Television producers meet to improve creativity

The four-day meeting was a first of its kind here, in the sense that the German and French cultural centres came together especially to make it possible. The two centres' directors, Eleonore Sylla and Sullivan Benetier respectively, wanted to do something practical to help raise the ability of local television producers and editors and thought this quite suitable.

From their observations, since being in the country, they had noticed that there was a lack of professionalism in this area of television presentation. Then it occurred to them to revive an idea that had started with Sullivan's predecessor, Didier Martin. That was when they asked for the assistance of an editor on the French/German cultural and news television channel called Arte, Marie-Anne Lacono and a production coordinator colleague from the same station called Lothaire Burg, to co-ordinate this workshop.

This European cultural television channel originality lays in the fact that it targets audiences from different cultural backgrounds, in particular French and German. They have a broadcasting experience over the past 20 years and have shown that their name stands not only for innovative television but also for the fundamental values set out in their mission statement.

The City's-base filmmaker, Deepesh Shapriya, was given the task of acting like a bridge between the 12 local producers and the visitors. He had spent over ten years in Germany, so had an understanding of the two cultures therefore, it was thought would help make things move smoother during the workshop. Local cartoonist of the "Kingo" strips cum film producer, James Gayo, was one of the 12 participants that attended the four-day workshop.

Seeing he has had a interest in television from time, he thought it would be useful to join this workshop. Chances are he would pick-up some constructive points towards producing better quality programmes, when opportunity comes. For Gayo, workshops are the only school in the country, to some of the technical aspects of film and television production. They are the only source of knowledge and information, as far as he knows, for there are no film or production schools here.

Source: allAfrica