October 13 Skill Bill held the first master-class of 2015/2016 academic year. Victor Mirsky, General Producer at FILM.UA Group, shared his own experience on financing projects under the conditions dictated by the market today.
This master-class was about commercial movies that bring profit.
There are several approaches to the TV projects financing.
- The first method of financing projects - cooperation with TV channels. We are talking primarily about the six major TV channels existing in Ukraine: Inter, STB, 1+1, ICTV, Noviy Kanal, Ukraina. In this case, the producers need to understand the basic audience of the channel and the specifics of its preferences. This is a reliable way, but it limits the production experiments.
It's often quite difficult to start cooperating with channels, most of all, you need a lot of time and effort. When you have achieved this, make sure that your product will hit the target audience, otherwise it will devalue all your previous works.
In order to better understand what the viewers of a specific channel like, you need to watch the ratings. They are published in specialized journals. Also, access can be obtained by paying a subscription to the appropriate service. Try to analyze why certain programs arouse more interest.
- The second method to attract the channel: shoot a pilot for their money.
When working with the channel, keep in mind that the channel settles accounts in local currency. While production often spends money according to the budget in dollars.
- The third method: to attract sponsors and partners. In this case, you shoot on investors' money, planning to return them after the sale of the finished product to the channel.
On the Ukrainian market and co-productions with other countries.
Due to the general economic situation, the Ukrainian market dipped severely. Often Ukrainian channel is not ready to pay a proper price for a high-quality product. Keep in mind that channel has to pay wages to employees and distribute the funds in such a way as to fill 24 hours of ether. Therefore, producers start to think about international sales.
However, foreign channels can buy your finished product if it has an interesting plot and is done at a high level. In this case, the companies that buy the product, are engaged in the translation and adaptation. But to date, these sales do not generate serious revenue. It is, rather, an image sale.
In small European countries film industry is often sponsored by public funds, since the advertising market can not recover the costs on the creation of its own films and then the television will only broadcast foreign products, as it was in Ukraine in the 90s.
If you are a producer, try to reserve the rights on the product and sell only a number of shows for a fixed period. This allows you to create your own "library" and to hold another sale. Such sales bring a little money, but it may be beneficial for you and for the channels in a time of content deficit.
To represent its products FILM.UA twice a year goes to the MIP markets of audio-visual content in Cannes. It is expensive, but after a few years, will allow you to sell products to other countries.
However, the Ukrainian market has already passed a long way, and Ukrainian production have learned a lot over the last 10 years. We are willing to use modern technology, understand how this market works, what is needed to create quality content that distinguishes Ukraine, for example, from Kazakhstan, where TV content market only emerges. They have a lot of their own shows, but no TV series or films.
Free viewing on pirate resources limits the release of content. The system of pay television in the United States allows producers to make niche projects that will have their audience on paid resources.
A full schedule can be found here: http://faculty.film.ua/ru/skillbill/plan
