s the deal and it’s very complicated. So you have to find the best people you can, and hopefully you want to make a lot of shows and you’re okay with the volume, because the volume is the killer not only day-to-day, but because our jobs are so full of details that we have to deal with. If you’re doing two shows a year, you can handcraft them. You can be all over them. You can make sure an episode doesn’t go out the door that isn’t as great as it possibly can be, but when you’re doing 15 or 20 shows a year, the volume just gets away from you, so you have to be comfortable with that. The other thing I wish for anybody who has a job like this [is] you have to have great upper management, and I have the best. I have the greatest people that I work for who give us so much support and latitude. You almost can’t win unless you have that as well.” This year at the American Film Market (AFM) in Santa Monica, six conferences will be held over five days of the eightday market, which starts on November 5. These conferences will touch on pertinent aspects of the film industry, including finance, pitching, production, marketing, distribution and coproductions, with an African Co-Production Roundtable. Yet they will not touch on what some exhibitors are calling the key focus of this AFM: finding sponsors and the search for VoD platforms. Considering that few independent films are now acquired for theatrical release, international sales companies will be looking for sponsors willing to subsidize (often with a flat fee) theatrical exhibition, basically returning to the old days when companies, such as Nestle and Hershey, sponsored movie releases where they could exclusively promote their new consumer goods. This futuristic return to the past would provide a needed subsidy to international sales companies that up to now have paid theaters out-of-pocket in order to obtain the needed “Theatrical Release” designation to demand higher license fees to payTV outlets. The VoD platform is expected to be another key aspect of this AFM, even though film sales companies are already resigned to the fact that it has been consolidated as a purely “revenuesharing” model. While the film market’s proximity to MIPCOM on the calendar will certainly find its way into conversations at the AFM, once again it will mean little to AFM sellers and buyers alike because the markets largely involve different fare. Plus, for those companies that bring the same catalog to both MIPCOM and AFM, the latter provides a great opportunity to continue discussions initiated in Cannes. This is the case for Starz Worldwide Distribution, as SVP of Worldwide Distribution Gene George explained, “Our main push is centered…at MIPCOM. However, the AFM gives us a great opportunity to finalize any outstanding deals initiated at MIPCOM and also to concentrate on certain buyers and territories that typically do not have a large presence at MIPCOM.” However, the fact that last year MIPCOM and the AFM were just 26 days apart and this year the gap has shrunk to 18 days, could, for the first time, represent at least a logistical problem for some attendees of both markets. Last year, AFM drew 357 exhibitors from 33 countries and 779 buying companies for a total of 7,876 participants. This year the film market is not expected to be much different. What is expected, though, is a better economic environment, a larger number of quality films and a strong emerging platform that could take the place of the much-missed DVD business. Indeed, Tim Brown, EVP of Feature Films at Breakthrough Entertainment, said, “The DVD model is not as strong as it once was, so we have to find alternatives, and that’s digital. New revenue models outside of DVD are where everyone is going to be looking.” He also noted that participants will be looking for revenue streams with VoD. “Netflix will be a hot topic as well with their expansion into Europe and probably Asia in the near future,” he added. Multicom’s Irv Holender believes that “The growth into the digital VoD and SVoD and streaming will be greater” this year. As for Starz, George noted, “We have seen a lot more activity in the television and DVD markets at AFM,” in addition to “tremendous growth in digital.” Thoughts of digital aside, exhibitors are also concernedabout survival. “Survival is going tobe the number one topic,” said Ken DuBow, EVP and general manager at Lightning Entertainment. “For independent distributors, global prices are either shrinking or, at best, stagnant and there is a continuation towards media consolidation… the big fish are looking only to get bigger…The secret of independent survival will be niche marketing. It means less total films to market but more films that are relevant and commercial with good casts…As smaller companies, we must navigate this marketplace together so the independent business will thrive against the ‘get bigger’ tide.” On a final note, Breakthrough’s Brown expressed his wish that organizers be conscious of the current economic reality and “change their pricing structure [i.e., reduce market costs] to reflect the current marketplace.” SA TCA Review (Continued from Page 14)
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