Новини

Isabelle Fauvel is a story editor and development advisor. Starting her career as a producer, in 1993 she founded Initiative Film, a consulting company specializing in the development process. Upon becoming an artistic director, story editor of specific projects, she manages numerous professional meetings bridging different industries, especially between the publishing and the producing worlds as one of her fields of expertise is adaptation.

Within the framework of festivals and international forums she supports talents in their search for partnerships. She has been coming to Sofia Meetings for four years now for individual working sessions with the selected participants helping them prepare for the pitching.

‘When you have to pitch in front of an audience, it is always stressful,’ says Isabel. People are usually so close to their stories that they don’t know what to deliver in just five minutes. These people are usually in the middle of the developing process, so their project is not cooked yet. They try to pitch on me and I am like a mirror. In the conversation that we have afterwards, I tell them what was very efficient, what was confusing and if there were any missing elements. Since I am not emotionally close to these projects I can be more objective. I also try to give them confidence. And we discuss what will be most appropriate to use in a particular event for a particular project like images, for example, so that we don’t give a wrong impression about the project.

In each place I have to adapt, because here you have mostly people from Eastern Europe, so in a way they all have the same problems. When I do it in Istanbul, for example, their Meetings under the Bridge are only for Turkish projects and directors who would like to meet foreign producers. I would prefer to have individual meetings with people, not to work in group sessions, because they are more like lessons and you can’t be very specific.

I like the fact that I don’t know those people and they don’t know me because you have to connect very quickly and if you don’t, then it means that you have something to work on, maybe they are not ready yet to pitch or they have not prepared very well.   

I hate to pitch myself. I am good in pitching something in which I am not involved, because of the distance I feel more confident. I am very exhausted after the pitching of the people I consult though because I am worried if they will do it right. What I don’t like is that in some places, not in Sofia Meetings, they would like the pitchings to be done in a particular, very strict frame. I believe that it is useful to show your personality when pitching because off course, the story is important, but also if someone likes your story but somehow feels that cannot connect or communicate with you, then it saves times to both sides. On the other hand, if there was something in your story that they didn’t like too much, but the liked you and they feel they could speak and work with you, then it’s good. Don’t hide yourself in the pitching. You have to share your desire why is it necessary for you to do this film.

When you travel around the world you are never responsible for the quality of the material that you receive, but this year the quality throughout is very high. Sofia Meetings has an amazing way to keep its audience year after year. Normally in this industry people are getting bored very easily. They will go to a certain place once, twice and that’s it. But Sofia Meetings keeps their interest and they keep on coming back which is very good. Also, on these kinds of events I normally have nobody to help me but on Sofia Meetings I have Mila Kiratzova on my side and she is precious, because by taking care of everything else she lets me concentrate on my work, that is to adapt to a different person and energy every half of hour and try to help them.’