CHUTES AND LADDERS FOR PRODUCERS

How many squares does an independent producer need to move for their film to see the light of day? And how many surprises are there along the way? Above all: how much time is really needed to make a feature film with a budget of a million euros, in Italy? The panel discussion “Chutes and Ladders for Producers” is the brainchild of the screenwriters of WGI (Writers Guild Italia), involving their colleagues at ANAC and 100autori as well. The aim is a frank, concrete dialogue between writers and producers that will also reveal to the media in the field, for one, the real workings of independent film production, often invisible to the public at large. It’s an obstacle course made up of bids, long waits and rewrites, in which every step directly impacts the entire process and the working lives of those who write films or produce them. The panel will be an opportunity to closely consider the structural difficulties of the system and the legal definition of an independent producer, which is still vague and covers categories with little in common, like art house film producers, small-scale indie film entrepreneurs, and those connected to foreign groups that manage to make several productions in a row each year.