{made in glasgow} feature reports

MIP Report – Synchronicity Films April 3 rd – 8 th

Three months into our new lives as Synchronicity Films, we ventured south to the first of the twice yearly International Television Market – MIP TV in Cannes. Armed with dozens of project brochures (and far too much luggage for a Globespan flight…) we arrived in the Cote D’Azur, ready for a week of furious pitching.

Given our recent experience of co-production on Shoebox Zoo (BBC/ CBC/BBC Worldwide, 26 x half hours), we have a good understanding of how to create IP for the international market and how to realise ambitious deficit funding through a mix of the UK-Canada Treaty and substantial distribution advances. Having slaved over our slate for the last few months we finally had enough suitable drama and co-production projects to take to market and our aim was fourfold 1) to meet potential co-production partners; 2) explore distributor relationships and acquire a first look slate development deal; 3) attach ourselves to interesting international projects as the UK partner; and 4) to widen and re-new our network of international broadcasters.

Basing our plan on the international contacts we already have, we set up around 40 meetings with a host of different companies and broadcasters like Fremantle, Minotaur, All3 Media, Galafilm, C4i, Sullivan Entertainment, Decode, Alliance Atlantis, BBC Worldwide, Target, Blueprint Entertainment, CBC, Discovery and RDF to name a few. We were delighted to discover a very high strike rate and this led to 5 days solid of meetings from 8 till late. The recent success of Shoebox was sufficient to whet appetites about us as a company, and generate some serious interest in our slate.

Our first meeting was with Ingenious Media on their yacht, all of which proved very fruitful until the moment we were asked to remove our shoes. The resultant baring of curly toe nails and hairy feet, may well have dampened their enthusiasm in us. It’s too soon to tell…

Thereafter followed a whirlwind of meetings, many of which are beginning to bare fruit for us. We are in discussion with several distributors about first look slate deals; we are attached to a fantastic US drama series as co-producer ; we’re talking to several potential Canadian co-pro partners ; and we’ve submitted projects to several new North American broadcaster contacts.

We plan to progress all of the above at MIPCOM in October. This time sailing our own Synchronicity dinghy into the Cannes marina. The yacht comes later….

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