Intelligent Factual - The Televisual Festival

Renowned for his passion and commitment to the genre - and for responding to pitches at 1am - many indies say Richard Klein is the key person to know in documentary commissioning today. “Richard Klein believes in authorship and film-making. He’s interested in ideas, in different directors and doesn’t expect to know everything about a film before you make it.” Indies clearly have high expectations of him...can he fulfil those expectations...and what does he expect of them?

Interviewed by Stephen Armstrong

Hamish Mykura stepped up from heading specialist factual at C4 to be documentaries controller after Angus Macqueen quit to return to filmmaking earlier this year. Last year he was responsible for a string of high-profile and hotly debated programmes including Diana: The Witnesses In the Tunnel, The Great Global Warming Swindle, The Human Footprint, Richard Dawkins’s Enemies of Reason, historical parenting series Bringing Up Baby and feature-length historical drama The Relief of Belsen. Stephen Armstrong questions him about the direction he plans to take C4 Docs over the next year.

Interviewed by Stephen Armstrong

More than ever factual programmes have got to deliver the goods ratings wise. Everyone knows that the very best stories will do that. But what other tricks are there to hook in viewers? A catchy title? A celebrity presenter? Creating a format that’s laden with jeopardy? Investing a fortune in the marketing campaign? A polemical viewpoint? Or is graveyard scheduling to blame for small audiences?

Speakers

• Roy Ackerman, creative director Diverse Productions
• Simon Dickson, C4 deputy head of docs
• Helen Veale, joint managing director Outline Productions
• Alan Hayling, editorial director Renegade Pictures
• Chaired by Steve Hewlett

Stephen Lambert is one of Britain’s best known creative TV executives, the man who has brought some of the most innovative factual formats to the screen including Wife Swap, Faking It and The Secret Millionaire. But last year his glittering career hit the rocks quite spectacularly over the “fake TV” Queengate affair, prompting his sudden departure from RDF. Now Lambert is making a comeback, having launched Studio Lambert in March, with a team of leading creatives and the backing of independent powerhouse All3Media. In conversation with leading critic Gillian Reynolds, this session explores Lambert’s attempts to make a comeback. They will discuss the nitty gritty of the creative process - the best way of devising ideas and keeping that vital development process fresh. Can bigger companies maintain the creative process? All broadcasters are looking for the killer formats to do for them what Wife Swap did for C4 - can Lambert and his team come up with the goods?

Interviewed by Gillian Reynolds

While budgets for linear factual programmes are dwindling and producers are complaining of a lack of risk taking in broadcasting, there’s one area which is ready to take risks and to invest. Or so the theory goes. What are the opportunities in multiplatform? And what is it anyway? Where exactly does it start and finish? Can anyone do it? What are commissioning editors looking for? What work has most impressed them? And how can indies access these funds? Andy Glynne questions the two key multiplatform commissioners in British broadcasting. This will be followed by a session in which two producers present projects that will impress and excite anyone who doubts factual can work across several platforms.

Speakers

• Matt Locke, commissioning editor C4 Education
• Simon Nelson, controller multiplatform commissioning BBC
• Chaired by Andy Glynne

Making a feature doc is an appealing ambition for many committed filmmakers but it’s a rough path to pursue. Three feature doc makers give us an insight into their films and answer why they made it as a feature film; how they got funding; how they managed to get it screened at a festival and how they got distribution. Was it a vanity project or commercial venture? Was it worth it?

Speakers

• Kim Longinotto, executive producer Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go
• Stephen Walker, MD Walker George, Young@Heart
• Simon Chinn, producer Man on Wire
• Brian Woods, executive producer Chosen
• Chaired by Beadie Finzi

Specialist factual genres can often make channel controllers nervous. Or, at least, labelling shows as ‘science’ or ‘history’ can make them a little anxious. So, increasingly, specialist factual disciplines are stirred together in a TV melting pot - a dash of geology with a touch of genealogy, with an added sprig of history and perhaps a celeb and some drama thrown in. Commissioners increasingly want to see a twist in the storytelling with most channels after formats like Who Do You Think You Are? or innovative takes like Channel 4’s The Human Footprint. But the straight bluechip still works too. This panel will look to the future of specialist factual and find out commissioners programming needs for the future.

Speakers

• Mark Bell, BBC commissioning editor, specialist factual, independents
• Ralph Lee, head of specialist factual C4
• Sue Davidson, Five’s Commissioning editor
• Richard Melman, Biography and History Channel
• Chaired by Tim Dams, Televisual Editor