VFX/Animation
Factual flash
TVWhether it’s to recreate history or to bring abstract scientific concepts to life, cutting-edge CGI and awesome animation are making more of an impact on factual programming than ever. Here, realscreen looks at three projects bringing flash to factual.
Science Focus
Science fiction, science fact
TVWith its Prophets of Science Fiction series, featuring Blade Runner director Ridley Scott, U.S. cable net Science is examining the relationship between the seeming flights of fancy in science fiction and the real-life exploits and advances of modern science.
Double vision
TVTwo new specialist science prodcos launched this year, headed up by formidable factual figureheads. Here, realscreen talks to Sonya Pemberton and Walter Köhler about their new endeavors and how they aim to resurrect science programming for the international market.
View from the top
TVNHK’s Cosmic Shore live broadcasts used specially-developed HD camera technology to bring viewers new perspectives on such phenomena as auroras and lightning, and breathtaking depictions of the earth from above. Here, NHK producer Hideki Tazuke discusses the challenges and triumphs of the high-flying initiative with realscreen.
Editorial
Comment people
NEWSAs we’ve done historically with realscreen, we encourage the intelligent exchange of opinion and ideas within our pages and online.
Out & About
Howie Mandel to host Summit pitch competition
NEWSThe Realscreen Summit’s highly anticipated live pitch competition, “So You Think You Can Pitch,” will be hosted this year by the multi-talented Howie Mandel.
Biz
PBS UK lifts off
TVIn anticipation of the November 1 launch of PBS UK, channel head Richard Kingsbury and his small team had approximately three months to get the pay-TV channel on air. “We’re actually quite relaxed,” he tells realscreen.
YouTube unveils 100 niche channels
DIGITALYouTube has revealed the 100 niche channels it’s adding to its online video portal, as well as the content producers, filmmakers and media companies behind them, and a sizable number fall squarely in the non-fiction/unscripted camp.
Pointed Arrow debuts
Real Insights Blog“Pointed Arrow” is a new column from John Smithson, creative director of Arrow Media, an indie he co-founded this year. Previously he was chief executive of Darlow Smithson Productions.
Moves at Nat Geo, C4, Discovery
PEOPLE NEWS / TVA trio of major executive moves hit the headlines late in the day as realscreen went to press in November, majorly impacting the non-fiction sector as it heads into 2012.
Charlotte Cook heads to Hot Docs
FILM / PEOPLE NEWSCanadian festival Hot Docs has hired Charlotte Cook, a former BBC ‘Storyville’ exec and Edinburgh Film Festival programmer, to be its new director of programming.
Best practices: How to manage and reduce stress
Real Insights BlogSome stress in your life is good. You want to feel challenged, alive, and striving for excellence.
Ideas & Execution
The war they saw
TVVietnam in HD, which aired on History in the U.S. in early November and is being distributed internationally by A+E Networks as Vietnam: Lost Films, brings many soldiers’ stories to light.
Spring is on the air
FILM / TVHere, realscreen looks at several of the documentaries and documentary makers emerging from the turmoil in four Middle Eastern countries affected by the Arab Spring uprisings.
Reality’s year that was
TVIn a year that gave Discovery’s Deadliest Catch its first – and long overdue – Emmy for outstanding reality series, unscripted TV found a lot of life and realism in unexpected places and familiar formats.
Ingenious
Touching the void
FILMWith his latest documentary Into The Abyss receiving raves after its September world premiere, acclaimed director Werner Herzog talks to realscreen about the creation of the dark project.
Format Focus
Rising to the challenge
TVFollowing the UK success of September Films’ magic-focused gameshow format Penn & Teller: Fool Us, the firm’s creative director Sheldon Lazarus has left the company to form a new venture in partnership with September’s parent DCD Media.
And One More Thing
The man with the dragon tattoo
TVAmi James, the granddaddy of “tattoo TV,” returned to TLC earlier this summer with a whole new crew and a fresh locale, New York City, with the debut of NY Ink.
The definitive factual resource.Over 5,000 company listings!
Photos
Factual Entertainment Forum 2011 - Nick Tweed-Simmons, star of “Gene Simmons Family Jewels,” speaks at the Realscreen Factual Entertainment Forum in Santa Monica.