The Art of Selling Culture: The Independent Distributor Side By Reiner Moritz* 34 Once upon a time there were dedicated slots on television for arts programs, master classes, music, and the like. Remember Monitor (1958-1965) and Omnibus (1967-2003), both of which aired on the BBC, as well as The South Bank Show (1978-2010) on ITV, and similar programming across traditional broadcasting? People were hungry for culture in the post-WW2 years and curious about what the new medium was going to offer. With affluence setting in after the period of reconstructing a relatively peaceful world, arts subjects began to be systematically stripped from school systems and creativity took a backseat to core subjects like math and biology. Generation Z and the Millennials were not prepared for the complexity, the humanity, or the empathy encouraged and generated by long-form stories, music, and arts subjects, and everything else public service broadcasting stands for. Streamed entertainment, sports, and proliferating social media platforms such as YouTube and Tik Tok began to replace linear viewing, and the public broadcast service followed suit, no longer making programming decisions beyond the commercial pressures that the streamers, the SVODs, and the social media platforms (understandably) have. Where, under these circumstances, do we go with cultural content? There are few slots left on public service broadcasting, and these have a tendency towards navel-gazing and giving preference to local matters. Sky in the U.K., Italy, and New Zealand mainly program culture for political or publicity reasons. Plus, streamers like Marquee in the U.K., Stingray in Canada, and Medici in France, to name but a few, pay little in comparison to the production cost of arts shows. With the exception of ARTE no broadcaster anywhere covers the production costs of arts programs even though the rule of thumb, that the originating outlet must cover most of the cost, still pertains. Despite these problems there is a wealth of cultural programming available internationally, reflecting the interest and passion of the filmmakers as well as an appetite from the public. Long-form documentaries do particularly well as theatrical releases before a cut-down version is made to accommodate available slots on television. Money is less forthcoming from local broadcasters, but comes increasingly from foundations, institutions, and private sponsors. Gone is the time when an interesting event could be sold to 10 TV programmers on a phone call in order to raise sufficient funding for a recording, let alone a live broadcast. In a very commercial environment, distributors are also obliged to think commercially. Trust is an important element to clinch a pre-sale. Distributors must look for programs of more than marginal interest — they shouldn’t simply bank on the curiosity of gatekeepers, let alone their knowledge. They have to shout louder and invest in research and paperwork. They need to engage a star to front or narrate a documentary, hopefully somebody who has credibility and is as familiar with the subject matter as the one and only British commentator David Attenborough was. They’d also be wise to stick to the 52- or 43-minute format (to retain the modern TV audience’s attention). What a shame that Beethoven and Bruckner symphonies are mostly longer, how inconsiderate of these composers to take people’s time with their long symphonies! They must also look at related events as “impact” is the new buzzword and whatever you can offer in that direction may facilitate a sale. Birthdays of artists or movie stars are a wonderful peg to hang a documentary on. Major international touring exhibitions of the super stars amongst the painters or high profile musicians may also work if you can get involved at the planning stage and can make a well-constructed offer. Music is, of course, the easiest genre to work with as it transcends the language barrier. Literature is not worth trying, unless you know in advance who will get the Nobel in Stockholm or Booker prize in London. Recorded theater, if it is not Shakespeare, is a hard sell, although there are countries where it still works. And when you know that a particular centenary is upcoming, you might go for it as a TV special. You need a network feeding you such data, you need to read the feuilletons (or arts sections) of the leading newspapers, to know which conductor will probably get the next job as music director, to befriend the relevant record company exec, to follow major festivals, to have contacts with international juries and curators — in brief, be a passionate arts lover who mixes private pleasure with an acute business sense. Last but not least, you need to predict the passing away of the world-famous in order to have a documentary at hand when it happens. In short, it is an impossible job! Here is some advice to facilitate a deal. Firstly, you will need well researched, well written presentations with good graphics, which are easy to produce at home if you have a bit of talent for layout. Then you must make sure that the delivery material is in good shape, including neutral title backgrounds, music and effect tracks and time coded scripts. Ideally you are already involved in the production process and see to it that interviewees do their bit in their native language and in English. If you have more of a kind, let’s say six or 13 docs on painting, package them under an attractive title. Broadcasters don´t like single docs and prefer series as formatting is the name of the game. My recent successes in the genre were Masterworks, a series of 190 10-minute reflections on a single painting, and Iconic Couples, a series of biographies of Hollywood stars. Next will be English theatre and film director Peter Brook’s The Mahabharata, a remastered movie and six-part TV-version, and a new documentary about Brook himself. The ideal program to satisfy an audience, Peter Brook once said to me, “is showing Brigitte Bardot being pushed from the Eiffel Tower.” Unfortunately it only lasts 10 seconds, not long enough for a TV show! *Reiner Moritz is the founder and president of Poorhouse International, a London-registered, Munich-based producer and distributor of music and arts programs. (Continued from Cover) (Continued on Page 36) VIDEOAGE October 2024 Distribution Challenges C M Y CM MY CY CMY K
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