1. Factual Television Trends
uang
Successful co-productions
Illustrations
@ Chengfei Sun (Jim)
@ Qing Shi (Julia)
@ Min Zhong
(Rachel)
@ Chen Su (Sue)
@ Mengju You

2. Co-productions
JIM JULIA
Background Example 1
information
DAISY
Difficulties
&
Conclusion
Sue RACHEL
Advantages Example 2

3. Co-productions Overview
International co-productions
Pool financial resources
Partner's market or to a third market
Cultural benefit
Designed location and cheaper input

4. Existing & Forthcoming
Factual television co-productions
Human Planet
The Blue Planet (2011)
(2001)
Frozen Planet
(2011)
Planet Earth
(2006)
History of The World
Wild China (2012)
(2008)
Life Series

5. Rice paddies near Yangshuo, Guangxi

6. 6-part documentary series
Mysterious and wonderful creatures
that live in China's most beautiful
landscapes

7. Total running time 6 hours
Over 25 countries
Award-winning
Photography awards of nature history documentary
The best editing award
The best music award

8. “We want the Chinese to feel proud of their
countryside and wildlife, to care about it and to
seek to ensure its survival.
We also hope to redress the negative view of
China's environment propagated in western media.”
Series producer BBC - Phil Chapman

9. …WHY ?
Help BBC enter the Chinese documentary
market
Excellent opportunity for the world to know
the real china

10. Sources of Joint Funding
Entire investment:
£ 5 million ≈ 75 million RMB
BBC & CTV
50% & Over 10 million RMB
Some American and Japanese companies
The rest of funding

11. Expertise of partners
Experts with rich experience and strong
professional background
Executive producer Brian Leith, over 20 years
experience as a producer and director

12. Expertise of partners
British experts with excellent background of
biology
CTV established a professional research group to
assist BBC
The production crew were given unprecedented
access to almost all areas

13. Use of production facilities
Reduce costs in programming making
CTV offers many expensive & big size facilities
e.g. Aerial photograph equipment
No need to carry all of the facilities from UK
More convenient and reduce the costs

14. What turns
A regional documentary into
Something of interest overseas ?

15. Nature Local
& Culture
wildlife
Niche Amazing
& Adventure
Hyperlocal & History

17. Collaboration for the first time
May not have enough trust at the beginning
Trust was built step by step
More sophisticated filming techniques to reveal
behaviour rather than simply by observation in
the wild
Supports from local government and local
people

18. “" We have recommended this special
documentary to 560 buyers in the world, it has
been one of the documentaries with greatest
concern.”
Chairman of the BBC - John Smith

19. Marketing & Potential in sales
DVDs
Marketing strategies
Mass media, newsletters & Internet
Wild China merchandise
Books, albums, stamps, and calendars

20. “ Awesome
Spectacular
Humbling
Exhilarating ”

21. “ It's one thing to have people watch, but to
achieve the kind of 'water-cooler results' we got,
both in the U.K. and then in America -- nothing
prepared us for that. ”
Executive producer - Alastair Fothergill (2008)

23. Global Epic
Global view
11 Episodes
An exploration of
The wild and beautiful parts of our planet
10-minute of behind-the-scenes

24. Most expensive nature documentary series ever
First to be filmed in HD

25. 62 Countries
71 Camera crews
204 Locations
2,000 Days
Over a 5-year Period
(Television Week, 2008)

26. Sources of Joint Funding
Budget of £16 million
Co-financing
Discovery & NHK
60–70% of costs for HD format
BBC Worldwide
£7.4 million for Earth

27. Use of Joint Funding
Problems and difficulties
Filming on location
Interesting footage of rare animals
Difficult weather conditions
Working without adequate support

28. Use of Joint Funding
Problems and difficulties
Language and culture difference
Recruit local staffs
Production facilities

29. Use of production facilities
Developed lens and aerial cameras
Groundbreaking HD production techniques
Satellite imagery
Time-lapse effects

30. Global appeal of a subject

32. A symbol for … ?

33. Global warming
Beautiful & fragile world

34. ?
Implications

35. Attention
Sales

36. Film DVDs Games
Books Calendar Cards

37. Unique
Viewing
Experience
Positioning focus group research (2005) Marketing

38. TELEVISION
Spread the extraordinary news
Reach out to and connect with viewers at
key moments in television viewing

39. MAGAZINE
“Sneak-peak” DVD inserts in subscriptions
Word of mouth

40. ONLINE
Large video units
Earth Planet official website
Social media for feedbacks

41. OFFINE/OTHERS
Public relations
Cinema
Partnership

42. MARKETING OBJECTIVES
The most watched cable event ever
Aggressive rating on premiere airing
New heights in awareness

43. Advantages & Difficulties

44. Advantages of co-production
“ The potential to explore globalization processes
Diversification and hybridization of cultures .”
(Murdock, 1996)

45. Advantages of co-production
“ Enhance collaboration between countries with
small production industries, which would be able to
pool resources and compete in an international
market.”
(Taylor, 1995)

46. Advantages of co-production
An opportunity to focus on a global public sphere
Fascinating insight into subjects of global appeal
Encourage debates globally
Create culturally specific materials for local
markets

47. Advantages of co-production
Increase the exposure and distribution of
films/drama/documentaries globally
A tool to finance high-quality products for
distribution in the global marketplace.
(Telefilm, 1999).

48. Difficulties in co-production
Differences in professional practices
Massive amount of paperwork that inevitably
accrues when two production companies
collaborate with another and their respective
governments.
(Kennedy, interview, June 22, 2000)

49. Difficulties in co-production
Difficulties in raising funding
Potential of loosing creative control over a project
due to making compromises in the treatment of a
script .
(Hoskins and McFadyen,1993) & (Adair, 2000)

51. Recap & Conclusions
Co-productions are
Globalization and glocalization of the economy
and cultures
Affected by the expertise of partners

52. Recap & Conclusions
Co-productions are
Reasonable use of joint funding from production
companies
Advanced production facilities are one of the key
successful factors

53. Recap & Conclusions
Co-productions are
How factual programming has been able to
Take advantage of the
increasingly global nature of the media…

54. Recap & Conclusions
Co-productions are
Advantages
Win-win situation to co-production companies
Increase brand awareness
Reduce costs
Improve collaboration and relationship among countries
involved

55. Recap & Conclusions
Co-productions are
Difficulties
Limited by reduction in government funding
Large amount of paperwork is needed

57. Trends & Suggestions
Co-productions
Young people
Niche Segments
“Real-life stories are hugely needed to be
engaged” (Danny Cohen, 2010)

58. Trends & Suggestions
Co-productions
“It is helpful if offering co-productions across a
variety of different platforms more flexibly and on-
demand. ”
(Alice Carder 2010)

59. IndieGoGo
“Crowd-funding” sites
Kickstarter
To raise money for projects instead of relying
on commissions .
(Kate Bulkley, 2010)

60. Future of co-productions
Factual television
Opportunities to view co-produced documentaries are
growing
Entertainment push further into the mainstream
Purist, non-narrative observational documentaries will
command smaller audiences

61. Future of co-productions
Factual television
Niche will no doubt continue
“ Television broadcast slots will remain only for
the best of the best, but that is fine in my view.”
(Andy Glynne, 2010)

62. Photo Credits
• http://www.coverdude.com/blu-ray-covers/16229-wild-china-2008-dutch-r2.html
• http://www.covershut.com/Blu-Ray-Covers/39316-Wild-China-2008-Dutch-Disc.html
• http://gomiso.com/m/wild-china
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/fatime_cn/2693618797/
• http://www.abstractinfluence.com/forums/gallery/image_page.php?album_id=14&image_id
=9388
• http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2010/04/milken_global_2.html
• http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/03/polar-bear-spy-cam-eaten-by-a-polar-bear-plus-
mother-and-cub-cuteness-video.php
• http://www.vustv.com/4exZtzjURa9oV
• http://first-time-mommy.com/blog/2010/04/celebrate-earth-days-40th-anniversary-by-
downloading-a-free-episode-of-the-bbcs-planet-earth-on-itunes-april-12-26-2010/
• http://girishkulkarni.wordpress.com/2010/06/05/planet-earth/
• http://www.trcmedia.org/trcmedia/links.asp?LINKS_ID=1&menu_selected=links
• http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2010/04/milken_global_2.html
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/fatime_cn/2693618797/

63. Reference
• Appadurai, A. (1990). “Disjuncture and Differences in the Global Cultural Economy. In
M.Featherstone (Ed.)”, Global Culture. Nationalism, Globalization and Modernity, pp. 295-
310. London: Sage Publications.
• Baltruschat, D. (2002). “Globalization and International TV and Film Co-production: In
Search of New Narratives” [Online] Available at:
http://web.mit.edu/cms/Events/mit2/Abstracts/DorisBaltruschat.pdf (Accessed on 1 April
2011)
• Bigne, J. and Orlebar, J. (2005). The television handbook(3rd Ed.). London: Routledge.
(Accessed on 1 April 2011)
• Bulkley, K. (2010). “A focus on the future of documentaries” [Online] Available at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sheffield-doc-fest/the-future-of-documentaries. (Accessed on 1
April 2011)
• Bulkley, K. (2010). “Is crowd-funding the future for documentaries?” [Online] Available at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sheffield-doc-fest/funding-models-for-film-
making?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487 (Accessed on 1 April 2011)
• BBC Science & Nature, (2008), Wild China, Available at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/wildchina/
• BBC 2, (2011), Programmes: Wild China, (Accessed on 30th, Mar, 2011).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00bv6lk
• China Expat, (2009), Wild China – a Must-
See Documentary, Available at http://www.chinaexpat.com/2009/01/16/wild-china-a-must-
see-documentary-2.html/. (Accessed on 30th, Mar, 2011)

64. Reference
• Guardian (2010). “The future of documentaries”. [Online] Available at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sheffield-doc-fest/issues-facing-documentaries. (Accessed on 1
April 2011)
• Maxwell, Gavin (May 2008). "Episode 5: Land of the Panda". BBC Wildlife 26 (5)
• Nicholson-Lord, D. (2006). “Planet Earth - the making of an epic series”. [Online] Available
at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/bbcworldwide/worldwidestories/pressreleases/2006/03_
march/making_planet_earth.shtml. (Accessed on 1 April 2011)
• O'Regan, T. and Ward, S. (2006). “Experimenting with the Local and Transnational:
Television Drama Production on the Gold Coast." Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural
Studies.
• Robinson, J. (2006). “BBC finds a treasure in Planet Earth”. Available at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2006/apr/09/business.broadcasting1. (Accessed on 1
April 2011)
• Sherwin, A. (2005). “BBC ready to lead viewers into a vivid new world of television”.
[Online] Available at: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article756783.ece.
(Accessed on 30 March 2011)
• Slenske, M. (2007). “All Creatures Great, Small ... and Endangered”. [Online] Available at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/arts/television/18slen.html?_r=2&oref=slogin.
(Accessed on 30 March 2011)
• Stafford, Sophie (May 2008). "Editor's letter: China's wild treasures revealed". BBC
Wildlife 26 (5)

65. Factual Television Trends
Successful co-productions
Illustrations
@ Chengfei Sun (Jim)
@ Qing Shi (Julia)
@ Min Zhong (Rachel)
@ Chen Su (Sue)
@ Mengju You (Daisy)