Special event Series. How-to dedicated to the cutting edge global experience and trends of series production took place on September 19 in the course of KYIV MEDIA WEEK 2017. It became a new event in the joint program TViy Serial (Your Series) of Media Group Ukraine and Media Resources Management, designed to develop the national market of scripted content production.

"Media Group Ukraine, systematically having developed its own production, and being a leader in terms of capacity and quality of Ukrainian scripted content, is always looking for new opportunities for co-production, new formats and genres, distribution and broadcasters. Project TViy Serial (Your Series), initiated by Media Group Ukraine and Media Resources Management, develops the industry of content production in Ukraine and helps to find brand new ways of effective collaboration, establish a creative dialogue and cooperation with colleagues in the whole world. We are glad that HBO professionals shared their experience with Ukrainian media market’s representatives, and with a great enthusiasm, we support such educational initiatives, through which a lot of new ideas and opportunities of their realization spring up," – comments Olga Zakharova, Director for Strategic Marketing of Media Group Ukraine.

The program of the event included case studies and keynotes covering a wide range of issues – from project development, participation in pitching and fundraising to peculiarities of cooperation with international broadcasters and monetization on Internet platforms, as well as the creation of web series.

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About the program and speakers

How to develop your idea into a strong TV series. Eliška Malečková, Executive Director of MIDPOINT, European platform for the development of film and television projects, presented MIDPOINT TV Launch program, which provides expert support to the authors and producers of television projects at the development stage and helps them to find funding and present the projects to broadcasters. 

Production of web series. Andra Sheffer (online), CEO of Canadian Independent Production Fund, which supports authors and producers of web-series. Andra talked about the production and distribution of web-series, as well as the reasons for their creation.

Production of series, services for world-class projects, work with scripted formats. Israeli producer Maria Feldman, author and producer of the series False Flag, shared her experience in the development and production of TV series, which became successful on the local and international market, also she talked about the cooperation with world-class prodcos, including the licensing of format rights and provision of production services. Maria Feldman works with world-class series as an executive producer, including Homeland (USA), where she provided filming in Israel. Her latest work is the Absentia series for AXN network, owned by Sony Pictures Television Networks. 10-episode thriller was filmed in Bulgaria. Main role is played by Stana Katic famous for her performance in Castle. Maria’s project became the winner of the projects pitching of the European Co-Production Forum in the course of Series Mania festival in 2017. 

HBO’s own production in Europe. Johnathan Young, VP, original programming and production at HBO Central Europe, the operator of the European network of pay-TV channels, talked about the principles of investing in the production of original series for the channels of the group in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the terms of cooperation with local prodcos. In particular, Jonathan Young produced HBO’s series Wataha (Poland), Mamon (Czech Republic) and Pakt (Poland). In the 1990s and 2000s he produced a number of British dramas, mostly police dramas and procedurals, as well as more than 120 episodes of the medical series Casualty (BBC). In 2008 and 2011 the series The Bill and The Sinking of the Laconia, produced by Jonathan Young, were nominated for BAFTA award. 

National trends in producing procedurals of the "Ukraine" television channel. Natalya Strybuk has been a head of the Ukraine television channel's Scripted Content Production Department since 2014. She is the producer of such channel’s series as Experts, Black Flower, On the Line of Life, Triple Protection, Eve’s Second Life, Mrs. Captain, The Surgery, Between Love and Hate. She started her career of a creative producer more than 10 years ago and has worked with Odessa Film Studio and various national television channels ever since. Her portfolio comprises such projects as Turquoise Wedding Ring, Chamomile, Cactus, Daisy, Sonya’s World, House Arrest, A House with a Tower, The Last Moskal (1 season), Her Own Novel’s Heroine, A House for Two, Her Heart and other.

Special event Series. How-to was moderated by Ivan Bukreev – a producer and director of TV Channels NLO TV and Indigo TV, who starting from 2012 heads the Department of the New Channels Development at TV Channel Ukraine. Since 2007, he was a head of Strategic Procurement of the rights on formats of programs and rights on the internet of TV channel 1+1. Soon began to work as a sales manager of the Russian representation of NBC Universal – one of the world's largest companies specializing in media and entertainment. The producer of Ukrainian romantic comedy Infoholic (2016). 

For a long time, there was an opinion that real creators and people of art were engaged only in cinema, while the production of television products was handled by artisans. Accordingly, it was believed that movie fans and TV viewers were completely different people. Recently, the world has abandoned this stereotype. For many eminent filmmakers, television has become a platform that gives even greater freedom of creativity than cinematography. In almost a decade, the series genre grew from the status of low-budget television production, aimed at a segmented target audience with averaged artistic tastes. In addition, web series, which exist not only as a full-fledged content for viewing and distribution, but also as a product for promoting talents, ideas, production opportunities, have become a common format. 

Global trends influence the preferences of the audience in local markets, including Ukrainian one. Thus, there are two factors – external and internal – stimulating series production in the country. Channels and production companies, satisfying demand among viewers, improve the quality of the content, develop new stories, search for new characters, open new talents – all this increases the competitiveness of the Ukrainian scripted content on the global market. 

One-off actions in support of domestic series production developed into a long-term program of cooperation between Media Group Ukraine and Media Resources Management, called TViySerial (Your Series). The initiative is aimed at encouraging Ukrainian authors to actively participate in the development and production of series and cultural evolution of series consumption among the audience. 

Special event Series. How-to was held on September 19, 2017 at Hyatt Regency Kyiv (Ukraine).