The Creatives, an Alliance of Top Indie Producers, Open Up About Providing Writers With ‘Safe Space’: ‘Where Would We Be Without Scripts?’

variety.com:

Marta Balaga The Creatives – the Fremantle-backed alliance of 10 leading production companies – have shared the results of the first edition of “The Creative Connection” at the Venice Film Festival.

The companies – which include Lemming Film (Locarno premiere “Sweet Dreams”), Versus Production (Venice’s “Through the Night”), Maipo Film (“Elling”), Razor Film (“Quo Vadis, Aida?”), Komplizen Film (“Spencer”), Spiro (“Foxtrot”), Unité (“Salem”), Haut et Court (“Perfect Days”), Masha (“No Man’s Land”) and Good Chaos (“Triangle of Sadness”) – invited writers and producers to join forces over the course of three workshops. “Some of [the writers] were surprised we are actually normal people,” joked Haut et Court’s Carole Scotta during a panel at the Venice Production Bridge on Sunday. “We want to create a safe space for the writers to be able to work freely.” Called “Inspiration,” “Brainstorming” – a series of experimental exercises led by Le Groupe Ouest – and “Collaboration,” the workshops took place in France, Greece and Germany.

They were co-funded by the European Commission with support from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg. As pointed out by Laura Gragg, head of program at “The Creative Connection,” while five projects are currently underway, the focus was on collaboration, not final outcome. “I think we all learnt a lot.

How fast you can come up with an idea, how quickly you can develop something, how helpful it is when you join such a program without being obliged to deliver something at the end,” said Gerhard Meixner of Razor Film.