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Feature
MIPDOC BUYERS AND COMMISSIONERS
Buyers line-up As the countdown to MIPDoc 2015 begins, what’s on the wish lists of the world’s documentary and factual buyers and commissioners? Marlene Edmunds investigates
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HE POWER of storytelling has never been stronger in the documentary and factual market — and the jobs of commissioners and buyers who bring these stories back home to their channels has never been more challenging. Take one of Japanese public broadcaster NHK’s latest projects, A Night In Africa (La Nuit Des Elephants), co-produced with Winds Films/France Televisions, among others. NHK has a massive in-house production unit but it also works, when the project is right, with such blue-chip partners as France Televisions, ARTE, RMC Decouverte, ZDF, ARD, BBC Discovery, National Geographic and Discovery. “We believe in the power of innovation,” says Sayumi Horie, senior producer of international co-productions for NHK. “This innovative natural-history special enables viewers to see
the first colour images of scenes of wildlife at night in 4K. We have partnered with Winds Films in the past and we are very much believers in their storytelling abilities.” Night In Africa follows a family of elephants
“Be it the world of space, nature or history, we are seeing many documentaries that reveal new truths by visually entertaining us” Akira Yoshizawa
hundreds of kilometres across the wildest and most desolate terrain of Sub-Saharan Africa. Up until now, the nocturnal life of animals has preview magazine I March 2015 I www.mipdoc.com
been almost completely unknown by both scientists and filmmakers, says Winds producer Barthelemy Fougea, the film’s executive producer. “Filmmakers used either artificial light or infrared cameras, which would disturb and hence change the nocturnal habits of the animals,” he explains. “We wanted to film the night in colour with only the light of the moon and stars.” The project tapped the expertise of companies from Germany, Japan, the US and France before it was finally wrapped. NHK’s keen interest in advanced camera work is no great surprise, considering that it has been the world leader in the development of 4K and is driving its use across the globe. Akira Yoshizawa, senior producer for NHK’s global content development division, programming department, says NHK’s primetime slot Dramatic Planet is looking for documentaries that are fit for family viewing in