After an exhaustive experience like Berlinale Talent Campus I find it difficult to sit down and go through it all over again. This post has been waiting to be published for some months now, only lacking a couple of words and links: mainly this introduction to explain the late timing (as Berlinale indeed took place in February). Here is a report of the highlights from my first-ever trip to Berlin.
BTC is a week-long event constisting of master classes, workshops, discussions and networking during the Berlinale Film Festival. From thousands of applicants from around the world, 350 are selected each year. Anyone can apply by filling a form on the BTC website and uploading a short sample of work.
Don’t mistake it for a simple holiday though. The British Council partly refunded my flights, BTC paid for the hostel, and free breakfast is provided each morning by different sponsors. But if you want to take everything out of the experience, after each full day of intense listening and learning, there’s a dinner or a party or a film screening(s) to go to, and tens of new people to get to know – and you will be lucky to get 3-4 hours of sleep before you start all over again. So it sounds all fun, yet leaves you breathless.
Just found out you can watch all of the masterclasses here.
Highlight #1: Janusz Kaminski / Masterclass
Those of you who don’t know the name, Kaminski is the cinematographer behind Spielberg’s films since Schindler’s List. He spoke passionately about film (and replied “Next question!” when asked anything related to digital cinematography), and how he experiments in camera on even such epics as Saving Private Ryan. It’s inspiring to hear a down-to-earth filmmaker talk casually about preparing for the shoot of Minority Report or what it’s like to work with the director of Jurassic Park. The big films are made by real people too.
Highlight #2: The Art of Follow-up / Discussion + Q & A
Seemingly tiny subject, but immenselly important: the insights of Jean-Babtiste Babin, Riina Sildos and Peter Wetherell made me realize how small differences in the way you approach and stay in touch with people, or like the title says, follow up after a meeting, can determine the outcome of that interaction. Most of my notes from the week are from this session, so it ight deserve a separate entry later.
Highlight #3: Casting / Discussion + Q & A
I asked Stephen Frears, has he ever cast someone he doesn’t get along with, and whether a relationship with an actor has ever gone so bad that he had to recast after the start of the shoot. He told me two things:
1) “The good thing is you don’t have to marry these people.”
2) “It’s always your fault. It’s always the director’s fault if things go wrong, not the actor’s. You made the decision to cast that person.” (free quote)
Highlight #4: Tom Tykwer / Masterclass
Director of many films I haven’t seen, but would like to – such as Perfume and Heaven, both of which he showed us short clips from during the interview. One thing in common with most filmmakers interviewed during the Campus is, that they don’t think too much of themselves and have remained very humble despite their success. What I liked about this masterclass was that, unlike in most biographies, the director shared openly about his early steps in the career – the time between the decision of wanting to become a filmmaker and getting to make his first film.
Highlight #5: Tilda Swinton / Masterclass
Another humble and positive personality sharing openly her mistakes and growth during her career. To her acting is simply “dressing up and playing”, at least that’s what she’s always done.
Highlight #6: European Film Market
I never explored the whole building thoroughly, but it’s a fascinating place and I got to meet some friends in the Scandinavian reception – instead of having their own small courners, the Scandinavian countries had joined forces on a common reception area, where most upcoming films were presented, looking for interested distributors.
Highlight #7: Speed matching & Networking
Every day one hour was allocated for sitting down on chairs in one of the lecture rooms, and getting to know as many people as you could. Five minutes pass, you change your seat. Exchange business cards, try and remember names, make mental notes to get back to the people you get along with. Quite the chaos, but a good starting point.
It is exhausting to talk from morning until night, and constantly get to know new people. You can’t just recycle the same topics over and over again either, the small talk becomes even more meaningless than normally; in addition to staying genuinely interested in new people, you have the challenge of finding your way through small talk to real discussions as fast as possible.
And when someone isn’t genuinely interested, but just wants to shove you their script or tell you how amazing projects they have done, you quickly learn to avoid that pitfall yourself. Obviously, if you have a film in need of distribution or a script in need of a producer, that may come up in the conversation later on. But finding the right collaborators means you have to invest in relationships and be interested in people without any guarantee it will pay off career-wise.
Highlight #8: The Closing Party
The Talent Campus closed with style: the party was in the underground floor of Berlinale Palast, which holds a massive, castle-like space that doesn’t lack glamour. Literally thousands of people, amazing food and free drinks – I have no idea who else was invited in addition to the 350 “talents”, but the event certainly was unlike anything I’ve ever been to.
Other highlights
The Finnish Film Foundation invited all Finnish talents (even us based in the UK!) for dinner, so we could meet each other. One night we crashed a party in West-Berlin, which looked deceptively like Helsinki. I also saw a couple of films in a cinema of 1900 seats (that’s huge). Learned to avoid naps when I missed the Berlin Today Awards ceremony dinner due to a classic “can’t remember the alarm at all” -incident. Found some really nice pizzerias, but nothing during the week beat the nighttime Döner Kebabs (the fried bread is the secret I believe).
I saw too little of Berlin, yet enough to realize it is massive, like one big construction site, even if much of it is apparently finished. Not that after travelling the triangle (hostel – HAU theaters – Potsdamer Platz) non-stop for a week you would have any energy to play a tourist and really explore the city. The last day in Berlin I went to see a film, then slept right through it in a comfy cinema chair.
Conclusion
The festival bug bit me and I will go back for more, to Berlin and hopefully elsewhere. The Talent Campus can be a rich experience for filmmakers and film students when taken properly advantage of, do give it a go. For anyone else, the Berlin Film Festival is a good opportunity to experience festival atmosphere since you can get tickets in theory to most screenings.
If like me, you are not in Cannes at the moment, here’s a great video guide to show you what the festival could offer you next year if you decided to go.
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