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M:BRANE 2021

M:brane’s lively panel talks include German humour, a Canadian focus and Europeans who want it all

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- Securing audiences in the European film landscape and getting good laughs all the way to the box office were some of the topics covered in the programme of panels

M:brane’s lively panel talks include German humour, a Canadian focus and Europeans who want it all
Canada’s Thomas Azoug, of Phi Studio, presenting a project during the panel

“One film can’t have it all!” may well be an undisputable claim for a number of reasons, but trying to minimise the “can’t” bit and maximise the “all!” part will continue to be a primary mission. Gathering around this sentiment in order to compare notes on getting successful exposure in the various channels of the exhibition landscape were Alfred Sesma, sales and acquisitions manager at Pack Màgic, Spain; Agnieszka Dziedzic, producer of the films Double Trouble and Triple Trouble, Poland; Rose-Marie Strand, head of the children’s film department at Folkets Bio, Sweden; and Petra Rockenfeller, manager at the Lichtburg-Filmpalast cinema in Oberhausen, Germany. Different case studies were compared through spider diagrams, all proving the point of the headline, doubtlessly given additional twists via the pandemic.

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More diagrams were presented by one Dr André F Nebe, head of participatory and interactive storytelling at the Potsdam-Babelsberg Film University in Germany. The heading was “Humour and Box Office – An Inspirational Talk”. What kind of humour brings success to a good kids’ picture? Nebe presented a range of different clips and scientific research: boys like humiliating situations, while girls like embarrassing ones, not that many are into puns or wordplay. Although undoubtedly a tricky subject, there are certain common denominators to be found among the higher-grossing films, states Nebe. For further up-to-date inspiration, one can leaf through his PhD thesis Humor und erfolgreiche Kinderfilme, published in 2019.

“Country in Focus: Canada” offered a trip through the modern Canadian traditions of bold visuals that can be traced back to the late 1930s and the forming of the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and certainly given an additional boost by the likes of the Cirque du Soleil in the 1980s and the mind-expanding works of Robert Lepage, not least his “Image Mill” creation in 2008. Canada was also one of the first countries to structure the production of immersive content, encouraged by innovative public funds and an active artistic community. During the session, speakers Thomas Azoug, of Phi Studio; Nicholas S Roy, of Dpt.; Louis-Richard Tremblay, of the NFB; and producer/moderator Audrey Pacart presented current projects and looked into future prospects and possibilities within the field of immersive innovation with high expectations. The existence of several means of public funding was praised, allowing leeway for experimentation, and even failure, vastly differing from their US neighbours, where an instant break-even is generally required.

If one film can’t have it all, perhaps one full day of intriguing discussions among fellow human beings brimming with compassion and vision can. And with all this groundbreaking technology, which also took centre stage at the M:brane Science & Natural History Track talk (see the news), Rose-Marie Strand offered an optimistic endnote concerning the well-being, once the current states of emergency have been lifted, of the classic movie theatres. “They will prosper again. And we will enjoy these physical platforms even more the day they do.”

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