La Biennale di Venezia announced the 15 projects that participated in the first workshop of the Biennale College-Cinema, held in Venice from January 7th to 17th, 2013.
The presentation took place on Thursday January 17, 2013 in Venice in the headquarters of the Biennale at Ca’ Giustinian (Sala delle Colonne), introduced by President Paolo Baratta and the Director of the Cinema section Alberto Barbera.
Also participating were the 15 teams (composed of one director and one producer) selected through an international call for participation launched at the 69th Venice International Film Festival, and hailing from Brazil, Egypt, the Philippines, Great Britain, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Rwanda, Spain, South Africa, Thailand, USA. In the two sessions of the proceedings, from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm and from 2:30 pm to 4:00 pm, the 15 teams presented their projects, and briefly illustrated the various aspects involved in the creation of their stories, their careers to this point, their specific influences and their personal vision of cinema. The 15 projects are described with the storylines on the website www.labiennale.org.
“We are making a very courageous move with great conviction – stated the President of the Biennale Paolo Baratta. We have opened what is in many ways the most interesting and significant initiative recently in the matter of training and support for the many professions within the field of cinema, which completes and brings international scope to the national training systems of each Country”.
“The first step in the original process of the Biennale College-Cinema is now coming to a close – stated Director Alberto Barbera – with the selection of the three projects that will move on to the second phase, which consists in a preparatory workshop that will lead to the actual production of the film, made possible by the allocation of 150,000 euro funded by the Biennale and by Gucci. The challenge we have wagered on is finally taking shape (and in the best of ways): to make it possible for three young talents to make their debut feature-length film. The road is still a long one and anything but easy, but the foundations have been laid for a result that will meet our highest expectations”.
Biennale College – Cinema, in partnership with Gucci, is supported by the Ministry for the Cultural Heritage and Activities – General Direction Cinema and by the Regione del Veneto, and is being held in collaboration with IFP New York, the Dubai International Film Festival and TorinoFilmLab.
At the close of this first workshop, the programme of the Biennale College – Cinema will continue as the 3 teams are invited to a second workshop in Venice, lasting 10 days in late February-early March, and will receive funding in the amount of 150,000 euro each, so that they may produce their projects in the coming months and present the 3 feature-length films at the 70th Venice International Film Festival 2013.
A total of 433 projects from 77 countries around the world were submitted in response to the international Call for participation.
The 15 teams formed of directors and producers selected by Alberto Barbera, together with the Biennale College – Cinema team, have been invited to attend a first ten-days workshop, going on in Venice from 7th to 17t January, curated by Alberto Barbera and by the Biennale College Team (Savina Neirotti Head of Programme, Jane Williams and Michel Reilhac Head of Studies) The teams are working with an Academic Team formed of international and Italian professionals and experts. The purpose is to discuss all aspects of the projects and share experiences about low budget filmmaking, giving and receiving feedback directly from tutors and other teams.
Depending on their role, tutors and consultants (you can find their bios in the Team section) had specific tasks, and they worked in different ways with directors, producers or teams:
- 4 Group Leaders: Michel Reilhac, Gino Ventriglia, Amy Dotson and Scott Macaulay
They are working with 5 projects each, mainly with the directors, but often with the teams. Each group is discussing in detail all aspects of their project, giving and receiving feedback from the other teams, and pulling together all different inputs they are receiving during the other sessions.
- 2 Producers Consultants: Mike Ryan and Tristan Goligher
Each is working with a group of 7/8 producers, and sometimes together with all 15 producers. They are discussing the production aspects of each project with the teams, making use of all the knowledge that is in the group to share experiences and best practices in the field of micro-budget cinema.
- 5 Script Consultants: Franz Rodenkirchen, Nicola Lusuardi, Anita Voorham, Marietta von Hauswolff von Baumgarten and Antoine Le Bos
Each is working on 3 projects. Every team has 3 one-to-one sessions of 1,5 hours with the script consultant to discuss the script.
- 2 Experts: Pierre Cattan and Jon Reiss
In the groups, the teams are discussing audience engagement, cross-media potential, community management and other topics related to building an audience for their project.
- 1 pitching trainer: Stefano Tealdi
In groups and one-to one sessions, the teams are receiving help in presenting their project in public by learning to describe the core of the project.
- 2 Guests: Nekisa Cooper and Tomas Leyers
Nekisa and Tomas are sharing their experience in micro-budget filmmaking and on distribution in late afternoon plenary sessions.
In particular the workshop schedule was formed of several different moments, and the teams worked in group or in plenary:
- Group work: in different group combinations;
- One-to-one sessions: mainly with script consultants and the pitching trainer (teams/directors only);
- Case studies and lectures: in plenary;
- One-to-one meetings with another team: each team is matched with another project, and they give special feedback to each other.
- Writing time: time for individual work or to discuss within each project team.
Biennale College – Cinema in the official Biennale di Venezia website.