"If you're not here, you're missing out on the next big thing" – these were the words of DWDL CEO Thomas Lückerath at Seriencamp Conference 2024. While some discussed the future of
series in Theatre 1, others presented exclusive insights into their upcoming secret series projects. And those who were at neither event met up for industry speed dating in the Cinenova Restaurant to discuss new collaborations and partnerships. This year's conference once again brought together international experts in a space for creative exchange on all things film and TV.
The State of AI
A special focus was placed on artificial intelligence and the question of how it will influence film production in the future. This was not only about technical progress, but also about ethical and legal principles. The talk was attended by experts such as Nikola Kohl (Managing Director of All3Media, the German production company South & Browse), who underlined the potential of AI in terms of "boring work that nobody wants to do", for example in research, dubbing, subtitling, color correction and noise reduction. Kai Steinmetz and Pascal Schröder from VFX company Flappers also discussed the challenges of the new technology, citing consistency and achieving a specific
goal as remaining problem areas. Nevertheless, they assume that "in the near future", high-quality feature films could only be produced virtually by combining classic VFX with AI. Hannes Jakobsen also emphasized the difficulties of hiring employees. Highlighting various projects, he spoke about visualization and presented a science fiction-like object called "IzzAI", a chatbot from "Boom", a dramedy series for ARD.
Work in Progress
This year's "Work in Progress" section also provided exciting
insights into what is to come. After last year's presentation of the now very successful DEAR CHILD and MAXTON HALL projects, DWDL founder Thomas Lückerath spoke of "high expectations" for this year's event. Uwe Mantwel (DWDL) also emphasized the large number of German series productions. There
were insights into the film adaptations of the bestsellers ACHTSAM MORDEN (Constantin Film, Netflix) and A GOOD GIRLS GUIDE TO MURDER (Moonage Pictures, BBC, Netflix, ZDF) as well as the horror series HAMELN (REAL FILM for ZDF), the
future series CONCORDIA (Intaglio Film, ZDF), the "zomcom" (dark zombie comedy) GENERATION Z (THE FORGE, ALL3MEDIA, ZDFNEO), superhero comedy ANGEMESSEN ANGRY (STUDIO ZENTRAL / RTL+) and the vampire project DER UPIR (UFA
FICTION, Joyn). Together with the ZDF Neo vampire series LOVE SUCKS, the ARD series ODERBRUCH and other vampire projects, Thomas Lücherath spoke in favor of 2024 as the "Year of German Vampires."
Nostradamus Report
Johanna Koljonen, author of the Gothenburg Film Festival's annual Nostradamus Report on the near future of the film industry, presented the latest edition at the Series Camp Conference. In the first chapter, "Hope", she impressively reflected the current mood in the industry and raised various questions such as "What happens when content discovery and ad targeting are really good?"
In the lively discussion that followed, moderated by Stewart Clarke (Deadline), Robert Franke from ZDF Studios then spoke very openly: "We work for our clients, not for the audience. The democratization of access could change that". Former Yes managing director Danna Stern also addressed the question of what brilliance means in terms of quality and who defines it. Discussing the state of the industry, she cited that it has become a phrase among producers to "survive until 2025" and emphasized that "when things are broken, new things can be created and imagined".
Next from...
The "Next from..." section, in which four broadcasters and streaming platforms presented parts of their upcoming programs, also helped to provide a glimpse into the upcoming program: In this respect, head of programming Thomas Münzner started for Joyn, followed by Morad Koufane (France Télévisions) and Laura Mae Harding (ZDF) for the European Alliance and Thomas Lückerath (DWDL) and Petra Hengge (Amazon Prime Studios) gave insights into Prime Video. Last but not least, Jasmin Maeda for ZDFneo showed what projects we can look forward to in the future.
With over 800 filmmakers and industry experts, the Seriencamp Conference was sold out and was dedicated to the industry's efforts and developments from June 5 to 7 in Cologne. We would like to thank all participants for the successful exchange and look forward to next year!
Further info:
DWDL.de: Seriencamp Conference: There has never been so much genre in German projects
By Carolin Könenberg and formatbiz.it correspondent Lühr-Martin Lemkau