Intelligent Factual - The Televisual Festival

The major digital channels are now significant commissioners of factual content from the UK’s production sector. Many, like international factual specialists Discovery and Nat Geo are heavily reliant on the UK’s long-standing expertise in science and natural history programming and its ability to find the next killer factual format. Closer to home, many of the UKTV network’s biggest and longest running shows are drawn from UK indies - Market Kitchen, Great Food Live, The Clothes Show. Again, many of Virgin Media’s biggest hits across its channels are UK produced factual shows like Twofour’s Exposed and Extreme strands and Zig Zag’s Football Factory shows. And some of the digital broadcasters, notably Sky One, have become much more keen of late on commissioning original factual content following critical success with Tiger Aspect’s Ross Kemp documentaries.

Speakers

• Jane Rogerson, director of commissioning, factual and factual entertainment, UKTV
• Dan Korn, head of factual Discovery Networks UK
• Lucy Pilkington, senior commissioning editor, Virgin TV
• Andrew O’Connell, Sky One factual controller
• Chaired by Tim Dams, Televisual Editor

In the years since it was first broadcast on 25 September 1979, Question Time has become something of a national institution, offering British voters a unique opportunity to quiz top decision-makers on the events of the day. In this twist on the format, Peter Bazalgette will host the event, no doubt with an authority and approachability that will match that of long term host David Dimbleby, and the audience will have the chance to quiz a panel of four top broadcasting executives on current industry affairs and concerns.

We have put together an impressive panel incorporating senior decision-makers with great experience in factual programming across the industry. But at the heart of Question Time is the audience.

Speakers

• Ben Gale, Five director of programming
• Roly Keating, BBC2 controller
• Alison Sharman, ITV director of factual and daytime
• Alex Graham, chief executive Wall to Wall
• Produced by Mentorn
• Chaired by Peter Bazalgette

It’s a genre that’s constantly under pressure from higher rating shows in the schedule, but there are more than a few signs of hope for current affairs programmes on UK television. Channel 4 has reaffirmed its interest in public service television in general, and documentaries in particular with its flagship current affairs strand Dispatches moving from eight to thirty films a year, more room for international singles in the True Stories strand and Unreported World holding its own in its post news slot. The BBC’s Panorama looks safe in its Monday night slot too and even Sky One is getting in on the act with shows like Ross Kemp in Afghanistan - and is now keen to tackle the big subjects. Our panel of commissioners give their views on what the future holds for current affairs TV and what programmes they’re interested in ordering for 2008 and beyond.

Speakers

• Ed Braman, Commissioning editor, current affairs, Channel 4
• Chris Shaw, Five controller of current affairs
• Clive Edwards, BBC executive editor and commissioning editor for TV current affairs
• Jeff Anderson, ITV controller of documentaries and current affairs
• Chaired by Denman Rooke, MD October Films

Filmmakers often lament the demise of ob docs, claiming there are fewer and fewer slots available for factual programmes that aren’t formatted. We assemble a panel to discuss how film makers/indies should pitch, fund and create ob docs so they have the best chance of getting them commissioned and how broadcasters need to market and schedule them so they have the best chance of getting them seen.

Speakers

• Brian Woods, MD True Vision
• Nick Mirsky, BBC commissioning editor Wonderland strand
• Amelia Hann, director, writer and producer Loose Cannon Productions Ltd
• Roger Graef, writer, director Films of Record
• Chaired by Angus Macqueen

Some of Britain’s most acclaimed documentary film makers with a reputation for exposing uncomfortable truths have turned their backs on the observational style, opting to use professional or non professional actors to explore reality. For most the term drama documentary is a repugnant label. But why do they choose to stretch the documentary form so boldly? Are they making pure fiction or are they documenting reality? Does it allow them to get closer to the truth or to present their version of it? Is there a danger that the audience is alienated or confused by a blurring of fact with fiction? Are there certain situations when only fiction can capture reality? Are commissioners wary of this type of film?

Speakers

• Anna Maloney, Writer of Falling Apart and Consent
• Leo Regan, director The Doctor Who Hears Voices
• Chaired by Mark Lawson, presenter BBC Radio 4’s Front Row

As television budgets for documentary are tightened in the UK, producers need to be increasingly creative in their search for funding. What can Europe and North America offer documentary producers? And what non-broadcast funds can producers access for documentary? Two of the UK’s most successful navigators of the world of co-productions and alternative funding discuss their experiences. They’ll be joined by representatives from a selection of UK funding bodies who will outline the opportunities they can offer documentary filmmakers.

Speakers

• Tom Ziessen, The Wellcome Trust
• Rachel Wexler, Bungalow Town Productions
• Maxyne Franklin, Editorial director Brit Doc
• Chaired by Andy Glynne, director of DFG and Mosaic Films

Will there still be room for high end, big budget, landmark series in a few years’ hence? Perhaps there will be more exposure of authored docs with film makers increasingly able to piece together an income from alternative forms of distribution? Are big organisations increasingly likely to get involved in funding? Are we ever likely to see many serious public service docs in prime time again? What skills should the next generation of factual programme makers be seeking to acquire? How will the relationship between content producers and “publishers” change?

Speakers

• Joe Houlihan, director of programmes Twofour
• Meredith Chambers, C4 commissioning editor documentaries
• Anthony Lilley, chief executive Magic Lantern
• Nick Cohen, BBC head multiplatform factual commissioning
• Chaired by Simon Terrington, Human Capital

Ground breaking David Attenborough-narrated natural history series aside, the factual that rates on British television is factual entertainment. ITV1’s Ladette to Lady, BBC1’s Masterchef, BBC2’s The Apprentice and C4’s Grand Designs and the Secret Millionaire are mainstays of those channels. While some formats can run and run for years - Antiques Roadshow still rates up to 7m viewers - there is a feeling that many factual entertainment formats have a limited shelf life. A slight sense of malaise has emerged surrounding the genre in the last year, a feeling that it was “sort of swimming in its own juices”. “Factual entertainment feels slightly old fashioned and in need of something new,” says one top supplier. “Everybody’s got to refresh and do new things - it really does need something.” Televisual has put together a panel of the leading decision makers in this high volume sub genre to find out whether the genre is being reinvigorated and how.

Speakers

• Diana Howie, ITV commissioning editor, features
• Steve Gowans, Five head of fact entertainment
• Andrew Mackenzie, Channel 4 head of factual entertainment
• Chaired by Steve Anderson