MIP TV 2002 Report
Focus on documentary
Report by Susan Mackinnon
Overview
A year ago it was the new media whiz-kids who were bearing the brunt of the
financial pain, now it is the media moguls who are in trouble. In the UK, ITV
Digital is on the brink of collapse; in France, Vivendi Universal management is in
crisis mode, leaving Canal + in limbo; and in Germany, Kirch Media has filed for
insolvency and awaits break-up.
Britain’s ITV Digital overpaid massively for TV rights to soccer last year and is
now up for sale. Europe’s biggest cable groups, UPC and NTL, have seen their
three-year aggressive acquisition spree hit a brick wall of debt restructuring.
Against this backdrop – and with broadcasters paying lower licence fees while
demanding more repeat options and buying less – MIP TV was a tough market.
It meant more programming had to be sold to make the same revenue as last
year.
Despite Reed Midem quoting attendance figures as stable or up, the market
appeared to be slower and the catalogue was thinner. Some felt that with the
many specialist markets now on offer through the year, many people are
choosing not to attend MIP TV. They were assessing the value of two annual
MIP events in the light of cost cutting.
An increasingly difficult issue for MIP TV is its proximity on the calendar to the
Los Angeles Screenings and the Cannes Film Festival – both May events. In a
bid to address this, Reed Midem will move MIP TV to March in 2003.
The good news is that this gloomy economic picture has created a healthy niche
for inexpensive factual programming. This year’s MIPDOC was the biggest in its
five years – over 1,300 documentaries were shown over the two days.
As drama becomes prohibitively expensive for broadcasters, more
documentaries will take up slots. MIPDOC statistics show that buyers were
wanting more current affairs and history programming.
The most screened program was the Canadian CBC’s In The Line Of Fire, about
journalists who follow the Israeli-Palestinean conflict, many of whom claim they
are being targeted by the Israeli military. Two other popular programs were
Geishas: Behind The Scenes, and Fighting Aviation Terror. Pierre Merle, head
of documentary programming for ARTE France, said he wanted history and 90minute big-format shows on every subject.
Also boosting the documentary market has been a surge in demand for newsbased documentaries. Post September 11, there has been a proliferation of films
about Islam. An example of broadcaster response to this demand is Thirteen
WNET, which has created a new strand called Wide Angle.
One of the guest’s of MIPDOC Talking was Brian Lapping, whose credits include
The Death Of Yugoslavia, The Money Changers, Watergate, The Second
Russian Revolution and The Endgame In Ireland. Lapping spoke of his present
production Tackling Terror, which will give an understanding of September 11,
how the US government reacted and how the event has changed the world.
Peter Dale, Channel 4, commissioned the film along with Yves Janneau from
France 2 and John Raleagh from TV2 Norway.
Advances in CGI technologies have also encouraged a change in factual
programming. Kristina Holstein, ZDF Enterprises’ director of documentary coproduction, believes the ascent of FX in documentaries is bringing television and
cinema closer together to serve as a testing platform for the Hollywood majors.
Discovery’s When Dinosaurs Roamed was doing the rounds at this market.
Despite the vast array of new channels requiring a huge number of hours of
documentaries, the number of broadcasters willing to finance big-budget
documentaries has shrunk to a handful. The BBC, HBO and PBS are three
broadcasters who are financing the high-end productions.
Growth in cable channels
The proliferation of channels has diversified the number of players and the slots
available. Unfortunately production dollars have diminished as the cable industry
spreads.
Also, it is felt that the strong branding of cable channels has restrained creativity,
with filmmakers trying to meet the demands of brand names such as Discovery
or National Geographic.
The UK is a good example of the growth in channels. Channel 4 was launched
20 years ago, when there were only three other channels in the UK. Now more
than 200 fight for an audience. Channel 4’s original remit was to provide an
alternative to the UK’s only other commercial channel, ITV. With a culturally
highbrow, left-wing agenda, it was to provide a home for minority voices.
Channel 4’s ambition to be different is still there, although the channel now
interprets its remit as being about championing innovation in form and content.
One could say that Australia’s SBS has experienced a similar transformation in
remit.
Channel 4 has expanded so rapidly that it now finds itself in financial difficulty.
Film Four Ltd. began as the broadcaster’s in-house drama department, gaining
momentum in 1985 with the success of My Beautiful Laundrette. Further growth
came in the late 1990’s with Film Four and E4 pay-TV digital channels and
internet/interactive television unit 4 Interactive. All these new media operations –
plus Channel 4’s profitable rights trading businesses and educational division 4
Learning – are housed under the holding company 4Ventures. This rapid
expansion has occurred during the economic downturn and the investment
market’s disenchantment with the new media industry. This has meant many
recent budget cuts and the loss of 80 jobs.
Australian presence
Australian documentary filmmakers at MIPTV:
Brian Beaton, WA
John Izzard, TAS
Andrew Ogilvie, WA
Chris Hilton, NSW
Cathy Henkel, NSW
Citt Williams, QLD
Mark Chapman, QLD
Ruth Berry, QLD
Marilynne Paspaley, NT
Garry Grbavac, NT
Ed Punchard, WA
Julia Redwood, WA
Mike Searle, WA
For ABC Content Sales it was documentaries that were the banner programs at
this market. Wave Of Change and Baseclimb 2 were both up in lights on the
ABC Stand and the science accord, Alien Underworld, was being tested early in
the market while still at fine cut.
The FFC met with the following commissioning editors and sales people:
Dan Chambers, Controller of Factual, Channel 5
Dan was formally a science commissioning editor at Channel 4. He is looking for
history and science one hours and series, and general factual series. He is also
looking for all factual formats. His colleague, Chris Shaw, is commissioning and
acquiring observational documentaries.
Kagari Tajima, Senior Executive Manager, Project Development, MICO,
Japan
Kagari@micojapan.com
Formally of NHK, Mr Tajima is now at MICO. MICO is the international
distribution and co-production arm for the Japanese public broadcaster NHK.
MICO is a private company but 60% of its business is with NHK. MICO cofinances international production to sell firstly to NHK, and then to the Japanese
commercial broadcasters. It is more difficult to sell documentaries to the
Japanese commercial stations as they do not program many. Mr Tajima
encouraged Australian producers to send their proposals to him and he could
then pass them onto NHK if they were not proposals for MICO.
Michel Noll, CEO ICTV Solferino, Paris
m.noll@ictv-solferino.com
As a small Paris-based sales agent, Michel has contributed an advance in Peter
Hegadus’ The Inheritance.
Stephen Segaller, Director, News and Public Affairs Programming, Thirteen
WNET NY.
Andy Halper, Senior Producer News and Public Affairs Programming
www.thirteen.org
In the wake of September 11, WNET aims to extend Americans’ awareness and
understanding of the world. Stephen and Andy spoke about Wide Angle, a new,
international current affairs documentary series produced by Thirteen WNET. It
will be a weekly, primetime series of timely international single-subject films. The
duration of programs is 42 – 45 minutes, leaving a space for either Jamie Ruben,
the host presenter and former US Secretary of State, or journalist Daljit Dhaliwal,
to reinterpret the film for the American audience. The first season will be ten
films premiering on July 11, 2002. Subjects must be current, from environmental
politics to migration and race, from high level economics to poverty, religion to
global media. They were looking to acquire three more films for this year’s series.
For an acquisition they will pay up to US$75,000.
WideAngle@thirteen.org
Bill Grant, Director, Science, Natural History & Features Programs, Thirteen
WNET NY
Grant@thirteen.org
There are three areas for documentaries on WNET – Arts & Culture with Margie
Smilo, Head of Documentaries; Current Affairs with Stephen Segaller and
Science Features with Bill Grant. Within science, Bill programs a third natural
history, a third science and technology and one third history on the Time Watch
strand. Bill says that history has grown fantastically. He is presently working on a
series about Japan and the World War 2 and he is looking for major series.
Bernd Hellthaler, CEO, EuroArts Medien AG, Stuttgart
Euroarts has three areas of activity – film through EuroArts Entertainment, musicrelated factual programming, and postproduction for visual effects and CGI. The
documentaries are at the high end, including covering La Scala productions for
RAI and the Berlin Philomonic orchestra. Bernd felt quite positive about theatrical
releases for feature-length documentaries, as it helps video and television sales.
He believes the right film (high profile such as Westcoast Jazz) can recoup 20%
with a theatrical film. Classical subjects have a long shelf life so they are not
interested in pop culture.
www.euroarts.com
Diane Weyerman, Director of International Program, Sundance Institute
diane_weyermann@sundance.org
Diane used to head up the Soros Documentary Fund until she moved from New
York to LA to take up the job of director of the Sundance International Program.
She has managed to transfer the Soros Fund to be the Sundance Documentary
Fund, to everyone’s relief. The Fund supports documentaries focused on issues
in contemporary human rights, freedom of expression, social justice and civil
liberties. The Fund does not accept historical projects, biographies, or series.
There are no deadlines and funds may be for development or production. The
maximum grant is US$50,000.
In 2000, the Sundance Institute established The House of Docs, as part of the
Sundance Film Festival. The House provides opportunities for Festival
filmmakers to network with each other and with resource advisors, members of
the press, and international representatives. Presentations and one-on-one
meetings take place all day on topics ranging from development, financing,
distribution and exhibition, to the creative process, ethics, and current non-fiction
trends. Diane has plans to expand on this for the next Sundance Festival.
Sundance is preparing to launch the new Sundance Documentary Channel late
this year which will be based in New York.
Krishan Arora, Senior Commissioning Executive, Independents & Nations
(Regions), Specialist Factual, BBC
krishan.arora@bbc.co.uk
Krishan was very pleased to be doing The Most Dangerous Man In The World as
his first Australian production. He is very keen to attend the AIDC conference.
Greg Phillips, President, Fireworks International
Marjie Woods, Factual Sales, (marjie@firecorp.co.uk)
Adam Haight, Fireworks Entertainment
Toronto-based Fireworks was the new sales company at the market aggressively
seeking projects in development. Jay Firestone, ex vice chairman of Alliance
Atlantis Communications Corporation, established Fireworks in 1996, and
CanWest Global Communications Corp. paid over $62 million for it in 1998.
Cashed up by CanWest, Fireworks has quickly developed a reputation for
fantasy, drama and science-fiction programming as well as children’s live action
drama.
Marjie Woods, ex Beyond, was keen to meet Australian documentary filmmakers.
Fireworks factual catalogue at MIPTV contained mostly series. These included
the six hour series Great Souls: Six Who Changed A Century about Mother
Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Billy Graham, Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, Pope John
Paul II and Ellie Wiesel; Playing With Fire two x one hours about a year on the
women’s pro tennis tour; a 40 x half hour series on true life heroes Heart Of
Courage; a 65 x half hour series called Pet Connection and a one hour series
called Assassins about those who gained notoriety by killing prominent people.
www.watchfireworks.com
John Lindsay, Senior Vice President, National/ International Productions,
OPB
Lindsayopb@aol.com
John is generally looking for one-offs or limited series and he is usually involved
with international producer partners. He acquires very little. He is interested in
history, serious observational films, science and current affairs.
www.opb.org
Neil Mundy, Director of Programmes, RM & Associates, London
rma@rmassociates.co.uk
Neil felt that MIPTV was not very busy, that the proliferation of pay channels and
other delivery mechanisms was swamping the market and driving it down. He
said there were too many channels that no one wanted to watch or physically
couldn’t watch. The present media battles with Kirsh and Vivendi, and ITV’s
difficulties, were causing a very frugal market place. He felt that quality
programming was becoming increasingly difficult to find. Neil is considering a
number of Australian films. RM’s big film for MIPTV was Goya – A Crazy Genius
which is written and presented by Robert Hughes.
Chris Tidman, Acquisition & Co-Production Executive, Carlton International
Media
Chris.tidman@carltonint.co.uk
www.carltonint.co.uk
Carlton was hard at work promoting The Football Farm and Child Soldiers, both
Electric Pictures and Alley Cat productions from Western Australia. Chris felt that
some of the smaller one-hour productions he viewed at the market were more
appropriate for TVF or RDF sales companies. He is keen to attend the AIDC
conference next year.
Hans-Stefan Heyne, Head of International Acquisitions, Studio Hamburg Fernish
Allianz, NDR
Email: tvacquisitions@studio-hamburg.de
While at MIP TV Hans offered a presale to Mark Chapman’s and Ruth Berry’s
The Terrible Lizards Of Oz film, Australia’s own dinosaur story. Other
commissioning personnel for NDR are: Volka Zielka, for history, Wolfgang Buck,
for science; and Thomas Schrieber, the director. Hans would like to be invited to
the AIDC in February.
Jan Rofekamp, CEO, Films Transit, Montreal
www.filmstransit.com
As Australian sales companies and distributors are becoming more competitive
with each other, there are less films for international companies to pick up. Jan
was disappointed that there were only a few to consider. Both he and his
colleague Barbara Truyen want to attend the AIDC in February. Both are happy
to recommend films for the AIDC festival in October/ November in order that the
conference has the latest films. Jan is presently selling Much Ado About
Something, Business Behind Bars and Losing Layla.
Julie Anderson, Director, Documentary Programming, HBO, New York
HBO cannot commission very many programs from independent filmmakers –
there are only 12 spots in the Cinemax, slot which makes it remarkable that there
are two Australian films included this year. They like social, cultural and political
programming, and licence fees can range from US$20,000 - $100,000.
www.hbo.com/documentaries
Shari Levine, Vice President, Executive Producer, Bravo Profiles, BRAVO,
NY
Sblevine@rainbow-media.com
Bravo specialises in mainstream cinema arts as entertainment. There are Bravo
Profiles, Book to Screen, 11 x one hour programs; Art Crime and Mystery Show,
6 x one hours to be made by the UK company Wall To Wall. It is about the great
art forgeries and robberies. The pilot is about the theft of Munch’s The Scream
during the Norwegian Olympics. They are looking for the PR value in their
commissions. Most commissions are celebrity driven. For acquisitions Bravo will
pay between US$25 - 75,000 for North America. Bravo is owned by Rainbow
Media as well as the Independent Film Channel, the American Movie Classics
and Women’s Entertainment. At the AMC Jessica Falcon commissions one-offs
and has higher budgets. At WE Jeff Eisenberg is the Vice President of
production and commissions one offs.
Elizabeth Cullen, Vice President, Acquisitions & Co-Productions, Oxygen
Media, USA
www.oxygen.com
Oxygen is a US cable outlet founded in 1998, positioning itself as a channel for
discerning women. In the competitive women's market Oxygen is pitching itself
as highbrow compared to the hugely successful (lowbrow) Lifetime Channel.
Oxygen shows half-hours and one-hour programs and commissions 60 per cent
of its material. It shows social and cultural documentaries and pays between
US$8,000 - $12,000 per film. Unfortunately it has shifted in the last year to
comedy and scripted programming. They are looking for drama projects as pilots
for future series.
Melanie Wallace, Senior Series Producer, NOVA, WGBH, Boston
Melanie_wallace@wgbh.org
Melanie has been the commissioning editor for a long time for the prestigious
PBS science strand NOVA. She hasn’t worked with any Australian productions
for over 4 years. Melanie is interested in the process of science, which has a very
strong narrative and is cutting edge. She was interested to hear more about the
AIDC conference next February and with the growing ABC production of
independent science, it may be worth her while attending. Licence fees range
from US$50,000 - $100,000. For more on NOVA visit the website,
www.pbs.org/nova
Matt Campbell, Acquisitions, France Television Distribution
mattwallaroo@netspace.net.au
Matt is a sales agent and sells into France 2, 3 and 5. He visits Melbourne regularly
and is presently involved with the Xanana film. He is very interested in seeing
accord films at rough cut that do not have a sales company representing them. He
will be attending the AIDC conference in February.
Pippa Lambert, Acquisitions Executive, TVF International, London
Pippa.lambert@tvf.co.uk
TVF is a London based sales company. Pippa has signed up her first Australian
production with Ellenor Cox’s Cave In The Snow. Pippa is keen to have more
product and met with all the Australians at MIPTV. She will be attending the
AIDC conference in February.
www.tvfinternational.com
Mette Hoffman Meyer, Head of Factual Sales and Co-Productions, TV 2
Denmark
meho@tv2.dk
TV2 has 42-minute documentary slots and feature-length slots. Mette
commissions 20 programs a year from international filmmakers and acquires 100
programs. She is looking for human-interest stories for prime time, she wants
feature documentaries and wildlife films. She can pay between US$1,000 $10,000 for acquisitions, and US$5,000 - $80,000 for licence fees. She is a
great supporter of the feature-length film and has recently screened the films
Southern Comfort, Startup.Com, Kurt And Courtney, Murder On Sunday, Cry
From The Grave, Runaway and Gospel Of The Papua New Guniea.
www.tv2.dk
Maurice Paleau, Vice President, Production and Development, Discovery
Networks International
Maurice_Paleau@discovery.com
Discovery Animal Planet is considering Australian shows that could follow on
from Discovery’s huge success with the series Crocodile Man.
Lilla Hurst, Head of Acquisitions, RDF International
www.rdfinternational.com
Lilla has visited Australia twice in the last 8 months and now feels she has met
most of the Australian filmmakers working in the international marketplace. She
is interested in a number of productions in development with Western Australian
producers, as well as a series in Melbourne and a couple of productions in
Sydney. RDF is an independent production company which produces the
successful Channel 4 series Scrapheap Challenge and the Hip Hop Years. Lilla
will be at the AIDC conference following up on productions she is interested it.
Bruce Glawson, Vice President Programming, PrideVision TV, Toronto
Bruce@pridevisiontv.com
PrideVision TV is a Canadian digital specialty channel launched in September
2001. It provides a TV service for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered
community and gay-positive viewers. Bruce is looking for gay and lesbian
programming of all genres. Programming is mostly by acquisition and covers
lifestyle, comedy, drama, features. documentaries, game shows and news. It
has a staggeringly high 65% of Canadian content and 5% original programming.
The in-house shows are Under Covers, Urban Fitness TV, Locker Room and
Bump. They include sex advice, a hip and exhilarating exploration of hard body
trends, a hilarious take on amateur and professional sports, and a sexy
travelogue and pop-culture review of global destinations. It is not surprising that
its demographic is men over 30 as there is a lot more product available for men.
They are hoping this will change. The acquisition deal is CND$2-3,000 per hour,
for 15 runs over 4 years exclusive. www.pridevisiontv.com
paper prepared
by Susan MacKinnon