Sheffield Pitch 21 items | updated Apr 12 2011

At Sheffield Doc Fest in November, Current TV is raising the bar by offering four emerging production companies or producers the opportunity to pitch their ideas for innovative documentary series in a bid to walk away with £2.5k of development funding from Current TV.

[Update 10/11/10: The Current TV Series Pitch at DOCFEST took place on Thursday 4th November in Sheffield. Our panel of industry execs was made up of Lina Prestwood (Director of UK Content, Current TV), Matt Bennett (Commissioning Editor, Factual, Five) and Peter Dale (Ex Head of More4, founder of new production company Rare Day). After much deliberation the panel chose to give the £2.5k development grant to Orlando Von Einsiedel of Grain Media and his series ‘War Junkies’. The character-focused 6 x 60’ series will follow bored young professional men and women who get their kicks by holidaying in warzones; what possesses them to do it? Are they brave or morally devoid? How far will their thrill seeking take them and to what cost?

The panel said that Orlando’s pitch was exciting and powerful with some carefully casted contributors and a testosterone fuelled taster clip that gave an idea of the high-octane pace and style of the series. Current TV is pleased to be working with Orlando and Grain Media on this project and feel confident that the finished series would be engaging to Current TV’s young professional audiences.





Well done to all our pitchers who took part in this year’s pitch session, we look forward to receiving more series pitches from you in the future. If you would like feedback on your pitch please email lprestwood@current.com with the subject line ‘Sheffield Feedback’, attaching your original submissions for reference, and we’ll do our best to get back to you in the next couple of weeks.

The deadline for submissions has now passed. A recap of what we were after: “The series is intended to air in 2011 on Current TV and what we really want is a 6x 60’ series with an episode price of £33k per hour- however, we don’t want to be too prescriptive, so if you have a great series idea that you can make work with the same amount of money for fewer episodes, that’s ok too - but no less than three episodes is our only hard and fast rule.”

Current TV will select four submissions to pitch at the ‘Current TV Series Pitch’ at DocFest 2010 as part of DFG Day on Thursday 4th November, and the finalist will receive £2.5k development funding and support from Current TV with a view to (hopefully) getting their series made and on air next year.

Pitchers will be given a seven minute slot to pitch their idea and, if they have one, play a taster clip to a judging panel of industry execs who specialise in factual TV series, in front of an audience of esteemed industry folk (panel to be announced shortly).

So what do we want?

Current TV is looking for exciting and intelligent factual series and want to see inventive new formats that are edgy and noisy in a crowded media landscape.

We want bold, self-explanatory and entertaining series (we love the spirit of Banged Up Abroad and One Born Every Minute) and are keen to hear ideas from across the factual spectrum; docusoaps, observational doc series, and formatted entertainment, it’s all good.

Our programming should be enticing to our 25-44 year old viewers who are intelligent and curious about the world. Your ideas should tap into milestones and emotional touch points relevant to that age group, particularly those in their late twenties and early thirties e.g. friendships, work, health, family, love, sex…

We are not looking for scripted drama, comedy or talk-show formats. As our name suggests, we’re looking at the world as it is today so no history, please. Broadly we are looking for programming that:

  • Features great characters and personalities, with strong opinions such as Amish: World’s Squarest Teenagers
  • Shows ordinary people in extraordinary situations/ incredible stories and lives but with a foot firmly in the real world rather than artificial, constructed situations.
  • Tackles controversial and taboo subjects intelligently through unconventional formats, as is successfully done by Embarrassing Bodies.
  • Is current, reflecting the issues that are permeating the public consciousness and discussing them in a positive, curious and exciting way.
  • Encourages debate and is illuminating and informative whilst entertaining.
  • Is edgy and ballsy, potentially using humour to entertain and inform.
  • Provides a glimpse of the exotic and dangerous. Think Tribe and Alone in the Wild

Here’s an example of a recent commission: 'What Did I Do Last Night?'

With one in four Brits unable to remember how they get home after a night out, it seems we're suffering from a national blackout. What Did I Do Last Night?, a new 30' factual format green lit by Current TV, shines a very bright light on the drinking habits of seemingly ‘normal’ drinkers by giving them the opportunity to watch themselves drunk the morning after the night before. It is the channel’s first factual entertainment format after In what could be described as the hangover from hell, presenter Jeff Leach helps young professionals aged 21-35 who regularly drink well above the recommended amount piece together the forgotten hours and confront some uncomfortable home truths about the kind of drunks they really are and what their friends, and strangers, really think about their drunken alter-egos.