INTERNATIONAL PRODUCER PARTNERSHIPS ESSENTIAL FOR DOCUMENTARY
International broadcasters are placing huge emphasis on international partnerships and strong alliances between documentary producers, according to the commissioning editors from a host of international broadcasters, who came together for a panel session at the BSE/IFB co-sponsored Stranger Than Fiction Documentary Festival.The marketing elements of projects are also of key importance including quality stills, innovative title and snappy loglines, all of which are essential. So said Richard Melman from the UK's History and Biography Channel, Marie Natanson from CBC Canada, Louisa Bolch, the Documentary Commissioner for History, Science, Religion, Arts and Education at Channel 4; Richard Klein, BBC 1,2,4 and Leena Pasanen from YLE Finland on a panel convened by BSE/IFB CEO Mark Woods.
Melman emphasised that that the primary objective of both the History and Biography Channels is entertainment. The channels are part of a global network of over 146 countries and their main focus is acquired and co-produced programming, entering into co-productions (with the likes of Channel 5, S4C, ZDF, RTE and between their own partner channels) with commissioning contributions ranging around £20-30,000 per hour. The channels have a feature documentary slot every week with the biography channel often being celebrity driven, featuring subjects that are still alive. Melman strongly encouraged producers to directly pitch him programming ideas.
Canada's CBC, a national public free to air broadcaster in English and French, pre-buy, commission and co-produce 100 hours of documentary per year with a budget of approximately CAN$3 million, two thirds of which are pre-sales acquisitions. Usual licence fees are approximately CAN$100-120,000 per hour for pre-sales and CAN$8-15,000 for acquisitions. CBC have a Passionate Eye strand for contemporary edgy stories and are less interested in commissioning feature documentaries.
Richard Klein, from the BBC explained that up to 75% of BBC documentaries are produced in house and therefore competition amongst indies for available slots is fierce. BBC 1 usually screens home market documentaries, whereas BBC 2 focuses on 1 hour international slots which pay £150-225,000 per hour and is intending to increase the number of these slots very soon. BBC 4 has the most slots with international focus but less money to spend commissioning. Generally the focus of all their channels is on contemporary observational documentaries from experienced teams.
Documentaries on Channel 4 are generally scheduled for prime time slots and therefore tend big 'event' documentaries ten to get commissioned. They are interested in edgy, risky, ambitious, journalistic documentaries with contemporary controversial tabloid angles and content to substantiate. Bolch mentioned that they are interested in co-producing blue chip science documentaries and also new reality formats on difficult subjects such as education.
Whereas the BBC and Channel 4 are mainly focused on documentary series, Finland also has a large appetite for single and feature documentaries. According to Pasanen, the Fins are very documentary savvy and there are many primetimes slots available for this genre. YLE have 2 free-to-air channels and commission a wide range of material. Again Pasanen stressed the importance for producers to find co-financing partners as YLE is usually a minority investor.
All broadcasters said that whereas they do like to work with producers with whom they have previous experience with, they will all make exceptions for extraordinary projects.