Conecta Fiction Reboot presented live the panel “Chilean New Horizons” in collaboration with CinemaChile. Last year, Chile was the America Focus Country in Conecta Fiction 3 presenting projects, producers, and co-productions such as “Invisible Heroes”, which was screened. Géraldine Gonard, director of Conecta Fiction, and María Cereceda, art director of Conecta FICTION, moderated the panel. Chile participated in the three previous editions of Conecta Fiction with high success rates in most of their projects.
Constanza Arena (Executive director of CinemaChile) and Ashley Salman (International producer of CinemaChile) participated in the panel, where they talked about the work of international promotion CinemaChile is doing in favor of Chilean companies to give their producers easier access to the international market. They reminded the audience of the fund CNTV that offers an interesting line to carry out international co-productions and presented the producers of the panel as “the best TV fiction producers of the country” described them as “very affordable and easy to hire” mentioning that CinemaChile is an easy gateway to contact them.
Sergio Gándara, Producer at Parox commented: "The health crisis forced them to reschedule some of the shootings. Moreover, facing their inability to travel, they managed to channel their creativity and technical capacity to produce, building separately the scenes in the set and the backgrounds in locations to create a final version of the content afterward". He also confirmed the premiere of ‘Invisible Heroes’ in Chilevisión in September, and he mentioned the successful tour of festivals that this co-production with Finland had. The TV series already premiered in Scandinavia and the US, and they will announce the distribution agreement for Latin America soon.
Nicolás Acuña, Director at Promocine went over some of the data of "Inés of my Soul"’. “It was very interesting and rewarding to work with technicians of other nationalities (such as Spanish technicians in this case), which allowed us to learn mutually”, he said.
Moreover, Hernán Caffiero, Showrunner and Director at BTF Chile participated in Conecta Fiction with ‘A Necessary Story’, a short TV series nominated for the Emmy Award. Currently, he is producing a TV series about Maradona for Amazon. He highlighted the receptiveness of his company to find projects managed by women from the creative side, production, and direction. He also mentioned that BTF Chile opened recently as a direct outcome of a meeting that took place in Conecta FICTION last year. “We are looking for talent and links with new screenwriters and directors, and to give the opportunity to producers to work outside of Chile,” he said.
Ángela Poblete, Producer at Fábula TV shared how Amazon, (a platform that has established a strong foothold in Chile and has a lot of agreements with her company), has brought important changes in Chile.“Thanks to the promotion they give to many of their products, they manage to boost local stories to a global level for streaming and platforms”. The executive made reference to the confinement period, which “now is also the premiere and development season”. She also confirmed that they actually have four seasons to premiere shortly.
Lastly, María Elena Wood and Macarena Cardone, Producers at Invercine&Wood, stated: “The confinement has a positive side for the development of projects and to concentrate on the writing”. They commented that their TV series 'Dignity', premiered in Germany last year, is going to be launched in Spain, Denmark, Czech Republic, and all Central European countries through HBO. They will announce the premiere in LATAM very soon too.
The panel "Rebooting the Talent: Racing to Discover New Voices" started right after. It was the last panel devoted to the rebooting of the activities of the industry, and it was moderated by María Cervera, an Audiovisual Consultant. It encompassed the points of view of four professionals of the audiovisual industry, with emphasis on the scripts. Anxo Rodríguez, CEO of Alter Ego and ESPotlight, Alberto Macías, President of the Spanish screenwriter's ALMA, Natxo López, screenwriter and Diego Suárez, CEO and co-founder of El Estudio, attended to Conecta FICTION Reboot to discuss what does the future hold for the writers in the new normality.
The session started with a debate on how talent can be found today. Alberto Macías talked about the “multiple talents” of the industry, and mentioned that the ability to perceive talent is a talent itself: “When we talk about talent, we have to talk about multiple talents and the talent to discover talent”. The other panelists agreed with this statement. Anxo Rodríguez said, “We have reached the talent age: people no longer want a specific producer, now they look for the talent behind”. Also, Natxo López mentioned that “Before producers had more weight and they were the ones who presented the projects and afterward thought of screenwriters. Now, an essential part of presenting a project is knowing who is the screenwriter”.
They also talked about how has the way to write scripts changed due to the increasingly popular technique of writing rooms, which helps the new generation of screenwriters to enter the industry. However, they mentioned that it is still necessary to help these new voices to find their way. Not only to make their voices heard, but to defend their rights and to advise them on how they can reach more standardized work conditions as Diego Suárez summarizes “The passion to tell stories is a collective job”.