Lights, Camera, Auction
August 26, 2005
The Moscow Times
By Tom Birchenough
As Russia waits for any real development in transferring parts of its film industry into private hands [...]
In 2004, private investors took ownership of the Vilnius-based Lithuanian Film Studio, and last month, Armenia headed in a similar direction. Yerevan's historic Armenfilm, founded in 1923 and long part of the rich film tradition of the Caucasus, passed into the hands of the well-connected local media group CS Media City, or CSMC, and its subsidiary Armenia Film Studios, for the sum of 350 million drams (just over $750,000).
[...]
Now, despite its august history and continuing difficulties, priorities for the newly privatized studio look more than up-to-date, especially in promoting lower-budget production using digital filming equipment, which could give greater flexibility to the studio's new management by removing the need for difficult laboratory processing. "Digital cinematography ... [offers the] possibility to reduce the gap between countries with extremely developed film industries and countries where annually only a couple of movies are being shot," wrote Edgar Baghdasaryan, the director of Armenia Film Studios, in an online statement.
[...]
Though the price of the deal may look on the low side, CSMC has pledged to invest as much as $66 million in the studio over the next 10 years. In addition, it has promised to support four new local feature films a year, as well as associated short-film and animation work. The first fruits of the media company's work, in the form of two local productions, "Arshile" and "Mariam," are already under way.
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
The Moscow Times
By Tom Birchenough
As Russia waits for any real development in transferring parts of its film industry into private hands [...]
In 2004, private investors took ownership of the Vilnius-based Lithuanian Film Studio, and last month, Armenia headed in a similar direction. Yerevan's historic Armenfilm, founded in 1923 and long part of the rich film tradition of the Caucasus, passed into the hands of the well-connected local media group CS Media City, or CSMC, and its subsidiary Armenia Film Studios, for the sum of 350 million drams (just over $750,000).
[...]
Now, despite its august history and continuing difficulties, priorities for the newly privatized studio look more than up-to-date, especially in promoting lower-budget production using digital filming equipment, which could give greater flexibility to the studio's new management by removing the need for difficult laboratory processing. "Digital cinematography ... [offers the] possibility to reduce the gap between countries with extremely developed film industries and countries where annually only a couple of movies are being shot," wrote Edgar Baghdasaryan, the director of Armenia Film Studios, in an online statement.
[...]
Though the price of the deal may look on the low side, CSMC has pledged to invest as much as $66 million in the studio over the next 10 years. In addition, it has promised to support four new local feature films a year, as well as associated short-film and animation work. The first fruits of the media company's work, in the form of two local productions, "Arshile" and "Mariam," are already under way.
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
posted by Vahe Balabanian at 10:34 AM
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