DFG Newcomers Day in Events on DFGDocs – The British Documentary Website

DFG Newcomers Day

Part of the Sheffield DocFest festival.

Event Categories

Festival events , Industry Event , Seminar/ Workshop

Summary

Newcomers day is a fantastic and unique opportunity to get into the documentary world. Hear from and meet execs who are hiring, commissioners who are buying and the directors who are inspiring the next generation of doc filmmakers. All participants can compete for the BBC placement and current TV commission.

Full description

10am - 6pm

Session 1: The ABC of Factual Commissioning, followed by Monkey Tennis
Kate Vogel, Commissioning Editor for Channel 4’s 3 Minute Wonder strand, and Andy Glynne of the Documentary Filmmakers Group, guide you through the maze that is getting your first broadcast commission, with a little help from their commissioning friends. It’s daunting and easy to get lost, but with these tips you will find your way through to the other side where all the smug, successful filmmakers live. This session is an absolute must for all those new to the festival circuit and keen to make their mark in the TV business. Followed by:

Monkey Tennis...billed by the Independent as one of the highlights of the Edinburgh TV Festival, this secret camera film sees Lee pitching to commissioners with his fake production company, “Monkey Tennis”. With ideas as diverse as “Rolf Harris Draws the News” and “18th Century Doctor”, how will our undercover reporter fare in the big bad world of TV commissioning?

Session 2: Self Distribution and the Online Opportunities
This panel offers you dozens of practical tricks and tips about the future of short film self-distribution and how to make the growing number of broadband 'channels' work for your film. With the broadcast landscape changing daily, it’s no longer sufficient for filmmakers simply to complete their projects and submit to the ‘old’ channels: festivals, the usual websites and TV networks. The hunger for content from new broadband channels has opened up a world of revenue and distribution models. Obviously, it’s all getting confusing. This panel offers some light to young filmmakers about to embark on getting their film out in this murky new world.
With: Simon Chambers, Filmmaker, Michelle Coomber, Green TV, Maxyne Franklin, Britdoc, Barry Gibb, FourDocs Filmmaker, Charlie Phillips, FourDocs, Ed Riseman, Babelgum

Lunch

Session 3: BBC Impress The Panel
…for a 9 Month Paid Placement with BBC Documentaries.
The BBC is offering the interview of a lifetime. Five people will be given the rare and exciting opportunity to be interviewed onstage by BBC executives for a paid placement with BBC Documentaries and Special Features. The successful candidate will spend 9 months working with Nick Mirsky, Executive Producer, The Armstrongs, Louis Theroux and Wonderland. If you’re a documentary filmmaker or researcher who’s got the talent, this is a great opportunity to gain invaluable and insightful training in researching and storytelling for documentaries. Come along to this session to learn valuable insights into interview technique that could help you get your first job in television.

Speakers: Nick Mirsky, Executive Producer, BBC Documentaries; Kate Beetham, Executive Producer, Documentary Commissioning; Session Producer/Moderator: Angela Wallis, Executive Producer, BBC New Talent

Session 4: The Current TV Pitch
8 lucky individuals will get chance to pitch live to a panel of Current TV executives. We hope this will be a lively event in which the commissioners will be open about their deliberations on stage and give detailed feedback.

The best pitch will receive a £1000 commission to make their pitch a reality as well as 2 more commissions to make further pods for Current.

To enter, just write an idea for a pod in a short paragraph and email it to erenshaw-smith@uk.current.com making sure you put "The Current Pitch" in the subject line, and read the submission terms. The 8 lucky finalists will get a free Newcomers Day pass, and have their travel covered. See here for details.

A pod is a factual film no more than 8 minutes in length. It can be about anything - from sex and fashion through to politics and current affairs - as long as it's factual and absolutely compelling! You can sample some of Current's programming here http://uk.current.com/network/video

The deadline for submissions is November 1st, 4:30pm GMT

About Current
Launched on August 1, 2005, Current is the first TV network created by, for and with young adults. Founded by Al Gore and Joel Hyatt, the network enlists its viewers to become creative partners, making it the first television network in history whose programming is supplied in part by the very audience who watches it. Current’s award-winning content adopts what has made the Internet the medium of choice for young adults - audience participation and engagement.

Rather than a traditional network with primetime shows and “appointment television,” Current offers short-form programming scheduled using the TV equivalent of an iPod shuffle. Its short-form, nonfiction videos, called “pods” are only a few minutes long, and explore the people, places, happenings and hot-button issues of interest to young adults. The programming covers subjects rarely found on TV and in a voice young adults recognize, their own.

To find out more visit www.current.com

Join DFG at the end of the day for some drinks, some networking, and a bit more inspiration…

Plus:

Friday 7th November

Session 5: Mini-MeetMarket

A project development and pitching initiative for aspiring documentary makers

Got an idea for a must-watch documentary? Think it could be good enough for broadcast or alternative funding but don’t know how to develop it or where to pitch it? At this year’s festival up to 20 new filmmakers are being selected to brainstorm their ideas with executive and series producers at an intensive morning ‘MeetMarket’.

Deadline: 5pm, Monday 15th October

For more info see: Call for Entries - the Mini-MeetMarket

Britdocs

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