Six fledgling documentary directors are being offered the chance to make their primetime debut on BBC3 as part of the UK digital channel’s Fresh documentary strand.
The latest round of commissioning for the Fresh initiative, which gives directors an opportunity to land their first hour-long prime-time film, has kicked off a hunt for ideas about important issues facing young people in 2013.
New approaches to issues of money, relationships, rites of passage moments, crime, disability, class and identity will be considered.
The driving force behind the films should be emotion with strong characters and the films should also have a contemporary and bold approach to storytelling.
Each director will be given a non-negotiable budget of £100k that will be managed by BBC Commissioning.
The budget will cover the total cost of making their film and include payments for the directors and crew, stock, filming and location costs, editing, voice over recording, dubbing and grading of the films.
BBC3 controller Zai Bennett and documentaries commissioner Charlotte Moore are keen to receive broad, popular ideas that speak to wide audiences.
Bennett said: “Fresh is vital to BBC3’s factual offering, providing new directors with a voice to tell compelling, entertaining and often inspiring stories about young people in extraordinary circumstances.
“I’m incredibly impressed by the quality of recent Fresh films like Transexual Teen, Beauty Queen and My Brother The Islamist, and I am keen to build on these successes.”
Moore said: “It’s a fantastic opportunity and challenge and the strand has successfully launched a new generation of documentary makers, with many directors going on to enjoy further success, like Danny Beck (Stormchaser: The Butterfly and The Tornado) who then went on to make I Swear I Can Sing for BBC Three and The War on Britain’s Roads for BBC One.”
Fresh has been running since 2008 and the deadline for entries is 31 May. Click here for the full brief.
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