The team behind 2018’s Mallen Scholars and Practitioners Conference in Filmed Entertainment Economics recently released a short film, Mallen20 Conference – Celebrating Movie Art and Science, about the event at which ICCE’s Michael Franklin was an invited participant.

by Michael Franklin

Over three days at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf in Potsdam Germany, multiple teams comprised of academics from the EU, America, Australia and China worked alongside industry professionals including many from MPAA Studios and global SVOD players. The teams worked to address key practical challenges using collaborative research best practice. Michael worked with colleagues at universities in Germany, France, Spain and the US, including Mallen Award winner Prof, Natasha Foutz and UFA producer Ulrike Leibfried (Deutchland ‘83 & ‘86) to develop research on leveraging data analytics for producers’ decision support.

The team benefited from an excellent business model presentation by President / CEO Charlie Woebcke at his Studio Babelsberg, which both hosts inward investment productions (Isle of Dogs – Fox Searchlight; Charlie’s Angels – SONY) and co-produces Cannes competition titles (Terrence Malick’s Hidden Life). The lot also houses a state-of-the-art Volumetric capture studio.

Michael works with his colleagues on leveraging analytics from the film producer’s perspective  which was presented at FilmTech MeetUp Berlin at Mindspace Krausenstrasse. The project allows for application of postdoctoral research findings regarding the way data can be used to manage risk, and the importance of new technology to this creative field.