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8 Film Production and Distribution AUGUST 24TH, 2006 Film industry still looking abroad

By LENA PLEKHANOVA credits to produce films. Our banks According to Kostyuk, the cost of have only started to provide this serv making a film in Ukraine is cheaper Although the film production busi ice,” he said. than in the West. ness in Ukraine is coming into its own, The country’s underdeveloped infra “The production of a movie for a cin with local outfits taking on domestic structure is one of the main reasons ema costs about $1.5 million. The and international projects, market why Ukraine’s film production market expenses for making a television film insiders say the country’s poor cannot attract more foreign can range from $70,000 to $400,000. industry infrastructure is hold investors and projects, accord The shooting of a series costs $50,000 ing back larger orders from ing to Iryna Kostyuk, the CEO for each episode,” she said. abroad. In the mean time, the TOP and cofounder of Kyivbased According to Kostyuk, the primary movies shown at the country’s Media Resource Management, and biggest market for Ukrainian pro cinemas and on television are LIST which has been providing con ducers is TV channels. More often than largely distributed in Ukraine sultancy and research services not Ukrainian and Russian TV chan by Russianbased companies. for mediamarket players in Ukraine nels order films and series directly from Oleksandr Tkachenko, head of since February 2006. Ukrainian production companies. In Odessa film studio and coowner of the Kostyuk previously worked six years other less common cases, production small Kyiv cinema network Liniya for one of Ukraine’s top two television companies create films and then sell the Kino, thinks the country’s film industry channels, purchasing films from inter rights to distributors. In either case, is looking up. national studios. the main source of revenue is Russian Odessa film studio, established in “In Ukraine we have cheap labor. TV channels, because selling the film 1919, is 51 percent owned by the state This could attract foreign companies to only in Ukraine is not profitable. and handles state as well as commercial film in Ukraine. But we can offer them “The Ukrainian market and prices projects from Ukrainian and foreign neither good film studios nor laborato for the final product are about eight film production companies. ries … Some Ukrainian series have been times smaller than those in Russia,” “The production market has grown filmed in hangars or warehouses,” she said Kostyuk, “Ukrainian TV channels twofold in the last year, both in terms said. pay from $5,000 to $50,000 for a televi of the amount of production and sion film. And as for series, the price turnover,” he said. “FOREIGN FILM PRODUCTION ranges from $3,000 to $20,000 for each “Annual turnover for television pro episode. Russian channels pay up to duction – films, series and commercials COMPANIES HAVE MORE eight or even 10 times more. The pro – is more than $20 million. Ukrainian RESOURCES TO FINANCE duction companies also sell their films widescreen production, I believe, is to other CIS countries, Israel, the even more. THEIR PROJECTS. FOREIGN Baltic States, as well as Canada, the Box office turnover, including DVD BANKS GIVE THEM CREDITS United States and China.” rentals, can be up to $50 million,” he According to Kostyuk, “in most added. TO PRODUCE FILMS. OUR countries, big TV channels create their As an example of some of the more BANKS HAVE ONLY BEGUN TO own production branches … but the recent films produced in Ukraine for structures our channels have now are Ukrainian audiences, Tkachenko PROVIDE THIS SERVICE.” not strong enough … so I think that named “Shtolnya” (The Mine – 2006), independent production companies Iryna Kostyuk, the CEO and co-founder of Kyiv-based Media Resource Management, a which has been billed as Ukraine’s first – Oleksandr Tkachenko, prevail in the production area.” Ukrainian media market consultancy, says that Ukraine’s film production industry is thriller in the Ukrainian language; and head of Odessa film studio The main trend being observed on hampered by a lack of infrastructure and trained personnel. (Konstantin Klimenko) “Pomarancheve Nebo” (Orange Sky – Ukraine’s market is localization, or a 2005), a drama which deals with events Although the country’s film produc growth in demand for locally produced opened its International Sales Division completed yet,” he told the Post in from the country’s 2004 Orange tion infrastructure is poor, according to films, she said. in 2005, according to the company’s February. Revolution. Kostyuk Ukrainian production compa “Foreign series are disappearing from website. To get a return on their investment, According to Tkachenko, nies still manage to make about 1,000 primetime television. Ukrainian films While Ukrainian cinemas show KievDonbass hopes the studio will get “Hollywood movies of the same level hours of films a year. are becoming more popular, the mostly American and, to a lesser extent, contracts for everything from adverts earn from one hundred to five hundred For example, she cited a Ukrainian demand for them is growing.” Russian films, television channels take and animation to soundtracks and dub thousand dollars at cinemas. I think made series called “Za vse tebya Regarding the distribution of foreign movies and series from Europe, Latin bing. The most lucrative work, of these two movies didn’t do much blagodaryu” which was a hit on films in Ukraine, Kostyuk said that the America and even further afield. course, will come from moviemaking. worse,” said Tkachenko. Russian television last year. business is dominated by Russian According to Kostyuk, there is no set Konstantinovsky, who works with Compared to the West, Ukraine’s The series was made by the based companies. price paid by distributors for the rights his twin brother Vyacheslav, calls film production market is much less Ukrainian production company Pro “Russian distributors open big to a movie. Ukraine’s current filmindustry earn stable and systematized, lacking an TV, headed by Viktor Prykhodko, the offices here. Recently Russian Central “The prices for the right to show a ings “miserly.” advanced infrastructure, multiple stu former director of the Kyivbased Partnership opened an office in film in a cinema may range from Cashstrapped state studios like dios and highly qualified staff. Dovzhenko film studios. Ukraine,” she said. $100,000 to millions of dollars,” she Kyiv’s Dovzhenko are overpriced and “Foreign film production companies The series’ coproducer was Film UA Russian Central Distributors, a pro said. poorly equipped, the Ukrainian busi have more resources to finance their production company, the former pro ducer and distributor of film and tele Kostyuk said that some television nessman said. projects. Foreign banks give them duction arm of the Inter TV channel. vision products founded in 1997, channels have their own film dubbing “They [Dovzhenko] are currently a studios, but there are also companies monopolist, because there is no alterna that provide dubbing or subtitling tive on the Ukrainian market,” said services, for example, to Ukraine’s tele Oleksandr. vision stations, which show a lot of for However, besides financing an inde eign films and series dubbed or voiced pendent Ukrainian film about the over into Russian or Ukrainian. Orange Revolution called Orange Most of Ukraine’s production and Love, KievDonbass doesn’t have any distribution and dubbing companies film experience. are concentrated in Kyiv. “The group has a lot of practice “About 40 percent of modern, well financing a wide variety of projects,” equipped cinema halls are in Kyiv… All said Konstantinovsky, but for this one the production companies operate they made sure to hire industry spe mostly in Kyiv,” she said. cialists. Last winter, a Kyivbased business KievDonbass’s main specialist is group announced a bold investment Californiabased Culver Studios, which project to create a modern film produc was purchased by Pacifica Ventures in tion facility on the outskirts of the 2004. nation’s capital with the help of a major According to Culver’s web site, Hollywood studio. “Pacifica Ventures was founded four KievDonbass, a group of companies years ago to create a worldwide net that includes the capital’s work of technologicallyadvanced, CarteBlanche restaurant group and firstclass production facilities that Puzata Khata restaurants, as well as would enable media professionals to other highprofile commercial entities, produce their projects in key locations pledged to invest $100 million over the around the world as easily as they do in next few years in what is set to be Los Angeles while enjoying the highest called Studio City Kyiv. levels of customer service. Oleksandr Konstantinovsky, a vice Culver will provide consulting, president at KievDonbass, said this training and management, said money would go toward creation of the Konstantinovsky. It also might buy a studio, as well as subsequent produc stake in the project somewhere down tion of films. However, he declined to the road, he added. Pacifica Ventures specify how much it would cost in total CEO Dana Arnold was in Kyiv on Jan Oleksandr Tkachenko, the head of Odessa film studio and co-owner of the small Kyiv cinema network Liniya Kino, believes that to build the studio itself. 2122 to announce the launching of the Ukraine’s film industry is looking up, with the production market growing twofold in the last year. (Post file photo) “The financial model has not been project.