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| EVP BANFF Television Festival |
Pat Ferns, considered the Dean of TV Production in Canada, has, after 23 years of commitment to gaining the acceptance of Canadian production internationally (producing the first Canadian TV movies and miniseries for PBS' Masterpiece Theater, BBC's prestigious Screen 2, TNT, and CBS), joined the Banff TV Festival full time. He has the overall responsibility for the conception, organization and execution of the Banff TV Festival and Conference, and actively promotes the Fest around the world.
WJC. Please share with us the history and purpose of the Banff TV Festival.
PF. This year is the 17th year of the Banff TV Festival. Over 17 years we have become Canada's premiere TV event. We think we have a unique product that makes us a special festival for three major reasons. We have a competition in which the best programs of the world compete - ER v. NYPD v. Australian series, mini-series, etc. 35 countries representing 600 entries of really the best TV programming. So first of all, we are a festival of good product. Secondly we are a conference - best minds, best creators to talk about craft and business. When you join program producers with their competitors, you get the third element - a marketplace of ideas, relationships being formed, and the creation of co-productions. Banff is not a market like MIP and NAPTE, high in volume. We are a marketplace of ideas. Those three legs of the stool, so to speak, decided the fest's history early on. I was the Chairman of the Banff TV Fest in the mid-80's, we set those three dimensions then and we've stuck to them. We have not departed from our original mandate, this makes us unique.
WJC. With conferences and meetings scheduled from day to night, some simultaneously, how will we be able to see the nominated programs for this year's Banff awards?
PF. We are running the best programs on two channels in all the Banff hotels. From your hotel room you can tune into two channels that we program. There are also "On Demand" screening rooms, so you can see the Grand Prize winner at your own convenience, for example. There are delegates who come only to look at programs. While the good programming is going on, there are sessions where makers of programs can talk about their work. This year's conference has tried to integrate elements of the programs in competition at the sessions where winners of the Rockies will talk about work, offering business analysis and case histories.
WJC. How does the competition work? How were Stephen Bochco and WGBH selected for Banff Achievement Awards?
PF. For the Outstanding Achievement Award the Board of Governors chose WGBH from a number of nominations around the world. We have a prestigious 55 member Board of Governors. There are Canadian governors and international governors.
WJC. The Award of Excellence, how did that come about? Is it like a lifetime achievement award?
PF. The Governors suggest the nominees and vote on them. This year we are honoring Stephen Bochco.
PF. WGBH - Masterpiece Theater, Mystery, Frontline, Nova, and WGBH children's progamming - we are devoting a whole day to them. By the time they receive the award the attendees will know why they got it.
In a sense Bochco and WGBH Boston represent what commercial TV does at its best and what public TV does at its best. Some fests become elitist and others focus on big ratings, we've been able to judge excellence in one form or another.
WJC. How is the festival financed?
PF. 75% revenue from two sources - entry fees for product, and delegate fees. The other half from company sponsorships from Canada and around the world. The remaining 25% from federal and provincial Canada. We are working toward complete self-sufficiency. We started in 1989 with 80% from the Canadian government and have moved rapidly to amass industry support.
WJC. What are the chief issues which the festival reflects?
PF. Globalization and fragmentation. One of the strands of programming is Banff as Bridge to Europe - How North America and Europe collaborate. Canada has strong links with both U.S. and Europe, Canada's role is as the perfect intermediary. Fragmentation means finding ways to collaborate and if you look at all the festival advertising you will read that Banff stands for EXCELLENCE, VISION AND COLLABORATION. Excellence implies competition, vision is a word that signals a conference to discuss the future, and collaboration is about a marketplace of ideas. A world of good programming will be the result of good collaborations.
The festival has to be two things - it must serve the Canadian audience and it must serve the international audience. The world's window on Canada, and Canada's window on the world. Any international delegate will see all the heavy and key hitters of Canadian Broadcasting. At the same time, Canadians want to meet delegates from all parts of the world, meet their colleagues. Canadian seminar focus - 4 days to discuss public, private, pay and specialty programming and other issues. Strand Three is the international focus dealing with U.S. strategic relationships (this seminar is produced by NATPE), Germany's booming market, and the Australian and New Zealand markets which have an affinity with Canada because of heritage issues but where co-productions are sometimes problematic because of distance.
Addendum. The V-Chip seminar will be provocative. The head of the regulatory agency which is leading the V-Chip movement will meet a panel of critics.
Addendum Two. There is always a great debate about trade, culture and competition. It's always to see if American popular culture wins or not.
WJC. Who is Fred Keating and what is his daily session about?
PF. Fred Keating is a Canadian comedian and program host who will welcome the delegates with a show each morning during the complimentary breakfast. He'll interview some of the delegates, these guests will talk about working the fest. There are some serious subjects. Most of all it is fun.
WJC. There is so much going on. Where will the delegates be?
PF. This is a festival of democracy. There are lots of choices. The independents go in search of $$, the broadcasters will attend the speciality sessions and study reports. The delegates lounge is big and always busy. The message centers are busy. Every delegate has his/her own mailbox.
WJC. Banff has been described as the TV equivalent of Cannes.
PF. TV has Banff, the movies have Cannes. It's about prestige of competition. We are not like MIP and MIPCOM because they are markets, we are a fest for deal making and great programming. We've been called the Sundance of TV, we're in a relatively isolated resort area with hot young talent and people who are doing their best work. Most indies attend Banff with one, two, three projects in pocket looking for partners, development $ or production financing. Our signature event is the Market Simulation, where 4 selected projects are formally pitched to an audience. It is a public stage as opposed to a private meeting. The pitching of projects is very important to the festival. A pitching workshop takes place one week before the festival starts. Other events are happening too. The Banff Center is producing a new media workshop and a documentary workshop two days following the festival. Women in Film International has their meeting in Calgary two days before. The Canadian Producer's Association board meeting is at the Banff Springs Hotel. Banff TV Fest is a way of bringing everyone together at once.
There is more. This year we have TWO IN A ROOM sessions -where there will be live pitches Monday, and the live commissioning of a documentary program on Friday. Two commissioning editors will be on stage, they must come up within an hour with a tender for a program which they would really like to see. All indie producers at the fest have the ability to put in a one page submission, the commissioning editors will pick the best half-dozen projects to discuss and choose from Friday morning. The 1 hour doc is worth $250,000. The editors are from the CBC and Channel 4. I will moderate the Two In A Room session. It will be the Olympics of pitching.
WJC. What is your typical schedule during the fest?
PF. I work from early morning to midnight with maybe two opportunities to go to my room to change clothes. It's always an intense, fun, crazy week. I try to taste as many sessions as possible. Life is about choices.
WJC. Thank you, Pat.
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BANFF Program Awards Day One - June 10th Day Two - June 11th |
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