Top documentary makers from Rogan Productions, Candour Productions, Mindhouse and 72 Films tell Pippa Considine how, despite the economic headwinds, they are still managing to make factual that matters
Soleta and James Rogan – Rogan Productions
Rogan is a fully independent indie, founded in 2013 by James and Soleta Rogan. “We were underestimated when we began, with industry types referring to our output as niche. It’s true that the stories we’ve pitched were never easy to get commissioned. So, when commissioning became a lot harder, we were less affected because it had always been very hard.
“The lesson we learned was – always be making. Small projects (with small budgets) lead to bigger projects with bigger budgets.”….
Anna Hall – Candour Productions
Recent years have seen a series of major and award-winning documentaries coming from Leeds-based Candour, which launched in 2014. It has four series in production at the moment and a cinema documentary.
Access is fundamental to the indie’s success. “For The Essex Millionaire Murders, or Sycamore Gap, many, many documentary companies in the country were chasing those stories and we were able to secure the inside access to the story of the police investigation. We’ve been fortunate, but I would also say we’ve worked extremely hard.”
“Broadcasters are being extremely careful about what they’re commissioning, and they all want name recognition.” All Candour’s recent films deliver on this. “My perception is that nobody wants the middle ground anymore. Everybody either wants The Push or your big Netflix access piece, or they want stuff that’s cheap and cheerful and that you can churn out quite quickly. That middle ground, which might be 250 or 300 grand an hour, is disappearing.”….
Nancy Strang – Mindhouse
Mindhouse is going at full steam, with six productions coming out this summer. Theroux’s Inside the Manosphere feature for Netflix has been a big hit, while it’s just released Katie Price: Nothing to Hide for Sky and is teeing up Big Chicken: A Fast Food conspiracy coming to Netflix on Wednesday, and Mindhouse’s theatrical debut Hanging by A wire in cinemas from 28th August.
But one of the core tenets of a healthy indie is owning your own IP and with PSBs struggling to fully fund and the streamers taking all IP in a title, this is getting harder. “We have always relied on having a balance between PSBs and streamers, because we would like to own a lot of our output,” says Strang.
“There’s been a noticeable change, even in the last year or so, in terms of the ability that PSBs have to fully fund factual programming… It’s becoming clear you have to go there with a funding plan.
“If we’ve got really strong access or a really strong idea, whereas we used to take that to a PSB first…. Now we might go to a streamer first, because at least we know we can then fully fund.”….
Mark Raphael – 72 Films
Factual is a broad church,” says Mark Raphael, who co-founded 72 Films with David Glover ten years ago. The indie, now owned by Fremantle, has a toe in different genres, notably documentary and factual entertainment, helping it to keep up with the moving demands of the market. “It’s always evolved,” he says, citing Netflix recent Skyscraper Live event, made with UK indie Plimsoll.
Raphael speaks to Televisual from New York, where 72 Films’ feature AI: Probably Nothing to Worry About had its world premiere at the Tribeca Festival. “The thing that has changed over the last 10 years, it really is a global market now.”
Right now, 72 Films is pitching three or four ideas in the States and have multiple bidders. “It can be a bit more transactional in America, where it’s, ‘what have you got? What’s the IP? What’s new?’ With the BBC or Channel Four, it’s a little bit more conversational.”…..
Pippa Considine
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