FilmBrazil, officially launched this week, is a project created and funded by a group of production companies affiliated with APRO, the Brazilian Association of Producers of Audiovisual Works, as well as providers of sound production, finalization and rental services. The idea is to tell the international advertising market about the advantages of producing in Brazil. Publicity activities will begin at the Cannes International Advertising Festival in June. FilmBrazil will also have a trilingual Web site (in English, Spanish and Portuguese) to publicize the affiliated companies and activities in Brazil. According to Eitan Rosenthal, coordinator of the project, the Portuguese part of the site will be up and running in about two weeks, and the other two languages in a month.
Currency depreciation has driven up production companies? costs, Eitan Rosenthal explains, but they face difficulties in passing the increase along to advertisers because of market conditions. ?The project will open up opportunities for growth and we?ll be able to work with more realistic pricing,? he says.
Paulo Schmidt, chairman of APRO, says FilmBrazil isn?t just moving to raise international awareness of the services available in Brazil. It?s also working with the Brazilian Government to have the project included in the Development, Industry & Trade Ministry?s export policy programs and to have Ancine, the national film agency, review the criteria for defining national production. Under current rules an advertising film with a foreign director isn?t considered national even if it has a 100% Brazilian crew and has to pay higher dues.
Audiovisual
