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PERSPECTIVE

Viewpoints from the frontline of content.

Letter from Sweden

By Lilla Hurst 09-12-2016

Looking back at my first World Congress of Science and Factual Producers in 1999, and every other that I have had the joy to attend since, without fail I have always left with at least one spark of thought-provoking inspiration in addition to the worn vocal chords and a love of a city not visited before.

Congress, staged in Stockholm this year, is a three-day programme of workshops, networking events, pitch sessions and panels, that explores new trends in content and challenges facing the factual content industry.

So what pearls of wisdom did the land of ABBA and Spotify offer up this year? What questions is the community asking itself and what can we do in 2017 to answer them?

It has been a pivotal year in may ways and in a post-Brexit, pre-Trump administration environment, many of the public service broadcasters were discussing how keen they are to work together in an effort to combat what is now being referred to as an ‘era of disinformation.’

When the idea that science is only an opinion is becoming more common, how do we advocate building knowledge around hard data and facts – on climate change, for example?

One session heard from Ola Rosling, co-founder of the Gapminder Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation based in Stockholm that aims to promote sustainable global development by the increased use of data and statistics. He argued that we are often being fed inaccurate information and that when data on poverty and population, amongst other things, is accurately collated, the picture of our future is not quite so bleak. But if the audience is sick of experts, how are we educating them?

Dan M Kahan, professor of law and psychology claimed that we can tune into a scientifically curious audience if we learn to use the right methods and technology in our programme making.

In SVoD and Beyond, TCB’s Paul Heaney and his panel revealed that whilst the whole room, seating probably 150 delegates, was trying to get access to or work with Netflix and Amazon, just seven audience members had so far succeeded. This largely seemed to come down to the fact that whilst the SVoD platforms’ ambitions are clearly huge, their teams are relatively tiny. But for those who are working with them, the conclusion was that they are a pleasure to do business with.

My favourite session was actually only half-an-hour long, but a gem and a privilege to attend. ‘Rock star’ scientist Bernard L Feringa, when asked by interviewer Stephen Hunter for his predictions on the future of science and tech, responded with: “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”

This clearly resonated with an audience that is so often fed up with copycat commissioning and rip-off formats.

Feringa also shared information on extraordinary developments and inventions in science and tech that we are likely to see in the next 20 years, such as self-repairing cars and furniture and smart antibiotics with ‘light switches,’ programmed to cure a virus in a specific part of the body, rather than stripping the whole body of healthy bacteria.

He also suggested that we need to take unconventional approaches to solving everyday problems. Again, a credo that we might benefit from applying to TV and the challenges that it is facing in the digital era.

Several sessions explored how virtual reality (VR) and new tech will transform the way we will experience and make TV going forward. Sky, Nat Geo, Discovery, BBC and Arte have all moved into commissioning VR. But beyond that, augmented reality (think Pokémon Go), it was claimed, is set to supersede VR and overtake TV within 10 years.

Other sessions demonstrated new innovations in scanning technology that will allow producers to capture images of people or objects in 3D, and thus movie-quality effects on TV budgets.

We also saw examples of Muon tomography, a tech used after the Fukushima nuclear meltdown that uses cosmic ray muons to scan the inside of structures in 3D, as well as underwater imaging being used to view shipwrecks.

There was definitely a shift in the attitude towards how TV presents climate change in ways that capture, entertain and inspire audiences. Channels claimed that it is a shortage of good stories that is keeping the subject off TV, but positive stories around new tech being invented to halt the energy crisis were both uplifting and thought provoking.

So as I reflect and say farewell to the land of slow TV and Nordic noir, I conclude that as always the event succeeded in giving us a unique opportunity to share, learn and survey the TV landscape.

Whilst the temptation is always to squeeze in as many broadcaster pitch meetings as possible, there was no doubt that the inspiration came from the sessions with the non-TV tribe and their generosity in sharing the discoveries being made in their world.

today's correspondent

Lilla Hurst Global head of acquisitions and partnerships Blue Ant International

Lilla Hurst became global head of acquisitions and partnerships at Blue Ant International earlier this year when the Canadian firm bought out her financing and distribution firm Drive. Before co-founding Drive in 2013 with Ben Barrett, she ran Lillavision, helping indies to secure coproduction and deficit finance.

Previously, Lilla had been head of coproduction for factual and scripted projects at Channel 5, head of acquisitions and coproductions at RDF International (now Zodiak) and MD of TVF Distribution.



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