email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

Carlos Antón • EGEDA

Building bridges between Europe and Latin America

by 

EGEDA president Carlos Antón tells Cineuropa about a course especially designed for European and Latin American audiovisual producers that the institution is currently organising. Deadline for subscriptions is February 28.

What advantages does this training program offer audiovisual producers?
The main advantage of the course is that it is not a simple training course. We work with real cases, and the real case is the project each participant is willing to produce. For four months participants will have the chance to improve their projects guided by a professional script editor and a senior producer, in addition to attending classrooms where they can expand their networking with other professionals, public institutions and investors. During the individual evaluation, each participant will receive a report on how to improve the script and develop it as an audiovisual production, and a useful report on market positioning for the 20 best projects.These 20 projects will be presented during an international co-production forum/market in San Sebastian, where the winners will have all expenses paid. The price of the course – thanks to the support provided by MEDIA INTERNACIONAL, AECID, IBERMEDIA, IBAIA and EGEDA – is reduced from €6,000 to €500, which will be the final tuition cost.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

One part of this course is a workshop on the production of audiovisual content. What is the purpose of this three-day course?
This seminar will go over the most important aspects of audiovisual production, such as script development, legal aspects, financing and government support, the business plan, marketing, markets, international sales, packaging, pitching and sales techniques to different targets, and so forth. Another very important aspect of these courses is the networking that is generated, including contacts with speakers, who are always first-class.

What is the importance of new digital formats for audiovisual producers?
We cannot oppose progress. Our audience wants to use all the possibilities that technological progress offers to develop their leisure opportunities. I think the smartest thing is to know these possibilities, and use them to our advantage. We must be close to our audience. We depend on them and thanks to them and to new technologies we can develop a market that in recent years seemed stuck. Therefore, the message is clear: both the new technologies and the public demanding their use should be our allies. Let’s build the new market together.

Do you believe that the future of the European cinema is based on a partnership with the film industry in Latin America?
The future of the film industry will look to all possible scenarios from global audiences to very specific products for very special audiences. The technology both in production and in distribution will allow us different opportunities. We should take advantage of them. But we need to be very strict with the budget analysis of each project, depending on the chosen target. For those cases where we want to make big-budget productions for theatrical release and with the possibilities that 3D technology allows us, I’m afraid that the expansion of distribution is inevitable so that the resources spent for this type of production can be recovered. Europe and Latin America are two large territories, in which cooperation projects are becoming more frequent. Those projects are initially guided by the aid that it is possible to get, but with remarkable success stories of the released works. This serves to indicate a viable way for developing large audiovisual projects.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

Privacy Policy