After a busy week at last February’s Berlin International Film Festival, CWB’s James Ulmer and Tanja Meding met up with U.S. indie producer Rachel Klein, whose visit to Berlin turned out to be her own personal “world premiere.” We were eager to hear what brought her to the festival and retrieve some first-hand insights from this spunky New Yorker.
At the end of 2008, Klein relocated from New York to Los Angeles, where she is currently producing television’s “UFC Primetime” and serving as production manager for “Steven Seagal: Lawman.”
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One of Klein’s most high-profile projects is co-chairing, along with veteran producer Gale Anne Hurd, the Producers Guild of America’s annual “Produced By” conference, which debuted last June at Sony Pictures Studio Lot in Culver City. This year’s edition is held June 4-6 at 20th Century Fox Studios, and features industry leaders from film, television and new media discussing all areas of the producer’s craft, including financing, content development, production and marketing. The conference also provides ample networking opportunities for its more than 1,200 participants.
So far, this year’s guest speakers include such top-tier producers as billionaior entrepreneur Mark Cuban, Brian Grazer, Paula Wagner, Grant Heslov, David Picker, and Starlight Runner’s Jeff Gomez, tone of the leaders of the emerging field of “transmedia storytelling”. More names will be added as the conference approaches.
This years’ edition will offer more than 30 conference sessions covering all areas of production and distribution, including discussions on the quickly emerging field of transmedia,where ongoing storylines are told across multiple media platforms that successfully leverage an array of media channels and offer mass audience “entry points” into the storylines themselves.
“Only in its second year, the Produced By Conference has exceeded my wildest expectations, in its scope and service,” reports Hurd. “The role of the producer is a critical one, and through our various programming elements we hope its importance and relevance resonates with our fellow producers, as well as the larger entertainment industry. “
Returning from last year is the Producers Challenge Contest, a competition for narrative and documentary shorts, as well as independent, studio and network-produced webisodes which will be judged by a variety of leading producers still to be determined.
A new addition to the 3-day conference is the Co-Pro-Show, an opportunity for five pre-selected internationally-based producers to present their feature-length projects to their Hollywood peers.
Among last year’s speakers were James Cameron, Clint Eastwood & Rob Lorenz, Brian Grazer & Ron Howard, Lucy Fisher & Doug Wick, Mark Gordon, Gail Anne Hurd and Kathleen Kennedy.
This years PRODUCED BY conference promises to be even bigger and better than last year. For the latest trends and developments in film, TV and New Media production, the PRODUCED BY CONFERENCE is your one-stop-shop. And watch out for Rachel Klein, who will be there to ensure that things run smoothly.
For more information on the PGA conference, the Producers Challenge and the Co-Pro-Show please visit www.producedbyconference.com.