From blue-chip specials to long-running series, programming about nature and animals remains popular with viewers and broadcasters. The makers of wildlife documentaries always face challenges – mainly how to come up with new stories and new ways to tell old stories. Sometimes that means years of camping in the bush in faraway land or sending cameras in the deepest parts of the oceans; sometimes it means looking right under their noses.
This year, at Asian Side of the Doc 2016 in Bangkok, the crop of new wildlife programmes demonstrates that well. The subject matter varies from the always-popular big cats and mountain gorillas to humankinds itself and the creatures that come out at night in our big cities. The 7th edition of the Asian Side of the Doc is a co-production platform and programme sales market.
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Last year, the event drew more than 700 documentary professionals, including 140 decision makers, from Asia and beyond (40 countries) to its industry-leading market, designed to maximise investment and international co-production through a line-up of inspiring panels, unique networking events, a high-quality pitching forum and the added value of an exhibition space leading to real deal-making. The documentary genre is now in development in the ASEAN zone (650 million inhabitants) such as Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia and the Philippines. Programmes from abroad come mainly from the UK, the US, Japan, and Korea. But broadcasters are open to broadening their sources of supply.
Two powerhouses from Singapore and Malaysia respectively – Beach House Pictures and Kyanite TV recently announced their biggest co-production deal in factual programme, titled Borneo at the recent KL Converge! 2016.
The multi-awards production house, Beach House Pictures (BHP) together with leading Malaysian producer Kyanite TV, join forces with Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific, UKTV, the Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) and Perbadan Kemajuan Filem Nasional Malaysia (FINAS), to create one of the most hotly anticipated TV series of the year.
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With unprecedented access to the most remote regions of the world’s third largest island, Borneo will explore its stunning tropical landscape, rich biodiversity and follow the colourful cast of human characters from different backgrounds, nationalities and cultures, united in a battle to uncover, understand and protect the world icon.
Crew members will spend months in the field to film the 10 x 30 minute series. Applying the latest in filmmaking technology – from aerial photography to underwater cameras – to capture neverbefore- seen images of Borneo, revealing not only the beauty of the island but also the reality of frontier living.
Big, blue-chip projects, years in the making on seven-figure budgets, continue to be popular, as do lower-budget series built around compelling locals and characters. And the producers promises even more in the not-too-distant future as they begin the difficult challenge of coming up with practical ways to shoot 4k footage in the wild. So far, 4k is mostly in the planning stages, but wildlife documentarians are cranking out an impressive slate of conventional high-definition product.
