“News is a really good source of ideas, not just replicating the reporting but trying to think tangentially – think outside the box with it,” said Kat Hayes, an Emmy award-winning executive producer at Al Jazeera’s US digital media channel, AJ+, whose weekly documentary series reports on marginalised communities and social affairs.
New and experienced documentary filmmakers discuss the making of the BBC's latest documentary, Leigh-Anne: Race, Pop & Power.
The panel includes first-time Director Tash Gaunt, Producer Kandise Abiola, Researcher Taylor Anderson, Executive Producers Tom Currie and Sam Bickley from Dragonfly TV. Chaired by presenter Basma Khalifa.
Our panel will include first-time Director Tash Gaunt, Producer Kandise Abiola, Researcher Taylor Anderson, Executive Producers Tom Currie and Sam Bickley from Dragonfly TV. Chaired by presenter Basma Khalifa.
From comedy to docs, via reality TV: “With my writing partner from university, I was writing script-based comedy… we got close a few times to getting things away but it wasn’t quite working,” recalled Cary.
He landed a job as a runner at Endemol, working on BBC Three show Celebrity Scissorhands and then Big Brother: “I exploited every connection I had at Endemol and got a job at North One, which used to make a lot of Cutting Edge [documentaries] for Channel 4.”
Documentary film-maker Arthur Cary shared how he tackles difficult subjects with great sensitivity at the RTS Student Masterclasses 2019.
Click here to read the session report.
The two media lawyers looked at the contractual, legal and regulatory issues that can crop up in access docs – films that that require access to institutions such as hospitals or communities – including data protection, defamation and advice on drafting access agreements.
They also tackled other thorny issues such as the police requesting rushes and contributors withdrawing consent.
Clive Myrie
Journalist and presenter, BBC News
In an era of widespread concern about fake news, trusted and experienced correspondents such as the BBC’s award-winning Clive Myrie are more important than ever.
Can something as apparently ephemeral as a TV programme be genuinely cathartic and help to bring a measure of healing, perhaps even closure, to a national tragedy? That was the hope behind the making of The Vietnam War, the acclaimed documentary made by Ken Burns and his long-time collaborator Lynn Novick.
Last month, PBS America began showing the 18-hour directors’ cut in the UK. This followed the British premiere of the 10-hour version by BBC Four last autumn and its repeat over Christmas.
Professional skill, time, money and the latest camera technologies are all vital to making landmark natural-history shows. Less well known, when it comes to seeking unique footage of life deep in the world’s oceans, is how programme-makers put their health on the line.
The lengths that these men and women go to in the cause of producing iconic TV was explained in detail during an RTS event, “Diving beneath the waves – the making of Blue Planet II”.
The initiative will give five female filmmakers in the UK and Ireland a £20,000 grant to make their own short films, each focused on female empowerment, equality and kindness.
In partnership with Women in Film & TV, the five entrants will receive guidance and bespoke mentoring over the production period.
