From this year, Piedmont has the Fiction Lab, a new project devised and organized by the Film Commission Torino Piemonte (FCTP) to develop television drama projects in the region.
Another Italian film commission is extending its logistical and economic support to productions, going right to the roots of the creative process – the research and development of ideas and stories.
The Film Commission Torino Piemonte was possibly the first in Italy to ‘set the example’ of how to build an audiovisual industry starting by welcoming and supporting productions.
And it owes nearly every- thing to the television industry: “We have always been the film commission that is most closely linked to television production.
The set of ‘Elisa di Rivombrosa’, which came to Piedmont two years after our birth, was an astounding example of movie tourism that gave us a lot of satisfaction and which gave our activities a big boost”, says Davide Bracco, director of the FCTP, “moreover, daily series like “Vivere” and “Centovetrine” have provided a daily training ground for most of the technicians working in Piedmont today who have subsequently made the leap to theatrical production, bringing prestige to our region in this field, and possibly a more immediate impact, as well. We have always been very happy to support TV products which are on a par with, and often surpass cinema, in terms of both the logistics as well as the financial participation. It is a known fact that hosting a TV production is very interesting from an economic viewpoint, due to the higher levels of manpower used, as well as the ongoing economic effects. For example, the third season of ‘Fuori Classe’ (Ed’s note: directed by Tiziana Aristarco, starring Luciana Littizzetto, produced by ITV Movie) started filming again in July for 14 weeks in Turin and Moncalieri.”
The latest television sets being hosted by the Piedmont region include ‘Un mondo nuovo’ by Alberto Negrin, produced by Palomar, a TV movie about the writing of the Ventotene manifesto by Altiero Spinelli in 1941, which filmed for one week in September in Carignano, Savigliano and Turin (the former “Le nuove” prison, the Caffè Platti, the former Curia Maxima)
FCTP pays contributions to television companies filming in the region that are proportional to the expenses sustained in loco, the local manpower employed and the number of days of filming, and often also reimburses hotel costs.
“The Fiction Lab represents the natural evolution of our vocation and follows a path that has also been undertaken by other film commissions: from welcome and service counters, to fund managers and story planners”, continues Bracco
The Lab, organized by Angelica Cantisani and Donatella Tosetti for FCTP, uses the support of the Compagnia San Paolo, the APT (Association of Italian television producers), and the cooperation of Rai Fiction and Sky, which each put 15,000 Euros ‘into the coffer’ that will be used to finance at least one of the finalist projects before proceeding with the subsequent level of development.
So the selection committee, ‘captained’ by the project’s curators, script- writers Nicola Lusuardi and Stefano Sardo, is working on the selection of the 24 projects which will subsequently be reduced to 12 following the individual interviews which will take place in Rome in November, and then to 6 following a first three day workshop in Turin in December.
The proper development workshop, from February to the end of May 2015, aims to produce rigorously formalized series story-lines which will then receive an award: in addition to the contributions of Rai Fiction and Sky, the FCTP will assign a prize of 5000 Euros and the APT one of 2000 Euros.
Fiction Lab is also sponsored by 100 autori, Anica (Italian Association of Cinematographic Audiovisual and Multimedia Industries), Scuola Holden, TorinoFilmLab and the Writers Guild Italia.
