broadcastnow.co.uk 23 August 2019| Broadcast | 47
PRODUCTION
OUR AIM IS TO FIND A POSITIVE OUTCOME FOR CONTRIBUTORS
PETER BEARD
Story Films
(Bedlam; Kids
On The Edge)How do you identify potential
contributors to your
documentaries and what do
you do to gain their trust?
I’ve spent most of my career
working with vulnerable contribu-
tors, often in extreme situations.
I always go through the same
thought process: can I fi nd a way
to include them that isn’t going
to ruin their lives, or preferably
could it be positive for them?
Strangely, this is easier with
vulnerable contributors – the stakes
are already high. This always
starts off with a very honest con-
versation about all that’s involved
and how I see the fi lm playing out,
and culminates in a lot of work in
the run-up to transmission.
In the weeks before Channel 4
aired Bedlam, I toured the country
with James, the main contributor inepisode one, showing the fi nal
cut to groups of his friends. We’d
witnessed an incredible trans-
formation in his mental health
and I was terrifi ed that anxieties
around broadcast could set him
back. He didn’t care what some
bloke on the other side of the
country felt, but he did care what
his friends thought.What should a documentarian
consider about a subject’s
wellbeing before and during
fi lming?
I make it a rule to fi nd something
about contributors that I like and
hang on to that at the hardest
times. This can be diffi cult when it
comes to the most extreme or
objectionable contributors, but
even they can surprise you.
Dave Nath, with whom I run
Story Films, and I believe if a con-
tributor is heavily featured then
you should watch the fi lm through
with them before transmission.
We applied this rule to Tony
Martin – the subject of The Interro-
gation Of Tony Martin for Channel 4- a challenging and cantankerous
contributor with extreme beliefs.
When we showed him the fi lm, he
cried several times. It was under-
standable, as he’d allowed us to
include personal content but none-
theless his reaction surprised me
and brought our responsibility to
him into sharp focus.With the debate raging
about duty of care in TV,
what do you do to ensure
your contributors have a
positive experience after
the fi lming has ended?
It’s good practice to stay in touch
for a while. I always have a plan forhow we manage broadcast and
beyond, so the contributors feel
supported. With some people,
the process of being fi lmed is so
intense and you need to be aware
that you can’t just disappear, but
you have to manage expectations
as you can’t stay in touch to the
same level as during fi lming.
However, some contributor
relationships have developed
into strong friendships. Sally and
Michael, from My Son The Jihadi,
are defi nitely friends now. I fi lmed
such an intimate story with them
it was impossible not to build a
close relationship.RESPECTING A CONTRIBUTOR’S WISHES IS PARAMOUNT
BRIAN HILL,
Century Films
(Confessions Of
Thomas Quick;
Songbirds)What do you do if a vital
contributor wants to
back out of a programme
during fi lming?
It can be really painful when
someone who you think might
be a great contributor wants to
back out. But you just have to
accept it; it’s their decision. It’s
unacceptable to put pressure
on them to try to get them to
change their mind.
When I was making Songbirds, a
musical doc in a female prison,
there was a Nigerian woman who
had the most beautiful singingvoice and agreed to be in the
fi lm. But a week or so after this
she told me she’d reconsidered- her reason being there was a
slim chance that people who
knew her in Nigeria might see the
fi lm, and this would have been
shaming for her. Of course, I
respected her wishes.
How do you ensure good duty
of care provision during and
after a project?
Duty of care is something that you
should be thinking about through-
out the process. I recently heard
about a director who was working
on a popular-factual series and
was seen by the DoP writing in anotebook before fi lming an inter-
view. The DoP asked if he was
writing out the questions but was
told he was writing out the answers.
That pretty much describes the
kind of person who shouldn’t be
making documentaries.Would you ever give a
contributor access to
your edit before a
programme goes out?
Sometimes I’d invite someone in
to have a look at something we
were cutting – I don’t agree with
the ‘them and us attitude’ of
keeping them away from a process
of which they are part. I may have
a different attitude to many directors
because many of my fi lms have a
performative element to them and
I regard people in my fi lms as
creative collaborators rather than
‘subjects’ serving my vision.The Interrogation Of Tony
Martin: contributor’s reaction
surprised the fi lm-makersSongbirds: one of the contributors pulled out of
fi lming after initially agreeing to be in the doc