Unscripted

Development Masterclass with Dorsa Nam and Dan Omnes | RTS Student Masterclasses 2024

Development Execs Dorsa Nam and Dan Omnes are both former Broadcast Hot Shots but have their own areas of development expertise: Dorsa on unscripted and Dan on documentaries.

They dove into the craft in conversation with Emma Read, using some of their hit series like The Man with 1000 Kids and Big Zuu's Big Eats as case studies.

Behind the udderly miraculous success of On The Farm

Dan Louw, Jules Hudson, Helen Skelton, Christa Ackroyd, Rob and Dave Nicholson sit on a panel

They emerged as unlikely heroes of lockdown: a farming family in Yorkshire who showed, even as the country was brought to a halt by Covid, that life went on when it came to rearing animals. Rob and Dave Nicholson of Cannon Hall Farm in Cawthorne, Barnsley, the stars of Channel 5’s On the Farm, kept millions of isolated viewers entertained with daily live broadcasts on social media.

From boom to bust?: the rise of unemployment in unscripted

Alarm bells are ringing in the unscripted world. Concern for the health of the sector has soared following two recent events: Channel 4’s decision to axe a number of shows and a survey by broadcasting union Bectu revealing that nearly half of UK freelancers working regularly in unscripted TV are now unemployed.

The Channel 4 casualties included the cancellation of Four Weddings and Andrew Neil’s Sunday-night political show being put on hold.

‘Huge’ boom in unscripted

The three-hour speed networking evening, “The big connection”, saw guests being allocated a table and visited by professionals at eight-minute intervals, with everyone given the opportunity to introduce themselves and ask questions.

Sarah Joyce, head of unscripted at ScreenSkills, explained the choice of the evening’s theme: “Sometimes, people don’t really understand what unscripted TV is, or… appreciate that there’s such a breadth of content.

The Future of Unscripted - People, Places and Amazing Programmes

A panel of experts discuss how we can strengthen the unscripted sector, develop skills and improve inclusion in the nations and English regions in this RTS and ScreenSkills event.

The event was held in conjunction with the launch of the Unscripted TV Skills Fund on the 1 June 2021- an ambitious £3 million investment into training those working in unscripted TV genres. For more information about the fund click here.

 

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