06/12/2006

"The earlier the better" was the message passed on by UK sales experts Steve Walsh from EastWest Distribution and Irena Taskovski from Taskovski Films to Baltic producers and film professionals during a panel held in Tallinn on Monday as part of Baltic Event (December 3-7).

The earlier producers get a sales agent involved in their project, the better it is because it saves money and time: by producing marketing materials during production or post-production and thinking ahead of a set photographer during shooting, they will pay less than having to create stills afterwards. Furthermore, by putting some money aside for basic materials in their production budget, the sales agent won't have to risk carrying the costs against sales.

Also, according to Walsh, many Eastern European films are pure arthouse films, often beautiful but with little appeal for international audiences. These are "festival films" that only travel the festival circuit and have little or no chance to enter the commercial circuit. They need to be differentiated from "arthouse films with breakthrough potential". By getting involved as early as possible on a project, a sales agent would be able to tell very quickly to which category the film belongs. This would save enormous time for him and for the producer.

These arguments are rather new for Baltic producers, who are just starting to get used to the idea of using a sales agent: as stressed by Baltic Event founder and established producer Riina Sildos, only two years ago producers never thought of hiring a sales agent. They would do the selling themselves. "Today, we need to be more professional", she said.

This slow process of thinking and working differently with greater professionalism is actually happening in the Baltic countries as stressed by Judith Toth of NonStop Sales ABNonStop Sales: “Since last year, I have seen an increase in projects with international appeal and I´m looking forward to acquiring Baltic projects for international distribution", she said.