Behind the scenes of an online live festival

Seriale in the corona year 2020

Festival director Csongor Dobrotka was at Buenos Aires Series Festival in March and had already noticed the excitement about the virus on this trip when it had not even reached people’s consciousness in Germany: “I had already thought about an alternative early on. Our festival is very internationally oriented, and I suspected that many creators would not be able to come.” But a year without Seriale? That was out of the question! So alternatives were considered – how could a great festival be set up in such a short time and bring together all the participants from all over the world? – Through an online live festival! Of course, it entailed some challenges that were new to everyone. But it was not thought through for a long time. It was simply done – according to the motto “learning by doing”.

Fifty homeworkers in video chats began to work persistently behind the scenes. We learned that an online festival – organized from home, on the couch – takes as much time as a regular festival. Everything is in full swing at work, and nobody rests during the event.

The first obstacle that had to be overcome was that all streaming equipment was initially sold out during the lockdown. We had to communicate with all creators of the series of the Official Selection whether they accepted to present their series online. Only a few of them denied it.

We tried to simply transfer the basic idea and structure of the festival into the internet.

Festival director Csongor Dobrotka opened the Seriale in 2020 digitally. © die Seriale

All panels and presentations of the Seriale Pro took place in zoom meetings with the usual exchange and discussion. The biggest difficulty was probably the digital exchange. The different time zones of the international participants made the planning complex. In addition, there were unusual details such as technical questions, which had to be communicated. After all, the event should not fail because of a failing internet connection.

The online version of the festival was accompanied by a special premiere at Seriale Pro 2020, the world’s first online market specifically for web series DIMA-Digital Market, a Seriale project in cooperation with Minnesota Webfest and Bilbao Seriesland, which can be accessed at www.dima-market.com. There, serial creators and producers can present their projects to potential buyers, co-producers and platforms.

Festival director Csongor Dobrotka and Jens Bambauer during the Livestream of the Red Carpet Event at the computer, Dascha Solovieva and Mario Köppen were the hosts of the red carpets. © Christoforos Mechanezidis

As the highlights of the festival die Seriale, the Red Carpet Event and the Award Ceremony seemed to be the biggest challenge at the beginning because the team wanted to create a glamorous and festive evening for everyone, despite the distance. Just like in the last years.

On the Red Carpet of the Seriale, this time not only pictures were taken, and the Award Ceremony was awaited full of anticipation. It was important for festival director Csongor Dobrotka to develop a glamorous character despite the distance and to offer all participants the same special anticipation as usual. Even if you sit on the couch at home, you should be able to celebrate winning a prize, and for that, you need the right atmosphere!

It was decided to invite all 120 creators of the web series to a live zoom meeting to conduct short interviews. Dascha Solovieva and Marius Köppen led us through the evening – live from the Red Carpet in Gießen! The biggest challenge in organizing the event was the digital communication and the coordination of the interviews according to their time differences. Not every participant answered immediately, and so the organization took a long time. But even if not everything went smoothly and temporarily not working microphones made communication difficult, it finally became a festive event.

The Award Ceremony in pictures © die Seriale
The Award Ceremony is usually the glamorous ending of a great Seriale week. Here, it was essential to develop an event with stage character and flair – despite the distance. “But to broadcast the ceremony live seemed to be almost impossible, because of the delay between the live broadcasts”, means Csongor Dobrotka. So a script was written, and the ceremony in feature film length was partly shot in advance. The filming of the moderations took place at two different locations – Cologne and Giessen – as our hosts Magdalena Kaim, Axel Ricke und Henning Ricke live in different cities.

The speeches of the festival’s sponsors Dietlind Grabe-Bolz, Mayor of the City of Giessen and Anna Schoeppe, CEO of HessenFilm und Medien, have been filmed in advance. Likewise, the musical performances of the band Safran were recorded for the event, and all this under corona protection measures.

Filming of the speech of Mayor Dietlind Grabe-Bolz for the Award Ceremony. Csongor Dobrotka (from left), Annette Eidmann (Cultural Office) und Dietlind Grabe-Bolz (Mayor of the City of Giessen) © Christoforos Mechanezidis

Also, the communication with our 24 jury members was not easy due to the distance. They had the task of picking the winners of the 19 Seriale Awards from a total of 71 competition entries from 18 countries. It was a difficult mission, especially because of the high quality of the submitted productions and the variety of entries.

In order to enable a speech of thanks to the winner of the Best Series, all finalists were invited to a separate zoom room to bring the winner live after the announcement. All other nominees were informed and invited in advance. “We are very thankful that everybody worked very well and very dedicated so that this event became a great success!” Csongor Dobrotka thanks his team and the creators.

The numerous positive feedbacks show us that die Seriale as an online live event succeeded. The series sequences on Videmic that were available free of charge were clicked on 110,000 times.

“We were grateful that many series creators from all over the world and a record number of 57 speakers during the Seriale Pro were able to participate at the Seriale 2020”, says Csongor Dobrotka. At this point, the online version turned out to be maybe an advantage because not everyone usually has the time and possibility to come to Giessen.

Now the preparations of the Seriale 2021 from 2nd to 7th June 2021 are in full swing. Looking forward to a great Official Selection with 50 series and 9 pilots from 19 countries of all genres, ready to stream for free, a live digital networking and conference event at Seriale Pro, this year including a series pitch contest. The best digital series will be honoured at the Award Ceremony on 6th June. Watch the series celebrities on the virtual red carpet giving short interviews.

Authors: Sarah Luibrand, Birgit Schweitzer