2nd Symposium 2007

« Facing the Factual Future

Programme

FRIDAY 18 MAY

13.00-14.00
REGISTRATION

14:00-14:15
WELCOME & INTRODUCTION

  • Donata von Perfall, Director, Discovery Campus
  • Christoph Jörg, Head of Thematic Sessions, Discovery Campus
  • Michael Roppelt, Bayerische Staatskanzlei

Acknowledgements :

  • Peter Wintonick, OTS Programmer / Co-founder DocAgora / Producer Necessary Illusions, Montréal, Canada
  • Claas Danielsen, International Leipzig Festival For Documentary and Animated Film, Leipzig, Germany

14:15-15:15
OPENING TALK: ON INNOVATION & INCUBATION

  • Frank Boyd, Unexpected Media, London, UK

A hyperflow of technological advances are accelerating changes in the mediascape, rapidly shifting the ground beneath our documentary feet. For documentary producers, broadcasters, distributors and makers, engaging and emerging with the digital future is a matter of dissipating fears, embracing next generation technologies and mastering new practical tools. How can we best prepare ourselves? How can we build economic sustainability for our businesses and rise to the challenges of making creative documentary for the new marketplace? In this illustrated talk, Frank Boyd will capture and contextualize some of the themes which will stretch out over the DCM Symposium.

15:15-15:45
COFFEE BREAK

15:45-17:45
NEW CREATIVE MODELS

  • Marc Goodchild, BBC Children’s, London, UK *
  • Toby Bottorf, WGBH Interactive, Boston, USA
  • Frank Boyd, Unexpected Media, London, UK

How are two of the most important public broadcasters in the e-world adapting to the shifts in digital documentary? How are they bringing their linear equivalents on board and how are they engaging with the independent production communities? Public television is thinking about re-inventing itself, moving toward models of public service publishing. Viewing habits are changing rapidly, audiences are migrating, in large flocks, away from the conventional broadcast. They still want to be engaged, and new opportunities have opened up for documentary broadcasters and makers. Marc Goodchild selects from among others, the BBC’s Climate Change Experiment, to the world's first factual interactive TV programme, Walking With Beasts, Journeys Into the Ring of Fire' and the multi-award winning interactive science special for BBC1 'How to Sleep Better'. Toby Bottorf takes us into award-winning multiplatform and Web sites for a number of PBS series, including NOVA, American Experience, Masterpiece Theatre.

17:45-19:15
INTRODUCTION & SCREENING: BORN WITH TWO MOTHERS

  • Oliver Morse, Windfall Films, London, UK

Drama based on a real incident. Featuring equally compelling performances from Sophie Okonedo and Lesley Sharp, “Born With Two Mothers” documents the story of an IVF mix-up that leads to a white woman giving birth to a black child. Despite being aware of the situation six weeks after the child has been conceived, the doctors involved are, for legal reasons, unable to discuss it with either family. It is only once little Joe has entered the world that the genetic parents catch wind of the situation and the legal battle ensues. The twist here is that the professionals involved (doctors, lawyers, etc.) are not actors. They improvise their lines and respond to the situation according to the information afforded to them by the two sets of parents. It makes for realistic viewing. By the time the case goes to court, baby Joe is 10 months old and has begun calling his white mother 'mama'. Which should prevail, genetics or maternal instinct? The judge must decide the fate of the child.

SATURDAY 19 MAY

09:30-10:30
CASE STUDY: NEW FORMS OF HYBRIDS FOR TV

  • Oliver Morse, Windfall Films, London, UK

“Born with Two Mothers” is a genre-busting, new reality docudrama with the four central parts being played by actors and the supporting roles taken by real solicitors, doctors, judges and social workers. The actors improvised around the considered professional responses of the non-actors. We discuss a new compelling docudrama concept with Oliver Morse who will show us also scenes from the follow up “Richard is my boyfriend” that he just finished for Channel 4.

The ethical problem at the heart of “Richard is my boyfriend” is whether or not to sterilise Anna, a 24 year old girl who has a learning disability. The story is fictional, but is based on close scrutiny of the fifteen most recent sterilisation cases which have been through the British courts. The characters caught up in the human drama are played by actors, but the psychiatrists, solicitors and barristers are real professionals who are given the freedom to make decisions exactly as they would in real life. Ultimately it is a judge - not a scriptwriter - who decides what will happen to Anna.

10:30-11:00
COFFEE BREAK

11:00-13:30
CROSS-PLATFORM PRODUCING
SCREENING & CASE STUDY: "MY SECOND LIFE" (35 minutes):

A documentary shot entirely in Second Life. In January 2007, a man named Molotov Alva disappeared from his California home. Recently, a series of seven video dispatches by a Traveler of the same name have appeared within a popular online world called Second Life. In these dispatches Molotov Alva encounters everything from Furries to Cyberpunks to Neo-Luddites to Sex Slaves to the King of the Hobos, Orhalla Zander, who becomes Molotov’s guide as he searches for the creator of their brave new world. Filmmaker Douglas Gayeton came across these video dispatches and put them together into a documentary of seven episodes, with a total length of 35 minutes.

  • Femke Wolting, Submarine, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  • Bruno Felix, Submarine, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  • Thomas Wallner, Xenophile, Toronto, Canada

A session from the producer’s point of view. Submarine, which works out of Holland, and the Emmy-Award-winning Canadian based Xenophile are examples of production houses working in innovative, engaged, cross-media production. From linear stand-alone documentaries for conventional channels, to interactive DVDs and websites to docugames. How did these companies evolve? As new opportunities have opened up for makers these producers are pushing forward original thinking, Using a crosstalk back and forth of case studies from their past and current productions, we will see how, in their own ways, these two companies are developing flexible ways to foster the necessary market, technological and creative conditions to ensure the production, funding and marketing of documentary’s future. Sometimes they succeed by questioning the paradigm shift itself.

13:30-15:00
LUNCH BREAK

15.00-16:15
NEW TRENDS IN ARTS PROGRAMMING FOR PRIMETIME

  • Roy Ackermann, Diverse Production, London, UK

Diverse TV created something new on British TV: the company turned the creativity of the arts into something more entertaining by including elements of jeopardy, competition and transformation. These shows became huge successes because viewers were interested in the characters as they learn how to sing and dance. Roy Ackerman will present five concepts:

  • Operatunity: In January 2002, English National Opera took on a challenge. To conduct a nation-wide search and find someone with no operatic experience who could be coached to sing in the opera Rigoletto on the stage of the London Coliseum, side by side with world-class performers.

  • Musicality: A chance to star for one night in a classic West End musical! Can someone with no professional stage experience perform a major role alongside the cast of a classic West End musical? Musicality is about transforming talent and the excitement of live musical theatre.

  • Ballet changed my life: Together with the Birmingham Royal Ballet, the producer set disadvantaged young people in the West Midlands the challenge of a lifetime. Do they have what it takes to perform on stage with a cast of professional dancers in the powerful Macmillan Production of ‘Romeo and Juliet’? The young people embark on an intensive programme of personal development, fitness, drama and dance.
  • Play It Again: the program charts the progress of six celebrities as they learn for the first time, or relearn, an instrument of their choice. It takes them back to childhood, to revisit music teachers who may have encouraged them too little, or maybe pushed them too much. After 6 months of lessons, hard practise and music conflicting with their work and personal lives, they perform a grand public finale to an audience of up to 8000.
  • Codex: History-meets-mystery as Codex uses family entertainment to unlock our ancient past. Each week 5 members of the public spend the night at the British Museum in London among its unrivalled collections of historical artefacts. Their challenge is to decipher the “Codex” – a riddle written in a mysterious code.

16.15-16:45
COFFEE BREAK

16:45-18:00
THE FUTURE OF DOCUMENTARY DISTRIBUTION AND MARKETING

  • Jan Rofekamp, Films Transit, Montréal, Canada *

Over the last 5 years we have seen volcanic increases in the number and platforms of channels and outlets, and with a thousand-fold explosion in the number of people working in our world-wide community producing documentaries, now is time to look at the future of documentary distribution and marketing and learn strategy to manoeuvre through the landscape. Are the traditional distribution channels still an option for the independent filmmaker and for how long? Is the classic documentary format in the future still the best, optimal form to get your story told? Many important questions to reflect upon. Jan Rofekamp, who for 25 years has been at the forefront of adaptive change as an international sales agent for documentary who was instrumental in challenging the doc industry with his observations about A and B list festivals, and concepts of "urgent", "classic" and "epic" films, offers us his vision for the future.

18:00-19:00
THE FUTURE OF FINANCING

  • Neil Sieling, Acquisitions, New Media & Special Projects, Link Media, New York, USA

Accelerated development in the broadcast and documentary industries means that a generation is now measured in months rather than years. Alongside this tendency, media technologies are expanding exponentially. How can we fund all of our digital desires as old sources of financing are also in flux? From working as the creator of Public Broadcasting System’s most innovative show, AliveTV to working with George Soros’ Open Society Institute, the Satellite based Link TV, researching alternative sources and models of funding with support from the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations, Neil Sieling will take us on a forensic excavation of the wellspring of trends which are helping to finance and fund the factual future. How can we monetize the media that we make?

19:30
DINNER RECEPTION

SUNDAY 20 MAY

10:00-11:30
NEW PLATFORMS FOR DISTRIBUTION

  • Emily Renshaw-Smith, Current TV, London, UK *
  • Paula Le Dieu, Magic Lantern Productions, London, UK *
  • Cay Wesnigk, OnlineFILM, Bad Schwartau, Germany *

A new dictionary for documentary is now necessary: Multi-(plat)form Digi-Docs, Interactive Docs, Social Nets, The User Generated Generation, The Creative Commons, 3P Public Private Partnerships, Personal Agenda Television, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Video-podcasting, DVDocs, Inter-Netional audiences, Cross-media Branding. These are not concepts in a lexicon of speculative fiction. Wireless mobility, VODocs on demand and Internet Protocol TV are challenging the standard distribution grid.

This session will help us wade through this digital wave, and broaden our understanding the power of possibilities and new challenges for makers. It will also bringing out questions on the new broadband networks and emerging digital platforms, and on copyright, 'open media' philosophies and other creative interactive initiatives for getting our work out there.

11:30-12:00
COFFEE BREAK

12:00-13:30
FESTIVALS 2.0: THE FUTURE OF FESTIVALS

  • Heather Croall, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Sheffield, UK
  • Caspar Sonnen, IDFA, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  • Claas Danielsen, International Leipzig Festival For Documentary and Animated Film, Leipzig, Germany
  • Peter Wintonick, DocAgora collective, The International Conversation on New Forms, New Platforms and New Ways of Funding Creative Documentary, Montréal, Canada

How are festivals evolving? For all those searching for answers in this digital documentary world, festivals can be the springboard to converge the different interests of audiences, makers and broadcasters. How are festivals responding to the GooTube generation? How are festivals responding to a new found power which indicates that they can be an increasingly potent curatorial force, working to either replace, augment or evolve with the roles of traditional gatekeepers, systems of exhibition and the financing of new work. Heather Croall has been involved at the forefront of this revolution bringing festivals like the AIDC in Australia and now Sheffield into the 21st century as innovative meeting places for industry-leading ideas, pitching and proactive discussion. IDFA is the mother of all documentary festivals, and its visions for IDFA 2.0 are extensive. Now celebrating its fiftieth birthday, as one of the oldest festivals on the planet, Leipzig is now e-merging as one of the more innovative and responsive. DocAgora is a roving international discussion which touches down at the major documentary fests around the world, organizing and facilitating a deeper conversation on New Forms, New Platforms and New Ways of Funding Creative Documentary.

13:30-14:45
LUNCH BREAK

14:45-16:00
100 LAWS OF TELEVISION

  • Robert Thirkell, Troubleshooter TV, London, UK *

The multi-award-winning Robert Thirkell (this year named Britain's "hottest producer") has written “The 100 Rules of Television? How to navigate through a minefield of egos and win”. In this talk, Thirkell sets out some of his favourite rules from his list. Using Jamie's School Dinners Update as a case study, he demonstrates how important it is to remember some basic rules when making compelling television, from RULE 1: "Never take on something that has been successful" to the most important of all, RULE 100...

Conception:

  • Christoph Jörg, Head of Thematic Sessions, Discovery Campus
  • Peter Wintonick, OTS Programmer / Co-founder DocAgora / Producer Necessary Illusions

Moderation:

  • Claas Danielsen, International Leipzig Festival For Documentary, Leipzig, Germany
  • Christoph Jörg, Head of Thematic Sessions, Discovery Campus

(*) not included in the Discovery Campus Yearbook 2007.

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