‘Co-Production Should Serve The Script, Not A Checklist”: Filmart Panel Explores Copros In Asia & Beyond

deadline.com:

Whatever their reason for doing a co-production, producers and filmmakers should focus on the story they’re trying to tell rather than trying to please all audiences and markets, was the major message of a panel about international co-production at the on-going Hong Kong Filmart.

Emad Eskandar, head of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Fund, which has recently expanded to include Asia, compared co-production to being a gamer: “Every item you use comes with pluses and minuses – you’re going to get ten points with this element, but perhaps minus five points in health.”  He explained that Saudi has already been involved in hundreds of international co-productions through the Red Sea Fund, including Oscar-nominated titles Four Daughters and The Man Who Sold His Skin, both directed by Kaouther Ben Hania.

But he advised that the script should always come first: “I see the artistic side sometimes get challenged; the co-producers give you notes on the script to change something that is going to make the project look good in their country.  “It happens a lot with African and Arab-based films – there’s a European checklist, maybe they want to add a shower scene to win an award.

We also see a lot of contracts where the writer comes last. So you need to choose your co-producers carefully.”  However, Eskandar added that the Arab world has also learned many useful skills from working with Europe, in particular Saudi Arabia’s nascent film industry and young Saudi filmmakers, for whom getting involved in a co-production is sometimes necessary just to learn how to put together a film.