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Documentary production has blossomed over the last five years. More documentaries have entered the cinemas (Austin and de Jong, 2008) and we have seen some very successful ‘block-buster’ documentaries such as SuperSize Me, Touching the Void and March of the Penguins. In addi-tion it could be argued that the sophisticaaddi-tion of documentaries has increased: storytelling, visualisation and the use of music and archive material have increased the quality of the films.

Documentary is no longer drama’s poor cousin.

. . . I think that people are much more open to the documentary medium now. I don’t quite know why that its. Maybe it’s because it’s been done successfully and people as a result are more comfortable with it as a storytelling device. And it’s also shed its slightly woolly-jumper preconception. It has a sexier image.

(Orlah Collins, Pathé, interview 2006)

However, Austin and de Jong (2008) conclude that the boom took mainly place in the USA.

While an increase in interest in documentary is notable in the UK, it would be an exaggeration to call it a boom.

The main argument why documentary didn’t take off to the same extent as in the USA might be our media system. In Europe, historically, media became part of national and cultural policies and was allocated a role in preserving national culture and promoting national identities and democratic traditions. It is within that context that the BBC obtained the remit to ‘inform, enter-tain and educate’ its audiences.

This is still the prevalent position of our public broadcaster, which means that documentaries are being broadcast on national television, although usually much later in the evening, as reality TV has taken over the prime-time slots. The American media system is largely commercially driven.

As a result, only a small public broadcast sector suffering from underfunding exists. Underlying this different concept of the media is a different concept of culture. In America, ‘culture’ seems to be defined in market terms, while in the UK a double route has been created of both public and commercial broadcasters. According to Pathé, one of the big distributors in the UK,

A lot of films in the last couple of years made an awful lot of money for very little output.

There have been a lot of well-received, critically praised and lauded documentaries that have come out recently that have done no business. Some that have done very well in the States have come over here and they’ve just died.

(Orlah Collins, Pathé, interview 2006)

Despite the expansion of channels, and an increase in documentary production, it is still difficult to get films commissioned. One can identify the following developments:

• The introduction of more channels and an increase in internet distribution without a rise in TV licence income for the BBC or an increase in advertising revenue for the commercial chan-nels have led to a decrease in budgets per programme.

• Broadcasters seem to demand series of programmes. Many documentary filmmakers prefer to make one-off films. Series require a strong format which can be repeated easily. Developing formats is a very different skill from making a single documentary. Format creation operates in a more commercial market of which many independent filmmakers are not part. In any case, many subjects are not suitable for formatting into a series.

Ironically with more and more channels, there are, in a weird way, almost fewer and fewer opportunities. Because people are watching more of the same thing, and they want what they saw last night . . . Broadcasters want series and they want formatted series.

(Silvia Stevens, Faction Films, interview January 2008)

In addition, many documentary filmmakers develop their structure while making the film.

Unexpected developments during shooting may alter the structure of a film. In Chapter 2, this has been described as serendipity, which is considered to be an important characteristic of documentary production. Individual documentaries are reliant on specific slots, such as Storyville or True Stories, which are also concept-driven but do give a certain freedom to show a variety of documentaries.

• The supply of filmmakers and small independent companies seems to outweigh the demand for new output.

Budgets

As already indicated, the increase in channels and investment of broadcasters in new media tech-nologies and new distribution platforms without an increase in the licence fee for the BBC and a decrease in advertising revenue for the commercial channels has meant that budgets for the different programmes have been reduced.

The other issue is that slots for one-off documentaries, particularly those dealing with more in-depth social issues, have been reduced in favour of series. While the market for this kind of documentary has decreased since its heyday in the 1970s and 1980s, factual production on TV has veered much more towards entertainment (Corner and Rosenthal, 2005). Documentary slots have been replaced by so-called ‘factual entertainment’ slots. Programmes about food, gardening, fashion and design cater for a variety of audiences but often fall into the category of self-help programmes. The interests of the numerous filmmakers clash with the demand of the broadcasters, for whom audience ratings are an important concern. In addition, there are relatively few slots for one-off documentaries and, even then, the entertainment value is consid-ered as important as the subject. The challenge for contemporary documentary filmmakers is either to find their way within this system or find alternative routes. This will be discussed in Chapter 4.

Key points

• The creative industries are reorganising, with more freelancers and more productions being transferred to the independent production sector. The independent production company seems to be the organisational form for contemporary documentary filmmakers.

• Budgets for programmes are lower, due to investments in a digital infrastructure and channel proliferation without an increase in the licence fee and with a decrease in advertising revenue. There are more repeats. Budgets are tight and do not allow for contingency which could be used for development of new programmes.

• The interest of documentary filmmakers and the demand of broadcasters clash in content and form – formatted series as opposed to one-off programmes.

• Film concepts are expected to work across different platforms. Broadcasters argue that each distribution form should have an added value, both commercially and creatively.

• Mass-produced programming has taken over the television industry. This signals a difficult time for the smaller independents, but original ideas, unique access to certain ‘realities’, flexibility and the quota system will hopefully see the independent industry continue to grow.

• Networks between different companies with specialist skills and knowledge may benefit both small and large independents.

• The risk of development of new programmes has been transferred to the filmmakers as commissioning is very competitive.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Interview two or three documentary filmmakers and write an essay on how and why they became a documentary filmmaker. Distinguish between so-called individual skills and knowledges and indus-trial requirements.

Exercise 2 Discuss:

• Is the concept of the ‘cultural industries’ still useful to analyse contemporary media production or is it hopelessly outdated?

• Is the concept of the ‘creative industries’ useful to analyse contemporary documentary production or are commerce and documentary alien to each other?

Exercise 3

In the text box that follows you find an overview of what are considered to be characteristics of a success-ful entrepreneur. Discuss whether you have those skills, knowledge and abilities to set up your own inde-pendent company. Identify what you need to learn to be able to run your own indeinde-pendent company.