TV Beats Forum, an industry-oriented counterpart to the TV Beats programme of Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event presents case-studies of several high-profile TV series. Wendy Mitchell and Kathleen McInnis moderate the two-day event with an interesting programme.

Among this year’s highlights of the TV Beats Forum is the case study of the highly acclaimed HBO series Chernobyl with the series Lithuanian co-producer UAB Baltic Film Services producer Lineta Miseikyte (production manager of Defiance, 2008). During the discussion, Miseikyte will provide the perspective from a local production house working with a major studio on a production that kept growing throughout and took place in three different jurisdictions simultaneously – the US, UK and Lithuania.

Marge Liiske, head of Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event commented: “We are extremely excited to continue working with our regions creative talents. We are always seeking ways to improve local series production and storytelling, and to attract more international productions to shoot here. One of our long-term goals is to build a regional series content market in Tallinn primarily aimed at the Baltic Sea and Scandinavian countries (including Iceland) and Ukraine, similar to what we are doing with films in the Baltic Event co-production market.”

Another high-profile international co-production in focus this year is The Feed, starring David Thewlis and Michelle Fairley and written by Channing Powell (producer of Walking Dead). The series premiered in the UK via Virgin Media in September and will be available on Amazon Prime elsewhere. Three all3media international representatives – Executive Vice President of EMEA & European Co-Productions Stephen Driscoll, Acquisitions Executive Laura White and Sales Manager Debra Bergg – will be sharing their experience on working with the four companies that were involved in production: Studio Lambert in association with all3media international, Liberty Global and Amazon.

The third case study highlights the growing efforts and successes of Finnish-Estonian co-production by focusing on the Finnish crime series All the Sins, funded by Finnish telecommunication service provider Elisa that has recently opened its own VOD service as well. Speakers include series creator/writer Mika Ronkainen (was co-created and co-written with Merja Aakko), producer Ilkka Matila and the Estonian co-producer Kris Taska.

Also among the speakers at TV Beats Forum is Icelandic producer Kristinn Thordarson (Kristinn Þórðarson) explaining how the tiny isolated country has become a hotspot for international production and manages to create series that travel globally. Thordarson will be sharing her experience working on The Valhalla Murders, the first series that Netflix has produced in Iceland.

This year’s TV Beats Forum also tackles VOD content creation in Russia. The discussion round welcomes the team behind the new series Call Center, as the creators Natasha Merkulova and Alexey Chupov (directors of the 2018 Venice Official Competition entry The Man Who Surprised Everyone) and producers Valeriy Fedorovich and Evgeniy Nikishov from Premier Studios (behind series Gogol and An Ordinary Woman, which have screened in the festival’s TV Beats programme previously) are confirmed as speakers. Call center follows employees of an online sex-shop, who find themselves shut inside their office by terrorists, who call themselves “Mommy and Daddy”.

TV Beats Forum is the newest addition to the Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event conference programme held during Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, reacting to the real demand of the industry as the series market is taking over from film, and the demand for content by global streaming platforms is ever increasing.

TV Beats Forum will take place on November 25 and 26, 2019. Over the two days, various discussion panels, keynote interviews, presentations and workshops, as well as crossmatching events with other Industry@Tallinn activities will take place.

Check out the full programme of TV Beats Forum with intriguing discussion panels, case studies and fireside chats.