Industry history: ELBE DOCK
Both of our international film festivals – ELBE DOCK and YOUNG FILM FEST, which have merged into the BOO Internation Film Festival, have a successful history of industry programmes.
ELBE DOCK's industry has focused primarily on aspiring filmmakers and connecting the Czech and German film industries together with the other V4 countries. We welcomed a number of international experts from screenwriting, dramaturgy, marketing, sales, film festivals, video games, new media, VR, as well as other cultural and creative industries.
YOUNG FILM FEST's industry programme has focused on themes related to audiovisual production for children and youth, audiovisual education and video games in the context of education in a long and systematic way.
2024
The FILM INN workshops, which took place as part of the Czech programme of the festival in Ústí nad Labem, dealt with the themes and environment of short filmmaking with a focus on script development and festival strategy. The workshops also included several masterclasses focused on the use of artificial intelligence in storytelling (Markus Walsch and Taç Romey), film marketing (Nicolò Gallio) and short film festival programming (Alexandra Gramatke). More information about the workshops, including their recordings, can be found HERE.
Participants of the Story editing workshop worked on script development under the guidance of experienced lecturer Anne Gensior and the Producers workshop was led by marketing strategist Nicolò Gallio.
About the lecturers:
Anne Gensior
Tutor for script development and a script reader for German and international film funds. Since 2012 she has been working as a tutor and script consultant for the producers workshop YAPIMLAB in Istanbul and since 2017 for the MIDPOINT Feature Launch training programme. She has been a member of the selection commitee and consultant team of the Antalya Film Forum since 2016. In 2009 Anne participated as a story editor in the Script&Pitch Programme of TorinoFilmLab and joined the script development agency Script House in Berlin
Nicolò Gallio
Marketing and communications consultant with a background in PR, media relations, and content management for films, festivals, brands, and non-profit organisations. He currently serves as an advisor for the TorinoFilmLab Audience Design Fund and works as a researcher and strategist at the Berlin-based film marketing agency Alphapanda, supporting scriptwriters, filmmakers, and producers across fiction films, documentaries, and TV series. He is also a trainer for international film development initiatives and holds a Ph.D. in Film Studies from the University of Bologna (Italy), where he focused on the relationship between production, consumption, and critical reception of audiovisual works within offline and digital environments.
Markus Walsch
Markus Walsch is a creative media professional with expertise in AI-aided storytelling and the development of films and TV series. With a background in journalism and digital media production, he has developed numerous TV, radio and online formats for public and private media. Markus has been nominated for the International Emmy Award and other awards. He also works as a coach and lecturer for content marketing and AI-storytelling. Markus is always at the AI-forefront with great passion, constantly exploring new developments in AI and finding ways to incorporate them into film and TV series development.
Prof. Taç Romey
Prof. Taç Romey is an expert in storytelling, dramaturgy, and film. With a background in acting, directing, and dramaturgy from the Brown University in the USA, he has developed numerous series and films, written scripts, and directed productions. Taç is the founder and CEO of the Phantomfilm GmbH in Munich and Amsterdam, where he produced the award-winning Amazon series "Der Lack ist ab". He is also a professor of serial storytelling at the HFF Munich, where he teaches storytelling, character development, and scriptwriting. His projects have received several nominations and awards, including the International Emmy and the German Television Award.
Alexandra Gramatke
Managing Director of Kurzfilm Agentur Hamburg, distributor of short films and organiser of the annual Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg. She has also curated short film programmes for festivals, Goethe Institutes and others. From 2009 to 2017 she headed the selection committee of the German competition of the Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg and was a member of many international juries for short films. She studied Slavic and German literature. After graduation she worked as a freelance translator of literature and documentary films. In 1994 she joined the Hamburg documentary filmmakers' group "thede". Here she made several films, such as "20 Violins in St. Pauli". In addition, she worked as a producer and editor.
Together with our guests in a round table discussion, we took a journey with a short film from the initial stages of its development to the moment when it reaches the audience and critics. We stopped at film markets, workshops, networking opportunities, festivals, cinemas, and navigated the online waters in an attempt to answer the question of where the final destination of this journey lies.
Guests:
- Alexandra Gramatke – Managing Director of KurzFilmAgentur Hamburg and Member of the Board of Directors of AG Kurzfilm
- Hrönn Marinósdóttir – co-founder and director of the Reykjavik International Film Festival
- Birgitte Weinberger – Artistic Director of OFF - Odense International Film Festival
- Nicolò Gallio – marketing and communication consultant (Alphapanda, TorinoFilmLab Audience Design Fund)
International activities FILM INN
Presentation of the Czech film industry with a focus on the German film market at the Budapest Debut Film Forum (Budapest, Hungary)
Radka Hoffman, Head of Industry ELBE DOCK and Young Film Fest, presented the current situation of the Czech film industry in the context of the German film market, especially in the area of film festivals, at the Budapest Debut Film Forum.
Workshop at the ŻUBROFFKA International Short Film Festival (Białystok, Poland)
As part of the 18th ŻUBROFFKA International Short Film Festival in Białystok, Poland, a follow-up workshop FILM INN for filmmakers from the V4 countries took place. The workshop focused on topics related to sales, festival strategies, marketing and cooperation with a sales agent. The mentor of the workshop was sales agent Grégoire Féron from Salaud Morisset (Film Production & Distribution | Berlin – Paris).
2023
The FILM INN workshops, which took place in both festival venues – Ústí nad Labem and Dresden – were aimed at aspiring screenwriters and producers and the short films they develop. They worked intensively on their projects with the help of experienced mentors and other speakers at the festival.
The workshop programme was accompanied by masterclasses on independent film distribution, the use of AI in storytelling, short film festival programming, an online webinar focused on the construction and ending of short films, as well as informal networking combined with a discussion on the state of short filmmaking in the V4 countries and Germany.
Lecturers and speakers:
Anne Gensior
Anne Gensior is a Berlin-based international script consultant for feature films and documentaries, a teacher and tutor in workshops and a script reader and consultant for funds and coproduction markets. She has been working as a tutor for MIDPOINT Feature Launch, CineSud ScriptLab, RACCONTI script development programme and the Turkish producer workshop YAPIMLAB. She works regularly for EAVE Workshops and teaches scriptwriting at the Kunstakademie Münster. After graduating in dramaturgy from the HMT Leipzig in 2005, Anne worked also as a theatre dramaturg, festival curator and for radio programmes before joining the script development agency Script House in Berlin.
Sasha Prokopenko
Sasha Prokopenko is a festival programmer, film curator and translator based in Kyiv, Ukraine. She has been a Head of Programming at the Kyiv International Short Film Festival for the past four years. Sasha has participated in several film festivals as a curator and jury member. She also collaborates with the Molodist Kyiv International Film Festival and the first Ukrainian LGBTQIA+ film festival, Sunny Bunny. Since 2016, she has worked at the independent film distribution company, KyivMusicFilm, which distributes films on art, music and culture. Amongst other projects, Sasha has worked at the 100 Films in 100 Minutes festival (2017–2022), INTRO film festival about music and culture (2018–2023), and Kino Susidiv, the international film festival in Uzhhorod, Zakarpattia (2022–2023).
Gaia Meucci-Astley
Gaia is a freelance script consultant and assessor for talent development initiatives, with over 10 years of experience working with new and emerging talent. From 2012 to 2021 she was the Short Film Programmer of the Encounters Festival in Bristol, curating the UK and international competitions as well as special programmes. Prior to that, she was the Short Film Programmer of the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Passionate about stories and new writing, since 2021 she has poured all her experience into her work in talent development. She collaborates with organisations including the BFI Network, Film Cymru, Focus Script at Cannes Cinéma de Demain, Torino Film Lab and LiM (Less is More). Gaia also regularly provides 1:1 script consultancy with a particular focus on first features and short films.
Markus Walsch
Creative media professional with expertise in the use of artificial intelligence in the creation and development of films and TV series. He has a background in journalism and digital media production and has developed numerous TV, radio and online formats for public and private media. Markus has been nominated for an International Emmy Award and other awards. He also works as a coach and trainer for content marketing and AI-storytelling. Markus is always hugely enthusiastic about AI-forms, consistently researching new developments in AI and looking for ways to incorporate it into the development of films and TV series.
Prof. Taç Romey
Expert in storytelling, dramaturgy and film. He studied acting, directing and playwriting at Brown University in the USA, is behind a number of TV series and films, is a screenwriter and director. Taç is the founder and managing director of Phantomfilm GmbH in Munich and Amsterdam, where he produced, among other things, the award-winning Amazon series "Der Lack ist ab". He is also a professor at the HFF Munich, where he teaches storytelling, character development and screenwriting. His projects have received several nominations and awards, including an International Emmy Award and the German Television Award.
Networking was linked to the German part of the ELBE DOCK IFF at GEH in Dresden. The main goal of this activity was to connect emerging producers and other filmmakers from the V4 region with their German colleagues. Thanks to the German-Visegrad context, the possibilities for cooperation could also be expanded.
The main guests of the discussion:
- Monica Koshka-Stein (Artistic Director of KUKI Young Short Film Festival Berlin)
- Johanna Süß (Director of the Lichter International Film Festival in Frankfurt),
- Krzysztof Sienkiewicz (organizer of the ŻUBROFFKA International Short Film Festival)
- Karolína Davidová (film producer)
Follow-up workshop FILM INN at the ŻUBROFFKA International Short Film Festival (Białystok, Poland)
As part of the 17th ŻUBROFFKA International Short Film Festival in Bialystok, Poland, a follow-up FILM INN workshop for filmmakers from the V4 countries took place. The workshop focused on topics related to sales, festival strategies, marketing and cooperation with a sales agent. The workshop was mentored by Marcin Łuczaj from New Europe Film Sales.
2022
The industry programme this year took place mainly in the German part of the ELBE DOCK programme in the GEH facilities in Dresden. It included discussions and networking of creators from the V4 countries, Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
Discussion: Creative Saxony and Ústí region
What is the role of the creative cultural industries in the recovery plan of these regions after the pandemic? What are the visions for the future? And what is the creative potential of Saxony and Usti? Discussion guests Lydia Göbel from the association Wir gestalten Dresden, Miroslav Koranda from kreativni.uk and Roman Černík from the Johan Centre for Contemporary Art and Education jointly opened up the topics of transformation and the challenges that lie ahead for both regions.
Discussion: Don't underestimate the young audience!
Monica Koshka-Stein from the KUKI Young Short Film Festival in Berlin, Radka Hoffman from the Young Film Fest and Berit Toepfer from Objektiv discussed the possibilities of actively involving young audiences in informal audiovisual education, as well as the importance of not underestimating young audiences and treating them as equal partners. One of the main topics of the discussion was how to work with young people in this respect.
2021
In the covid year we moved part of the industry programme to the online environment and part of it took place physically in the Czech part of the festival programme.
Online industry
The ELBE DOCK online industry programme was aimed at emerging film professionals and students from the field of audiovisual from the Czech Republic and Germany.
It focused on interdisciplinary networking and bringing together those interested not only in the world of cinema and video art, but also in digital technologies, intermedia, and multimedia. During the day-long programme, participants could consult ideas and concepts for their creative projects that go beyond the realm of classical film or combine diverse narrative practices with modern technologies.
The mentor of the programme was Ondřej Moravec. Ondřej is director and sceenwriter of immersive experiences and works on a field of the classical film as well. He works also as the festival programmer, selecting VR programme for several events around the Czech republic. He studied screenwring at FAMU and journalism at the Charles University. Ondřej will introduce his upcomming project Darkening and the whole process of the creation of the interactive VR film. He will focus on the problematics of how to deal with the topic of depression in virtual reality.
Another guest on the programme was multimedia artist Mika Johnson. Mika is a multimedia artist interested in dream-like narratives, mythos, ritual and biodiversity. While his concentration is designing XR experiences, he also works in many mediums, including as a director for fiction and documentary projects. His first XR project, VRwandlung, is a virtual reality adaptation of Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, which was featured in Stern Magazine and The Economist. The project also traveled to over 50 cities worldwide. Johnson’s present projects include Ilios: a VR point cloud poem about COVID-19 made in collaboration with Marcel Karnapke and The Republic of Dreams: a multimedia project produced by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Warsaw, which adapts the work of Bruno Schulz, using video, illustrations, and sonic experiences. Long-term projects include The Amerikans – a web series featuring 15 short documentaries and his 2020 debut feature – Confessions of a Box Man, which is the first part in a trilogy. Projects in production include The Infinite Library, a VR library being produced by the Goethe-Institut, New Delhi, and Lost Forms: a virtual experience, produced by Expanded Focus in Leipzig, which allows users to interact with a fully scanned iceberg off the eastern coast of Greenland.
The online industry programme also included a Spotlight section consisting of short interviews with inspiring festivals and organisations in the field of audiovisual from the Czech and German environment. These included the Czech festivals Signal – a festival of digital and creative culture in Prague and Uroboros – a festival of critical and socially engaged design, the production company Daisy with Rider Productions as well as the Hertz-Lab of the Centre for Arts and Media in Karlsruhe, the Konrad Wolf Film University in Babelsberg and the Lichter Film Fest Frankfurt International.
Several workshops and masterclasses took place in the Hraničář cinema in Ústí nad Labem during the festival.
Masterclasses:
Drone sculptures
Hungarian artist Ágnes Elöd uses a drone to create her drone sculptures. Each drone is equipped with one intense LED light source and creates various formations while flying in the night sky. These light sculptures are huge and fully three-dimensional, making them recognizable from every conceivable angle. She uses 3D editing software to design the trajectories. The color of the lights and the resulting trajectories can be animated. In her talk, she presented the artistic and technical issues involved in the creative process of modeling.
The usefulness of fiction in thinking about the future
The lecture by visual artist, digital storyteller and Slovak academic András Cséfalvay discusses ways in which new forms of narratives, that lend perspective to non-dominant positions and try to move away from a human reason centered world interpretation, give the possibility to imagine a different future. And more, this imagination is instrumental, that can bring about a livable future. The lecture also discusses the role of new technologies, and in what way can they aid the process of future imagination, without falling into the trap of a simple techno-optimism. Viable utopias must first exist in detail in our stories.
Kill Memory, Kill Pain, Prepare to Live Again
The sensation of fear coming from the experience of the turbulent 20th century has been symptomatic of the identity of Central Eastern Europe. In his lecture, contemporary art critic and curator Piotr Sikora elaborates on how the notions of failure, shortage and despair have been recurring elements in the art from the peripheries. Working on the artworks which examine the historical inconsistencies of the region he'd like to pose several questions about the therapeutic feature of art. Can we get rid of the fear simply by experiencing the trauma in the art?
Computer games and their inspiration from cinema
In the masterclass Computer Games and Their Cinema Inspiration, we searched for the line between video games and films. Is it possible for computer games to be based on more or less similar principles as documentary or fiction films? To answer this question, we focused on different aspects of game language, namely acting, camera work and storytelling. The masterclass was led by Helena Bendová, one of the most distinguished pioneers of game studies in the Czech Republic and a co-founder of Game Design, a new program at FAMU, Prague.
Workshops
AMONG ALGO-CHAINS / THE LURE OF SOFTWARE MAGIC
Bitcoin, NFT, blockchain, cryptocurrencies, smart contacts – a new technological trend disturbs established framing and operational status quo. What is the response of contemporary artists and designers? And what are we, ordinary users, supposed to make of this technology? The workshop pushes aside technological aspects of the blockchain, focusing instead on its narrative side. We discussed potential consequences of technological determinism and tried to critically consider possible scenarios for a distant, technologically saturated future, using design fiction. The workshop was led by Michal Kučerák – researcher, lecturer and curator with a focus on art mediation and digital projects.
Video games as modern blogs: game creation is for everyone
Ever since the late 2000s, the gaming world has increasingly opened to new designers, both men and women, who are now able to talk about previously neglected issues, thanks to the tools for video game design becoming more and more accessible. And it is precisely this kind of personal, independent games we will focus on. How do game artists deal with mental disorders, political status quo, gender or teenage wasteland? We will learn the basics of Bitsy and Twine, the essential and free tools for fool-proof design of simple video games – and with no knowledge of programming necessary! You will be leaving the workshop with a game to post on-line, show your mates, or include in your portfolio. What experience, event or feeling would you like to use when designing your very first game? If you don't know, there will be plenty of examples to inspire you. Workshop is led by Ondřej Trhoň, a cultural and video game journalist, lecturer at the New Media Studies at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, also involved in video game development and marketing at Charles Games.
