AIDC Day 2

Thinking back to day 2...it was a day that began quickly, lost its way then ended with a high energy climax...so what exactly went down?

Day 2: Thursday

First up was “Who's Who” where all the delegates sat in the audience and were introduced to the faces behind the networks and broadcasters from all around the world with likes of National Geographic, Channel 4, ITVS and Verve Entertainment International.

Documart! For the first time Phil and I watched people giving pitches to television broadcasters from all around the world; Scotland, Germany, the USA, Bangladesh and of course SBS and ABC from Australia. This may show my age, but I wonder why commercial networks like Ten, Seven and Nine don't turn up? Documentary seems to be a hot form at the moment so you never know...(if anyone does know the answer tell us in the comments)

Some pitches were great, some were...not so...actually on second thought all of them were pretty good. The most interesting thing about it was to watch the re-actions and interactions between "pitcher" and the “broadcaster”. Sometimes broadcasters were nice, interested and right into the idea and other times they were ice cold. Phil and I will be mindful of this when we tighten our synopsis and treatments as well as use this experience to further our pitching skills for the future.

“What’s in it for private investors?” was interesting...to sum it up? In our opinion? The new producers offset still has a few bugs to be worked through and the FFC or the to be new Screen Australia will have to work hard with banks and institutions to ensure that the offset is seen as a secure viable model for investing into Australian production. One thing that can be said is that the offset is not designed for small time independent producers but for medium to large size companies who can take on a slate of projects. Instead of trying to make it sound like there are ways for little indie guys to survive I wish someone would have the guts to say what is really going on here and that this is not right as it could destroy the business model for small time players. Some may argue that this is fine, that they are not needed but if the raw indie producers are culled off then the industry stands to lose fresh ideas and its vibrant-risky edge.

The next seminars were so so and our night was drifting nowhere, then by chance we bumped into Tim Sparke from joiningthedots.tv and had fish and chips for dinner with him. We got talking about our project and joiningthedots.tv and before we new it we were debating the current trends in cinema, from England, Australia to the USA and Europe. Later, Tim worked through our film narrative further. We ended up getting some contacts from him and at the stroke of midnight (almost) we met Daryl Karp, Chief Executive Officer of Film Australia. She added some thoughts on our project and with that we walked back to our humble B&B with a renewed focus and vigour.