Elizabeth McIntyre is on a mission for Discovery Networks International: to commission factual shows from every corner of the globe, including the best documentaries from the Middle East.
“It’s key for me to work with new talent,” says the vice president of production and development for factual programming at Discovery Networks International. “I’m very keen on taking risks, and it’s key to note that the talent can be English-speaking as a first or second language. It’s the nature of the market that English is a global language, but the experts we nurture can be from anywhere in the world. We’re looking for new talent behind the scenes as well as in front of camera, and producers and crew too can be from anywhere. My team is based in London, but we could be based anywhere in the world as we commission shows for Discovery Networks International, so it’s of equal importance that the experts we work with are international experts.”
McIntyre has worked at Discovery for around six years, and in her time there, she has commissioned factual shows as diverse as the hit car-revamping exercise Wheeler Dealers, pop-science successes like the forthcoming Man vs Expert and The Idris Elba Project and one-off docs such as Flight 370: The Missing Links.
Describing her inspiration for working in the documentary and factual field, she says: “All my life I’ve been fascinated by other people’s stories and worlds, and the opportunity to have a glimpse into those worlds is at the heart of what drives me. It was absolutely natural for me to move into the world of documentary, first as a documentary maker, and then as a documentary and series commissioner, to have a glimpse at some of those worlds. What I love about factual programming is the opportunity to not only see those worlds, but to learn about them, too.”
It’s all very well for McIntyre to talk about her desire to see more Middle Eastern programme makers represented on Discovery’s channels, but what practical things should a local documentary maker be doing to get their work seen?
“Email me and start a conversation,” she says, matter-of-factly. “I’m extremely approachable and my door is always open for new ideas. I often talk about the half-idea, because I like to think it’s a dialogue. We can get half an idea and talk about it with the experts we already have in house and work out how best to progress with it.
“At the same time it could be that you send me a link with an amazing new idea and I say: “Wow – there’s something in this, let’s talk more. It can be anything from a very developed concept to something barely developed at all. My role is to collaborate with you, see your way of thinking and then try and capture that, to nip and tuck it to find the best available slot for the brand, or even completely smash the brand apart with the right idea.”
She continues: “Discovery is split into Discovery United States and ‘rest of world’, which is DNI. I firstly commission international content which can be one master that plays all around the world, and where there’s interest the US will buy into those, too, and screen them in the US.
"Secondly, there's regional programming where I will commission specifically for a market, so in the United Kingdom there's shows like Turbo Pickers and Salvage Hunters. As much as possible, I try and make sure that there is talent and experts from as broad a background as possible, and I'll always make sure wherever possible that there are local touchpoints from individual regions so that people watching in your region will identify with experts or stories or locations. We recently screened a series with the Iranian-born comedian Omid Djalili, Hot and Dangerous, where he investigates hot and unusual foods and tests his scientific reactions to them. It was great fun and very informative, and had a huge amount of interest in Iran.
“We want to celebrate all the DNI regions as much as possible and, as well as better programming, put quite simply, greater regional interest increases regional audience figures, too.”
cnewbould@thenational.ae
