The Bold & The Beautiful Success Story

The first session highlighted the success story of ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ and featured the executive and creative team of Head Writer and Executive Producer Bradley Bell, alongside Supervising Producer, Casey Kasprzyk, who shared exclusive insight around the secrets to the success and longevity of their hit show and cornerstone of daytime programming at CBS. Both revealed interesting details and lesser known facts about the series which celebrates its 35th anniversary this year, even though the first expectations for the series were to last 10 years. Bell noted the international success of the soap opera and its spike in viewership in each country; the fact that it was the first show to return to production in the pandemic and that it had to shut down production because of the pandemic for the first time in 35 years; revealed details about shooting on location in Monte-Carlo and how the production managed to cope with the social distancing issues by using the significant others of the actors as doubles or even mannequins. He also noted that he likes to write stories about romance, that have messages that reach global audiences but most importantly to highlight the perseverance of human spirit. Bell also said he remembers about 90% of the episodes he has written and fans do help a lot since they remember all tiny details about the storyline, he reads what they say on website and they have a hand in steering the ship as well, having great comments. Kasprzyk noted that what has changed in recent years is the live feedback from fans, reading their comments on Twitter as the show is airing. As far as the potential ending of ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ is concerned, Bell said that they have just renewed for a few more years and he has not thought of an ending but in the final episode he will make his first appearance in the series.

International Scripted Format Distribution

The second Business Content panel of the first day looked at the value and differences between remakes adapted for a foreign audience and hit shows that take, unaltered, the global marketplace by storm. It featured Danna Stern – founder of Israeli YES Studios; Michael Hirst, British writer and executive producer known for ‘Vikings’ and ‘The Tudors’ and Richard Fee – EP at Quay Street Productions.

Stern opened the discussion by explaining the specifics of scripted formats and that adaptation of a series is a lengthy process which is as difficult as developing a series from scratch. People do buy formats because its tried and true and this helps a project pop and sell. In her opinion it is a good time to be in the scripted format business. In terms of successful Israeli formats, Stern highlighted ‘In Treatment’ with 20 versions, ‘Homeland’, ‘Your Honor’, ‘On the Spectrum’; etc.

Stern noted the success of Israeli formats abroad and the fact that the country has been the second largest exporter of scripted formats in the world since 2010; she attributed the success of Israeli fiction formats to the fact that people there are natural storytellers; that it is a country of immigrants who consume lots of international content, go to the army, are well-travelled and who are “over-sharers” when it comes to personal stories. Also regulation plays a role, with a quota of 8% of revenues on Hebrew-language content for the pay-TV channels and the commercial channels have 15%, you have to produce content and there is money in the business – there are over 40 film and TV schools in the country.

Stern explained that remaking a format is a long process, with ‘Your Honor’ taking four years; ‘On the Spectrum’ took about three. It is pretty much the same process original projects go thru – research, finding the characters, pitching it, getting money, writing the pilot; etc. It is an easier process to start off with but everything that comes afterwards is the same as in producing an original series. She also stressed the immense role of finding the right producer in the process.

Fee talked about some of Quay Street Productions which is a writers-lead prod co, looking to make shows that would appeal in the UK but also travel internationally, focusing on their latest project ‘Significant Other’ which is based on an Israeli show, a Yes Studio production. He added that having a format is certainly helpful to the writers since in the UK writers are so buy right now, that is a great way of shortcutting things. When talking about streamers and their influence on the market, Fee said that the streamers are taking Netflix as an example and are keen to grow their subscribers base in different territories and part of their strategy is to offer international and local programming and one way to do build that quickly is using formats and they have a mind-blowing reach. Fee also revealed details about Netflix’s feedback for their adaptations of Harlan Coben’s works – they have 30 assets and the most-popular asset has been a picture of a house which they couldn’t explain – a generic picture of a house; Stern added the same thing happened for ‘Fauda’ – the most-popular asset was once of the actresses with a gun. Hirst joked that streamers like projects based on books because if it fails, it is not their fault and streamers have found themselves in a difficult position now, especially Netflix. He is also wary that power and influence is being concentrated in these platforms – this is not necessarily a guarantee for a better product, there is too much product right now, the fact that they are trying to get more subscribers by producing lots of content will likely lead to a collapse.

Michael Hirst said that formats are a good business practice but argued that there are projects that cannot be remade and replicated for other territories, noting that they should be reinvented and also highlighted the importance of research for his projects. In his opinion ‘Seven Samurai’ is one of the best films ever because it is Japanese, it is about culture, behavior and the ‘Magnificent Seven’ is one of the worst films ever, the Americans just flattened it out. If you are in the business of remaking you should also be in the business of reinventing. Stern gave an example with ‘Coda’ which is a US remake of the French movie, noting that they were very mindful of casting and representation.

Hirst also shared details about ‘Vikings’ and other series he worked on, one of the greatest things being that they found five dead languages when they were producing the show, they had to go thru academics to see how Frankish was spoken for example. For period projects he also believes one of the most-important things is to make a connection between the past and the present and the writers should love their characters, otherwise it won’t work – in fact the only note that he got from the executives of the History Channel which aired the show was ‘makes us care about the characters’. He also shared that he has always worked on original ideas and has not been offered formats to adapt.

The Unscripted Revolution/The Golden Age of Documentary

Why documentary filmmaking in all its forms is more important than ever and how they fit in to the global audiovisual landscape. Documentary films tell important, often unknown stories and can spark dialogue, bring light to causes and even spark mass movements and revolutions in society. Today, the medium has taken on different formats as consumer habits continue to shift in an ever-evolving audiovisual landscape and has expanded from traditionally hard news and social justice to other genres like crime, comedy and beyond.

The panel featured Tristan Chytroschek, director and producer at A&O Buero; Tonje Hessen Schei – director at Oslo Pictures and Radomir Sofr, development manager at CT. The panelists presented some of their most-popular projects, i.e. Chytroschek talked about his documentary ‘North Korea's Secret Slaves: Dollar Heroes’ and Schei highlighted her projects ‘iHuman’ about AI and ‘Drone’ (won the Golden Nymph in 2016). She noted that it is a very exciting time to work in the field of documentaries nowadays, use different tools to tell their stories. Having the facts straight is incredible important for documentaries, trust is extremely important when working in this field. Chyroschek commented that documentaries are a version of reality brought to the screen, that makes you think and engages you with issues that are relevant to your life. Fact-checking is very important to him as well.

The panelists noted that trust is extremely important in documentaries and nowadays the internet is full of unscripted content and that the documentary genre has become very open nowadays.

International Coproductions

In a highly competitive environment for viewers and talent, co-productions often help make shows stand out from the crowd. Partnering with foreign entities not only lessen the financial risks but also give better access to talent, pools of experts, and increase the program's reach to a global audience. How are the co-production partners chosen? Is there a necessity to have a broadcaster or streaming platform on board from the start? Does it give room to attach a sales company? Recounting some recent success stories, panelists will explore the benefits and potential pitfalls of an international co-production.

Graham Benson, chairman of GCB International Media Consultants; Vance Van Petten – adjunct professor at Columbia College Chicago and former PGA executive director and Nick Witkowskii from Blue Sky Pictures took part in the panel. The three industry veterans presented interesting examples from their work throughout the years, noting that the current consolidation is not necessarily good for creativity.

Benson talked about his early experience with co-productions, noting that back in the 80s they were not fashionable. The expert revealed details about ‘Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story’. Van Petten shared details about his work at Paramount and the “Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less” which saw the involvement with BBC and they had a lot of difficulties, with a creative problem between the studio and the British broadcaster – it was hard to agree on the pacing and what parts of the book to be used, it was a horrible experience for him. This has changed dramatically – the creative problem has now been resolved in international coproductions. Witkowskii talked about “Around the World in 80 Days” – it was brought to him by a UK producer who tried to go to UK broadcasters but they turned him down, mostly because of the writer attached who was eventually changed. Witkowskii then went to France and Germany and the French coproducer said yes almost immediately – they became the commissioning broadcaster (France Televisions) which was a rare case – for a UK project to have a French commissioning broadcaster. Meanwhile Western PSB have teamed up to compete with streaming services and formed The Alliance which also helped the project.
Van Petten also talked about the business side of things, namely the difficult situation with rebates in different territories and that even in the States different states have different rules about that and the big challenge is how to navigate those issues. He also noted that now the streamers insist on having all the rights and producers feel almost like as employees and the situation is getting wild with the roll-out of streamers, releasing a consistent flow of great product and they don’t know a lot of hit shows, i.e. ‘Game of Thrones’ was the savior of HBO. Benson commented that while streamers try to get all rights, they give much more creative freedom to the producers and the creative team. Witkowskii told about the ‘Marcela’ series which eventually went to Netflix with a life-of-series deal but after the deal, broadcasters did not want to buy it.

The panelists also touched the subject of NFTs and securing new ways of income and marketing, with van Petten talking about the ‘Zero Contact’ project with Anthony Hopkins, shot by his family and released as a NFT, with special materials.

The (R)evolution of Consumer Usages – Keynote

Thanks to market studies and exclusive BetaSeries surveys and analytics on TV series usage, this keynote by CEO Remi Tereszkiewicz looked into the fast changing video usages these last few years and how TV series are used today by new entrants and incumbent television players to recruit, retain and monetize their new audiences. The CEO of the company talked about the international and local (French) streaming players, OTT, capturing the attention of users/viewers, presenting different data compiled by his company.

‘Breakwater’ by Snap Originals – Case Study of a New Format Driving Engagement with Gen Z

In the entertainment landscape, all executives seek a better understanding of their audiences and how to stay relevant. It is even more true with the specificities of Gen Z. Retrofit Films' founders and "Breakwater" Executive Producers, Tanner Kling and Chris Hanada, along with series star Jan Luis Castellanos, conducted a deep-dive into the development and production of Snapchat's largest and most watched original scripted series, and how the series was uniquely customized to capture over 10 million Gen Z viewers on their platform of choice, their phones. As pioneers in the new-media and mobile series space, Kling and Hanada shared their learnings from over a decade in both original and derivative scripted content, and how audiences have finally caught up with them.

The team behind the “near-fi” action drama which has 10x10 episodes (some of them were shorter for a total of 76 minutes0 revealed that Snap wanted a climate change oriented series so they went ahead with the project which took 2 years from pitch to screen. It had 10 million daily views. During the panel they also revealed details about how Snap knows how users are watching videos and their 3:3:3 ratio – the first 3 seconds are most important, than the 3 minutes and then the 3 episodes – if viewers stay that long, retention is 83%. They also used AR, i.e. provided added elements to the series like filters; etc. Regarding the casting, ‘Breakwater’ had 3400 submissions for the main role, even though Jan Luis Catellanos was their first choice and in the end they managed to book him since for them the face of the series was very important. The series was shot in Baja where ‘Titanic’ was shot – they looked into South Africa, Eastern Europe but new variants of covid came so the team stayed in the States. Jan Luis believes that such vertical formats are here to stay because of the streaming era. The project was supposed to be edited in Greece because of the incentives there but because of time-constraints it took place in the States. The producers are also selling the project as a larger format, traditional and hour-long series.

Conscious Content: The Shift towards Sustainable Production

The last session of the Business Conference part of the Festival focused on sustainability. Audiovisual industries are not necessarily setting global environmental issues aside. Current climate crisis compels productions to adopt greener practices, reduce their carbon footprint and increase recycling on sets. How can producers get help to make their productions environmentally sustainable? Panelists detailed the tools available around the globe to implement the shift toward sustainable production. Going "Green" on productions does not have to mean more costs. To the contrary, utilizing sustainable resources can save production costs. Participants will provide some current examples of cost-saving efforts.

The panel was attained by Matthew Deaner, Mathilde Fiquet, Paloma Urrutia, Leif Holst Jensen and moderated by Vance van Petten. He talked about the Green Production Guide which helps producers both save money and create sustainable productions – it is a worldwide resource, with carbon calculator and useful tips. He also noted two other initiatives – SEEDS and PEACH – for people to check out.

The panelists agreed that the world is in a climate crisis and the industry needs to change. Transportation and energy are the first areas that the film and TV industry should focus. Jensen shared details about the 10 projects that are currently implemented in Norway re sustainability in TV and film production, also highlighting transportation as an issue. Van Patten gave examples like generators which are used commonly and noted that some of the largest diesel ones produce 1 ton of carbon per day and noted that each individually should consider these things. Mathelde talked about her organization SEPI and there are a lot of objectives in the EU regarding sustainability in production. She talked about SEPI’s latest project – a booklet that contains every single point that each producer has to go thru, trying to give a framework and what are the solutions to all problems; the organization is also working on a database for education re sustainability and the different rules in different territories. Matt Deaner presented his organization – the Screen Producers Association of Australia – noting the indigenous nature of the country which is being embraced by the production industry in the past few years and also noting the big area of the country and transportation. Fiquet noted that different countries are at different level of advancement in sustainability – France, UK, Germany are in the lead. In most cases the initiative comes from the industry itself. The panelist agreed that there should be more stories on screen about people saving resources as well as examples of sustainability practices. Holst also quoted a slogan in Norway – “green is cash” – this is good business.