The focus has changed radically in the past 18 months. Our approach when we first set up here was to train Asian filmmakers to make documentaries for a global audience – bringing Asia to the world, using an $11million production fund we launched with Singapore’s Economic Development Board. Now it is quite different in that we want to make content that will strike a chord with specific Asian audiences and territories. These programmes may not work for a global audience but it will touch the hearts and minds of viewers here. We want our audience to relate to what they are seeing and have a more personal connection. A lot of our commissioning decisions used to come out of our headquarters in Washington DC. Now the regions decide what’s best for their market and manage them accordingly. We don’t even have one “Asia office” that decides for the region; India decides for India, Thailand decides for Thailand, for example. We recently made a programme about a Malaysian personality, Tun Abdul Razak: A Leader’s Legacy, who at the time he was made prime minister had been diagnosed with leukaemia but never told anyone about it. The one hour programme was made not for Asia but for Malaysia specifically. That’s the direction where we are really heading now. We don’t think there is one Asia or one audience. It’s about making programmes that connect with a specific market. It’s not just one-off specials. On March 8 we debut an entirely new series, which is a co-production with the Ministry of Defence; From Boys to Men: Every Singaporean’s Son. The six-part series follows the lives of 14 young Singaporean men, coming together for Basic Military Training or BMT, which is part of their National Service. The series is character driven, no presenter no narration, just the boys and the commanders barking at them, very local and cuts across all age groups in Singapore. When we approached MINDEF with the idea they were really surprised. They saw us as this big international channel but we want to make something that will really work for and talk to Singaporeans. It will happen in every country, that’s the plan. We are doing one in the Philippines – a four-parter – about basketball as it’s a really popular sport there. It will be presented by Rafe Bartholomew who wrote the book Pacific Rims, about the country’s intense obsession with the sport. Content specific to territories is also being explored for Nat Geo’s younger viewers too. We’re still a new player in Asia and 2011 is only our third year of producing original productions, but the programmes we’re making are still quite different. No one had made Crime hours before us; no one was really making biographies. We’ve injected a lot of hours of television in a short time and we have big slate of hours committed to produce this year with the help of the Media Development Authority. We’re the biggest producer of original content hours in Malaysia with the National Film Development Corporation of Malaysia (FINAS) at present. We tested the market first to find out what audiences here responded to. The one-offs worked for us and got a lot of attention. Then last year we launched Hidden Cities with Anthony Morse the new face of History, our first multipart series that explores the forgotten stories and relics in some of Asia’s most bustling cities. It worked for us and got a lot of attention. We’re now committed to a full second season for this year, with even more episodes, and China’s CICC is funding two episodes. Other popular History shows had more specific relevance to their market. The most popular in Malaysia was the story of filmmaker, musician and comedian P. Ramlee, that screened in late October. Not only did it rate well but it also created a massive buzz. Astro themed the whole month under P. Ramlee, now a national icon in Malaysia, many viewers didn’t know a lot of his story and tragic demise. Then you take The Maguindanao Massacre made by Ten Alps TV, about the shocking kidnapping and killings that occurred in the Philippines in 2009. We made it to time with the first anniversary. It was such recent history, but we’ve found that modern history resonates well with audiences here. Asia’s audience has a deep interest in knowledge. History in the United States is going for more mass appeal, they balance their schedule with entertainment-driven shows like Pawn Stars but still fits under the History genre. We will of course play this on our channels here but we balance this with very Asia driven specials and they learn about what’s happening around them. Education is so important here and it definitely is a benefit to all of us in this market. It’s very hard to get content that goes across all territories apart from WW2, which still rates exceptionally very well for us in the region because it impacted so many countries. We try to look for subjects that are going to be specific and we know they’re going to have high appeal in just two or three countries out of our footprint and we do weigh that up against the other content we’re making in our slate. We make sure to balance it and have a good spread across the region. We have had our successes in Asia but I have to admit not enough really in the past year. We’d love to do a lot more and have initiatives in the pipeline to cover this. One of those strategies already launched is that we now have our own representative based in Singapore, whose mission is garner as much material about the whole region as possible. This of course is bringing more stories and topics to our attention. Asia is much more important to us this year and this is where we want to strengthen the BBC News brand further. In the past year we’ve run two great series, The Real with Intercontinental Hotels and Ideas That Changed the World, with Standard Chartered Bank. This was all put together with our sponsors out of Singapore and Hong Kong. We’re hoping these will continue this year. We depend on active independent producers approaching us and saying “we think we can do this series for you” and they have access to some sort of funding for it. We have half a dozen production companies that do this with us in the UK but not enough in Asia as yet. It’s about going further and deeper. We are aiming to launch a fortnightly business show out of China in July. It will be called China Business Report and will go in-depth into the phenomenon that is the Chinese economy. The demand is there so we hope that off the back of these initiatives we establish relationships in the region that are long-term. We also have our initiative My Country, where we feature a country for a week and content made by filmmakers from that country features in all our major shows. This year, we have at least three countries from APAC scheduled to feature between March and October – Indonesia will feature in early June, pegged to the World Economic Forum meeting in Jakarta. There really needs to be more understanding and exploration of the stories and issues facing the different parts of Asia. When looking at the different styles of programmes in Asia, a lot of factual content out of Asia tends be celebratory. Unlike the Western style where you’re expected to be critical of everybody, Asia tends to celebrate success. In saying that, the journalistic tradition of getting deep into a story is still developing. Sometimes it’s hard to find journalists with a questioning outlook there. But audiences in Asia want more in-depth news and more media freedom to tackle issues. People in Asia now want various interpretations of information, they want to know more and connect with the issues in their country or region. Ultimately BBC World wants that part of the world to report on itself wherever possible. That makes a powerful armoury for storytelling. The genre has really taken off in recent years with the assistance of channels like Nat Geo, Discovery and Al Jazeera International that have taken on interns and crew, trained them and taught them how to edit and create programmes that can appeal to different audiences. Local commissioning has also increased. Themes have also developed. Topics used to be safe and sanctioned. But as audiences have changed, liberalised and begun to question more, independent filmmakers are beginning tell stories which have social and political importance or reveal malpractices. Examples are Blood of Yingzhou District, and Last Train Home. Personal stories or ‘journeys’ are also becoming more common place. Increasingly, documentary films are being made in different versions – a festival cut, a TV hour cut, a TV half-hour cut, even online versions. Other than the big documentary channels, local stations are emerging with new content such as Shanghai Media Group. Film companies are also keen to create for the genre and there is more funding and outlets to broadcast these programmes. What needs to strengthen is the quality of the pitches to broadcasters and funding bodies. Have both an elevator and in-depth pitch, with supporting written paperwork and audio-visual supporting materials. There also needs to be more variance in the style of the programmes and how they are told both aurally and visually. Still stories fall into a ‘pattern’. Today’s audiences want variety with strong narratives. Right now documentary making in Asia is at the foot of a long climb upwards. The region has amazing story ideas and there are incredible opportunities to tap into a huge market. The quality of the Asian submissions to the Documentary Edge Festival has been increasing every year. Boundaries are being broken; films are getting more stylistic with better editing, graphics, animation and soundtracks. Asian filmmakers have still much to learn but I feel the documentary genre is safe in their hands. We need to celebrate documentaries as a viable vibrant genre in Asia. Get an exclusive peek of Nat Geo’s From Boys to Men: Every Singaporean’s Son at www.onscreenasia.com
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