Thailand International Film Destination Festival which debuted from April 1 to April 10 was part of an effort
to promote the country’s exotic settings and production facilities to the
international screen industry. Thus it came to no surprise that the
movies screened during the festivals were the ones that were filmed in
Thailand, headlined of which were the dystopian backpacker film, The Beach
and the raunchy comedy, The Hangover 2.
(For the list of the films, click
here)
The event included a one day
seminar held on April 5th at Centara Grand, Bangkok with two
discussion panel sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, with
local well known figures from the film production in discussion with the
foreign guests. Mr. Kulthep Narula represented Benetone Films which have had
experience in the field for over a decade.
The morning session hosted two well known
location managers from Hollywood, Mr. Michael John Meehan (Pirates of theCaribbean trilogy, Master and Commander: Far Side of The World, Oblivion and
etc.) and Mr. Mike Fantasia (The Amazing Spider-Man, Catch Me If You Can and
etc. ), Mr. Daniel Zirilli, a young filmmaker who has directed and/or produced
over 250 music videos. The afternoon session hosted producer Mr. Andrew Pfeffer
(Bangkok Dangerous, Running Scared and etc.), director and cinematographer Mr.
Adam Kane (Formosa Betrayed, multi episodes of Heroes and etc.) and actor,
producer and writer Mr. Will Tiao (Formusa Betrayed and etc.)
The local speakers besides Mr.
Kulthep were actor, producer and writer Mr. Jude S. Walko and producer Ms.
Sasisupa Sungvaribud who is also the president of the Film Production Services Association.
Even though, the sessions were
dominated by different concerns, there was however one common issue that was
raised and discussed extensively: lack of incentives in Thailand for the
foreign productions. All of the guests concurred that while Thailand is an
attractive option for the filmmakers, thanks largely to the exotic locations,
professional and hard working crew, excellent infrastructure and film
production services, its lack of incentives is hurting the business that the
country should have been getting.
In our next blog, we will
detailed the discussions and explore more on the issue of the incentives.
You can follow Benetone Films at
Facebook: facebok.com/benetonefilms
Twitter: twitter.com/benetonefilms
Youtube: youtube.com/benetonefilms
No comments:
Post a Comment