Clarity of concept and plain ol’ good storytelling can go a long way to getting a documentary deal with TVOntario, says Jane Jankovic, commissioning editor of the educaster’s The View From Here and supervising producer for its Human Edge and Masterworks.

What is the commissioning strategy for The View From Here?
We’re looking for contemporary Canadian social issues that we can examine though a point-of-view perspective. We’re looking at intimate stories that exemplify a larger issue. We are especially interested in an issue that is unfolding, rather than a historical context.

And for the other two?
For [the international strand] Human Edge we are again looking for POV documentaries that explore big issues through small examples, whether it’s [about] a small village or a family, a particular election or protest. It’s the human stories that make those situations happen for better or for worse. In our art strand Masterworks, we’re looking for stories that look at art as social history, so we’re looking at either artists or a body of work that help us understand who we are.

What’s the balance of commissions and acquisitions?
For Human Edge and Masterworks, they’re predominantly acquisitions — probably 65/35 — more than prebuys. We do have some acquisitions on The View From Here, docs that were not shown anywhere else on any other broadcaster, and the rest of them would be commissions. If they’re commissions, we go for North American rights. If they’re acquisitions, we can sometimes do just Canadian rights.

How many pitches do you receive in a year?
We probably get hundreds of pitches a year and we probably put forward about 15.

What’s your advice to producers pitching to you for the first time?
Be clear on what you want to say with this story. Have a sense of how you’d like to tell it. It gives me an idea of what kind of a storyteller you are by giving an example of a treatment. I love stories that take you on this ride and you don’t know what it’s going be at the end, but it has this beginning, middle and end. If you can convey that kind of storytelling skill, then I’ve got a lot of time and patience for you.

How can foreign producers get involved with TVO’s docs?
For Human Edge and Masterworks, they can send us a final for an acquisition or a rough cut in which we might go as a prebuy or an acquisition. If it’s in the very early stages, they can send us a proposal with some sort of demo and a finance plan and we’ll take a look to see if it’s for us. My colleague Naomi Boxer would be the person who would be taking that on.

Should producers be thinking about new media?
Yes; anytime we get a documentary proposal, we ask how that story can translate in multiplatform broadcasting. We don’t see ourselves as a television station anymore. We see ourselves as a multiplatform deliverer of stories.
From Realscreen Daily