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MIDPOINT Series Launch 2022

Series
Archive

Make your series idea a marketable project. Learn how to improve your script as well as your skills, and find out possible funding opportunities. Both limited and ongoing series projects are welcome.

The program was previously known as TV Launch.

Projects

Nine promising series projects

Participating projects are divided into three groups of three, and each group's development is overseen by both a group leader and participating development executive. 

Babel

When a body is discovered in an Athens squat in an abandoned hotel earmarked for redevelopment by a huge multinational building firm, its status as a safe-haven for refugees, the homeless and the ...
Project detail

A Remarkable Woman

In 1880s Paris, a vain mademoiselle of minor nobility receives some unfortunate news: her lung health is poor, and she's going to die. To outwit death, she vows to get famous ASAP. Whatever it ...
MIDPOINT participants: Cristian NicolescuAnastasia Starova
Project detail

Childocracy

Hoping to save face of a hypocritical ecovillage, its adults agree to grant their kids equal rights with the parents. The kids make the village bloom again, but the parents find themselves under the ...
Project detail

Gray Divorce

After finally retiring from their family company at the end of their sixties, Angelina and Zoran realise that they have radically different ideas on how they should spend the rest of their lives. ...
Project detail

I'M M

Maja 42, pretends to be 36, a visionary scientist, loses control over her private and professional life and has to learn why other people's health and happiness can't be more important than her own ...
MIDPOINT participants: Anna RozalskaMonika Franczak
Project detail

Kanun

After his dad dies, Arion (23), who led a quiet life in Italy, discovers he is heir to an Albanian clan of marijuana farmers. But his uncle Ervin (26), a sworn virgin, challenges his succession. ... ...
MIDPOINT participants: Ariens DamsiAriens DamsiGiulio Rizzo
Project detail

Nino and Iliko

Two dancers in love define a nation. ... In the newly Sovietised Georgia, where fear and surveillance reigns and people are executed at night, two young dancers Nino and Iliko meet each other on the ...
MIDPOINT participants: Nino ChichuaUta BeriaMaka Kukulava
Project detail

Other White

A comedy-drama about the struggles of four young professionals from Eastern Europe chasing dreams, ambitions and love in London. ... Every year, thousands of newcomers from Eastern Europe arrive in ...
Project detail

Splashing Around

When Luna’s irresponsible parents get a job in her high school dorm building, she goes from having to parent her parents to parenting a whole building of teens, all while struggling to become a ...
Project detail

Participants

The next generation of Central and Eastern European series-content professionals

Development Executive Participants

Tutors

Inspirational professionals with passion for sharing their experience

To ensure the most complex approach to training, Series Launch works with established and well-respected industry names coming from Central and Eastern Europe, Western Europe, USA or Australia.

 

Head of Studies

The Head of Studies oversees the general methodology of the program, ensures the needs of the participants are met in the most effective way, and guarantees the practical value and industry impact of the training delivered.

Gabor is a trailblazing professional: showrunning three seasons of the HBO Europe high end drama Golden Life, he boldly went where no man has gone before!

Gabor Krigler
Hungary  
Gabor’s career began on the writing staff of a daily serial at the Australian-German firm Grundy UFA in 1999. He became a Creative Executive at the Budapest office of HBO Europe in 2010. In 2019, ...
Complete bio

Group Leaders

The Group Leaders oversee the development of projects in their group from the very beginning of the training until they graduate from the program. They also coach the development executive participant assigned to their group.

Gabor Krigler
Hungary  
Gabor’s career began on the writing staff of a daily serial at the Australian-German firm Grundy UFA in 1999. He ...
Complete bio
Katrin Merkel
Germany  
Katrin studied German Literature and French Language at the University of Hamburg, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts. ...
Complete bio
Tatjana Samopjan
Sweden  
Tatjana Samopjan's impactful lectures explore the interplay between storytelling, science, spirituality, social ...
Complete bio

Development Executive Mentor

The Development Executive Mentor attends and co-creates the training program for the development-executive participants, ensuring that it's implemented into group work and that the collaborative set-up simulates a real-life industry environment.

Steve Matthews
United Kingdom  
Steve Matthews is Banijay’s Content Partnerships Executive, where he acts as a key facilitator in the group’s ...
Complete bio

Director Tutor

Harald Hamrell
Sweden  
Harald Hamrell is one of the most successful and rewarded directors of TV-series in Sweden. During the years he has ...
Complete bio

Financing Tutor

Marike Muselaers
Sweden  
With almost 20 years of experience in the international film and TV industry, Marike recently joined the Nordisk Film ...
Complete bio

Producer Tutor

Nebojsa Taraba
Croatia  
Nebojša Taraba, producer & partner, production company DRUGI PLAN, ZAGREB (CROATIA). Drugi plan is a leading ...
Complete bio

Pitching Tutor

Agathe Berman
France  
Agathe Berman a.k.a The Pitchologist Pitch expert/producer/writer/teacher/artistic consultant. She trains and curates ...
Complete bio

Guest Tutors

These established professionals attend one of the workshops to share their particular professional expertise.

Benjamin Harris
Germany  
Complete bio
Rudolf Leska
Czech Republic  
Complete bio
Ben Morris
United Kingdom  
Complete bio
Maggie Murphy
United States  
Complete bio
Cyril Tysz
France  
Complete bio

Structure

A year long intensive program combining various formats

The 9 creative teams, split into 3 groups, work under the guidance of internationally renowned and experienced tutors and in close collaboration with development executive participants who are involved in all parts of the program.

The program schedule and the form of the organization inevitably depend on development of the coronavirus pandemic situation.

  • All participants
    Project Pre-Training
    April 11-14, 2022 | online

    Project team members are introduced to serial storytelling with lectures and dramaturgical consultations addressing the structural differences between features and series, and tackling the subject of the series concept and a pilot.

  • Development Executive Participants
    Pre-Training for DE Participants
    April 4-5, 2022 | online

    Development executive participants, guided by their tutor, in collaboration with the group leaders, are briefed and pre-trained in their basic script-editing skills.

  • All participants
    Workshop 1: Series Concept
    May 7-13, 2022  | Breznice, Czech Republic
    Teams with projects

    The creative teams are led to defining their series concept and theme, and outlining their pilot scripts. The workshop consists of group work, individual consultations, lectures and series analysis.

    Development Executive Participants

    Each Development Executive is assigned to the group of projects and observes the group work led by the group leader. The participants get acquainted with the dynamics within the creative team. Their learning process is debriefed within meetings with the development executive tutor, as well as the project teams themselves.

     

  • All participants
    Online Consultations
    May–June 2022  | online
  • All participants
    Workshop 2: Season Arc and Mini-Bible
    June 26 - July 3, 2022 | Bratislava, Slovakia
    Teams with project

    Creative teams work on completing their pilots, and creating their season arc and season outlines. They focus also on the role of a director, the project pitching documents, production aspects as well as the financing strategy.

    Development Executive Participants

    Development Executive Participants continue the involvement in the group, serving as script editors, observing the work on the pilot episode, and getting trained in the financing strategies and production issues together with the creative teams.

  • All participants
    Online Consultations
    September–November 2022 | online
  • All participants
    Workshop 3: Pitching and Acquiring Partners
    November 17-23, 2022 | Tallinn, Estonia
    Teams with project

    Each project arrives with a revised pilot script and a completed pitch book/mini-bible. Workshop focuses on creating marketing strategies, refining pitching skills and familiarizes participants with the specifics of different segments of the series market. It concludes at the Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event and its TV Beats market, offering debates, panels, lectures, case studies, master classes and the pitching presentation of all projects and participants within.

    Development Executive Participants

    The development executive participants are present at the pitching training and rehearsals of the projects and also prepare for their own presentations, to pitch themselves as industry professionals. They will also use the networking opportunities at the event for their future careers.

Gallery

Alumni program

Next Season

Expert lectures based on the needs and knowledge gaps of MIDPOINT series programs alumni.

The Industry talks have been brought to you by MIDPOINT Institute in partnership with Agora and Sofia Meetings, EAVE, ACE Producers & MFI:

 Marketing Tools during the Concept / Development stage of a project 

with Joanna Solecka, Marketing Strategists at Alphapanda (Germany/Poland), in partnership with EAVE

 Thinking about marketing usually takes place when the film/series is finished, and in most cases focuses on choosing stills, writing the synopsis and creating the poster and the trailer. It’s too late and not enough anymore. In the digital era there are so many other opportunities to reach different audiences with various assets, and ideas that ultimately would help grow the number of viewers. Having a marketing strategy in place before starting the shoot helps to understand what kind of materials should be prepared during the production, which eventually can help the budget. Last, but not least, film/series marketing is fun and creative and can substantially support the pre-production process with ideas on how to prepare for the film or series launch. Based on case studies, this talk aims to give the audience hands-on tools on how to use marketing strategy at the development stage, how to better understand the film or series world, the audiences and the ways to reach them.

The Green Challenge

with Tim Wagendorp, VAF (Belgium), in partnership with Sofia Meeting

The talks cover the following topics: how to provide the opportunity to explore challenges around implementing sustainability in the film/series industry; how to enhance a deep understanding of applied sustainability through the combined perspectives of film/series funders, producers and exhibitors; how to guide participants through a process around how the Green Challenge can begin to be addressed and carried out both individually and within an organisation.

 

References

A pushing experience that gives you confidence

Successful series

Selection of our successful alumni

Contact

Did we forget something? Do not hesitate to ask

Alexandra Gabrizova
Program Coordinator
alexandra.gabrizova@midpoint-institute.eu

Under the auspices of

Funders