October 2011

Newsletter n° 4



« Marseilles WebFest: Take One! »

Marseilles’ Belle de Mai Media Park was the venue for first-ever web series festival on October 14 and 15 last, an event that brought together industry professionals and fans of these short films broadcast over the ‘Net. We take a closer look at a sector of the audiovisual industry that seems oblivious of the economic crisis …

The famed LA WebFest crossed the pond this year, choosing Marseilles as its home for this the first European web series festival. Organized by the Marseilles-based Imago Production, an association of professionals from the fields of cinema, television, publishing and music, the Marseilles WebFest was a two-day celebration of the web series and the craze surrounding these recurring, very short films (under five minutes) specially written for the ‘Net.
“The festival highlights the creativity of web series writers, with their films constructed around realistic scenarios and using professional actors. The short film on the Internet provides a tremendous showcase internationally. The people taking an interest in web series today will be the great directors of the future,” underlines Jean-Michel Albert, CEO of Imago Productions.
To debunk preconceptions once and for all, he adds, “These are not second-rate series! Hollywood is very interested in them, including Tom Hanks, who’s launching a futurist mini-series, Ridley Scott and Steven Spielberg. These web series show a great deal of creativity.”
For this first edition, 22 web series selected by Imago Production and the LA WebFest were shown on the giant screen at the Media Park’s archives hall, the audience meeting the writers of each film after its showing.
 
Conferences on Web Series Jobs
 
The productions were varied both in genre (comedies, thrillers, animation...) and in geographic origin, with web series from countries as diverse as Canada, India, Spain, Italy, Israel, the Netherlands and Lebanon! The best works in fact received awards from both the public (which voted on YouTube) and the professionals. 
The Marseilles WebFest was also the occasion to exchange views on sector issues such as scenario writing, the transmedia economy, the new skill sectors linked to web series production, copyright and royalties related to new media and the economic model for these mini-series. Advertisers, quickly realizing the impact they could have on the 15-35 age group, have been more than willing to offer sponsorship, for example the French bank BNP Paribas for episodes of “Colocs” and BMW, which has hitched up with “The Driver”.
During the festival, a village was set up in the Media Park where the event’s partners were able to familiarize the many student visitors with the various jobs and trades available in web series production and present the latest sector news and developments.
As a partner of this first-ever edition of the Marseilles WebFest, Provence Promotion is committed to enhancing the profile of the Bouches-du-Rhône’s film industry, through missions to the United States and the setting up “Provence Premium”, a measure that specifically targets this sector.

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