These high impact sessions deliver current thinking on, and workable solutions to, business and content issues for factual programme makers.
The irony for C4’s Julian Bellamy is that in a year in which C4 has shown plenty of evidence of creative rejuvenation, it plans to cut between 10% and 15% from its editorial budgets. As its head of programming explains, the combination of the global recession and C4’s funding gap means finding the investment to commission enough distinctive, public service programmes has never been more challenging. Despite the challenges and funding crises, Bellamy has presided over a broadcaster which – judging by the amount of creative recognition it has received over the last three months – has rarely been in better nick. “In the first three months of this year we have won eight Oscars, more RTS and BAFTA awards than any other channel, plus several Channel of the Year awards. It’s been C4 at its best – new, distinctive, opinionated, entertaining.”Over the summer Bellamy aims to continue that momentum.Having screened the first televised human autopsy in 2002, the channel now turns its attention to the animal kingdom in Animal Autopsy, a new show that promises to reinvent natural history. Documentary is also set to play a central role. In addition to C4’s brand new religion strand Revelations, there are several major documentary series – all of which aim to provide an insight into major institutions. The Hospital, a chilling insight into the NHS frontline, had real impact earlier in the year and will be followed up by The Benefit Business and The Force.
Speakers
- Julian Bellamy
- Chaired by Janine Gibson, editor, guardian.co.uk
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There’s no doubt that network factual programmes remain the life blood of public service television, as key a part of the BBC’s channel line up from BBC1 to BBC4 as it is for C4’s broadcast network. One thing that the two public service broadcasters have in common is an interest in finding new talent to attract audiences to factual programmes.It’s a job done for the BBC by Louis Theroux, Bruce Parry and Stephen Fry. At C4 names such as Jamie Oliver and Kevin McCloud deliver the kind of honesty and passion that the broadcaster is keen to see more of. But there’s no doubt that the hunt is on for new faces to front a broad range of network factual programmes.The election of Barack Obama is a sign that the world is changing, with broadcasters now more determined than ever to broaden the talent pool beyond the current roster of predominantly white middle-aged men.More generally documentaries on BBC1 must have ambition and originality, as well as mainstream appeal. They have to bring households together around the television, so it’s not looking for dark or overly challenging stories. At C4 the mantra of head of documentaries Hamish Mykura is for defining films reflecting the state of contemporary Britain, whether that be its police force, its class system or the eternal issue of wealth and poverty. Mykura insists he wants to be surprised by documentaries, and that means as much by their format as their subject matter – be it a shiny floored quiz show format, a drama or an authored polemic.
Speakers
- Hamish Mykura
- Maxine Watson, commissioning executive, documentaries, BBC Vision
- Other speakers to be confirmed
- Chaired by Janine Gibson, editor, guardian.co.uk
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One repercussion of the credit crunch is that it has never been tougher to fund high end factual programming. This panel debate talks to documentary funding experts and film-makers at the sharp end about the realities and practicalities of sourcing finance for high end documentaries in today’s economic climate. With the BBC and C4 no longer able to offer full backing for the range of projects they once did, filmmakers are having to look further afield for finance, a time consuming and complicated business with some high budget films having no fewer than six funding partners. There’s little question that the reluctance of broadcasters to give 100% funding for some high end series has affected the kind of film that film-makers are able to make. If broadcasters are only prepared to put in a fraction of the budget then filmmakers have to find other sources of cash, which means that the subject areas they tackle have to be ones capable of attracting a wide range of funding partners. As Darlow Smithson creative director John Smithson points out: “It doesn’t matter if it is a beautifully made, high end doc – it’s not attractive without international appeal. You have to have a film that resonates in other countries as well.” This also means that high end documentaryfilm-making now demands a new skillset. Those film-makers with the best international contacts books and an aptitude for dealmaking are more able to pull together finance from a range of sources and get their projects off the ground.
Speakers
- Rachel Wexler, founder, Bungalow Town Productions
- Norma Percy, executive producer and founding director, Brook Lapping
- Henry Singer, filmmaker
- Chaired by Andy Glynne, DFG
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A genre which has traditionally been a broad church, specialist factual spans a range of subjects as diverse as science, history, business and natural history. It’s also a genre where there are clear trends, such as “big science”, underlined by the success of presenter led BBC series such as Earth: The Power of the Planet, The Incredible Human Journey and Britain From Above. Pioneer Productions md and session chair Stuart Carter explains that there’s a current vogue for shows which demonstrate in new ways how geology and landscape has changed our lives. “Now earth sciences are big business and subjects such as cosmology are doing well. The growth in green politics may be behind it, but people have also come to a point in their lives where they’re asking questions about what we are all doing here on this planet?” Meanwhile, history programming, which has been overshadowed by the demand for science shows in recent years, continues to impress with output such as Niall Ferguson’s The Ascent of Money among the standouts of recent months. This session aims to detail the latest thinking on specialist factual commissioning from channels as diverse as BBC1 and C4, which have their own unique takes on the genre. On BBC1 the aim is to provide a shared experience for the whole family in a genre which traditionally skews towards men.For BBC2, the demand is for high impact, groundbreaking programmes which push their subject matter forward.At C4 there is more of an emphasis on programmes that don’t shy away from controversy such as Richard Dawkins’ Root of all Evil to Enemies of Reason.
Speakers
- Richard Melman, channels director, History, C&I, Biography
- Julia Harrington, commissioning editor, specialist factual, Channel 4
- Cassian Harrison, commissioning executive for specialist factual (independents), BBC
- Mirella Breda, executive editor, entertainment commissioning, BBC
- Chaired by Stuart Carter, Pioneer Productions
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This session takes a look at some recent award winning examples of multiplatform content – from Lion TV’s Britain From Above to Keo Films’ Landshare – and talks to experts in the world of multiplatform content about how to come up with the best, most attention-grabbing concepts and ideas.It explores how leading factual programme makers are increasingly making use of the skills of specialist digital agencies to maximise exposure to their content beyond the confines of broadcast TV. We examine how to find an audience in the digital world, and how this can help build awareness of your programming before, during and after broadcast transmission. These days producers have to grapple with new disciplines and a rapidly expanding number of potential platforms, from the iPlayer to SMS to podcasting - the name of the game being to quickly find and prioritise the platforms which will best realise the creative concept. This session also focuses on the politics of the relationship between digital agency and production company and delves into the reasons why some marriages between ideas-driven indies and digital agencies have faltered because of misunderstandings and conflicts, particularly over issues such as rights ownership. With broadcasters increasingly focussed on the multiplatform potential of programme brands there’s no doubt that digital media will increasingly be part of the skillset of the industry’s most successful factual producers. Correspondingly the factual programmes that fail to strike the right kinds of partnership may fail to reach their full interactive potential.
Speakers
- Andy Bell, creative director, Mint Digital
- Kirsty Hunter, head of interactive, Lion Television
- James Kirkham, managing director, Holler
- Chris Mair, strategy director, Airlock
- Chaired by Matt Locke, commissioning editor for education, Channel 4
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Like many good things, Who Do You Think You Are? was a long time coming. Wall to Wall’s barnstorming genealogy meets celebrity meets history series was originally conceived in the early 90s, pitched to the BBC as Family Ties. “There was something really interesting about the fact that celebrities are rarely born into celebrity. They are nearly always the first people in their families to be famous,” recalls Wall to Wall chief and the show’s executive producer Alex Graham. It was clearly an idea ahead of its time – before the BBC had really opened up to indies, with no internet revolution and genealogy boom to give it added propulsion. The proposal was re-booted around 12 years later in a brainstorming session with BBC2 controller Jane Root. “We pitched as an alternative history of Britain, covering events such as the industrial revolution and World War One.” The show turned out to be something else. It offered incredibly intense personal journeys for celebrities such as Bill Oddie, who was the subject of its first outing on BBC2 in 2004. When a BBC exec left a somewhat understated message the next morning saying that the show had “done quite well” with 5.4m viewers, Graham admits he had to phone back to make sure he hadn’t misheard. Part of its success was down to BBC2 making it a promotional priority. But it was also a well-conceived, professionally produced series, which has earned itself a reputation for quality and integrity.“From initial suspicion it has become a classy thing for celebrities to do,” Graham explains. It soon became clear that this wasn’t a freak one-off and Wall to Wall and the BBC had a major hit on its hands. Recommissioned for a six part series averaging 5.5m, Lorraine Heggessey snapped it up for BBC1. Now it can claim to be a genuine 360 degree project with brand extensions including best selling books and a magazine, a genealogy software tool, a live show plus a series due on NBC in the US in 2010.
Speakers
- Alex Graham, CEO, Wall to Wall
- Chaired by Stephen Armstrong, journalist
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With single documentaries increasingly hard to find in broadcast schedules these days, the major current affairs strands have taken on a much more important role as the backbone of the one-off factual programme. This session talks to leading strand editors in detail about the kind of subjects and types of treatment they are looking for. With Channel 4 commissioning more Dispatches, the BBC returning Panorama to a high profile peak time slot, and long running panel based formats such as the BBC’s Question Time in rude health, the genre seems to be in good shape. But as Five senior programme controller, news and sport Chris Shaw points out, the reality of current affairs commissioning is that the genre is not immune from the pressures that have affected all factual programming. Where current affairs is really under threat is in commissioning areas such as long running investigative work, which requires serious investment and commitment from commissioning editors. This session examines whether Dispatches will be able to maintain its commitment to producing over 40 shows a year, given Channel 4’s well-publicised funding shortfall.The session also looks at the specific approaches that the different channels have to current affairs commissioning. Says Shaw: “It’s about widening the genre to cope with the pressure of fracturing audiences in a climate where ratings are crucial in order for current affairs to justify its place in the schedule. The challenge is to find accessible ways of communicating subjects. MP’s expenses is a perfect example of an issue which is a huge social and political talking point.”
Speakers
- Chris Shaw, senior programme controller, Five
- Kevin Sutcliffe, deputy head, new and current affairs, Channel 4
- Clive Edwards, executive editor and commissioning editor, TV current affairs, BBC
- Chaired by Roger Graef, writer, filmmaker, broadcaster and criminologist
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