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Much like our world order and society at large, the film industry is constantly transforming. However, currently this seems to be more the case than ever. In her opening keynote, Vienna based futurologist Christiane Varga will dissect the mechanisms of transformation and highlight how systems can navigate this process. Transformation does not necessarily need to end in turmoil, disruption and crises. Ideally it leads to a reconfiguration and rearrangement of the individual particles that form a system. Given the particular context of the conference, Varga will also explore the transformation of the systems known as ‘public broadcasting’ and ‘public film funding’ and will describe how each of us can contribute to the transformation of these systems.

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(International) film financing has always been a dynamic process that is constantly adapting to changing circumstances and conditions. The current post-pandemic situation and the ongoing market disruption means that this has become the case more than ever. In the opening session of Explorer Konferenz #3, veteran and emerging producers as well as heads of film funds, share their personal views on the future of (international) film financing and explore which financing models and sources might play a major role in the coming years.

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Everyone loves talking about their success stories and achievements. But what about the darker sides of our careers? This session will focus on our failures and mistakes, and the value they can bring. Reflecting on her long career as an independent producer, Helena Danielsson of Viaplay Studios (Malmö) will explore the ‘Failing Forward’ approach to show how we can learn from failures and mistakes and share her experience of pulling the plug on a project much too late.

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The podcast world has exploded within the last few years. It has not only become its own solid industry, but has also become a source of inspiration and field of activity for many audiovisual storytellers. Jon Handschin of podcast Studio Bummens (Berlin) and Manuel Bickenbach of independent production company Frisbeefilms (Berlin) will explore the podcast industry at large. They will deep dive into their current true crime co-production and talk about the differences and similarities of storytelling in an audio-only format versus a film/series.

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Drafting contracts for all parties involved in a film production can be immensely challenging. Complex and individualized contracts have to be negotiated and closed with a large number of team members, actors, artists and companies, most often under time pressure. Katrin Wukojewic of Constantin Film (Munich) will share her experience using Vera, a cloud-based legal tech platform that streamlines the entire contractual process by allowing production contracts to be assembled in a modular way. The platform has been in development in-house at Constantin Film since 2017 for internal use and is now being launched onto the market. Developer Quirin Stiegler of New Digitals and Sebastian Bergau from Constantin Film will share their perspective.

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While virtual production is becoming increasingly common, more breakthrough technologies are just around the corner. Synthetic characters, AI-based VFX, Voice Cloning, GenerativeAIs and so much more could revolutionize how we produce. Timor Kardum of design and technology company MAGIG (Berlin) explores the convergence of the current mega-trends in filmmaking and storytelling into what he coined ‘Synthetic Production’ and how it impacts storytelling at large.

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We all know the hassle of managing, planning, and scheduling the production of content. Among the main challenges are sharing information, communication and collaboration, most of which still happens through endless and inefficient email loops. Jan Diepers of Studio Hamburg Serienwerft and Deborah Tolkien of Hager Moss Film (Munich) share their experience using Yamdu, a platform that helps creators manage their projects efficiently by providing one central hub for all their production needs. Florian Reimann of Yamdu itself will accompany their exploration.

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Metadata has been the talk of the town for some years now. Now, thanks to recent developments in tech, it could finally become a game-changer for the film industry as well. How will this impact film producers?

In their talk, Peter Effenberg and Irmela Wrogemann will discuss how producers can benefit from these promises and actively shape the shift towards data-driven film production. As the CEO and CMO of transfermedia production services (Potsdam), they will present their newly launched tech solution jay, which allows users to access metadata from the various stages of film production and use it for distribution or the creation of in-stream experiences. They will also explore how access to metadata could unlock new business models for broadcasters, enable the monetisation of production data, automated workflows, audience interaction and in-stream shopping. The goal is to shed light on many of these questions and explore the opportunities and challenges around metadata for producers.

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Whether to expand to new markets, increase profitability, minimize the risk of an industry downturn or simply to complement an existing product portfolio, companies diversify their business activities for a range of reasons. In this session, Anna Różalska of the talent agency Match & Spark (Warsaw) and Naima Abed of production company Paradise City (London) will share insights into their diversification strategy, challenges, successes, failures, business strategy and especially their overall perspectives on talent representation. They will explore what it means for arthouse and auteur filmmakers to be represented and how this impacts talent development and producing.

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In a follow-up session to their talk at Explorer Konferenz #2, Ole Hellwig and Henriette Ahrens of the online distribution company notsold (Hamburg) and Andy Green of AI company Chara.AI (Edinburgh/Lisbon) will give an exclusive insight into their approach on building an intersectional data model. They will also talk about their joint endeavor Data Agent.AI, a data-driven company that is building solutions for all sections of the film industry: development, distribution and discovery. They will discuss current algorithms, the need for diverse storytellers, the existing supply-demand gap, why Netflix is losing so many subscribers and why intersectionality in combination with artificial intelligence might be the solution to these problems.

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Agile project management is an iterative approach for planning and delivering a project by breaking it down into small sections and tasks. Writers Rooms today use their own semi-standardized methods to meet the demands of high quality, fast creative turnover and tight schedules. In this session, author and producer Juliana Lima Dehne, author Richard Kropf, and innovation consultant Lars Gaede will dissect the creative process of writers rooms from an organizational perspective and explore concepts and tools to manage the creative workflow efficiently.

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The British Film Institute has recently commissioned and published the Economic Review of Independent Film in order to better understand the sustainability of this vital artform at a time of great change. In conversation with producer Saralisa Volm of POISON (Berlin), Neil Peplow of the BFI (London) will present the most important findings of the report as well as the recommendations for policy intervention which could be implemented to reverse the negative trends identified.

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The recent amendment to the German Copyright Act (Urhebergesetz) provides a proactive reporting by producers to copyright holders about the revenues generated by a film. The Produzentenverband has commissioned London based fintech FilmChain with the development of a platform for automated reporting. Maria Tânjală of FilmChain will briefly introduce this platform in the making.

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Inspired by the conversation with Werner Herzog at the New York Public Library in 2007 ‘Was the Twentieth Century a Mistake?’, Berlin based entertainment lawyer Christoph Fey will follow up on his insightful, entertaining and provocative talks from Explorer Konferenz #1 & #2 by exploring whether public service broadcasting was a mistake. Spoiler alert: it was not. But looking at the current state of things, there is certainly a lot of room for improvement.