Infrastructure

Croatia goes cross-media

2013 · cross-media and multi-platform storytelling workshop · professional training program

A practical cross-media training hub linking Croatian and European screen professionals in Zagreb.

Praktična radionica cross-media pripovijedanja koja je u Zadru povezala hrvatske i europske filmske profesionalce.

Croatia goes cross-media — production still

This project credentials: Cross-media & events · Workshops & mentoring

Notes from the producer

We ran one real edition, in Zadar at the end of August 2013, and it actually worked. Eight selected, five in the room after cancellations, mentors flown in, five days of lectures and one-to-one work, and every line documented down to the accommodation invoices. On a quarter of the HAVC money we asked for, that was the job.

The scale-up is the part I won't dress up. The 2014 Zagreb edition never happened. Creative Europe scored us 56 out of 100, we lost Media Desk and the Film Forum Zadar partnership, and the 2015 restart I asked HAVC to approve is not something I can point to as finished. What I keep from it is proof, not a trophy: that I can build a cross-media training node from an open call to a filed report, and that the method survives a thin budget even when the institutions don't follow through.

- Matija Radeljak

The story

Croatia goes cross-media (CGCM) started from a producer's diagnosis rather than a marketing hook: in a small film market, storytelling, financing and audience strategy are taught in separate rooms, and authors walk out still unable to make a project stand on its own. Aning Film's answer was to put those disciplines in one room for a few days. Registrations opened bilingually on 8 July 2013, and the first edition ran in Zadar from 25 to 29 August 2013, slotted into the Zadar Film Forum and Avvantura festival window.

Matija Radeljak and Bojan Kanjera built it as a working lab, not a conference stage. The open call selected eight participants from twelve applications; after late cancellations five actually sat down with the mentors, and the full cycle of lectures, case studies and one-to-one work ran anyway. The mentor bench was international from the start, including Nuno Bernardo, Esther Wouda, Irena Krcelic, Jean Pierre Magro and Alison Norrington, and the programme leaned on cooperation with MEDIA Desk Croatia and support from the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC).

Money was the constant pressure. The December 2012 concept budget stood at 12.652,75 EUR, but by March 2013 HAVC had approved only a quarter of the requested complementary-activity funds, and tuition had to be raised mid-call from 295 to 450 EUR. The edition was carried and documented to the invoice: accommodation bills of 4.331,56 and 6.147,59 HRK from November 2013 sit in the archive next to a narrative report, dated 14 October 2013, that records the first edition as a success despite the withdrawals. The public cycle matched the internal discipline, with bilingual press releases and coverage in Cineuropa, tportal, EAVE, Culturenet and moj-film, plus two short video reports.

The plan was never a one-off. A December 2013 call announced a larger second edition in Zagreb, and the 2014 design added a business-planning spine and heavier names: Domenico La Porta, Linda Beath and Rajko Grlic, with Canon Croatia as partner and first steps toward registering a Cross-media institut Croatia. The Creative Europe MEDIA training application went in on 23 May 2014.

It did not land. In October 2014 the application scored 56 out of 100, below the co-financing threshold, and the 2014 edition was cancelled; the loss of Media Desk support and of the Film Forum Zadar partnership are named as the decisive blows. A February 2015 request asked HAVC to approve a restructured plan and run the workshop that September in Zagreb, but the archive does not record how that closed.

So the honest shape of CGCM is one edition delivered and a platform that never recurred. What it proves is narrower and real: the studio can design and run an international cross-media training event, from an open call to a filed report, on partial public money, without pretending the budget was bigger than it was.

Milestones

2013-07-08 — Bilingual open call opens registrations for the first edition
2013-08 — First edition delivered in Zadar (25-29 August), within the Zadar Film Forum / Avvantura window
2013-10-14 — Narrative report records the first edition as successfully completed
2014-05-23 — Creative Europe MEDIA training application submitted for the Zagreb scale-up
2014-10 — Creative Europe result: 56/100, below threshold; 2014 edition cancelled
2015-02-02 — Request to HAVC to approve a restructured plan and run the workshop in September 2015

Outcomes

First edition delivered (2013) — Zadar workshop completed and documented as successful in the 14 October 2013 narrative report, despite late participant withdrawals.
Creative Europe MEDIA application submitted — Training application for the 2014 Zagreb scale-up filed on 23 May 2014.
2014 edition not held — The planned second edition was cancelled after the funding shortfall.
Creative Europe result: 56/100 — October 2014 evaluation fell below the co-financing threshold.
Lost institutional support — Loss of Media Desk Hrvatska backing and of the Film Forum Zadar partnership cited as decisive causes of the 2014 cancellation.

Credits

Matija Radeljak — Producer and co-organizer
Bojan Kanjera — Producer and co-organizer
Aning FILM — Organizer and production company
Nuno Bernardo — Mentor (beActive Media)
Esther Wouda — Mentor
Irena Krcelic — Mentor
Jean Pierre Magro — Mentor
Alison Norrington — Mentor
Domenico La Porta — Transmedia expert (2014 plan)
Linda Beath — Business-planning specialist (2014 plan)
Rajko Grlic — Special workshop guest (2014 plan)
Canon Croatia — Partner and supporter