NATPE Budapest Session Shines Spotlight on Co-Pros

BUDAPEST: The conference track at NATPE Budapest today featured a “how-to” session dedicated to European co-productions, with executives from TANDEM Productions, Neue Deutsche Filmgesellschaft and Ministry of Content discussing the nuances of putting together successful co-productions with European partners.

Mark Gordon, partner and head of international scripted television at ICM Partners who moderated the session, asked the panelists to describe what determines success when it comes to a co-production. Eric Welbers, CEO of Neue Deutsche Filmgesellschaft and former Beta Film exec, said that it can only be deemed a successful co-production if “it’s a success for both partners,” either in terms of audience or impact created. “It’s also a success if you make it in budget,” Welbers added. He then cautioned, “The more partners you have, the more complicated it gets. If you don’t have to co-produce, don’t do it.”

Tim Halkin, COO and partner at TANDEM Productions, chimed in that financial reasons are often the key drivers of why co-productions come about. “Every broadcaster worldwide needs high-profile productions that are going to get them eyeballs,” he said. “The thing that gets every broadcaster the most eyeballs are domestic productions, big-budget limited series or miniseries, with local writers and local stars. These productions rarely ever amortize themselves. There are only a few [of those types of productions] that a big broadcaster can do per year, because they can’t keep writing the losses off. International co-production gives major broadcasters of the world an opportunity to become part of an event program and only pay…a fraction of what they would for a domestic production.”

Halkin added that it comes down to international broadcasters needing to fill slots. “Now that the U.S. broadcasters are no longer making the money they need to make in the summer months with reruns and [instead are] having fresh programming, coupled with all of the new platforms worldwide, there are countless slots that need to be filled. How do you fill them? The best [option] is with something that from a creative point of view works globally.”

Pavlina Hatoupis, a producer at Ministry of Content, shared her experience of working on a show that was able to transcend borders and work globally: Tyrant. “It is an American show [for FX] that’s entirely based in an Arab country,” she explained. “Most of our cast [members] are Arab. No one would have thought that an American studio would make a series like this and yet we’re in season three. It’s not an American show; it’s an international show that happens to be made by Americans. Yet that worked because they found a way to have the human story transcend the cultural specificity.”

Another element that helped Tyrant to transcend geographically is its production values, Hatoupis said. “It looks great, so it’s easily sold around the world. Production value has so much to do with whether your show is going to be successful internationally, along with the human element and the cultural element.”

In terms of what genres are working best across borders, the opinion was that programs with stories set outside of the natural world, in fantasy or sci-fi realms, seem to be breaking out. Halkin opined that crime also works well for international co-production.

Welbers added that history is popular, especially for European co-production: “Europeans do share history that is not always bound to the common borders.”

He also pointed to TV movies as a hot spot. He said that in the U.S., the TV movie is practically “nonexistent” yet they are “still humongous in Germany—there are around 240 TV movies per year at 1.4 million euros per movie.” Welbers said that it’s complicated to find partners for this large output of German telefilms, since “Italy is maybe doing eight a year, and the U.K. maybe ten per year.”

Halkin offered the audience a key piece of advice about doing international co-productions: look for similar partners. “If you try to fit television broadcasters together whose profiles are not almost identical, you will end up in development hell,” he said. “The best result will be that you will have something that’s neither fish nor fowl, or your development will fall apart and you will never get the show produced.”

Welbers agreed and added, “It’s a lot like marriage—you have to choose the right partner and trust each other.”

Hatoupis said that there should be “as much transparency as possible between partners. There needs to be a lot of communication, [rather than] trying to hide problems. It seems obvious, but I have seen people hide information all the time.”

She added that when working with different cultures that have long production histories and practices of their own, it’s important to “stay as humble and open-minded as possible” to adapt to each other’s working practices. “Remember that each one of these countries and cultures has been making movies or TV programs for as long as you have.”