“Our job is to find films for an audience - whatever the audience” say doc commissioners

The webinar ‘A Day in the Life of a Public Broadcaster’ held last Thursday was organised by Nordisk Panorama in collaboration with Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

The discussion was meant to improve the dialogue between indie filmmakers, producers, and public broadcasters’ documentary commissioners, at a time when the gap between the parties seems to be widening.

TO VIEW THE WHOLE WEBINAR: CLICK HERE AND CLICK INTERNAL LINK.

In his opening remark Alex Szalat, former Deputy Head of the Documentary Department of Arte France, said that in a heated market, where the gap between the offer and the demand is widening, the selection process is increasingly tough. “We commissioning editors-sometimes feel we are a machine saying NO, but it doesn’t mean that the project isn’t good”, he said, arguing that the film might just not fit the broadcasters’ needs at a particular time, but it might be right for others.

Ultimately dialogue and trust between the partners to make the project as good as possible is quintessential, said Szalat.

Launching the debate with the Nordic commissioners and buyers, moderator Cecilia Lidin, acting Commissioning Editor at the Swedish Film Institute, asked the guest speakers to describe the complexity of their daily jobs.

Producer Margrét Jónasdóttir who has just moved from Sagafilm to head the documentary division at RÚV, said it is still early days for her, but she promised she would “speed up the decision-making process on documentaries. I have the smallest department within RÚV, but it can be big as well,” she noted.

All other panellists underlined the small structures of their unit within their respective public service corporations, and went straight into the biggest challenge they face today: the digital shift. How it has transformed their jobs, away from the clear framework of linear slots, where they made the decisions, to the wide-open digital space, where the audience is in control. And the first battle they face is within their own walls.

“The days where we had slots and would be filling the gaps in the programming are long gone,” said Yle’s commissioning editor Erkko Lyytinen. “Now we have flexibility, possibilities to do whatever we want, which is good but also chaotic as anything is possible. It’s not a question of the length of a film, how to programme it, but how to create attention on a film. This starts within our company that has over 3,000 employees, with many of them also fighting to showcase their own programmes. So we’re basically fighting for existence and for attention within our own company and system first,” he observed.

NRK’s Fredrik Færden who works in the Norwegian broadcaster’s acquisition department, said he does have “hands-on responsibility” to find the documentaries he needs, and “decision-making doesn’t need to take time,” he said. He also stressed his task as employee of a public broadcaster, to serve the audience - all audiences - where they are today, which is in the digital space. “Our first responsibility is towards the audience, and our mission as public broadcaster is to include all target groups, which means to reach audiences beyond the same core [adult] group that watch documentaries,” he noted.

Færden also underlined the excellent collaborative work within NRK, where buyers, executive producers, publishers constantly strive to offer high quality content.

SVT’s Asta Dalman said she also feels a responsibility as an employee, working within the public service model. “We are funded publicly, it is all the time in the back of our mind, so we have to be as sure as possible that the films we pick will find the right audience-and it doesn’t have to be a broad audience,” she noted.

DR’s Anders Bruus for his part emphasised the need to find a balance, between documentaries that are part of the eco-system in the Nordics, with artistic value, topics that matter, and audience-pulling machines. “Our job is to push things, set the limits, and to find films for an audience-whatever the audience,” he claimed.

Bruus also mentioned the uncertain times, facing DR employees, as the Danish broadcaster has announced last week that it will cut 60-70 jobs (of which 40-45 in the Culture, Children and Youth Departments) as part of its sustained digital transformation. “These are tough times with cut backs and restructuring at DR. We have to choose our fights,” he acknowledged.

How to make films stand out
Asked by Lidin what concrete actions are being taken by public broadcasters to make films standout on the market, Lyttinen said documentaries at Yle are being packaged and labelled under different themes online. Digital festivals are also programmed to create attention on specific labels, and films are being framed with discussions and adds-on, among other initiatives.

Færden said NRK has “reinvented slots more like brands -“Dokuland’, to give documentaries a home, a universe where they would be recognised.”

A key for him is also to get the buzz going on documentaries in other NRK programmes. Færden said he and his team write their own promotional material presenting upcoming documentaries that is being distributed internally at NRK. “We are happy to guide people” he said.

Jenny Westergård at Yle felt independent producers could do their share in helping films reach a wider audience across all platforms. “Filmmakers tend to focus on the theatrical releases, festivals, and when it comes to our platform, they often don’t care as much. But at Yle we have limited resources for the promotion. I encourage independent producers to be innovative and to do more for the benefit of all”, she said.

Bruus suggested for producers to look at DR’s documentary line up to have a better understanding of their needs.

As for Lyytinen, he felt producers could ‘easily improve the awareness on their films, by creating better posters - a topic that Lidin suggested could be developed at another panel.