Earlier this year, we got selected to be part of 2023s “Future Producer School” Cohort, administrated by Bungalow productions. They picked our cofounder Jide Johnson, alongside 14 other talented producers. Heres what we learnt and experienced during the Future Producers School:
- DEVELOP A DOCUMENTARY PORTFOLIO:
We were selected, as Jide produced the “Where Are The Smart Black Boys” In Tv video for the Childrens Media Conference, addressing the lack of intelligent black males portrayed in children’s TV shows. Since then we planned to turn this into a mini series, and along the way we got selected. Where are all the smart black boys started out as a conversation and has now turned into a full documentary project that The Future Producers School noticed at the right time.
2. STORY, REALLY IS KING!
Our conversation we had in our CMC doc was only supposed to be a dialogue, but what was over emphasised on the cohort, was creating a compelling story is KING! We spoke with Emma Hindley (BBC Storyville Commissioning Editor), Gannesh Rajah (FPS Alumnus) and Sonja Henrici (Producer: Merkel, The Oil Machine) and the documentaries they showcased all had powerful stories which focused on characters trying to pursue a particular goal. This may be a basic rule of thumb for any documentary producer, but our doc started out as a simple conversation, therefore, we’ve come a long way to decide which story we want to tell in between our interviews we did with Industry executives.
3. FILM FUNDING IS AVAILABLE… BUT LIMITED:
We also got the opportunity to hang out with Hannah Bailey (Doc Society) aswell as Patrick Surley (Sandbox Films) who explained where all the various funding streams are for documentary filmmakers. Jide explains that he was overwhelmed by the amount of funding that was out there. Although some of these streams are limited by strict criteria or the amount of hoops you need to jump through to acquire the funding.
4. COLLABORATION IS KEY
Jide met various producers on the cohort who were a highly collaborative bunch. And now we have a new eclectic network of producers, who know the documentary space well. Weve now got some new interesting projects in the works, aswell as having picked up a few new clients from going through the process.
5. YORKSHIRE IS A GREAT PLACE TO GET AWAY AND BE INSPIRED
Jide was hosted in a Bed and Breakfast up in Yorkshire, which he described as a place where he spent time with horses, bunnies and more nature than we’re used to in London. As a result the Aniboxx team shall be doing more get away trips for more inspiration whilst developing our various IP projects.
For enquiries of how we can help with production or even the development of your documentary, email us at info@aniboxx.com
