Woody Allen or the Passion for Films (independent and at the movie theatre)
by Elisabetta Galeffi

One evening in a smart Manhattan restaurant between Fifth and Madison, I was introduced to Woody Allen.  A couple of minutes face to face with the myth.  It still seems a sort of vision to me.  I think I muttered, "Thank you," and gave a hint of a curtsy, whilst the owner of the place announced my insignificant name to the great director.
He stood opposite me without saying a word, politely putting up with the bother, which would soon be over.  He didn't even attempt a fake smile.
That doesn't matter and I forgive him: it was almost ten in the evening and he was there for supper after the theatre, probably dying to sit down to table with his wife and friends.  This must have been 15 years ago. 
He looked older than he was: a little man all skin and bones, anything but animated, in contrast to his smiling Korean wife who, on the other hand, seemed happy to make the acquaintance of the enthusiastic Italian girl.

(To read more, click here)
(Per leggere il testo in italiano cliccare qui)

While investigating cinema-going in the time of the pandemic, MEDIA Salles is also offering a view on the other aspects of the cinema industry, thanks to the collaboration of other organizations and especially of the European Audiovisual Observatory that organized a very interesting  live expert chat at this year's Cannes Marché du Film online: you can watch the video here.

 

We have started this new column giving voice to the people who have already been working with added content for some time now, gaining first-hand experience in the field which we think is worth sharing internationally.

Erik Hamre, Founder of Entertainment Service, Content Distribution, Denmark

Erik Hamre can be considered a pioneer of added content for the big screen. MEDIA Salles has asked him to talk about his work to the readers of DGT online informer and help them gain a better understanding of the Danish market .
Alongside my long experience as an exhibitor (which came to an end in March this year), I began my work in the sector by founding Entertainment Service ApS twelve years ago and since then the market has continued to grow.

Denmark has 478 screens and around 165 exhibition companies. How many are clients of Entertainment Service? What is the most popular content? And the business conditions?

We work with around 80 companies, so more or less 50% of Danish exhibitors.
The content most in demand is certainly opera. André Rieu is a real bestseller: I represented his company - Piece of Magic - for ten years, up to 2019.
Rental fee is about 50%, more or less as for films. Still for our alternative content we have a minimum per capita rental fee of € 6.7 when on DCP and € 10 for satellite transmission.

After the period of crisis due to Covid, how do you see the market?

I think there are positive prospects here in Denmark: we want to play our part in contributing to development. We have published a very full catalogue for the 2020/2021 season. It includes 22 operas, 4 concerts, 3 ballets and a documentary. Together with recorded performances that make up the history of opera, produced by the Milan Scala, the Fenice in Venice or the Hamburg Staatsoper - just to quote a few - the spectators will also be able to enjoy performances staged just before lockdown, such as the "Fleetwood and Friends" concert held at the London Palladium on 25 February this year.
Amongst the four live events are the ballet "Notre Dame de Paris" performed at the Opéra Bastille and "Aida" at the Opéra de Paris.
It really is a rich programme, indeed the richest ever, proof of our confidence in the recovery of the market.

As well as offering a diversified catalogue, what do businesses like yours do to encourage the growth of added content?

Some of the producers of added content seem to have difficulties in the awareness of what kind of marketing and publicity material a cinema has to use to win an audience. Every year we have to educate both the producers and the agents to have these valuable tools ready when they offer the performances.

Do you believe in the potential of digital technologies for diversifying and enriching the offer on the big screen?

Of course; 3 years ago we started developing a theatrical game for the audience where they use their smartphones/tablets as a gameboard and there is a quiz master and all the figures roll onto the big screen. Between the games we have screen entertainment and this is meant to be an offer for both weekdays and weekend mornings or matinees.
The project is called BIO BANKO and was created with The Technical University of Denmark and the biggest ticket company. Both game and entertainment content are transferred via the internet, and when the cinemas have joined and agreed to the terms, all they have to do is to decide the number of games throughout the season and then go into the ticket system and make the reservations themselves. We deliver the games automatically and they can choose between 6 - 10 games per show. The people who buy the tickets decide if they want 6 or 10 gameboards.
I started working in the cinema as an exhibitor and I continue to think that films are the heart and soul of the cinema-going experience but, at the same time, I think the big screen can offer far more.

To see the full offer for the 2020/21 season, click here

Weerada Sucharitkul
CEO & Co-Founder
FilmDoo and FilmDoo.Academy

Someone once asked me, what does women’s empowerment mean to you? I thought long and hard, then said "Know your worth and everything good in life will happen to you."

Because that's the story of my life and how I came to be the CEO & Co-founder of FilmDoo , a global edutainment platform that is today helping people around the world to teach and learn languages through films using our game-based technology (www.filmdoo.academy). Growing up, they told me, "You’re not pretty enough to work in film, you’re not smart enough to work in tech, you’re not driven enough to work in finance." Today, I run and manage an international team that operates across all three industries on a daily basis.

As a woman, especially an Asian woman by background, we are often expected to behave and talk in a certain way, to take on certain cultural and stereotyped roles, and to have different values and aspirations from men’s. Sometimes - intentionally or otherwise - male colleagues, friends and other counterparts may even come to perceive kindness as a weakness. That is the most difficult lesson I have had to learn - to take back control of your own voice, to know your boundaries and what you will or won’t accept as a value system in your life and how you run your business.

Ultimately, it takes strength and courage to believe in yourself. To do that, you need to draw on your passion as the source of motivation to keep going. For me, that passion is cinema. It is my love of cinema and the power of films that motivates me each day to look challenges and difficulties in the eye and to keep going, when they tell me that there is no path leading where I want to go.

Having grown up in 11 countries across 5 continents, cinema for me is the one true medium that has the power to connect people from around the world and to build bridges rather than walls. Through films, we learn about people from different cultures and backgrounds, we experience different languages and insights - and more importantly - it is through films that we come to appreciate that people different from us are actually not that different after all, and develop empathy and kindness for people from cultures and places we have not yet experienced.

This is the power of films, and this is what inspires me as a woman operating across both cinema and technology to rise against all the traditional prejudices and create an international platform that helps under-represented stories from around the world to get seen and heard. Knowing your worth will inspire you to attract people who will go on to help you build your vision, whether it is in cinema, in technology, or at the intersection of both.