FOR_411_PRODUCTION_MODELS_DOC_0407_NIGHT 3/17/11 10:07 AM Page 3
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TV FORMATS
The big picture: SPT is using its network of production companies and a stable of travelling consultants to roll out hit new titles such as Stand Out from the Crowd.
pretty severe, dangerous, scary route that the crew is taking. When a broadcaster and production company fly in with their host, cast and some key creative staff, everything is up and running from day one. They don’t have to do their own learning, they don’t have to make all the mistakes that the local crew have made and corrected! The production will be more effective and the client will have a better chance of hitting the target, getting it right on camera first time round.” The model has worked so well for Banijay, Spodsberg says, that it is evaluating a hub approach for Dilemma, its hit French format that puts its contestants under surveillance in a house for 24 hours a day. JUST CAUSE
“When you’re investing in a centralized hub, you have to be pretty certain that the format has either an economic or a creative need for a centralized hub,” says Rob Clark, the president of worldwide entertainment at FremantleMedia, a company that historically has not made great use of the production-hub concept.“We don’t have a central production hub in a corner of Latin America,” quips Clark. “However, we do make multiple shows on the same set if it’s appropriate.” It was appropriate in one instance for Total Blackout, Clark says, with the Danish, Swedish and Norwegian versions all being produced in Copenhagen. “We had three sales that were made at the same time, three different broadcasters, roughly in the same part of the world,” says Clark. That set, however, would not be used by other broadcasters for their own versions of Total Blackout. “It’s only a studio, it makes no economic sense, no creative sense” to use that hub for other territories. “I’m not anti-hub,” Clark continues, “but if you make the sorts of shows we make at the moment, then it’s pointless having a hub.” FremantleMedia’s big brands, Clark notes, including Idols, Got Talent, The X Factor and The Price Is Right, which require live studio audiences, don’t need a centralized location and, more importantly, would not work with one.“You couldn’t build one set for The X Factor in the whole of Europe.” 286
World Screen
What does make sense for FremantleMedia—indeed, for all the format majors—is the use of flying producers, who are dispatched to sets around the world to make sure that all goes well with a local adaptation. “If you don’t have the same production company making a show then you need a system of best practices and a system of enthusiasm and passion that is passed down the line from the originating producers,” Clark explains. “The flying producers are not policemen. They do not walk round the world with a truncheon or a gun telling people that they can’t do this and they can’t do that. The flying producers fly in during the preproduction stage and do workshops with the people that are making the show, and they try to instill a vision of what that show is. Then they fly out and let the people get on with it. They will come back for the first series day of production.They monitor, they correct things that are going wrong, they advise, they cajole. And then we see the finished version, and we pass on notes; we expect them to be acted on. It’s not a police role, we try to win people over. It’s sort of carrot and stick. There’s an awful lot of carrot and I suppose a little bit of stick. I’m often the big stick!” SHARED LEARNING
At Endemol, Iris Boelhouwer, the managing director of creative operations, oversees what Toumazis calls the “creative support team.This is a very important component of our business. Ultimately, we need to ensure that the integrity and identity of our brands is maintained. These producers play a key role in sharing best practices from around the world. As many of our shows evolve, it’s up to this team to introduce that shared learning in each territory.” Distributors note that flying producers are an integral part of the overall package sold to a production company or broadcaster; a package that also includes bibles, graphics, branding and more.“We want to provide maximum service to our local partners in each place,” says Kees Abrahams, the president of international production at Sony Pictures Television (SPT). “The traveling producers have so much knowledge of the format— they are there to explain what it says in the production bible, 4/11