I completely forgot we were supposed to now post these instead of bringing them to class.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117980730.html?categoryId=1061&cs=1
This brief article talks about how the Union-Guilde des Scenaristes (UGS) and the Ile de France Film Commission have launched Script Market, a website that will help French writers sell scripts internationally. UGS co-prez, Jerome Soubeyrand, says that in conjunction with foreign producers, they hope to keep the local flavor in their films while also catering to international tastes. Not surprisingly, American producers were noted at the unveiling. In addition, there is a project to build a large-scale production facility in a Parisian suburb and a push to the government to extend further tax breaks to foreign producers. All this is aimed at generating more film industry within France, which isn’t unlike what a lot of other countries have been doing recently.
I wonder how this might affect our own film industry–since American producers are probably the ones being targeted. With scripts coming elsewhere and more bait to film overseas, is Hollywood actually losing a good portion of the development industry? I also think that the script website re-enforces the move to the digital frontier that writing is going–not just with distribution but with marketing/pitching. If development moves digitally, as well, and development is a lot about making personal connections/relationships–how will this impact that whole process?
