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Lean Startup is a methodology that aims to shorten product development cycles and to rapidly discover if a proposed business model is viable. This is achieved by adopting a combination of hypothesis-driven experimentation, iterative product releases, and validated learning. How can this strategy, which is a fundamental ingredient of modern business innovation, be applied to the films industry? How do the rapid feedback cycles practiced by streaming services in their hunt for the next big story and project, resonate with this practice from the start-up world? In his presentation, Emmy-nominated filmmaker Stephen Robert Morse will share with the audience how he uses lean production processes to drastically lessen the amount of time and money it takes to bring high end films to market and how he uses efficient systems that enable costs to be kept down while production value remains high.

Stephen is a two-time Emmy nominated filmmaker and the Managing Director of London-based Lone Wolf Studios and Observatory, bringing lean production methodologies to the film industry. He loves combining creativity and business and has now worked on a dozen successful film projects. The first major film he conceived and produced was "Amanda Know", a Netflix Original, that earned him a Primetime Emmy nomination. Previously, he co-founded the business talent marketplace "Skillbridge", that was successfully sold in 2016. Stephen conceptualizes and launches documentaries and films, problem solves on big and small scales, creates brand awareness, and operates and manages productions in the most efficient ways. He holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the University of Oxford.

www.lw-studios.com

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notsold has been responsible for the most successful German online release in 2020 and has set new benchmarks for digital film distribution. Ole Hellwig and Henriette Ahrens, the founders of notsold, will share insights from two of their online releases ("100,000 - Everything I Never Wanted" and "Caught in the Net") and explore how this experience brought them to developing a platform solution for third parties and an additional business model for their company. Their next generation white label VOD solution, currently in development and available in 2022, will enable filmmakers, producers, and distributers alike to successfully release films digitally. Ole and Henriette will talk about their big plans for the future and the potential of digital film distribution beyond currently available possibilities.

notsold was founded by two producers, Ole and Henriette, as a distribution company in early 2020 and has since then become a filmtech company as well. The goal of notsold is to offer individual and exciting digital distribution approaches for each and every film. „Our mission is to connect films with large audiences, because we believe that films are made to be seen."

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The regulatory frameworks designed in Brussels either enter into effect and apply directly or go a detour though national implementation by the member states of the EU - either way, they have a very tangible impact on the reality of citizens in general and in this particular aspect on the reality of independent film producers. Maja Cappello (Head of the Department for Legal Information of the European Audiovisual Observatory) and Alexandra Lebret (Managing Director of the European Producers Club) will explore in a conversation the scope of current European regulatory projects and their impact on independent producers. They will shed a light on the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the Geo-Blocking Regulation, and the Audiovisual Media Services Directive.

Maja is the Head of the Department for Legal Information of the European Audiovisual Observatory. In previous position she was the Head of the Digital Rights Unit of the Media Services Directorate of the Italian regulator AGCOM and Vice President of EPRA (European Platform of Regulatory Authorities). Italian-Norwegian mother tongue she regularly contributes to international conferences and committees and participates as expert in European Union and Council of Europe cooperation projects. She holds an LLM in EU law and a PhD in European social law and has been lecturing in Media law at University level (Bachelor, Master and PhD) since 2001.

Alexandra is the Managing Director of the European Producers Club (EPC) since 2002 and has transformed the association into the European lobby power-house, think tank, and network it is today. The EPC gathers more than 150 independent production companies from 33 European Countries and Canada. Alexandra is also the Founder and Managing Director of Mare Nostrum Productions and Halley Production, two Paris-based production companies which have coproduced 10 films in the last 5 years. In 2013 she was decorated Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French government for her work and dedication in favor of the European cinema. She is a member of the European Film Academy, the French Academy of Cinema Arts and Techniques and the Acadèmia del Cinema Català.

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Beyond cinema, streaming and TV there is a whole universe of fictional and non-fictional content specifically produced for digital distribution channels (not to be confused as VOD). Two members of the New Producers Network will explore this vast universe and shed a light on some major differences between producing content for social media and video platforms on one hand and for cinema, streaming and TV on the other: data driven storytelling, integrated production and distribution, audience targeting, A/B testing, real-time feedback, the relationship between creators and audiences, monetization models … The volume of content produced for digital distribution channels is skyrocketing and there is a growing need for standardization of workflows, business relationships and agreements. What can these two very different universes learn from each other?

Sarah has been designing online video and social media content for television stations and brands since 2010. In doing so, she learned: You have to be fast and efficient in social networks. Videos emotionalise more than any other medium. That is why moving images are the most important medium for Sarah, whether on YouTube, in Instagram stories or in clips for TikTok. For the founder and managing director of the social media agency HitchOn, AlwaysOn is the logical further development to think and, above all, live optimally networked with strong partners: conception, production and distribution.

Nina studied theater, film and television studies, German literature and art history in Cologne and Rome. After many years in TV sales and various positions abroad, including at BBC Worldwide in London, Nina moved to the Studio Hamburg Production Group in 2015. There, together with colleagues from the group, she developed projects and strategies for the digital age, from web series to smart TV apps - enthusiastic about new ways, financing and the diverse possibilities of telling stories.

www.alwayson-production.de

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Authors and producers have a growing need to better assess their projects when pitching to commissioners. With "Market Analysis", Filmarket Hub offers a software-based solution to analyze scripts and produce insights about their DNA, market target and potential, as well as their most preferable financing model. The service relies on Artificial Intelligence and a benchmark based on 25.000 TV series. The solution is accessible in a few clicks (SaaS offer) for an affordable pricing for independent producers who expand their activities into international TV series. Andrea Giannone of Barcelona-based Filmarket Hub (an online marketplace for curated films and series in development), Rémi Tereszkiewicz of Paris-based Betaseries (a leading TV series recommendation media and analytics platform) and Thierry Baujard of Berlin-based peacefulfish (a financing consultancy in the media space) will demonstrate this new solution. The service delivers powerful insights on stories to bring them to screen and is supported by Creative Europe.

Andrea is a Spain-based entrepreneur. With a decade of experience in film & TV development and technology, she created the Filmarket Hub platform four years ago. The online marketplace for curated films and series in development matches talent and unproduced projects with leading companies in the industry. It's a platform that aims to have a significant social impact in the film industry. Andrea is passionate about creating level playing fields between industry professionals to leverage the power of technology and take better ownership of their work and talent.

www.filmarkethub.com

Rémi is an expert of OTT services and TV series marketing. Having served since 1994 as VP or SVP in sales and marketing positions for various companies such as Warner Brothers, Lagardère Studios, Netgem or Eurosport, he led the creation and launching of numerous TV services and xVOD offers. He is currently CEO of Betaseries, a media platform running recommendation services for a community of 5 million monthly TV series fans and analysing TV series & OTT usages for the media industry.

www.betaseries.com

Thierry has been involved in the financing of the Creative Industries for more than 20 years. He is the CEO of Media Deals, a pan European private investment network with a focus on Audiovisual, Gaming, Music and FashionTech. Through peacefulfish, now the advisory department of Media Deals, he has been working on many film financing project across Europe and has been advising many producers and public and financial institutions on funding strategies for film , TV series and immersive projects.

www.peacfulfish.com

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Virtual Production enables filmmaker to tell stories in unprecedented ways. It combines live action and computer graphics in real time and dissolves the traditional workflow of pre-production, production and post-production. This radically different production philosophy is a real game changer, not just for high budget productions. Producer Raymond van der Kaaij of Amsterdam-based Revolver will give exclusive insights into the production story of their upcoming Sci-Fi feature film "The Occupant". The project has received an Epic MegaGrant from Epic Games which will be used to accelerate the development of groundbreaking filmmaking technologies with Unreal Engine in the real-time graphics and virtual production space.

Raymond has over a decade of experience in the development, financing, production, and distribution of audiovisual media. He is the founder of Revolver Amsterdam, a content studio and creative laboratory. The company’s diverse portfolio of successful projects covers the entire spectrum between art, entertainment, branded content and digital. Raymond has produced award winning feature films and documentaries that were shown on festivals worldwide. His production house has a global reach.

www.revolver.nl

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Companies diversify their business activities for a range of reasons: to expand into new markets, to achieve greater profitability, to minimize the risk of an industry downturn, to complement an existing product portfolio … In this session, two film producers who have diversified their initial business model, Marleen Slot of Amsterdam-based Viking Film and Maximilian Leo of Cologne-based augenschein Filmproduktion, will share insights into their diversification strategy, their drive, the challenges they encountered, the mistakes they made, the success of the move, how much of a structured business plan they followed, how they reflect on their decisions in hindsight …

Marleen has created Viking Film in 2011 and has produced high-quality films for both the national and international market. Her focus is on arthouse, animation and family films. Previously she worked as a producer at Lemming Film (NL). She is an alumnus of EAVE, ACE, Producer on the Move, and Inside Pictures. From 2016 until 2020 she has been chair of the Netherlands Producers Association. Together with director Mascha Halberstad, Marleen opened the Holy Motion Studio in Arnhem in 2020. The studio is specialized in stopmotion animation and is currently finishing the shooting of their first feature animation film, "Oink’s Revenge".

www.vikingfilm.nl

Maximilian is CEO and producer of augenschein Filmproduktion, which he founded in 2008 together with his partner Jonas Katzenstein. They focus on director-driven movies with a global appeal, together they have produced more than 25 feature-length films. augenschein has earned a solid reputation as go-to producers for international English-language productions. In 2021 they have launched augenschein Sales, an in-house worldwide sales and financing arm. The new division will focus on financing the company’s production slate through access to equity, market pre-sales and film funds in order to retain creative and financial control over their projects.

www.augenschein-filmproduktion.de

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Film i Väst, Scandinavia’s major regional film fund and one of the bigger regional film funds in Europe, has conducted in 2020 and 2021, together with Nostradamus/Gothenburg Film Festival and Cine Regio (the European network of regional film funds) a study focused on the challenges that public film funding is currently facing. The study Public Film Finance at A Crossroad - Ideology vs Reality is based on interviews made with 600+ key professionals in Europe representing all sectors (production, distributors, international sales, cinemas, broadcasters, streaming services, international film festival and public funds). The study follows the assumption that the ecosystem for production, dissemination and screening of films is undergoing a paradigm shift – a rapid evolutionary change that fundamentally affects the power dynamics in the film industry and the broader conditions as we have come to know them. At the same time, public funding systems today operate in a dramatically different, partly outdated landscape, one that in the near future risks becoming even more foreign to principles, priorities and financing systems. The accelerated rate of change in the wider world during the pandemic emphasizes the importance of rethinking the public funding system. Tomas Eskilsson of Film i Väst and Malika Rabahallah of MOIN Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein will discuss the most important findings of the study with the participants of this session.

Tomas is Head of Strategy & Film Policy at Film i Väst since 2017. After working as a teacher and researcher, he started Film i Väst in 1992 and was CEO until 2016. In this time, Tomas was involved in the co-production of around 600 feature films, documentaries and TV dramas, plus 400 short films. The list of films includes Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier), Melancholia (Lars von Trier), In A Better World (Susanne Bier), The Hunt (Thomas Vinterberg), A man called Ove (Hannes Holm), Fucking Åmål (Lukas Moodysson), A Royal Affair (Nicolai Arcel), Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (Niels Arden Oplev), Their Square (Ruben Östlund) and most recently four time EFA-award and Oscar winner Another Round (Thomas Vinterberg).

www.filmivast.com

Malika Rabahallah is head of funding of the MOIN Filmförderung Hamburg-Schleswig-Holstein, for which she has been working since 2011. Growing up in the banlieues of Paris, she studied business administration. After working in Costa Rica, Cologne and Boston, she initially produced documentaries at HMR Produktion in Cologne. She completed the European Producers training Atelier Masterclass (FEMIS) and was responsible for documentary film projects for cinema and TV as producer at zero one (Berlin) for seven years. Malika Rabahallah is a member of the European Film Academy and the EAVE Producers Network.

www.moin-filmfoederung.de