SALES AGENTS' STRESS EARLY INVOLVEMENT IS KEY FOR DOCUMENTARY PROJECTS
Contacting sales agents with documentary projects, as soon as domestic broadcaster is on board, is key for international sales, advised speakers at a session entitled 'Meet the Sales Agents', chaired by Alliance Atlantis Chief Ted Riley, during the Stranger than Fiction documentary festival in September. On the panel were Carey Fitzgerald from High Point Films, Yvonne Body from Beyond Films, Christina Willoughby at C4 International and Derry O'Brien from Network IrelandAlliance Atlantis is very keen to have Irish projects and is interested in acquiring history specials, series or lifestyle series and will put up development money according to Riley. He also emphasised the importance of the producer /distributor relationship in creating a level of comfort for companies like Alliance Atlantis.
C4 International, which is currently looking at three Irish projects and believe that "there are some brilliant ideas coming out of Irish community", views its relationship with the sector as "independent production partners". 65% of its business is acquiring factual documentary under the sub headings of history, science, and factual entertainment such as Super Nanny and it also has GBP30 million to spend.
Examples of previous projects that C4 International has acquired include Touching the Void, where the company put up 50% of monies for the book rights. Though it will not distribute projects theatrically, they do work on a commission basis for a finished products, put money into development from a budget of £30 million and will provide deficit funding from a budget of £20 million. They are very keen to know ideas from extremely early on in the life of a project and need to know your background, company track record, examples of existing work.
High Point, which recently took the BSE/IFB and TG4 co-financed Irish language documentary CINEGAEL PARADISO, will look at both TV and theatrically-based projects, although for the latter the director is of vital importance. It is also interested in foreign language material so Irish language documentaries are welcomed. In general, when approaching High Point, providing a treatment and strong track record of producers is vital.
Purely factual documentaries are the main focus of Beyond Productions including science and technology series. They are not interested in history and lifestyle and, according to London-based Yvonne Body, "Irish documentaries are of big benefit to us as our European quota". In general, Beyond tend to get involved after a domestic broadcaster is on board.
Derry O'Brien said Network Ireland primarily sees finished products but also likes to get involved at an earlier stage. Also, he stressed the importance of knowing what rights are available and issues such as music clearances is very important.