DOCUMENTARY PRODUCTION

Overview | NDP | Domestic & International | Special Doco Program | Special Doco Initiatives

 

The National Documentary Program (NDP)

(incorporating the National Interest Program and the Making History Initiative)

The National Documentary Program (NDP) aims to provide a comprehensive and strategic slate of projects across a period of time, involving a diversity of practitioners, styles, formats and budgets.  Documentaries will encompass a broad range of themes of national significance. 

The program allows producers and audiences to benefit from documentary material that is both culturally distinctive and renders a significant contribution to the national story. 

The parameters of the National Documentary Program are distinctive. Projects will be documentaries of record, a heritage collection – not just available for 50 minutes of broadcast but for 50 years and beyond. They will be programs with a sense of cultural ambition and a budget scale that separates them from other Screen Australia domestic documentary investments.

Screen Australia does not require exclusive rights to projects produced under the NDP, but will retain appropriate rights of approval, including approval of contractual arrangements, licence fees, distributors arrangements as well as non-exclusive rights for NDP product to be retained in a living collection and used for online learning as appropriate.

Eligible projects

The National Documentary Program will be broadly framed around four content areas which may vary from time to time:

• art and culture
  
• contemporary and social issues, including social history
  
• science and the environment
  
• national history and identity (including the Making History initiative with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Screen Australia management, consulting experts as necessary, will ensure the continuing relevance of areas of core content and will ensure that the NDP delivers against the broad framework.

To apply for production funding under the NDP, applicants are required to have a broadcast presale. Standalone interactive projects such as websites will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

NDP operation

Screen Australia will have meaningful consultation with the producer during the development and production of programs to ensure that the themes or core content remain in keeping with what was envisaged when Screen Australia committed to the project.

Funding and production processes for NDP projects will operate as follows:

• Screen Australia ensures that programs are made in accordance with the Production Investment Agreement.
  
  
• Producers arrange for the financing of their programs and are the point of contact with broadcasters, sales agents, third party investors and co-producers.
  
  
• Distribution (sales of the programs both domestically and internationally), as well as marketing and promotion of the completed programs are a matter for producers, subject to the consent of Screen Australia.

Level of production funding

Where a National Documentary Program project would be eligible for the Producer Offset in terms of qualifying expenditure, Screen Australia will require that the Offset form part of the finance plan and 85% of the value of the Offset be cash-flowed during the production.
For these projects, the value of the Producer Offset plus the Screen Australia investment cannot exceed 75% of the budget of the film.

For a project which is not able to access the Producer Offset, Screen Australia may invest in excess of 75% of the production budget.

In the context of official co-productions, these caps relate to the Australian component of the budget.

Assessment criteria

Projects are assessed against National Documentary Program criteria including:

• applicability to core content areas, and diversity of projects and content within the NDF and Screen Australia documentary slate,

• capacity of the creative team including successful track record

• budget and financing strategy, including broadcaster and licensing arrangements, and

• value to heritage collection.

Assessment process

Applications will be assessed by a combination of Screen Australia executives and industry specialists as required. Screen Australia will advise applicants of the success or otherwise of their application, providing a brief statement of reasons.

Application materials

Applications must be made on the relevant application form, and include all supporting material listed on that form.

Terms of Trade

Details of delivery items, recoupment and other requirements will be available in Screen Australia’s Terms of Trade.

[Note that special terms apply to the NDP, including retention by Screen Australia of non exclusive rights in the program, out takes and other materials for use as library material for educational purposes and future productions by Australian filmmakers.]