BRITDOC 2006
27 July 2006
By Nicholas Newman Editor Oxfordprospect.co.uk

A revolution is taking place behind the ancient walls of an Oxford college. No it’s not some new answer to the question of life in the universe and everything; instead it is an attempt by the British government to bring the British film industry into the twenty first century. BRITDOC 2006 took place at Keble College, a place rightly proud of its ancient traditions, BRITDOC is called a documentary film festival, but in fact it’s a summer camp for those involved in the documentary film production industry. Yes, all the big wigs were there from Channel Four, Discovery Channel etc. But the point of BRITDOC was not just to show a few movies. You can go to Cannes for that, instead it was to bring a sense of business professionalism that has been so sadly lacking in an industry so dominated by amateurs.

Here at Keble, people were here to learn the finer points of film finance; ‘pitching’ to investors and securing that all important deal with distributors. The main point that both investors and distributors kept making in their workshops and master classes was the failure of producers, when making a deal, to take a business like approach and what irritated them was the film makers lack of clarity and preparation for negotiations.

BRITDOC seems a very good way to meet clients. Much of the hard work of networking and making deals worth many millions took place in the colleges’ bars, cafés and croquet lawns. In fact, a great deal of what you will be seeing over the next year on television, DVD and at the cinemas around the world was being determined this summer in Oxford.

It was simply amazing to watch when one of televisions’ big guns like from Channel Four or Discovery Channel entered the room, conversations would stop in mid sentence and all eyes would turn towards that person. You soon got to know how important a media person was by the style of dress and the number of acolytes that seemed to follow that personality. Often the media mogul’s table would be surrounded by people begging an audience and proffering business cards. It was noticeable that individuals new to the game, were dressed like excited scruffy students, while those with more experience had learnt their lessons, dressed smartly and showed more respect.

In such a trade, worth many billions of pounds worldwide, it was surprising to hear how difficult it was being a documentary maker. The profits to be made were mostly derived in the support services, from the banks to the distributors, just like in the days of the gold rush, when it wasn’t the miners who made the money, but the businesses who supplied the goods and services to the gold diggers.

Though, what was really surprising was the rather non-business like attitude to things film makers adopt. They took the attitude that a documentary should be made for art’s sake rather than whether there was a demand for it. That is why BRITDOC is so necessary for British documentary makers, to instil a business like professionalism into the industry, if we are prevent our film industry’s talent from going to waste. Perhaps, we are beginning to see in the arts industry, what we have seen in other parts of the economy. It is not always a question of chucking ever more resources at the problem.

So if you see documentary making as a hobby, then BRITDOC is not for you, but if you are prepared to take a serious business-like approach to this business, then its vital that you book now for next year’s event.

For more info  https://www.britdoc.org/