WHAT’S NEXT?
DRAMA AND FILM FACTUAL TV
Studio Lambert’s Celebrity Gogglebox for Channel 4
FIGHTS BACK
cost and work around restrictions. During lockdown, Gogglebox continued production, setting up rigs in contributors’ homes, with crews installed outside, complete with portaloos. Equally, Channel 4 debate special Can Science Beat the Virus? used just one studio location and kept costs to a minimum whilst creating a high quality broadcast. Like many, Woodcut Media has
been adapting to changed protocols and has been back filming several shows since the government gave a green-light at the start of June. “The genre can absolutely ‘save the day’ because it is perfectly positioned to do so from a financial and logistical point of view,” says Kate Beal, ceo at Woodcut.
THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE Factual indies are able to concentrate on pitching ideas that will be practicable in the short and medium term. “I really want to make
ideas that are effectively oven ready, where work can be done the minute we have relaxation enough to make the show,” says Singhal. Imperatives that existed pre-
Covid, such as a focus on big, cut-through ideas and escapist treatment and the increase in co-pro financing, have become even more important. Ad-funded
“THE
GENRE CAN ABSOLUTELY SAVE THE DAY.
solutions are commanding more attention. But the answer to a funding gap in many cases may well be co-pro. Salaria cites Channel 4’s upcoming 9/11 film being made by Arrow Media, with funding from ARTE France
and America’s PBS. Such co-pro funding, she says, will be needed on more projects. “We still have a huge ambition to make these important documentaries but we will have to do them in a different way than we did before.” Giving away
IT’S PERFECTLY POSITIONED TO DO SO”
rights before production starts isn’t a perfect world, but indies have been increasingly open to finding alternative funding over the last few years. At Curve, no single broadcaster would commission
engineering series How Did They Build That?, executive produced by Charlie Bunce. Instead distributor
TCB funded it as a TCB Original. “It’s become increasingly important to be commercially astute,” says Lewis. “There are deals to be done and ways of working the money.”
THE BIG NAMES Despite industry concerns that distributors will be increasingly wary about investment, Armston-Clarke at TVF reports healthy competition for strong ideas looking for distributor financing. “The impression I’m getting is that people do have cash.” She has seen bidding wars, possibly fuelled by the knowledge that there’s a shortage of productions in the pipeline. The focus on high profile films
and returnable formats has only intensified and this is one area where budgets still seem intact, although pandemic workarounds might increase costs. Complex, international fact
ent hits like Voltage TV’s The British Tribe Next Door are clearly
Summer 2020
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