Creative economy on the big screen: does Azerbaijani cinematography have any future?

One of the most important types of art is cinema, as known.

Moreover: nowadays, cinema is one of elements of creative economy which in its turn have become one of the top priorities in innovative development.

It is based on the original idea of new qualitative approach to creating a product. "Creativity" term can be explained as creative approach toward something involving new ideas not used in the past. Thus, we can note indisputable connection between innovations and creative industries.

Besides, cinema industry is one of the promising industries of economy: according to forecast, by 2020 global box office will increase from USD 38 bn. to USD 50 bn.

Note that USA is only the third largest market in terms of annual tickets sales (after China and India).  And over half of adult population prefers to watch movies at home. 

Only 7% of population visit cinemas twice or thrice a month, 14% visit cinemas more seldom (once in a month). And 37% of adult population in US go to cinema once a year.

What is situation of cinema industry in Azerbaijan?

Do we have plans or at least hope to make cinematography one of the most important development areas in future and ideally, the driving force of economic prosperity in the country?

The question is not easy to answer. Especially considering specifics of our cinema market which is not just about its narrowness, strange TV programs ratings, but also lack of transparent data on box office in cinemas (in this case, it is secret wrapped in mystery that is somehow kept by cinemas and distributors).

Nevertheless, does our cinematography have any future? We tried to find an answer to this question speaking to cinematographers of modern Azerbaijan...

We looked at the question from three angles: author cinema, TV series production and movies distribution in cinemas.

AUTHOR CINEMA AND LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

 Our first interlocutor is  founder of FIL Production company, director and producer Teymur Hajiyev.  

Two years ago 1news.az  interviewed Teymur  about existence of author cinema in Azerbaijan. Speaking about forecasts, Teymur expressed confidence that in three-five years commercial cinematography will generate income.

 - I was right when made this forecast, T. Hajiyev says. - Moreover, it happened even sooner than I expected which only makes me happy. I respect people who make commercial movies with their own money. They encounter big risks which is very brave. 

Speaking about changes in Azerbaijani author cinema in last two years, T. Hajiyev noted:

- We made our point in Europe and America and did it seriously and noticeably.  And considering available resources, we did something impossible.

Our guys produced movies with budget of USD 10000 and made it to Directors' Fortnight in Cannes, participated in Palm Springs Short Fest, festivals in Locarno, Saraevo, Milano, Rio-de-Janeiro etc.

Only my "Shanghai, Baku" movie was shown at over 15 serious international platforms. And I am proud to note that today they do not just admit us but recognize at international level and look forward to seeing new actual products of independent Azerbaijani cinematographers.

But paradoxically, we (this is my personal opinion) do not feel necessary support from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the reason is different understanding of modern cinema production process. But I do not give up. It's not all about the money because in cinematography money is just one of instruments. The bottom line in cinematography is talent, soul and mind, paradoxical thinking and passion for the favourite job. No money can buy it. 

So, during these two years we lost all our illusions and it is clear now that we will continue on our way.

I also would like to note that certain government agencies and institutions provide support to cinematographers. For example, I am grateful to the Ministry of Taxes and management of Icheri Sheher for support of two cinema almanacs, which we produced in 2012-2013.

What to do?

At least, implement what I mentioned in my previous  interview : sign an agreement with Eurimages and establish the Cinema Fund. Such Fund can be really established within half a year and in a year and a half it will bring first results.

There is one more idea which would be good to implement in the current complex economic situation.

Azerbaijan has nine climatic zones in relatively small area. There are mountains, the sea, lots of beautiful locations for production of variety of scenes. Legal enforcement of tax privileges in cinema production and establishment of a company to attract foreign investments in cinematography will give a huge impetus to development of national cinematography. This happened in Bulgaria, Ireland, New Zealand where many famous Hollywood franchises and TV series are produced.

Growing industry will require more qualified professionals, cameramen, sound directors, make-up artists, composers, light technicians etc. Working with foreign professionals in large projects our cinematographers will be able to get invaluable experience and use it in local cinema production.

I am confident that if all this is done, within three - maximum five years Europe and the whole world will talk about our cinematography. What is creative economy about essentially? It is about people. Cadres are all-important, as they say. And our own professionals should be trusted, supported, brought up and prevented from brain-drain which unfortunately increases every year.

Experiments are benefits!

In any case it is optimistic that today our cinematography makes progress. Cinematography is the area where any experiments are beneficial. All, even unsuccessful projects are experience, practice, additional skills. The main point is to ensure continuous work process.

Therefore, I would advise those who want to produce movies to keep learning, searching and never give up! You can produce a movie using your mobile phone, upload it on YouTube and possibly wake up famous the next day. Bottom line is not to give up and remember that the main driver of creative industries is talent which offers ideas and creative potential to create the final product in any sector.

"SOUP OPERA" OF ECONOMY

TV series production is relatively new in Azerbaijan

As we recall, on May 1, 2012 foreign TV shows were banned in Azerbaijani TV channels by law. Almost simultaneously President Ilham Aliyev signed a resolution on Financial Support to Production of Domestic TV Films. The head of state resolved to allocate 6 mln. AZN from his Reserve Fund to the National Council on TV and Radio for production of national TV films including TV series.

Rustam Aliyev, president of Antenn TV and Radio company and cinema producer, spoke about impact of that investment on TV channels ratings, development of this TV show type and overall situation in this area.

Our company produces TV series since 2013. Though we produced full scale movies ("Just Love"), we decided to re-focus on series format and produced four of them for the last three years. Currently, we work on the new series entitled "Maryam" which is broadcasted on ATV channel. This is kind of new experience for us as it is our first try of daily series format: it is broadcasted four times a week. I have to say that it is very hard workload and even two years ago I could not imagine that but now due to certain reasons it became both possible and necessary.

I can say with all responsibility that today there are companies in Azerbaijan that can and want to produce TV series. In other words, this niche in domestic cinema industry has already emerged and become visible. In many senses it became possible thanks to the Presidential resolution as initial financial support was really necessary.

In the past there were attempts to produce local series but they failed: they were low-cost pictures with short, i.e. casual interest of the audience. Nowadays, TV companies place orders with producer centres or produce their own TV series. So, there is certain progress.

Moreover: each of the previous three years was worth other three years in terms of invaluable experience that we gained. Obviously, we have a long way to go to reach the level of countries that have dozens year experience in series production, we are just at the beginning of the road. But in a sense we are in a favourable situation as we can use foreign experience as well, learn by their mistakes and get inspired by some of their ideas.

Plus, we have formed a good team for the last three years. The teamwork in this sector is a must. So, today there is a specific group of professionals that specialize in production and work on TV series. I think, this result in such a short period of time is a big achievement.

Peculiarities of local series

This is first of all balancing on the edge between popular demand and the need to insert certain education element in plots and dialogues. It's no secret that our audience prefers Turkish TV series and watched them with great interest for a long time. Now it is important to attract their attention to ensure TV rating, otherwise, we will not be able to recover our expenses. But it is also wrong to follow popular demand only. We just have to move forward in small steps. Small but confident. We study ourselves, we educate our audience. It goes on in parallel.

Unfortunately, there are no specialized schools that train future workers of TV series industry in the country. But I think, in future they will emerge and today's participants of "recovery of TV series" process will be able to train next generation of young actors, directors, cameramen, sound directors and others.

Where is the money?

Many criticize local series giving incomparable examples with Turkey, Russia, US i.e. with countries that have much longer TV series production history than we do. Plus, we need to remember that these countries make money on exporting their products. But we try to create qualitative product that will be "watchable" domestically and this is not easy, trust me. Our audience is spoiled with variety of TV channels and Internet sources and it is very uneasy to attract its attention. Therefore, it is difficult to gain high rating but we have already managed to improve our performance.

As known, the President resolved to allocate 6 MM. AZN to support production of local TV series. These funds lasted for two years but they were enough to launch the process. Today TV series are produced with sponsors' funds or TV channels' own resources.

Internationally, TV channels buy TV series from a producer centre, then produce pilot episodes, broadcast them and if their rating meets expectations, they continue production. We have a different system. One option is when a TV channel places an order with a producer centre (or film company) and adjusts production with the TV channel's budget. Another option is when a producer centre offers written script and available sponsorship support to the management of a TV channel to broadcast the show.

Our company cooperates with ATV channel and the channel uses both options, i.e. they produce TV series and place orders with production companies.

Positive moment is that nowadays, advertisement companies express their interest while it was impossible to convince them two years ago that their commercials will pay off. But there is a nuance: for now, advertisement companies pay the bill and sometimes dictate what show will be broadcasted on what TV channel.

And in this sense TV series make overall TV channels level grow. Because they can lose not just audience but also money. Therefore, in future when competition increases, trust me, their management will do something to improve quality of their TV programs.

Another peculiarity of local TV series is that their main target audience is women, according to producers and advertisement companies. It means drama is the main genre of local TV series.

Many complain that there are no serious intellectual TV series which will cover broader audience. But we need to be realistic. This audience belongs to the cable TV channels, such as Discovery, American, Turkish, Russian TV shows. With all willingness we will not be able to reorient the audience to local TV.

As I said, naturally, we cannot and will not focus on popular demand only which prefers only dramas and comedies but trying to remake such TV shows as House MD would mean, first, losing the audience and second, making laugh of our work. We simply do not have capacities, either technical, or financial to produce such TV shows today. Besides, today we cannot afford to produce series for different age groups or audiences with different preferences.

Commercials market also does not offer us such capacity today. We cannot afford to produce detective or mystic series even if there are authors, technical support and money for it. These genres will not have sufficient audience. Therefore, we move towards our goals step by step.

Work to be done...

But I am sure that in five - maximum ten years Azerbaijan will produce more than one TV series that will allow not only increasing ratings of the local TV channels but to export those TV shows and make money. And this is not simply my words, this is a conclusion based on many-years study of this area from within. We started producing TV series in complex circumstances of limited budget and lack of audience interest, we continued doing it during crisis period and we already managed to win certain audience. And if foreign cinema workers admire our ability to produce one episode for 2000 euro, it means we really can make it.

I even believe that those complex starting circumstances made us learn much better and be more creative inventing ways of doing "more for less price". In future we will benefit from this experience.

So, recently born TV series sector makes its first steps today. And today I am sure that it makes firm steps and starts growing. Besides, I fully support decision of the National Council for TV and Radio which paved the way for this process because Azerbaijan like any other country needs to create its own product giving the audience the right to choose, of course.

But our TV series have to be different from others, they have to reflect our cultural and mental values, traditions, peculiarities.

I believe that ideally, there have to be 10-12 production companies to speed up the process and make it more efficient. Today they are just three or four and just three TV channels can afford broadcast of local series. But considering the result that we achieved for three years I am confident that we have good chances.

BIG CINEMA SCREENS

Our interlocutor is Ilham Gasimov, director and producer:

Our audience is used to the certain quality of movies dictated by American, Turkish, Russian and European cinematography. I.e. the audience is used to the certain quality of plot, picture and sound. And in order to win the audience we, those who produce commercial movies in Azerbaijan, have to at least offer them the product of the similar quality.

It is obvious. If a spectator comes to the premiere of a movie due to patriotic feelings, acquaintance with the actors or just for love of art, or not his coming back next time will depend on whether or not he likes the movie. If disappointed, he will prefer foreign movie next time.

Of course, ideally, movies have to generate profit for both the cinemas and producers. But unfortunately, currently, Azerbaijani movies do not make profit about which we read about with surprise in mass media.

In order to satisfy the audience with high quality product, domestic movie production requires at least USD 400000-500000 and even this amount is very low. But we have resources almost three times lower. And those expenses do not even pay off. In other words, potentially we can produce a good movie but financially we are far behind. For this reason movies do not have needed quality even visually.

Yes, producer has to expect profit, and increasing number of cinema theatres seem to provide that profit. Indeed, number of cinema theatres is not sufficient yet and therefore, in the best case, they make it possible only to recover expenses.

There is another nuance. Some producers think only of profit and have unrealistic expectations to get something like 200% profit. It is a matter of their greed and, unfortunately, incompetence because such profit level is exclusive incidents but not a rule in the cinematography. And even well-known foreign film companies that produce 15 movies a year can expect that only 3-4 of them will be successful. This is how they make profit but success in this case means 30-40% profit. Of course, we do not have such companies and number of our movies produced every year is much less.

But I think it's positive that the process has already started. And today audience of local movies in the cinema theatres is much bigger than it was last year. It means we can do something and we gradually win trust of local audience. But as I said, there should be more cinema theatres and something has to be done to create or recreate culture of going to cinema.

Let me speak about positive sides and how to make them more positive

 I am not supportive of any revolutionary developments in national cinematography, on the contrary, everything has to go naturally. We just need to keep working but not sit idly.

Today advertisement companies get interested in the national cinema as they see it pays off. I do not mean praising our movie but the fact is that the first "Oglan Evi" got over one million views only on YouTube for less than a month! Adding number of spectators in the cinemas, we get quite a big target audience.

But conclusion is not "we are tough, we did it!" no. The conclusion is that we made the first step, attracted first substantial investments which will bring us dividends tomorrow. It means we will keep producing movies, gaining necessary experience, improving our skills, looking for other genres etc.

Many criticize us for our focus on comedies. Sorry but this is classical genre. people love comedies, especially during crisis period. And we start working in this area of commercial cinematography and thus, need to consider all factors, not only our love of cinema. We are not millionaires just to invest money which we have not that much, by the way. We do love cinema, we love what we do but we make business plan to get substantial profit in due time. For now, it is simply impossible.

In today's Azerbaijan romantic, mercantile or long-term oriented people produce movies.

The latter will build up commercial movie market in the country. And they understand that first of all, they need to focus on rating and attracting the audience. But necessarily they need to try sending some message to that audience. Overall, cinematography has to educate audience, teach something good and kind.

But it would be wrong to require too much from local cinematographers. How long did our cinematography "sleep"? But the world cinema industry did not stand still. And today we have to catch up. So, the fact that today we managed to win trust and interest of the local audience is a big progress. And tomorrow we can make another step forward.

It is important to grow domestically and creatively to be competitive in commercial terms with Russia, Turkey, Europe, and America. We need everyday practice and that is what we do today. Actually, producing our own movies, we learn by our and others mistakes. Besides, we are not prepared for big and serious cinematography also financially, as I said. Therefore, we need to bring up serious professionals at first. And for that purpose, we need to work! Without producing movies, we cannot become serious cinematographers.

An option to invite foreign specialists to produce high quality local movies is not fully correct. Yes, they will produce high quality picture and sound. But that movie will not have Azerbaijani soul. Cinema is a very subtle substance and to ensure development of really good Azerbaijani cinematography in future, our local directors, cameramen, sound directors, actors etc. have to keep working. We need to bring up our specialists and our audience.

About government support

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism is focused on production of so-called festival movies aimed at getting international community acquainted with traditions, history and culture of our country. This is important and necessary, of course. But alas, this will not make profit.

Commercial cinema is first of all, a pop-culture element, because to win the mass audience you have to create hit-song, block-buster that everybody will listen/watch. It is like soccer that promotes a country in the world. Yes, art-house movies also can become popular but only in certain circles. But only popular movie can hit the box-office.

The government does not finance production of such movies for a simple reason - they are expensive. And we do not ask for money, all we need is support. In this regard, it would be good to create Cinema Fund which will define quotas for anyone who would want to produce potential hit movie. We need to understand that the more people are engaged in the cinema industry, the higher competition will be and the better final product will be made.

Besides, today it is especially important as our culture has devalued for last years. And the government - the Ministry of Culture and Tourism could use commercial cinema as a platform for introducing necessary propaganda in the audience subconsciously.

A teenager gets certain messages through movies that bring him up. Why not to send messages through movies about family values, friendship, loyalty? We, cinema producers, try to do that at our level. But there should be more of us. And I am surprised that the government - the Ministry of Culture and Tourism does not make such offer to young cinematographers supporting them with small investments in production. Alas, we do not have Cinema Fund but we need it. Because we have many talented, creative young people who are eager and able to do something specific and needed. In such case after five years we will see specific outcomes including financial ones.

The article is produced in cooperation with EU-Eastern Partnership Culture and Creativity Programme.

www.culturepartnership.eu  

www.facebook.com/culturepartnership

Natalie Alexandrova

Photos provided by the heroes of the interview

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