Mrs. Possible

Marijana Stoisits: Yes, when we speak about the diversity of the locations; no, if it’s about the number of days spent shooting. London, for example, is a top location simply because of the language. The film branch there has a totally different standing as we do.

But Vienna is one of the top players when it comes to service. We have great people in the film branch, in direction, production, design, costumes, camera, sound, etc. At the final dinner of the American drama film Women in Gold by Simon Curtis, which was fortunately shot in Vienna in 2014, the British head make-up artist admitted to me: “I must honestly say, the know-how of the Vienna crew deeply impressed me.”

We are an institution of the City of Vienna, and – in a nutshell – we try to facilitate that films are made in Vienna, be it Hollywood, Bollywood, advertising, or student productions. We are responsible for the shooting permits which involve the magistrates, but we also communicate with state institutions, for example when it is about using the Burggarten, the Hofburg Imperial Palace, or the city museums as a film location. And we lobby for filmmakers in the city – in the media and in politics.

Exactly. We do that at major international film festivals, film markets, and at international trade events. In 2015 we received 900 requests for shooting permits, more than 100 of which came from abroad. And it’s an upward trend.

First and foremost, Germany, naturally, simply because there are so many cooperations with Austria in the film and TV sector.

No. Vienna’s parks are at the top of the rankings, followed by the city’s markets. The reason being that we supervise a lot of television films. TV likes to shoot in the green, quite simply because it is peaceful there, you don’t interfere with traffic, and you don’t have to block off the set much. Park-like settings appear in every better film. However, in recent years Vienna’s hospitals have also been popular in the rankings: obviously murder and homicide also work quite well. (laughs) But the Ringstraße is also a coveted film location, especially internationally.

Always. And then they are usually very surprised. It is hard to believe, but many, also reputable location scouts, who naturally have traveled around the world a lot, were never in Vienna. That was also the case with the scouting for Mission: Impossible. Neither production manager James Bissell nor location scout Becky Brake had ever been to Vienna before. It wasn’t much different with the big directors’ scout for Mission: Impossible, where, after all, 16 people were flown to Vienna. In the team only one individual had ever visited Vienna – and that was in 1968!

They really liked the city a lot. Vienna has a phenomenal reputation especially with international film teams. The location scouts mostly know Vienna from Internet research, for example the motif databank on our website and our showreels. Usually they bring a long list of places they want to check out or we make proposals. We often receive mood images as well, that means examples that visually represent what the directors imagine. Our job is then to find fitting places in Vienna.

It is extremely important to establish a personal relationship. Based on the reaction I quickly notice if it fits or not. Usually I already have alternatives up the sleeve, and I always try to show them more than they need – assuming there’s time for that – in the hope that it might result in a couple more days of shooting. That’s what I understand as good service, a tactic – as we saw with Mission: Impossible – that also works pretty well! The earlier the scouts, producers, or directors gain confidence, the better.

Their script changed very often. The first time we looked at a lot of places: the Vienna River tunnel under Karlsplatz, the Nußdorf sluice, the Hofburg, the Museum of Natural History, the Ferris wheel in Prater Park, the Albertina, different subway stations, and much more.

In the State Opera and the immediate surroundings, and in the Schottenring subway station on an escalator that leads into this concrete architecture and on the U4 subway platform.

Since longer it isn’t just the Imperial architecture that’s attractive! The new WU Campus is very, very popular with foreign teams. There is a photo from a location tour for Mission: Impossible where the director Christopher McQuarrie is laying on the ground taking a picture of the Zaha Hadid building at an angle from below. The WU Campus as a possible location was discussed for a long time, but it didn’t turn out in the end.

Yes, it was fantastic and a great stroke of luck! Paramount contacted the Viennese production manager Gerhard Rupp, who has realized many international projects in the past 25 years. In turn, he contacted me and the knot was tied. The chemistry between all of us simply worked. You can send hundreds of emails back and forth, and they can endlessly look at locations in the Internet. But it is the personal support that counts.

As the CEO of the Vienna Film Commission I have to personally “sell” Vienna in the end. That implies extremely much time and energy, but the success is the reward and great confirmation.

My team and I cheered. After the first confirmation, however, it was postponed and postponed – we jittered and hoped but never gave up. We kept asking and continued to send images of new possible locations. In March 2014 – like I do every year – I flew to a location fair in Los Angeles. The embassy held a reception where I could make my welcoming address and announce the good news that the Austrian Ministry of Science, Research and Economy would financially support film shooting in Vienna in the future. That was the decisive moment! Among the guests was someone from Paramount.

Yes, very many. In general, locations are chosen based on the advantages of the incentives offered. Believe me, without the German Federal Film Fund (DFFF) there wouldn’t be so many international productions at Babelsberg Studio. Inglorious Basterds by Quentin Tarantino definitely wouldn’t have been shot there or The Monuments Man by George Clooney or Grand Budapest Hotel by Wes Anderson. It’s all about money!

Nothing from the City of Vienna, outside of the free service of the Vienna Film Commission and the declaration to support the filming. FISA, the Film Industry Support Austria fund of the Ministry of Science, Research and Economy provided 750,000 euros, which had to be spent here on site. The production invested almost four million here in Vienna.

It is hard to believe but it is true. It is often about the gesture, and every little bit helps.

Sure, especially with the Hungarian tax incentives and the two major studio complexes. Originally Women in Gold was only supposed to be filmed for three days in Vienna, the rest in Budapest. But I could offer them our funding program, and then it became 21 days in Vienna.

Yes, that was truly glamorous, otherwise my job is everything but that. Typically such premieres take place in London or New York.Naturally, the Vienna Film Commission didn’t directly initiate the premiere. But you can say, if the Hollywood team wasn’t so pleased then they wouldn’t have come back. That was a great distinction for the Film Commission. They loved Vienna! The service was a perfect fit, and the city authorities were unbelievably cooperative.

You must have been on vacation then; the papers and TV were full of reports the whole week! The Ring gets closed for all sorts of things. The premiere took place during the summer holidays, on July 23, and just the short piece between Schwarzenbergplatz and the Opera was closed. Recently I had a location tour for a major Bollywood production – the complete Ring was closed for a bike race. In our case, the Vienna Economic Chamber filed a complaint, but the Minister of Economy stated in a press release that he was extremely pleased and warmly welcomed the premiere in Vienna.

Paramount flew in 70 of the top international film journalists to Vienna for a couple of days. That was pretty awesome. But my highlight was that the director personally thanked me on the premiere stage – beside the King of Morocco and Vice Chancellor Mitterlehner (laughs).

Such big projects don’t come along all so often – we were lucky. I am regularly in Los Angeles, and the word seems to have gone around in Hollywood that you can film and work in Vienna very well. Word of mouth is far better than any campaign.

Yes, it is surprisingly straightforward. The production managers know one another and are in contact. At the premiere of Women in Gold at the Berlinale in early 2015 the leading actress Helen Mirren came on stage, and the first thing she said into the microphone was: “First of all, I wanna thank the city of Vienna.” That was great.

That’s priceless. (laughs)

I think a man could also do my job, but a woman can definitely do it. Yes, and sometimes really better, too. (laughs)

Women don’t have enough confidence. They have to learn to take things for granted like men do. And like 50% of everything! There are just as many women as men who are graduating from the film academy. But more men sign contracts with the production companies. They’re obviously trusted more. It’s the same in all the other fields. That the film industry is not compatible with family is no argument; there’s anyway a lot of women working on the film set, just in less influential positions – in make-up and costumes, for instance.

I would like to offer large international productions an own Viennese fund, naturally with conditions. A budget that supports foreign productions but it has to be spent here in the city. That would create the opportunity for Vienna to participate far stronger in the international film world and, to top it off, it would support the local film branch.

Yes, and therewith it also has a large share in the success story of Austrian film. I would like to have a budget that’s an economic location promotion for the film industry independent of artistic quality criteria.

Unglamorous. Like how a fair goes. I stand at my booth, behind me there are photos of Vienna and our showreels loop on the monitors. Then the production managers and location scouts come along and say: “Oh Vienna, what a gorgeous city! What incentives do you have?” (laughs) I talk until my mouth is dry, and my feet hurt in the evening.

Marijana Stoisits was born 1960 in Güssing, Austria. She studied ethnology, art history, and cultural management in Vienna, Hamburg, and Berlin. Her doctorate dealt with the subject of ethnology and film. From 1982 to 1991 Stoisits was a freelancer at the NDR – Northern German Broadcasting Company. In 1992 she was an assistant in the Electronic Media Executive Office of Bertelsmann AG in Hamburg for several months before changing to Spiegel TV, also in Hamburg.

She was the chief editor there between 1993 and 1997 and moderated numerous programs produced in this time. In 1998 Stoisits returned to Vienna and was active as a moderator, PR consultant, and freelance journalist for print and TV until 2004.

From 2004 to 2008 she was the chief editor and office manager of the Vienna branch of Spiegel TV. Since February 2009 Stoisits has been the CEO of the Vienna Film Commission.

www.viennafilmcommission.at