Blog: Irish Filmmakers Experience of the Berlinale Talent Campus
Irish filmmaker Mark Noonan fills us in on his experiences at the Talent Campus at the Berlin International Film Festival 2011.DAY SIX (FINAL DAY)
Paul Schrader kicks off the final day of the Talent Campus in conversation with film critic Peter Cowie. Entitled The Schrader Way to Start a Film, he screens a selection of clips from his films, and intersperses the lecture with advice about creating an atmosphere that engages an audience, defines the film and keeps the audience hooked form the very start. He also shares with us his belief that screenplays are part of the tradition of oral storytelling, and the best way to find out the problems in your script is to tell it to a friend and watch their reactions, or indeed lack of reaction. As you'd expect, the discussion is a riveting insight into Schrader's films and thought process, and the clips from Taxi Driver, American Gigolo, and Mishima draw thunderous applause from the audience.
Next up is a panel discussion called Things to Take Home from the organisers of the Talent Campus team, in which they explain their passion and willingness to keep in touch with Berlinale Talents over the coming years. If we are making a new film they want to know about it (they can contact film festivals and distributors for us if they like the project), if we win an award they want to know about it, if things aren't going so well for us they also want to know, and try support us in any way possible. 35 past alumni from the Talent Campus screened films in this year's Berlin Film Festival, and in return for putting their time and effort into bringing the 350 Talents to Berlin and treating us like kings, they want us to return to the official festival as filmmakers that have fulfilled the potential they see in our present work. The level of dedication and future support the Berlinale team offer the Talents is extraordinary and we give them a huge standing ovation at the end.
The final event of the Campus is the Score Competition Presentation and Ceremony. Three lucky composers are mentored by Michael Nyman for a week and compose a score for a 5-minute piece of film. They join Nyman on stage to discuss their approach to making original music and mixing it with the images they were given. The winner gets flights and a unique tour of the best sound studios in Los Angeles, sponsored by Dolby. I highly recommend all Irish composers to apply for this competition next year, as the exposure and experience it brings to the selected composers sounds fantastic.
A Closing Party later that night allows the Talents to ruminate on the week's highlights. Most of us agree that the spontaneous applause at the Opening Ceremony that greeted the Egyptian Talent the day after Mubarak left office was an extraordinary moment (my personal highlight), while other people mention Isabella Rossellini's discussion about her work and life (which I missed). A free bar ensures the party continues into the small hours. As I leave for home the next day I think about the extraordinary filmmakers from around the globe I've met during the week, and the enormous privilege that being selected for the Campus has been. I can't help hoping I'll return to Berlin with a film soon. With more business cards this time.
DAY FIVE
We start the day with a visit to the nearby European Film Market (EFM), a film trade fair and major industry meeting for the international film circuit. The annual EFM is a good indication of the quality of product for the upcoming film year, attracting distributors, film buyers, producers, financiers and co-production agents. Over 400 exhibitors from 54 countries present over 650 films to industry visitors, trying to attract financing and offer opportunities to develop and cultivate business contacts. I walk around in a daze for an hour, struggling to come to terms with the scale of, and amount of product on sale at the EFM.
After the European Film Market is the Script Station, an intensive workshop for writers with a feature-length screenplay they want to develop in collaboration with Berlinale experts from around the world. The presentation of these projects at the end of the week is open to the Talents, and we sit in on the twelve writers as they outline their story and it's development over the week. Straight after this is a panel discussion between global filmmakers called The Internationals: How Small Stories Become Big, with Peruvian filmmaker and 2009 Golden Bear winner Caludia Liosa, Hungarian director and 2003 Campus Alumnus Kornél Mundruczó, and Abderrahmane Sissako from Mali. The panel discuss how their films emerge from the reality they're engaged in, and the ways they are linked to the place(s) they come from, situations they've experienced and reflect issues that deeply move and interest them. The excerpts from their films look incredible, so I get a slate of new films on my to-watch list as well as a nice piece of advice for global filmmakers everywhere: ‘The more local the story, the more international the film.'
DAY FOUR
Day Four begins with an extra early start as the Talents queue to pick up tickets for Paul Schrader's lecture on Thursday. After tickets are collected, we go to a Camera Workshop at Camelot Broadcast Studios. Although I'm a director and not a cinematographer, the workshop is amazingly informative and we get to fool around with a variety of cameras, including the new Arri Alexa, the RED MX, the Sony F35, and Sony PMW350 among others. I'm also thrilled to finally find out what camera used on jaw-dropping Turkish film Three Monkeys (the F35).
As the workshop ends, the disappointing news filters through that cinematographer Edward Lachman (The Virgin Suicides, Far From Heaven) is sick and can't attend his afternoon masterclass. His place is taken however by a brilliant Austrian cinematographer called Martin Gschlacht (he shot the wonderful Lourdes for Jessica Hausner, as well as all her previous films), and he screens some stunning excerpts from his films while fielding some difficult questions from the audience about the supposed cold and austere nature of current Austrian filmmaking.
I shamefully miss Ralph Fiennes' conversation with director István Szabó, and also the two screenings I have tickets for, to attend a British Council reception instead. The Council have kindly invited me to the showcase of composer Michael Nyman's film Nyman With A Movie Camera, which is a shot-for-shot remake of Vertoz's Man With A Movie Camera, and actually filmed by Nyman himself. Nyman (composer of music for The Piano, Wonderland, Man On Wire among others) has created a distinctive piece of work backed by a superb recreation of Vertov's original score (orchestrated by Nyman himself). A free Nyman CD and drinks reception after the screening get the Talents mingling freely, and I get talking to a UK filmmaker who I'm delighted to find out hasn't brought any business cards to the Campus either. We talk about our favourite actors working in the UK and Ireland and the differences between accessing funding in the UK and here. Personal highlight of the night is undoubtedly a Malaysian filmmaker earnestly telling me I look like Ralph Fiennes.
DAY THREE
Day Three gets off to an unexpected start when I part company with a business card at breakfast. I get talking to Gerald from Canada, and find out that he's also involved in mentoring and teaching kids about filmmaking (I assist a youth film programme called Tallaght Young Filmmakers), so I figure he should get a card. I skip speed-dating for filmmakers once more to attend an Irish Film Board reception where I'm seated beside a Irish London-based sales agent. He tells me he has distributed documentaries about famous architects such as Oscar Niemeyer and Rem Koolhaas, and with my architecture background I figure it's no harm to lose a business card to him. Other highlights of the reception include meeting one of the producers of The Guard, finding out exactly what Irish embassy officials do, and discovering that Berlin has a deficit of over €50 billion. Ouch.
An interesting panel discussion about the money-making prospects for short films is hosted by representatives from ZDF/ARTE, InterFilm, and German film magazine EDF, and throws up some interesting financial facts for short filmmakers. For instance, the TV channel ZDF pays a rate of €270 per minute for short films (soon to rise to €320 p.m.) which is significantly higher than in Ireland or the UK. Some clips from a selection of shorts selected for this year's Berlinale are also screened to highlight the diversity of what the marketplace will accept. These shorts include a 33 minute short filmed on an iPhone from Chan-Wook Park (Old Boy) called Night Fishing, and a blackly-humourous 40 second one-take short film called Felix.
A networking session takes place after the discussion during which most of the talents dash around trying to give DVDs of their shorts to the editorial programmer from ARTE. I down a glass of wine and get out of their way. I return to the hostel for an early night having reached the halfway point of the week feeling physically drained, and still without having seen a single film screening in the festival. I console myself with the fact the Campus have programmed about 100 events for the Talents to attend, so it's essential to plan your programme carefully and there really isn't much time left over to watch films. Nonetheless I pick up some tickets for Ralph Fiennes' directorial debut Coriolanus, and a Russian film called V Subbotu that I hope to catch tomorrow evening.
DAY TWO
The Campus kicks into top gear today as we attend a series of panel discussions and workshops. The morning discussion is titled The Rules of Engagement and consists of New Zealand actress Kerry Fox (An Angel at My Table, Shallow Grave), Swedish author Henning Mankel, and Brazilian director José Padilha (Bus 174, Elite Squad) discussing how they position themselves in the current political and cultural world. Henning Mankel is undoubtedly the highlight of the morning with his mixture of political engagement and deadpan humour. In the afternoon there is another speed-dating session which I skip, and I attend an amazing discussion called Filming War between three directors; Oscar-winner Danis Tanović (No Man's Land, Triage), Venice Golden Lion winner, Samuel Moaz (Lebanon), and Cannes Jury Prize winner, Janus Metz (Armadillo).
After this lively but often sobering discussion about war films, the next event takes us in a completely different direction. Your Body Speaks: The Art of Presenting Your Film is a workshop presented by a movement expert from Los Angeles who instructs us on how to pitch our projects, primarily through body language. I roll my eyes as he introduces himself as the guy who's training Leonardo diCaprio to become J. Edgar Hoover in his new film, and he bemuses me further when he tells us that 75% of a pitch or presentation is conveyed by your body, 20% by your voice, and only 5% by the actual content of the presentation. I can't say I really agree with his facts, but hey the guy's worked with Leo, so I'm not going to argue.
The evening is completed with the Dine &Shine function (a fancy dinner/networking event at a huge warehouse), and includes the presentation of the Berlin Today Award. I end up sitting beside a Polish producer and we discuss how we broke into the film business. When I tell her that after graduating from architecture college I started working with a small film production company in Ireland, she smiles and tells me she's co-producing a film that begins shooting in Ireland next week. I ask her the name of the co-producing company, and it turns out to be the same production company (Venom Film) I worked for after college. We shake our heads at how small the world is, and it gets even smaller when Fatima, a German/Iranian filmmaker sitting opposite us overhears our discussion and tells us she met the Venom guys in Sundance last year. We swap stories about Ken and Andrew and cross our fingers that Michael will win the Today Award (which unfortunately he doesn't). The Festival organisers send us home with a L'Oreal goodie bag (which I will re-package as a birthday present for some lucky friend), and I allow myself a smile as I realise I unwittingly gave out two business cards during the night.
DAY ONE
The first day begins with the 350 ‘Talents' (as they insist on calling us) packing into a lecture theatre and tucking into a massive breakfast. Multiple coffee refills are needed as the Talents get to know each other and exchange business cards, commenting American Psycho style on their favourites. I needlessly draw attention to myself by confessing that I've only brought seven (handmade) business cards to the Campus, sheepishly telling them I intend to be very selective who gets one. Most of the Talents have over two hundred cards with them, and as they give me their business cards I clutch tightly onto my seven, bluntly refusing all requests to part with one.
Everybody loves free stuff, and the Talents are no exception. The highlight of the day is collecting our official Berlinale sweatshirt (Hugo Boss if you're interested in these things) and rucksack. An entrepreneurial Talent quickly scans the catalogue and finds the sweatshirt and rucksack for sale in the official Berlinale shop, valued at an impressive €70 for the pair. Sensing an opportunity to make some cash, we attempt to sell the Berlinale merchandise back to the organisers in the shop. We are unsuccessful.
Two events in quick succession round out the afternoon: Fast Forward Germany, a funding seminar focusing on co-productions and moderated by Roman Paul, co-producer of Waltz with Bashir and Miranda July's new film, The Future; followed by Global Speed Matching which is basically speed-dating for Talents, and is as awkward as it sounds. I receive fifteen business cards and give out none.
The closing event of a relaxed Day One is the Opening Ceremony of the Talent Campus along with the first screening of the Berlin Today short films. The five films go down a treat with the audience and my sense of national pride swells as I watch and notice that three of the five films have Irish connections. Michael Lavelle directs Mummy's Little Helper, and two of the other films were either filmed in Ireland (The Day We Danced On The Moon was shot in Connemara), or had Irish acting talent (Dublin's Gary Whelan stars in Spoiled Broth). An opening ceremony is not complete without a drinks reception, and an after-party in the foyer gives the Talents and Berlin Today Filmmakers a chance to mingle and discuss the age-old argument of who holds their drink better - the Scots or the Irish. Unfortunately the night fails to provide a conclusive winner.
INTRODUCTION
People have been asking me for the past month exactly what the Berlinale Talent Campus is, so I'm going to start with a few background notes. Now in it's ninth year the Berlinale Talent Campus 2011 takes place alongside the Berlinale (Berlin Film Festival) and consists of workshops, lectures, excursions, panel discussions, and hands-on training for emerging filmmakers. These events are presented by industry professionals and stars, many of whom have been involved in films screened in the official Berlin International Film Festival programme. This year 350 up-and-coming directors, writers, editors, cinematographers, producers and actors, from 88 countries and selected from over 3,900 applicants, descended on Berlin for a week of intensive film-related madness. Accommodation and travel subsidies are provided by the Campus, and free tickets to almost any film in the Berlin Film Festival are available with Campus accreditation, so there's really no excuse not to apply. Here a rundown of how the week unfolded.