‘What’s The Buzz’ is always an informative and hilarious survey of the year’s trends across the nonfiction television sector.
WTB opens each World Congress of Science & Factual Producers, and this year’s edition was a wonderful treat.
- Here are the big trending themes that captured the attention of the session producers, and the shows that illustrate them.
- We included links and clips where we could find them.
- I have a very busy week, and I’ll add commentary later.
- And check out my detailed 3-part coverage of WTB 2012 – still very relevant and includes great clips!
The Producers
- The session producers were Emily Dalton and Iain Riddick from Darlow Smithson. Great job!
- The engaging moderators were Beth Hoppe (PBS) and Richard Bradley (Lion Television).
- They did well navigating a very explicit clip from Make Love, MDR Germany’s special on the science of sex that had many in the audience checking their shoelaces.
- Discovery Canada’s Paul Lewis and Ken MacDonald blew us away with a video that captured their journey from the Big TO to Montreal by way of their network’s franchise programs and an ambush by a horde of pitching producers.
- Congrats and thanks to all!
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WHAT’S THE BUZZ
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE: STUNNING EVENTS
- Legends Of The Deep: The Giant Squid
- Skywire Live With Nik Wallenda
- Richard III: The King In The Car Park
FACT OR FICTION: RESCRIPTING HISTORY
- The Mill
- A Day in the Life of a Dictator
- MDR Top News
- JFK The Smoking Gun
FACT OR FICTION: BLURRING REALITY
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE: PROVOCATION
NAVAL GAZING: INVESTIGATING FOOD
- Nourriture Low Cost
- Coca Cola: La formule secret
- ZDF ZIET
NAVAL GAZING: CELEBRATING FOOD
- The Great British Bake Off
- A Bite of China
- Try & Gotcha
GEEK CHIC: INTERACTIVITY
- Brain Games
- Redesign My Brain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RT59O6T05A
GEEK CHIC: SMART PRESENTATION
- “Don’t panic – the truth about population “
- How We Got To Now with Stephen Johnson
- The Nature Of Things (The series name for “Understanding Alzheimers”)
- Dara Obriain’s Science Club
GEEK CHIC BREAKING THE MOULD
- Hugo’s Brain
http://vimeo.com/68154250
- Your Inner Fish
- Cosmos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBTd9–9VMI
- Earth From Space
(Read our detailed coverage of NHK’s $6.5 million ‘Cosmic Shore‘)
NEW TRICKS WITH NATURAL HISTORY
- The Burrowers
- Dogs: Their Secret Lives
- Easter Eggs Live
- Horizon: The Secret Life of the Cat
WATCHING THEM WATCHING US
- Gogglebox
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Our researcher from American U Dana Bramble assembled the links and clips. Dana’s nominations for WTB would have been:
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Speaking Engagements
Real Screen Summit 2014
Washington DC
Sunday, January 26, 2014 1:30 PM – 3:30 PM
How Audience Research Can Make or Break Your Pitch
Brad Dancer, SVP Programming, Planning and Research, Nat Geo Channel
Brent Stinski, Founder & CEO, Media Predict
Peter Hamilton, Moderator
This workshop will take you step by step through the program approvals process for typical channels highlighting the array of research tools that network executives use to help green light – or renew – your shows; outlining the research data that producers should have at their fingertips before they pitch network development teams; and analyzing how much the ‘gut feel’ of network programmers, producers and agents will give way to an approvals process that relies more heavily on consumer research input.
Asian Side of the Doc
Chengdu, China, March 18-21, 2014
Panel: Crowd-funding Platforms in Asia
Panel: 3D / IMAX/ BIG SCREENS for Docs
MIPDoc
Cannes, April 5-6, 2014
Panel: How to Get the Funds: Co-pro’s and Foundations
Interview: Louis Vaudeville, CC&C Paris: The Apocalypse Franchise
AND, don’t miss Hot Docs in the Big TO
April 24 – May 4, 2014