Film Independent panelists on 'powerful' role of social media

CAIRO – 4 October 2019: The State of Film Distribution’ was the title of a panel discussion held, in the framework of the CineGouna Bridge program which is an essential part of El Gouna Film Festival.

The event, presented by Film Independent and the U.S. Embassy in Egypt, was moderated by Lebanese producer Myriam Sassine.

The panellists were Missy Laney, the director of development at Adult Swim; Jordana Meade, the director of distribution at ITVS; and Rebecca Sosa, an accomplished film executive and consultant.

The panellists discussed the role of the new direct-to-consumer platforms that continue to subvert traditional distribution models and provide multiple options to release a movie.

‘’ ITVS was founded by filmmakers in the states, its public broadcasting system is wonderful, offering excellent educational programing, these filmmakers were trying to get their documentaries in there, so they united together and founded ITVS’’ Meade said to Egypt Today.

ITVS mission as recounted by Meade is to fund, distribute and amplify independent storytelling voices and distribute the public television system in US.

Meade in addition spoke about the role of social media saying it is very powerful and important.

‘’ We were saying actually in this panel how really the filmmaker, director, scriptwriter and their team really need to make social media part of their business plan or film plan, so social media presence is highly important because it is highly essential for the marketing process’’ Meade said.

Meade further added that she advised them in the panel to take marketing and social courses.

‘’ I have to admit as well that it can be difficult to build an audience, there is a principal in the industry that says if you can get 5000 followers or 10000 followers that is a nice benchmark, any filmmaker has to built a group of fans who are not just mum, dad and uncle but strangers who are really interested in his/her films, fans who perform actions whether to buy, queue or vote for the movie’’ Meade said.

Laney said Adult Swim platform is a part of the Warner Media family. She added that Adult Swim has individual development team that visit festivals to find independent voices and storytellers to partner with.

‘’ Often this comes through recommendations, or I have reached out filmmakers that I found on Instagram, you guys were talking about the power of social media, but it is the power of internet, there is one worldwide web and we all have access to it, so one tweet or one short video can go viral everywhere’’ Laney said.

Meade talked about copyrights and explained that when someone is funding your film, it depends on the deal structure.

‘’ But for us as co-producers, usually you will see in the US - I am not sure if this exists internationally specific with Egypt- whoever is funding that is actually keeping these copyrights, they own the film, they have the final say pertaining to the editorial of the film and the final say regarding the business decisions or transactions with the film’’ Meade said.

Meade added that they provide guidance to the filmmakers but if they decide that they want to take the story in a certain way or edit in a certain way, they can do that.

‘’ They can absolutely do that and we will continue in our relationship, and we will move it through production and distribution, so that is a very unique deal’’ Meade recounted.

Meade added that she hasn’t looked at a lot of international deals especially pertaining to Arab funding or anything like that but it is not something that is typical.

Meade expressed to Egypt Today how much she is passionate about documentaries.

‘’Three of us separately are in love with stories in general, I think that’s the reason why we try to find the way into this industry from 10 or 12 years ago, it really did come down to unique stories that inspire me, that make me angry, that make me happy, it all comes back down to my general passion with films, I have to admit that after starting my career at Sundance Film Festival at the operation department and then moving to a regional film festival like Florida Film Festival , I have seen a lot of independent films, and this is personal me speaking the best stories are always the documentaries’’ Meade admitted.

The beautiful thing about documentaries as recounted by Meade beside that they are now more accessible is the way that you are more forgiving on the production value, because the story is so powerful you would pay money for a ticket.

‘’ Documentaries have the most powerful stories being told on a personal level’’ Meade added.

Meade further added that their content strategy team in ITVS is looking for stories and storytellers from unserved region and unserved background anywhere and sometimes fulfilling certain cinematic initiatives.

‘’ We are looking for stories from anyone, from all backgrounds that has something interesting and unique to say about the present system in the US. Sometimes and actually quite recently, we started to make efforts looking for stories that are coming from Arabs, Arab background, Arab-American and Middle-Eastern’’ Meade said.

Meade added that they spoke in the panel about funders and investors who see value in authentic content helping to fulfil their mission and messaging, and how they need to be connected to creators.

‘’ Someone in the panel asked what is your bottom line and what are your goals and I would say whether you are producer, distributor or scriptwriter the goals are different but in the commercial world I would say if revenues are important this doesn’t mean that other goals are not important too’’ Meade said.

She added that three of them had the opportunity to watch ‘’ 1982’’ movie at El Gouna Film Festival. ‘’ To see it was an amazing opportunity, it was a beautiful screening and it is really a moving film’’ Sosa said.

Meade admitted that the venue were the film was screened at GFF was brilliant. ‘’ For that film specifically, seeing these young talented Lebanese actors on screen was amazing, I would say that I got very excited about the crossing of boarders and lines between the Arab stories in the Arab world filmmaking and in the states or the western countries , seeing those faces on the screen, especially young people who have a lot of passion and talent was something really amazing’’ Meade said.

Meade explained that the next step for them is to really embracing Arab backgrounds and global backgrounds coming from their home countries to start working in content and TV and that sort of things in the Western countries.

‘’ It has been a long road for African Americans and women to start their career in our countries’’ Meade said.

‘’ It is great to see women in the industry, even in the states there are a lot of males in the industry, here in Egypt we saw distinguished women filmmakers, so it is good to see women getting in the business’’ Sosa said.

‘’ El Gouna Film Festival does really well in creating a whole very dynamic group of diverse people who come together from different countries ,different backgrounds and expertise. We were discussing together how all of the questions in the panel were from people from different perspectives so we all have something to give and exchange, no matter how long each of us has been in the industry and I think it is very important to listen to one another and I am impressed from GFF because they succeeded in bringing all these filmmakers together’’ Laney said.