by Marc Guidoni , published on 14.10.2009

Today, the talents of content creation and production need a sign and some support. Indeed, it’s extremely difficult for independent producers to finance innovative content by themselves. This is unfortunately well known by all professionals in France and internationally, regardless of the media for which their creations are destined: cinema, television, fun interactive universes…

The big content buyers and editors, especially television broadcasters, request audaciousness and innovations but they give very little means to accomplish that (regarding the new broadcast channels in France: “France 4 will produce its first fiction series before the end of the year and other channels like NRJ12 wish to do the same before the end of next year” says the latest report from Club Galliélée from June 17^th 2009), and when a producer takes risks by self financing a big writing project in the hopes that he will find a distributor at some point in this R&D phase, often, nothing happens…

It’s therefore difficult to imagine a French screenwriter/producer duo knocking on the door of a big TV broadcaster to suggest a series about a family of undertakers (Six Feet Under), of housewives who go crazy after one of them commits suicide (Desperate Housewives), or of a seductive, sex addicted writer who sleeps with under age girls on demand  (Californication).

Things often happen as if every player of the industry is already telling himself that “the others” will never want something like that… The broadcaster thinks that the average housewife isn’t intelligent enough to appreciate this dark humor. The screenwriter thinks that the producer who trusts him with the writing has to be careful not to shock the broadcaster. As for the producer, he thinks that suggesting a “politically incorrect” project to the broadcaster would put him out of the loop and that his rivals would be happy to fill that empty space… We could also say that the advertisers have trouble positioning themselves with regards to these original projects.

But it’s exactly the opposite virtuous circle that we must restart, a cycle of creation and audaciousness. The authors/producers/broadcasters must rival in imagination to challenge a mature audience who’s very demanding and ready for the ride…