Editorial
Memories of a film festival
FILMIt never fails. Every year, as the cyclone of advance hype surrounding the Toronto International Film Festival (or TIFF, for the acronym-inclined) begins to swirl into motion, a confluence of events falls into order.
Out & About
An eventful period
TVAs we prepare for the 2010 edition of MIPCOM, we’re also ramping up for the much buzzed about Branded Entertainment Forum which takes place in New York City on October 25th.
Biz
Market buzz
TVAs buyers and sellers make their annual migration to the Croisette, we asked several execs to tell us what they want, what’s been working for them as of late and what they think will sell
Best Practices: creating a personal mission statement
TVMany of us go through our lives without taking the time to focus on what is most important to us. Our lives can seem chaotic, overly busy and adrift.
Audience & Strategy
Worldwide watercooler
TVSocial TV is showing small but steady gains as more networks investigate its capabilities, and experiment with turning real-time buzz into brand building.
Ideas & Execution
The sound and the fury
TVSitcoms added canned laughter to make sure we knew when to laugh at poorly written jokes that the studio audience didn’t laugh at, if there indeed was one. Now reality shows have their own version of that.
Special Reports
TRANSCONTINENTAL: AN AUSTRALIAN OVERVIEW
FILM / TVIn honor of the Spotlight on Australia taking place at this year’s edition of MIPCOM, realscreen has culled together collected wisdom from several of the continent’s top players in the documentary and factual entertainment spheres, from top production companies to commissioning editors to government agencies. Here, we offer this overview of the climate for non-fiction Down Under.
MIPCOM Picks 2010
TVOnce again, it’s time to reveal the realscreen editorial staff’s choices of what will be the ‘must see’ projects coming to Cannes this October.
Moving pictures
TVIn early November, National Geographic Channel will premiere Great Migrations, an epic seven-part series three years in the making. Here’s a look at what NatGeo is calling its most ambitious undertaking in its 122-year history.
A source of wonder
FILM / TVThe Nature of Things is not only the longest-running series on Canada’s CBC. It’s also an internationally acclaimed benchmark in factual television that has brought issues of science, natural history, technology and the environment to loyal audiences for 50 years. Here, realscreen talks to its producers, its partners, and its host for the past 31 years, David Suzuki.
A powerful force
TVNHK, NHNZ, France Télévisions, Science Channel and Animal Planet have teamed up for Life Force, a six-part natural history series spanning the globe for incredible stories of evolution and adaptation. Here’s an early look at this international blue-chip blockbuster.
Roughing it on the river
TVIcon Films CEO Harry Marshall would be the first to admit that Jeremy Wade, the host of Icon’s smash series for Animal Planet, River Monsters, is perhaps one of the most unlikely TV stars on the air right now.
‘Shooting in the Wild:’ An excerpt
TVChris Palmer’s Shooting in the Wild: An Insider’s Account of Making Movies in the Animal Kingdom takes readers behind the scenes of popular nature and wildlife films, sharing the adventures of those behind the camera while also pulling back the curtain on what he calls the dark side of wildlife filmmaking. In this excerpt, Palmer highlights the efforts of Howard and Michele Hall, filmmakers that Palmer says employ the ‘do no harm’ approach to great effect.
Cinema Suzuki
FILMEducator, television host and all-around enviro-icon David Suzuki is the focus of Force of Nature: the David Suzuki Movie, premiering this weekend at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Format Focus
ProSiebenSat.1 acquires Coelen’s Kinetic Content
TVGermany-headquartered ProSiebenSat.1, the second largest broadcast group in Europe after RTL, has purchased a 51% controlling stake in Chris Coelen’s Santa Monica-based prodco Kinetic Content through its Red Arrow Entertainment Group.
Fort Boyard storms across Europe; briefs
TVZodiak Entertainment Distribution’s Fort Boyard format is returning to Germany after a 10-year absence, with nine episodes set to air on ProSiebenSat.1 Group’s kabel eins in primetime.
And One More Thing
Everyone’s a critic
TVThe Bravo competition series Work of Art: The Next Great Artist, coproduced by Magical Elves and Sarah Jessica Parker’s Pretty Matches shingle, united the seemingly strange bedfellows of reality television and art. Jerry Saltz, New York magazine’s art critic and Work of Art judge, brought the armchair art critic out in his readers with his candid blog, in which he recapped each episode and fielded some interesting comments as well.
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Photos
Factual Entertainment Forum 2011 - Delegates take in Nancy Dubuc’s keynote conversation at Realscreen’s Factual Entertainment Forum, June 2011.