Elisa Martín De Blas, Spain (EMAM 2001)
I had heard of the EMAM course back in Spain where I lived and in 2001 I decided to apply for. I knew that it was a prestigious course and I knew that many well known professionals were teaching, so I thought that it would help me to achieve a better understanding of the audiovisual industry as a whole and therefore on what I wanted to focus on. And it did help me, and gave me the opportunity to share experiences with other students from the course with whom I am still in contact since many of us are working in this industry. It was certainly crucial and a turning point for my career.
I am currently Acquisitions Responsible at CDI – COMPAGNIA DISTRIBUZIONE INTERNAZIONALE in Rome, Italy. I look over all the acquisition process from the script analysis, negotiation and follow up of contract drafting. This gives me the opportunity to follow the very beginning of the life of a film, from a project evaluation until it is released theatrically and in all the other following windows. I am regularly in touch with production and sales companies and I attend the most important film markets such as the American Film Market, Cannes Film Market and Mifed.
I have a Degree in Political Science at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and I spent six months in Rome with the ERASMUS program at “La Sapienza” in 1999. At that time I started working at GA&A an international distribution company specialised in documentaries, as a sales executive which gave me the chance to start attending the most important TV international markets (Mipcom, MipTv, NATPE, London Film Market). In 2000 I jumped from distribution to production when I started working at a children TV show, the Disney Club, which gave me the opportunity to have an inside look on what TV production was. Before attending the EMAM course, I worked as an agent for the TV sales in Spain at DALL’ANGELO PICTURES, overseeing the Spanish market. CDI is the company where I did my two month internship which was part of the EMAM programme I attended in 2001 and it became my job shortly after.