Behind the Scenes of the International Selection
By Claudia Schreiner
What more fulfilling task could there be for an experienced Shopsteward than to head the team of devoted professionals to assemble the INPUT conference programme together. After being a Shopsteward for five times, the International Board vouched their confidence in me for this at first somewhat daunting task.
One week, put into a cellar of a hotel in the Dutch countryside with almost 300 programmes to watch, evaluate and discuss - how much more inspiration can a TV professional handle?
The fourteen TV professionals from all over the world I had put together for this task - and who kindly agreed to spend their time in the hotel basement with me - were all more than devoted to the idea behind this conference - which made my task easier.
We set out to be inspired by the programmes the National Coordinators had sent us. But we also were eager to jointly represent all our colleagues that will eventually be at the conference in Seoul in May by identifying the programmes that best represent the state of our industry.
The Shopstewards were well aware of the fact that the unique INPUT experience is the professional stimulation and intellectual kick-off provoked by a broad range of programmes of all genres and all countries being passionately discussed.
Between all these goals we set up a conference that showcases the most challenging and innovative productions which were submitted by the NCs from their jurisdictions, with a reasonable genre split that would reflect the TV landscape we all work in. We also wanted to show the innovative moves within the TV industry - but as PSBs - not forgetting our call towards quality.
How could we possibly succeed? Well, several things came together: Our host in Holland was the NPO, the Dutch public broadcasting body, who took extremely good care of the Shopstewards. The programmes that were submitted by the NCs gave us a good foundation to build the conference programme on.
Assembling a conference programme is about finding the programme that best shows the issue that a professional TV community is attracted to because it challenges the knowledge, the experiences and the personal principles everybody of us have. INPUT is not about the best programme - so our aim was not judging the productions - our aim was in finding the spark of an idea in each production that would deliver a basis for a good discussion.
Take a look at the programme we have put together.
We have been able to keep INPUT a TV conference by selecting 38% Television Specific, 33% TV Fiction and 29% TV Documentary programmes. The themes of the sessions have been carefully crafted to interest TV professionals: From political independence to craftsmanship, from responsibility to education. From multi-platform to visual ethics - a packed programme with remarkable productions.Now, our job as Shopstewards are done - it is up to the delegates now, to liven up our discussions by making the sparks fly in the session rooms in May.
See you there!
Conference Programme
INPUT 2011
