An inside look at a decade of training from Europe’s leading film business & leadership skills development programme THE NATIONAL FILM AND TELEVISION SCHOOL PRESENTS SUPPORTED BY THE MEDIA PROGRAMME & THE CREATIVE SKILLSET FILM SKILLS FUND Inside Pictures: The Yearbook INSIDE PICTURES INSIDE PICTURES PROVIDES PARTICIPANTS WITH A UNIQUE INSIGHT INTO THE GLOBAL FILM BUSINESS THROUGH ITS ACCESS TO A WIDE RANGE OF INDUSTRY EXPERTS. IT’S AN INVALUABLE APPROACH.” CAMERON MCCRACKEN, PATHÉ UK WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT FROM ANYTHING ELSE IS THE LEVEL AT WHICH THE PARTICIPANTS ARE AT, THEY ARE ALREADY IN THE INDUSTRY AND Participants graduate from the 10th Inside Pictures programme in 2013. ALREADY HAVE ACHIEVEMENTS Photograph by Tara Moller. ON THEIR CV.” NIK POWELL, NATIONAL FILM & TELEVISION Inside Pictures is a unique film and other related media, SCHOOL European programme for including cutting-edge digital business training and leadership entrepreneurs and innovators. INSIDE PICTURES HAS DEVELOPED OVER THE LAST development in the film The course is open to DECADE INTO AN ESSENTIAL industry. participants from Europe, with CONSTITUENT OF THE The intensive annual course the programme divided between EUROPEAN MEDIA INDUSTRY.” brings together the full range of London and Los Angeles. CHARLES MOORE, PARTNER, WIGGIN LLP industry disciplines, including Inside Pictures is funded by the INSIDE PICTURES IS A GREAT development, production, sales, European MEDIA programme COURSE THAT GIVES distribution, marketing, finance, and Creative Skillset. For full APPLICANTS A TERRIFIC legal, exhibition and business details of funders and sponsors OVERVIEW OF THE RAPIDLY GROWING INTERNATIONAL FILM affairs. see Page 19. BUSINESS - SOMETHING I WISH Inside Pictures develops the HAD BEEN AVAILABLE TO ME practical knowledge, skills and EARLY IN MY CAREER”. high level contacts needed to ANDREW CRIPPS, PRESIDENT EMEA, IMAX lead successful businesses, taking participants to the heart of the film industry and Details of the Inside Pictures course and instructions on how giving them a 360 degree to apply can be found at www. understanding of the global film inside-pictures.com. Inside industry. Picture is also on Facebook The training is led by some of (www.facebook.com/ insidepictures) and Twitter the world’s leading film business (@inside_pictures). practitioners and experts from 2 Inside Pictures: The Yearbook 10 YEARS AT THE COALFACE A decade on, the knowledge and confidence provided by Inside Pictures continues to make a vital contribution to film in the UK, Europe and beyond. Not many training courses get to celebrate blocks that make Inside Pictures unique: A BRIEF HISTORY 10th anniversaries. creative collaboration, breaking down the OF INSIDE PICTURES Training requirements change as industries boundaries between industry specialisms, evolve and new trends emerge and recede, building leadership skills and a focus on but at the heart of Inside Pictures is an international business. But if there is a word The first edition of Inside Pictures was unchanging idea: that the best lessons that sums up the value of the course – a word launched in 2002 by a team from come from the coalface. Each course brings consistently repeated by participants – it is Qwerty Films led by Jill Tandy and together the best practitioners in the global ‘confidence’. This is a sense of self-belief that Michael Kuhn. Tandy and Kuhn were film business, creating a dynamic and comes not just from learning from those who both senior executives at PolyGram challenging environment with an emphasis have succeeded in a tough industry, but also Filmed Entertainment, the last true on practical application. The proof of Inside from testing ideas against industry experts major European studio, which ran a Pictures’ success can be seen in box-office and their peers on the programme. highly-rated training programme for hits, Academy Awards and BAFTAs, as well William Goldman famously said of the executives called Fast Track. as by promotions of participants to senior film business: “no one knows anything”. management roles in leading international Inside Pictures offers an antidote to this After PolyGram’s closure in 1999, the film businesses. Its value is even more evident view. A decade on from its first edition, UK Film Council (UKFC), then chaired in a thriving and active network of alumni, the knowledge and confidence provided by by a former PolyGram President (and built on the programme’s philosophy of Inside Pictures continues to make a vital at the time President of Universal sharing expertise and experience. contribution to film in the UK, Europe and International Pictures) Stewart Till and This report looks at the essential building beyond. UKFC Chief Executive John Woodward asked Tandy to design a course. This Mark Woolley course would build on some of the (Ecosse Films) and Raymond characteristics of Fast Track but would van der Kaaij (Class of have a broader industry relevance. 2013) during a project surgery Qwerty set about the task of creating a course which would be firmly focused on business in the widest sense and on the development of executives who would go on to take leading roles in the international film industry. The first edition of Inside Pictures was solely for UK executives. Its reputation grew quickly, and the programme became renowned for the high quality of its speakers and participants. In 2011, Inside Pictures won funding from the European Commission MEDIA Programme, allowing it to realise a longstanding ambition to broaden its international reach. 3 Inside Pictures: The Yearbook Inside Inside Pictures Inside Pictures began with a mission to Thinking global “We have always been bridge a serious industry gap. There were Inside Pictures was ahead of the game in academic courses and specialist programmes understanding that successful film businesses determined that Inside for specific disciplines such as production, might have roots in one country, but their Pictures will be driven by finance or marketing. But what was lacking audiences would be global. The founders’ was a practical course – by the industry, Hollywood connections gave unparalleled practitioners not teachers.” for the industry – in which the top access to the most senior studio figures MICHAEL KUHN, CHAIRMAN, QWERTY FILMS executives of tomorrow could learn and was the genesis of an annual from the best in the business journey of discovery to Los today. Angeles that has become a Here, course founders, defining characteristic of the Qwerty Films’ Michael Kuhn programme. “The studio big 2002 SPEAKERS and Jill Tandy introduce the shots were not going to come essential elements that set Inside over here, so we had to go to LA Include Pictures on a path that has made a them” says Kuhn. The 2011 arrival Robin Russell, Senior Exec VP, Sony huge impact on the industry for more of European participants further Pictures Entertainment than a decade. broadened the programme’s international industry Mike Simpson, Exec VP, William Morris Start at the top perspective. Endeavor Entertainment “The key thing in establishing Inside Pictures was to win the The networks John Ptak, Agent, Creative Artists Agency support of the top people in Michael Kuhn said he expected the industry, who in turn would the Inside Pictures alumni to Alan Parker, Director/Producer attract the best participants” said form a “mini network” that would Tandy. “We just went through last beyond the lifespan of the Michael Kuhn with Sixteen UK Include the whole film value chain and Films’ Rebecca O’Brien at course. What no one could have David Kosse, Managing Director, the 2013 Inside Pictures looked for who were the best graduation reception. predicted was how strong the Momentum Photograph by Tara Moller. experts in each area of the Jill Tandy with Jakob links between participants would business.” Abrahamsson (Class of 2013) grow, and how influential the Stewart Till, Chair, Icon Group UK during Module 3 of the 2013 The results have been programme. network would become. The spectacular, and the support of partnerships and friendships Tim Bevan, Co-Chairman, high level industry figures has helped make that developed are a practical extension of the Working Title Films Inside Pictures one of the most prestigious way that the course is designed. “We wanted courses in the international film business. an environment where people would work Duncan Kenworthy, Producer, Toledo together as a close team, and learn as much Productions Talent spotting teams from each other as the speakers,” says Tandy. The Inside Pictures philosophy is that it does Paul Webster, Founder, FilmFour not just select the best candidates, it builds Innovation and new models teams. The programme was created to take Inside Pictures began in a turbulent period for Dennis Davidson, Owner, DDA PR executives out of the comfort zone of their business, and each year’s programme tests the own industry specialisms and to challenge validity and potential of new models. Kuhn INDUSTRY MILESTONES what Tandy calls “silo thinking.” The dynamic says the best way to understand the impact of of the course comes from interaction and new trends is to talk to those directly involved, Launch of LoveFilm collaboration between people from every rather than listening to advocates: “We have aspect of the UK and European industry and always been determined that Inside Pictures Studios set up body to agree the beyond with the wider media industries. will be driven by practitioners not teachers.” standards for