financing

Back in town, gearing up for Haugesund

Fri, 08/14/2009 - 17:42 — Per

Summer is over, autumn is here and the responsibilities are mounting up - that feels nice.

Today Anders, Henrik and myself had a "after the summer"-meeting where we talked about what has happened during the summer when we all been separated, at least physically. Henrik told us some more about his experiences at the "politikervecka" in Almedalen, (which I'm looking forward to some post about, Henrik!), and we generally discussed what should happen in the near future. Several interesting collaborations are on their way!

One nice site that Henrik brought to our attention was Plotbot, a web-based screenwriting software, that are exactly the kind of app that would be nice to intergrate into this site.

Next week I'm going to The Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund. There they have the annual Nordic Co-Production and Film Financing Forum. The forum's focus this year is on co-productions with Germany, France, Canada and the Nordic countries. Canada!! That's right up our alley, so I'm going there! There is a possibility to pitch projects at the forum, but you need a certain amount of financing in place etc to do that - so I'm going as an observer. I hope to get some input on how to move on with the contact towards the (other) big country in the west, and hopefully meet some interesting people.

At least this what I had in mind when I booked the flight. Now the other day I got the schedule and participant's list, and I'm no longer so certain visavi the possibilities. There is one (1) point in the program about Canada (30 minutes long), and I find one (1) in the participant's list from Canada.

But then again, maybe a lot of Canadians are hiding under .com-adresses and people say Haugesund is a great festival to visit - so I'm not really worried.

I'll tell you about it when I'm back.

Happy Weekend

Per

The need for traditionalism!?

Sun, 07/12/2009 - 12:41 — Per

The world is pacted (!) with people wanting to tell stories, to entertain, to move, to make a change - through film making. That is good. There are also plenty of ways to get a movie made, and new ways are added each day. That is even better!

Still many years after Francis Ford Coppola talked in Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse about how video (or at least easily accessible ways of film production) would transform the professionalism of movies, and through this, film would really become an art film. That change hasn't come, has it!?

I will be in charge of what perhaps could be called the most traditional side of this production - to set up the production practically and be responsible for what "normal" movie financing we can find. Our plan is to do The Pact as a Swedish-Canadian co-production; shoot in Canada, post-production in Sweden. This way we hope to attract and secure financing through The Swedish Film Institute, Telefilm Canada and other soft-money providers for the industry on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

This work will be mirrored in this blog, and I hope to get good assistance from you all to do this in the best possible way. So any kind of input is welcome; who to work with, what to do, what NOT to do etc. I'm really looking forward to working together on this.

Sure film is art, but most of all film is a lot of traditionalists desperately clinging on to old tracks leading nowhere. That traditionalism adds nothing to the business other than making a norm out of mediocrity. I'd love to find new ways. I believe The Pact Project can be a part of that search. Let's bust those tracks!

Per

traditionalist producer