Berlinale execs lament ‘fear-driven’ state of business and audience disregard

BERLINALE: Producers and agents have called out the “fear-driven” state of the international television business, where business success is more valued than the power of storytelling in an increasingly difficult marketplace.

Roy Ashton

“Networks know what they want, not what the audience wants,” Roy Ashton, a partner at The Gersh Agency, told delegates here on the opening morning of Berlinale Series. “When you look at the world we live in, individual people don’t have greenlight power. It’s done by committee. Execs don’t believe in creative anymore and they can’t because they’re going to get fired if they make a mistake.”

“Shows like Narcos could [still] get made,” Sabine de Mardt, president of Gaumont Germany, continued about her company’s Netflix series. “But it’s so fear driven because people are losing their jobs. That’s why commissioner needs a foothold, a justification for why they’re commissioning something, like IP or talent or producers.”

“It’s about risk mitigation. ‘How can I protect myself? What are the factors so I know it’s the smallest risk I can take?” added Yi Qiao, director of drama at ZDF Studios.

Former Yes Studios boss Danna Stern, here representing her new independent company In Transit Productions, said there weren’t enough prequels, sequels or spin-offs in Europe, as opposed to the US, that can build on existing material and characters and therefore reduce some of the risk factor in new commissions.

“With so much material coming out, viewers make a decision based on a thumbnail image of what to watch,” she said. “Those are the things you need to remember as producers. If it takes too long to explain, if there’s no recognisable element, it’s not going to get sold because audiences don’t know what it’s about. That’s why we’re seeing Suits: LA and Law & Order: Toronto.”

During the panel, entitled Silver Linings: Overcoming Crisis Through New Opportunities, Stern went on to say that producers should also be more realistic about the target audience for their programme. “A lot of the time people are developing for themselves or an imaginary audience,” she said. “There was a mad rush for a younger audience. But there’s no going back in time, we’re not going to get them back to traditional, even SVoD. There’s no point in trying. Let’s establish the audience we have, acknowledge who they are and programme and produce for them.”

Qiao also called on producers to reinvent themselves so they can manage both the creative and commercial aspects of a project.

“You can’t develop in your bubble. If you cannot finance a show, you can have a brilliant idea and it doesn’t go anywhere,” she said. “Before you go out and throw ideas at a wall, you need to think of the specificity of the project. Does it make sense to go with it? If you have a story very specific to my local market, and the market is in decline, should you develop further or park it?

“Producers need to start reinventing themselves. They have to think creatively but understand economics and how to finance their shows.”

De Mardt also pointed to the need for “more touching, relevant” stories that can be combined with an entertainment factor to engage audiences.

“The biggest problem I see is shows cost too much money,” Ashton noted. “House of the Dragon cost $23m [per episode], [Disney+ series] Percy Jackson $18m. Who are you making that for and spending $18m per episode? Wednesday was north of $25m. When you look at the cost of shows, the hardest part for me is writers aren’t getting more than they were.

“The money is being made by huge companies. We love them all but at the same time, you’ve got to share more of the money. You’ve got to compensate the talent side. That’s not happening.”