FOCAL 
Foundation for professional training in cinema and audiovisual media

FOCAL, founded in 1990, is an umbrella organisation which aims to develop and promote creative, technical and entrepreneurial skills among professionals in the areas of film, audiovisual arts and new media.

Our further training programme encompasses all the elements in the production process: screenwriting and project development, production, markets and rights, directing, grip-work, photography, sound and lighting, multimedia and new technologies, pros-production, animation, distribution and exhibition as well as film criticism and theory.

FOCAL's activities are intended for professionals in all branches of the audiovisual arts. The programme of our seminars comes out four times a year.

Portrait

FOCAL is for professionals: FOCAL provides the opportunity for practical further education and training. Its programme is conceived and designed to complement and enhance a practice-oriented, life-long learning process, and not to replace basic education.

FOCAL promotes contacts and networking: Courses, forum events and seminars provide the opportunity for meaningful and useful encounters outside the usual pressured working environment. The result is a dynamic exchange among a wide variety of professional groups and individuals.

FOCAL operates nationally and internationally: The quality of the programme and the lecturers attracts participants from around the world. Successful collaboration with European institutions and partners in the profession plays an important role in the networking between Swiss film and audiovisual professionals and in the integration of Swiss film into the European scene.

FOCAL emphasises diversity: Its programme is targeted at all areas in the field of film and audiovisual art. The material and methods that FOCAL promotes are not devoted to any particular school or trend.

FOCAL stands for quality: FOCAL is built upon twenty years of experience. 14'000 participants have attended over 650 courses, seminars and other events to date. Both the participants and the lecturers have come to appreciate the programme offered and the Foundation's flexible structure: Many of them regularly attend the FOCAL seminars or return as lecturers.

FOCAL is in a constant state of development: The foundation is a living organisation and regularly evaluates its goals and its programmes in order to best serve the changes that are constantly taking place in the cinematic and audiovisual industry.

Purpose and Objectives

The FOCAL Foundation has been given the task of strengthening the film culture. FOCAL develops, organises and conducts a professional further training programme in close collaboration with and specifically for the cinematic and audiovisual industry.

FOCAL supports and promotes working professionals in the development of their talents and skills. FOCAL contributes to industry competition by helping its professionals to develop both culturally and economically, by maintaining a high level of quality and by safeguarding its independence. FOCAL is incorporated into the Swiss government's efforts to promote film, and as such, supports these efforts through its educational programmes.

The Foundation is devoted to building up a culture of professional training and to consolidating ‘know-how' within the film industry. Of particular interest to FOCAL are sustainability, the transfer of knowledge and the exchange across several generations. These objectives can be achieved through practical programmes that are directly relevant to the demands of professional life and that are based on the background experience of those engaged in the film and audiovisual industry.

Although the Foundation is an institution which provides further education and training for active professionals, it works in close co-operation and exchange with basic training institutions (specialised colleges, universities, etc.).

Programmes and Content

The Foundation's programme of activities is designed to accommodate the needs formulated by industry associations, professional groups, individuals and institutions. The programme of activities is developed on the basis of these inputs and specifically tailored to individual areas of the profession.

The major focus is on creative, technical and entrepreneurial know-how, but the courses also seek to include theoretical and analytical discussions about the Seventh Art and all its related forms.

FOCAL has a broad idea of the concept of further education and professional training; it encompasses also issues of personality and individual development and the broadening of horizons.

FOCAL closely observes international trends in the media and the marketplace, takes up current topics of interest and passes them on as stimuli to the industry. The Foundation provides the industry with access to information, gives it orientation and creates the framework in which ideas can take shape.

FOCAL sees its role as a Workshop of the Future for film and audiovisual production by critically appraising accepted models, thought and work methodology and by offering possible alternatives. In doing so, FOCAL seeks to consciously influence the development of the audiovisual scene in Switzerland.

Teaching Methods

The teaching methods are adapted to the specific requirements of the target groups and the programme of activities incorporate a wide diversity of forms of learning and exchange - such as day courses, long-term courses, seminars, conferences, events and information workshops.

Besides the conferences that examine both current and future audiovisual matters, and are thus unique, an important part of the Foundation's programme consists of seminars which are conceived as cyclic and can be repeated in a continuously evolving form or can be combined into a modular curriculum package. All the activities offered are co-ordinated with each other. FOCAL makes every effort to integrate the various programme elements through networked thinking and inter-disciplinary statements.

FOCAL also operates information and discussion platforms on the Internet and provides personal consulting.

Target Groups

The programme is designed for all active professionals in the film, television and audiovisual industry and other related areas (new media, etc.). The programme is also directed at film school graduates who would like to expand their education and increase their contacts within the industry, and at decision-makers in governing bodies that deal with the audiovisual industry. The courses are accessible to anyone who fulfils the necessary professional requirements.

FOCAL is particularly interested in making a long-lasting contribution to the development of skills and in promoting new young talent.

Organisation and Implementation of the Courses

In order to guarantee the greatest possible proximity to "real-world" practical experience, FOCAL employs highly qualified professionals from at home and abroad as lecturers. They are assisted by organizers who are familiar with the needs of their peers. Through a methodical didactic educational programme, they can support and advise the lecturers whenever necessary. In this way the organizers have the opportunity to actively participate in influencing FOCAL's policies and philosophy for further education and professional training, which is then represented to the public.

Course participants are handed out scripts and dossiers, which give them the opportunity to expand and strengthen what they have learned. The secretariat takes care of the administrative aspects of the courses.

Assessment and Performance Evaluation

n order to examine its performance, maintain its dynamism and constructively query its programme of activities, the FOCAL Foundation regularly evaluates its experiences. In so doing, it works to continually improve the quality of its programme and to adapt to the changing needs of the industry. This review takes place within the institution itself and in collaboration with external specialists. Periodical "brainstorming" sessions and "think tanks" are devoted to the basic issues of further education and professional training and to the tasks of the Foundation.

Organisation and Infrastructure

FOCAL is a service organisation for the industry. It is headed by a Foundation Council, comprising representatives from institutions in the audiovisual industry. In this way FOCAL ensures the industry of an institutionalised, democratic access to programme guidelines and budgeting.

Accomplished professionals on the Foundation's board form a link to professional associations. The administrative staff is small, professional and efficient. In order to maintain flexibility, FOCAL has no classrooms of its own and thus no technical infrastructure.

Material and Spiritual

FOCAL's activities are non-profit making. FOCAL is committed to adjusting the prices for its training programme to accommodate the financial circumstances of its target groups, who are mainly freelance. The Foundation therefore relies on the support of public funding and is financed by a wide variety of sources. The Federal Office of Culture and the Cantons (states) thus assume part of their responsibility for supporting culture. The Federal Office of Communication subsidises the Foundation within the framework of its efforts to promote audiovisual production, especially for television.

Another key financing partner is the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR idée suisse), which also sends its employees to courses held by FOCAL.

Further sources of income are the fees paid by participants, proceeds from co-productions with partners from Switzerland and abroad, as well as sponsoring in kind from participating companies and institutions. These financial sources provide the Foundation with stability and continuity and guarantee its independence from commercial financiers and their demands.

The FOCAL foundation is subsidised by

the Swiss government (Federal Office of Culture and Federal Office of Communication), SRG SSR idée Suisse (the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation) as well as by public and private sponsorship of specific projects.

Public Relations

FOCAL actively informs film professionals and other interested parties of its events and activities. The cultural and artistic significance of its work is stressed. The general public is informed of the activities of the Foundation through the media, in order to publicise a positive and dynamic image of the Swiss audiovisual industry, and in particular of the professionals and creators it is made of.

FOCAL operates an internet website (www.focal.ch) that reports comprehensively on its further education and professional training programmes in the areas of film, audiovisual arts and multimedia. The site also provides an opportunity for international networking and the exchange of information among professionals in different branches of the industry.

1991 - 2008: FOCAL in figures

Among our guest speakers...

Alexandre Adabashyan, Enzo d'Alo, Jean-François Amiguet, Nag Ansorge, Alan Berliner, Don Bohlinger, Sabine Boss, Freddy Buache, Suso Cecchi d'Amico, Michel Chion, Pio Corradi, Keith Cunningham, Ken Dancyger, Frank Daniel, André Delvaux, Richard Dindo, Philippe Djian, Klaus Doldinger, Patrick Doyle, Andreas Dresen, Joëlle van Effenterre, Florian Eidenbenz, Klaus Emmerich, Jacques Fansten, Harun Farocki, Cherolyn C. Franklin, Julian Friedmann, Bruno Ganz, Tom Garvin, Hans W. Geissendörfer, Denis Gheerbrant, Marcel Gisler, Corinna Glaus, Bob Godfrey, Frédéric Gonseth, Claude Goretta, Jean Goudier, Hans-Dieter Grabe, Jean-Claude Grumberg, Tonino Guerra, Martin Hagemann, Terry Hayes, Pierre Hébert, Vinzenz Hediger, Marcel Hoehn, Agnieszka Holland, Heddy Honigmann, David Howard, John Howe, Slawomir Idziak, Markus Imboden, Markus Imhoof, Otar Iosseliani, Antoine Jaccoud, Stefan Jäger, Krystyna Janda, Georg Janett, Inga Karetnikova, Stephanie Kaye, Michel Khleifi, Ahmadou Khourouma, Fred van der Kooij, Xavier Koller, Lutz Konermann, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Cedomir Kolar, Peter Krieg, Peter Kubelka, Richard Leacok, Dani Levy, Peter Liechti, Patrick Lindenmaier, Michael Lonsdale, Rolf Lyssy, Derek Malcom, Wojciech Marczewski, Robert McKee, Pierre-Alain Meier, Ursula Meier, Claude Miller, Fredi M. Murer, Dorothea Neukirchen, Angelika Niermann, Daniel Olbrychski, Dennis Palumbo, André Pinkus, Bill Plympton, Bretislav Pojar, Denis Rabaglia, Michael Radford, Richard Reeves, Pierre-Paul Renders, Michaela Rosen, Serge Rosenzweig, Dick Ross, Mogens Rukov, David Russell, Antonio Saura, Samir, Pietro Scalia, James Schamus, Christoph Schaub, Maximilian Schell, Tom Schlesinger, Volker Schlöndorff, Paul Schrader, Zachary Schwartz, Werner Swiss Schweizer, Georges Schwitzgebel, Alexander J. Seiler, Alexander Sokurow, Carlos Sorin, Bernie Stampfer, Ueli Steiger, Witold Stok, Isao Takahata, Alain Tanner, Margarethe von Trotta, Gilles Tschudi, Colin Vaines, Carlo Varini, Andreas Veiel, Michel Voïta, Raymond Vouillamoz, Andrzej Wajda, Regis Wargnier, Marc Wehrlin, Judith Weston, Romed Wyder, Yves Yersin, Krzysztof Zanussi, Edward Zebrowski, Siegfried Zielinski …

FOCAL carries out its programs in collaboration with many partners, forming a network directly useful for the participants

ACT Formation, Bayerisches Filmzentrum, Bundesverband Filmschnitt, Centre National de la Cinématographie, Cinéastes Sénégalais Associés, Cinéma Tout Ecran, Cinémathèque suisse, Conseil de l'Europe, Drehbuchforum Wien, Duisburger Filmwoche, Eureka Audiovisuel, EuroInfo Suisse, European Broadcasting Union, European Film Academy, European Filmmusic Workshops, Festival Archipel, Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Filmpodium Zürich, Filmstiftung Nordrhein-Westfalen, FORTEF-association des professionnels de la formation des radios et télévisions d'expression française, Forum européen du cinéma, Geneva Group for professional screenwriting and development programmes, International Festival for Film, Video and New Media VIPER, les Journées cinématographiques de Soleure, Master School Drehbuch, Media Business School, mediaXchange, Österreichischer Produzentenverband, Pro Helvetia, Radiotelevisione svizzera di lingua italiana, Schweizer Fernsehen DRS, SRG SSR idée suisse, Télévision Suisse Romande, Weltfilmtage Thusis ...

Members of the Foundation Council

SFP Swiss Film Producers' Association
FDS Swiss Association of Film Makers
Swiss Union Film and Video
Swiss Filmmakers Association
Swiss Animated Films Group
Swiss Association of Film Journalists
Association of the Swiss Film Video and Sound Technical Industry
PROCINEMA Swiss Association of Exhibitors and Motion Picture Distributors
Swiss Association of Motion Picture Distributors
Swiss Association of Exhibitors
Federal Office of Culture, Film Section
SRG SSR idée Suisse, Swiss Boradcasting Corporation
SSM Syndicat Suisse des Mass Media
Cinélibre Association of Swiss Film Societies and Non-Profit Cinemas
Fonction:Cinéma Professional Association for independent cinema
GARP Groupe Auteurs, Réalisateurs, Producteurs
Haute Ecole d'art et de design (HEAD), Genève, Orientation cinéma
Ecole cantonale d'art de Lausanne (ecal), HES SO, Unité cinéma

Members of the Board

Kathrin Plüss, Alberto Chollet, Thomas Geiser, Donat Keusch, Lutz Konermann, Ivo Kummer, Gianclaudio Meyer, Walt Vian.

Departement Heads

Tanja Katrin Huber, Animation / ANIMA PLUS
Xavier Grin, Production, Management, Rights
Dieter Gränicher, Direction (Documentary)
Elizabeth Waelchli, Technique / METIER CINEMA
Gabriela Kasperski Schwager and Bettina Alber, Acting
Carola Stern, Exhibition - Distribution
Jacqueline Surchat, scriptwriting

Management

Pierre Agthe, manager
Thomas Geiser, Foundation's President

Anne Perrenoud, secretariat
Fanny Scheurer, secretariat
Lionel Roy, financial management
Katja Schudel, translations
Elizabeth Waelchli, organization and andragogical matters
Benjamin Veillon, webmaster
Nicolas Monguzzi, webmaster
Aida Selimovic, apprentice

The Foundation

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