Sold-out with over 380 participants from Germany, Europe and beyond, the fifth anniversary edition of Seriencamp Conference was a great success! It informed and inspired (SERIENCAMP INSIGHTS), offered a platform for pitching, matchmaking and networking (SERIENCAMP STORY EXCHANGE) and looked into the future of serial storytelling (SERIENCAMP INNOVATION DAY). In case you either missed this year’s edition,, here is a review of SERIENCAMP CONFERENCE 2019.
For this edition of Seriencamp Conference, we looked back and ahead: What changed on a global, regional and national level in the five years since Seriencamp’s first season? And what will the future for creatives, content creators and distributors look like? The first presentation set the tone with facts and numbers: Cécile Bertrand (Glance) gave an overview of the global broadcasting landscape with a focus on regional major players in India, China and other parts of the world.
Su-Jin Song then offered a global perspective with her keynote „The Rise of Korean Drama“ that looked in-depth at the growing importance and dominance of South Korean shows in Asia and beyond. On another Seriencamp stage, a delegation of Norwegian production companies consisting of Anagram Norway & Klynge, Nordisk Film Production, Rubicon, Mer Film, Maipo Film and Monday Scripted presented their current and upcoming slate of productions to an audience of potential partners.
Homing in on Europe, the fireside chat with Domingo Corral, Head of Original Content at Spain’s Movistar+ highlighted the original strategy of the pay-TV and subscription channel. But the ripple effects of the current series boom are felt not only in Spain, as the panel discussion of „New Frontiers of Serial Storytelling“ showed: The globalization of content markets, driven by internationally operating streaming platforms, opens up new regional markets. Ukrainian producers Kateryna Vyshnevska and Olesya Lukyanenko talked about the challenges of creating a high-end production in a country that until recently focused on imports while Nebojsa Taraba and Miodrag Sila from Croatian production company Drugi Plan highlighted the growing internationalization even of smaller markets. Wiktor Piatowski from Bahama Films offered his perspective of the evolution of Polish markets, from his first series project WATAHA for HBO Europe up to the present. Meanwhile, the participants of this year’s edition of the Web:Series Lab by Bayerischer Rundfunk First Movie Plus, FFF Bayern and Seriencamp Conference presented their projects to an audience of producers, broadcasters and distributors.
Thomas Lückerath of DWDL.de hosted the panel German Perspectives on Global Content Strategies on which Thomas Münzner (Joyn), Marcus Ammon (Sky) and Cosima von Spreti (Leonine) offered extensive insights into how the internationalization and vertical integration of media giants is influencing decision-making, co-producing and partnerships.
Angela Treviño offered a counterpoint from the US production landscape. Her role as director of development and new formats for production company New Form allowed insights into the fast-changing landscape of content buyers on the American market. The Work in Progress section with presentations of four projects currently in production rounded off the first day of Seriencamp Insights: from ORF-Netflix-Co-production FREUD, Telekom’s WILD REPUBLIC and BR’s OKTOBERFEST 1900 to Amazon’s family-friendly BIBI & TINA.
The interactive Q&A-session „Bootcamp: Think Global“ presented by Alexandra Heidrich of Global Screen with guests Moritz Polter and Britta Meyermann offered writers and producers the opportunity to understand the ins and outs of aiming for international markets.
The second day of Seriencamp Conference was dedicated to STORY EXCHANGE at Isarforum: Six Co-Production Session pitches and eight early-stage projects in the Creators‘ Vision Pitch focused on fresh new stories; matchmaking sessions connected nearly 100 writers and creative producers with representatives at dedicated “industry tables.”
Finally, SERIENCAMP’s INNOVATION DAY offered a glimpse into the future of serial storytelling and several interactive workshops. Melissa Byrne and Paul Feldmann talked about the production of their vertical Instagram sitcom Bad Sex; Floris Asche (Divimove) and Angela Treviño shared their experiences from working on mobile first-shows in Germany and the United States. Marte Sunde Härter, creator and writer of NRK’s successful hit show 17, spoke about the unique production process of shows aimed at teenage audiences. Meredith Burkholder from Webfest Berlin hosted the panel marathon SHORT & TRUE, which looked at the meteoric rise of factual short form content. Talking to the creators behind doc series REFUGEE ROADS, BASTARDS, CHINESE DREAM, HIER DRÜBEN, DIE EINSTEIN-WG and HELENA, the dazzling range of documentary short form series was highlighted. A case study with creator and writer Adrian Spring (“Nr. 47”) rounded off the panels of Innovation Day on the main stage while workshops offered more interactive and hands-on approaches: Tatjana Samopjan and Sarah O’Connor dove into the writer’s psyche while working with yogic breathing exercises in BEYOND STORYTELLING; composer Sebastian Oswald’s workshop TONEGRADING gave insights into the challenge of translating between writer, story and music when creating soundtracks. Gerhard Maier, Melissa Byrne and Paul Feldmann dove deep into the world of vertical series by giving an overview of vertical content from around the world in VERTICAL? RADICAL!