Simon Chinn, the double Academy Award winning producer of Searching For Sugar Man and Man on Wire has told up coming documentary-makers to look to the ‘small screen’ when making films in future.
Speaking in conversation with Dick Fontaine, NFTS Head of Documentaries at an NFTS Film Clinic event, hosted at Google UK HQ in London, Simon Chinn, said although documentary films could still be theatrically released, the landscape of distribution was changing. Chinn recently launched a new company, Lightbox, to create high quality non-fiction content for the international television and digital marketplaces.
He added: “There is a hunger for documentary content for the small screen, especially from American online companies such as Netflix, Amazon and Xbox. New opportunities are emerging online for a diversity of documentary makers and new audiences are opening up. The public wants more documentary content, partly driven by reality TV. But the bar has risen; documentary makers have to tell stories in an even more entertaining and emotionally engaging way than fiction.”
Five films by up and coming documentary makers in the UK were showcased at the NFTS Film Clinic event (on Wednesday March 26). Sponsored by YouTube, the NFTS Film Clinic is a completion fund, led by founder and director Lara Agnew, which provides mentoring, funding and post-production support for emerging documentary-makers to help finish their films.
Explaining why YouTube is supporting the initiative Rich Waterworth, Head of EMEA Marketing at YouTube, spoke of the company’s excitement at supporting a new generation of directors who can maximise the potential of the internet to capture new audiences for their films: “These days, everyone can access the technology to make and distribute a film through the internet. We wanted to give emerging new talent the chance to access the editing skills and post production expertise that professional filmmakers benefit from. The documentaries that have come out of the NFTS Film Clinic make fantastic viewing.”
Peter Barron Director of Communications and Public Affairs, Google, EMEA, told the packed room documentary and film industry guests: "One of the most exciting things about the NFTS Film Clinic is that just as there are great real life stories waiting to be told there are also great documentary filmmakers out there waiting to be discovered. Given the great accessibility offered by new technology, many of these filmmakers may already be making their films alone. They may have special access to their subject matter; it may be a story that only they can tell. The Film Clinic gives those filmmakers an opportunity to get their films finished and maximise their potential with a global audience using the expertise and state-of-the-art facilities at NFTS."
The NFTS Film Clinic selected five films from 100 applicants. Lara Agnew, NFTS Film Clinic founder and director said the experience of working with the directors had been inspiring: “When the film makers applied to us some of them had been filming for many years, often working in isolation in their bedrooms on their personal computers trying to craft many hours of footage into a narrative. “Working with such dedicated, unpaid, under-resourced film-makers who are driven by a passion to tell stories has been inspiring. I believe this kind of filmmaking will be a source of great work in the future. It is exciting that the accessibility of film technology and the internet are encouraging new methods of filmmaking and distribution.”
About the NFTS Film Clinic films:
Umut Gunduz is a sound designer from London. His documentary, Stevie G is a film about his estranged younger brother. What went wrong and why has Stevie spent most of his life - starting at Feltham aged 15 - in and out of prison?
Chloe Ruthven is an artist and filmmaker from London. The Do Gooders is an acutely personal documentary on the complex political issue of Western Aid in Palestine. Her film premiered at the 2013 London Film Festival.
Johnny Howorth is an online journalist at The Times. He has made a documentary, Run that follows a group of six Maasai warriors from rural Tanzania to London. They are running the London Marathon to try and raise enough money to build a well for their village.
Seemab Gul is originally from Karachi, Pakistan. With the support of NFTS Film Clinic she developed her autobiographical animated documentary, Price of Freedom about running away from home to avoid an arranged marriage. What was the price she paid for this freedom and can she make amends with her estranged family?
Michelle Heighway works as a receptionist in Huddersfield, Yorkshire. Her film Mr Somebody?, filmed over many years, seeks to understand the town’s renowned eccentric and his very unusual lifestyle which rejects the norms of society.
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