BBC Fresh Interview: Elliot Reed, Commissioning Editor, BBC Three Factual
In this exclusive interview, Elliot Reed, Commissioning Editor BBC Three Factual, discusses his latest ‘Fresh New Directors’ commissions, and what he’s looking for when he commissions factual programmes for the channel.
What do you commission for BBC Three?
I commission everything on BBC Three that is defined as factual, so documentaries, documentary series, single films, Fresh documentaries, formats, factual formats and anything else that isn't entertainment, comedy or current affairs.
What have you commissioned for this year’s ‘Fresh New Directors’?
It was slightly easier this year because we had the disability season in spring 2015 that we were looking to commission films for. We knew at least one or two of the Fresh films would be aimed at that, and as it turned out we commissioned three films about disability. In common with all Fresh films, we were looking for films about young people. What was different this year was that we were ideally looking for a single character to feature in a film that would have a strong enough story to sustain interest throughout sixty minutes.
I have commissioned a film about young people with epilepsy, ‘Epilepsy and Me’. I think that is going to be a multi-character led film, a kind of ‘precinct’* where they all go and live and get treatment but it is still character-led, it is not about an issue necessarily, it is about young people grappling with epilepsy.
Also for the disability season is ‘The Ugly Face of Disability Crime’ which is an authored piece. At its heart there is a central character who is facially disfigured and is taking us through something that we felt was original and different.
When we looked at the disability season, we knew there were lots of different aspects of living with disability and one of those was disability hate-crime. It’s very difficult to find that film idea because it is not easy to capture those moments. You could hear from lots of people retrospectively, but to find someone who is going through it themselves now, and who is passionate enough and able to articulate, both their own situation and the broader legal standpoint, that’s more difficult to find. But Adam, who is the lead in the film, is perfect for that because he has spent his life dealing with hate and abuse, because of the way he looks. There is also a very interesting legal issue whereby you can be penalised more severely for being racist and homophobic than you can for being abusive to disabled people, and that is examined.
‘Don't Stop Me Now’ – again for the disability season, features a musician with autism. He’s about to go on tour, there is a music producer investing money in him to try to turn him into a mainstream music star, so those are the lines driving the story.
Then there are three other films. We’re doing a film about Lee Selby, a boxer from Wales, who is on the verge of fighting for the world championship. This is obviously very high profile but actually the film is about him as a character, his family around him and where he comes from. This makes the story all the more interesting because he comes from a very, very impoverished part of the UK. It’s definitely a single character film but it’s not necessarily a film about a sportsman. It is a film about a guy from Wales who has come from a really difficult background, and now is aiming for the biggest crown in boxing.
We commissioned a film authored by an ex-homeless person, he is now a filmmaker but from his own experience and contacts he is taking us into a world I don't think we would ever get to see. So this will be a film about him but it will also be meeting other characters in that world. Homelessness is a familiar subject but what is different about this film is, we are going to be filming with young people who are homeless for all the reasons that are new and unique to 2014/15. For example, what is happening as a result of all the cuts and the bedroom tax and the housing benefit cap; so it is a modern tale of homelessness in the West Country – which is where he is from. It was a very good taster tape that we got and it feels like a ‘Fresh’ film to have the director immersed to this extent – he will voice the film too. Again, it is a character-led film and that is the reason why we commissioned it, because of him. I don’t think, if it had come to us in any other shape or form, that we would have thought it was as original as it is. So sometimes, it is about the form that the film takes.
Finally, Tom Felton, the Harry Potter actor, is making a film for us. Again, this is an interesting filmmaker story, we all know who Tom Felton is from Harry Potter but here he is a filmmaker making his first documentary film. He sent us a tape that he had made when he was at one of the Comic-Con conventions. He is really interested in super-fans and the reason why people attend these conventions and obsess about people like him. He will be making the film and appearing in the film – the film will tell the story from his point of view. I thought it was quite an original way of getting into this subject matter.
What didn’t appeal? What were the mistakes that you saw that people made when submitting ideas and treatments for Fresh New Directors this year?
I think it comes down to a lot of different things – originality is key, then when you get down to a short list it becomes about the mix of the films and the different forms and shapes that the films take. With regards to subject matter, a lot has to do with what we have seen recently on the channel but ultimately it is about what gets you excited.
The shortlist was formed from all the applications that excited us because of the content and then of course we drilled down on the approach to making the films.
The guiltiest crime, I think, was from those who sent in film ideas that didn’t really address the brief. I was very surprised about that and spent a lot of time directing people back to the brief.
Can you tell us more about some of the other factual series/formats on Three and what it is about them that makes them work for the channel?
Well there is a common thread through all of them – they are all very specifically measuring different rites of passage moments for young people in a clever, original way. That is what a format on BBC Three needs – to have a clever idea – and that can come in all shapes and forms.
Just in terms of the rites of passage, Sex and Suspicious Parents is probably the most successful format on Three and it is about what happens when parents have to let their teenage kids go away from home on holiday for the first time on their own. I think the thing about those shows (which encompasses Sun, Snow and Festivals too) is that they sometimes get misunderstood. People look at the title of the show and remember the drinking, the going out, the being sick, and lose sight of what actually the real story is through these programmes.
Young people are going off on their own to lead independent lives for the first time and this symbolizes a massive moment in both the parents’ and the teenagers’ lives. What is clever about it is that you get the parents to spy on the kids and they are listening in to conversations that the kids wouldn’t normally have in front of them. This tends to churn up all sorts of emotions, and ultimately confrontations and conversations, between them that they maybe wouldn’t normally have had otherwise. I think that this points to the success of any format really, in that it is an entertaining watch but at its heart it has some really useful purpose for the participants. What ‘Sex and Suspicious Parents’ tries to do is to help parents and their kids move forward in a healthy way, at this really dramatic point in their lives.
What Sex and Suspicious Parents and Barely Legal Drivers do, is that they have this really mischievous aspect where you will always have this ‘reveal moment’ when people find out what is really going on. I think that is a ‘no-brainer’ for a format – generally speaking, most of the successful formats have a reveal at the end whether it is Sex and Suspicious Parents, Undercover Boss, The Secret Millionaire or even Wife Swap.
Another one is Hotel of Mum and Dad, which drills down on moving out versus living at home and again it’s about independence. Similarly, Barely Legal Drivers is about coming of age – it is about becoming an adult, ending your childhood and starting out in the world, which I think is a real hotspot for parents.
In Don’t Drop the Baby, you have the hugely dramatic and emotional ending but there is a real sense of purpose to it, in that there are lots and lots of men out there that could do with understanding a bit more about how pregnancy and birth actually works. It’s quite surprising to realise that a lot of men don’t know anything, don’t want to know anything and don’t want to ever learn anything about that process.
Who is watching these programmes on Three?
Young people – I think what is most important to BBC Three is the percentage of ‘young share’ but I think the ultimate ideal is how you can make stuff that reaches a really high audience – and this is largely driven by young people watching the channel along with their parents.
I think Sex and Suspicious Parents continues to do that. I think things like the ‘Gatwick Baby’ film hit a million because parents watched it with their kids. I think The Call Centre was hugely entertaining, though you could argue that it had an older lead character, so a large, broad audience and high young people share, I think those are the key things.
What can people making short films for Fresh Online take from all this?
Well for BBC Three it is about identifying those moments that are important to young people. When it comes to ‘rites of passage’, it’s a combination of capturing really compelling moments and telling stories about really important issues, but in a way that doesn’t just inform but also entertains – not in all cases but wherever possible. I think there are three things to try and extract from a subject – drama, emotion and comedy. Not all films can have all of those ingredients but you have certainly got to be looking for a few of those in any film, to make people want to watch and stay watching.
I think you have to try to remember that it’s television, its not a book, its not a thesis that you are writing, it is a moving medium where it is a really fantastic opportunity to make someone feel something; whether that is an emotion, or a reaction to something dramatic, or making them laugh.
I would urge filmmakers to firstly find a strong subject but through the characters and the storytelling, find those moments – the drama, the laughter, the real emotions – because I think a short film should have all those elements. You don’t need to make all the ten minutes dramatic or funny or make people cry but you certainly need to be thinking about those things.
What would you like to see more of on Fresh Online?
I like the emotional stuff – being able to get into stories that are based on experience, like Sophie Piggot’s film ’26’. I just find that honesty and being able to capture moments like that, incredibly powerful. What I admire is just being able to get people to open up and get them to be honest – what that film achieved is really powerful.
In terms of topics, personal storylines work well – when you are trying to come up with ideas it is probably nearer to you than you think. What might seem boring and unoriginal to you, could be hugely important and interesting to others. So look at your own family, look at your friends, look around you and see what you can turn into something that is small and intimate but also hugely powerful and emotional.
Other big things that work on Three are things like crime, extreme stories, sex, drugs, mental health and disability – those storylines where you can get insights into worlds that people aren’t familiar with.
Finally, how is the move to online affecting the commissioning of documentaries?
We are in the process of transitioning to online but we are going to be commissioning lots more documentaries. Factual plays a massive role on the new Three – we are actively looking at stuff right now to commission for the launch. We have some genres that have probably suffered more as we go into online, but factual will continue to be a leader. BBC Three is the only youth channel that commissions original factual programmes and it will continue to do that.
*Telly-speak for a place where all the action happens. This could be a hospital, a police station; any defined space where the contributors can be filmed interacting.
