Creating Episodic stories that Connect with Audiences

The Australian International Documentary Conference is Australia’s only documentary conference that consistently attracts key figures from the Australian and international documentary industry.  Boasting a strong marketplace and various opportunities for delegates, this Conference is the place to: NETWORK, DEAL, INSPIRE, BE INSPIRED

Thats what the blurb saids for AIDC and its pretty much on the money. Hence my enthusiasm for being asked to present a session at this years conference. 

My topic is:

‘Creating Series and Episodic stories that Connect with Audiences’

and it stems from the pioneering work my collegaue Karen Pearlman and I have undertaken over the past few years. 

What is it that brings viewers back? What emotional patterns to do they expect? And how do you develop an episodic series structure that delivers in complex and compelling ways?

Series are a mainstay of documentary and factual production in Australian and overseas – they are popular, profitable and offer an opportunity for rich and detailed development of character and ideas that few other forms can match.  This session will look at the ways episodic series function and their particular craft and structure issues and opportunities, exploring what these are and how they work.  

This session will seek to provide  practical tools and processes for designing and developing episodic series, with a particular focus on two crucial components - the Returnable Element and the Pattern of Closure. By looking closely at a host of examples and fostering rich discussion of how ‘returnable elements’ motivate audiences to return to the series and engage with it online, and how patterns of closure define and shape audience expectations and conversations about your series, this energetic and insightful session will prompt you to look at episodic documentary with fresh eyes and provide you with useful development tools.

Read more about the conference here…

And if you’re coming along be sure and come and say hi.