SHORT FORM CONTENT FOR CHILDREN - TV and ONLINE - London

This course is funded by Creative Skillset’s Skills Investment Fund.

Designed to meet a specific need in the Children’s production arena, you will meet, and learn from, some of the UK’s most experienced makers of short form, including YouTube, TrueTube, Dixi and the BBC. This is a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in the art of short form content, meet the experts and network with key industry people.

The course is a combination of theory, industry insight, good advice and practical training. It will provide you with a solid grounding in the art and commercial relevance of short form visual content for Children. The course is divided into two, two day workshops. You can attend one session or both or even just a single day.

Short form doesn’t mean cutting corners on quality or production values. It is a unique form and requires training and knowledge to deliver content that works. A short form producer/director must have a clear purpose, the right strategy and know which platform will work for their content. Designed by Grand Scheme Media and Children’s training expert Terri Langan, the course will cover the following subjects:

WHAT MAKES SHORT FORM DIFFERENT? What are the expectations of a children’s online audience as opposed to a Children’s TV audience? What has brought them to this platform and how do they want to consume content How long should short form content be? Is it a brand extension or something bespoke? We will study various examples of children’s short form content and advise students on the best durations to target, including narrative structure and style.

WHAT WORKS? We’ll compare TV production to YouTube and various other online platforms. We’ll examine the most popular short form content available, the successes and failures of short form ideas and how short form helps market more traditional content.

YOUR BRAND. What is your brand? What will appeal to children and make them come back time and time again to watch your content? There are simple and straightforward rules that we can pass on to our students, including regular uploads and how to patiently build an audience through a variety of platforms.

WHAT PLATFORM? Deciding which platform will make the most of your content is crucial. We will examine the various platforms and talk about each one and what they can do for you and your content.

PRACTICAL TRAINING. There will be several tasks across the two workshops.

For example, you might be given a Children’s TV Show or a brand and must devise some short form content to promote it. You might work with existing YouTubers to critique their content.

We will give you an opportunity to work in groups around practical cases, using your creativity, then applying what you have learnt to your own programming strategy. Having discovered what is popular with kids, you can devise a new Children’s Channel for YouTube. We will also set up a private YouTube channel for you so that, after the workshop finishes, we can upload content for general study and comment.

THE WORKSHOPS

WORKSHOP ONE (9 and 10 January)

DAY 1

WHAT IS SHORT FORM? What makes good children’s short form content? How long should it be? We look at examples of what’s working. How do children view short form content? And on which platforms? We will study the difference between linear content and short form.

SHORT FORM FACTUAL / NEWS We’ll hear from BAFTA award winning online Children’s channel TrueTube and view examples of their short form content. How do they present sensitive news / documentaries in a way kids can understand? What are the challenges of presenting factual / educational short form content? What do they include and what do they leave out for their audience? Who are their target audience and how they consume their content?

TASK 1 – An exercise for delegates.

DAY 2

YOUTUBE KIDS APP - MAKING IT WORK FOR YOU All about YouTube and their Kid’s App. We hear from experts involved with YouTube. We will discuss trends that come and go and how to reach target audience. What kid’s YouTube channels are popular? What is working? How do you get the most out of YouTube.

TASK 2 – An end of session test.

SUMMARY and Q&A

WORKSHOP TWO (11 and 12 January)

DAY ONE

MAKING SHORT FORM DRAMA FOR KIDS What are the challenges of making short form drama? Is short form a good medium for drama? We’ll hear from BAFTA award winning Dan Berlinka, director of CBBC online drama Dixi.

TASK 1 – An exercise for the group.

DAY TWO

CBBC SHORT FORM Meet the BBC Children’s Short Form team. Heading up the BBC Children’s short form team, Scott Martin will talk about the range of work his team produces. He will highlight a specific award nominated short form campaign for CBBC, as well as setting a task based on recent research. TASK 2 – A final task for the group.

SUMMARY AND Q&A

COURSE LEADERS

TERRI LANGAN

Terri worked for 4 years at CBEEBIES as a Development Executive. This involved pitching ideas to the channel controller, making pilots, apps and games and working with external suppliers such as animators, composers, writers and designers.

Commissions for CBEEBIES include BAFTA winning ‘OLD JACK’S BOAT’ and pirate game show ‘SWASHBUCKLE’, ‘MR BLOOM HERE AND THERE’ and RTS winning ‘CBEEBIES STARGAZING’.

She was also involved in several live events such as ‘CBBC LIVE’ and ‘BBC CHILDREN’S TALENT SHOWCASE’

Terri has been a Head of Development for THUMB’S UP PRODUCTIONS, a Development Producer for IMG, and was Creative Director at FLIX.

As a teacher, Terri has worked for SALFORD UNIVERSITY, supervising students on their Children’s MA course. She organised a showcase at the BBC, where students screened their work and received feedback from CBeebies and CBBC producers and execs. She has run modules on broadcasting and journalism for UNIVERSITY OF KEELE and UNIVERSITY OF WOLVERHAMPTON She also ran our successful sessions on Developing And Pitching for Children’s TV.

MARK ROBSON

Mark is a partner is Grand Scheme Media and one of the lead trainers within the organisation. He is a tutor at the NFTS and has devised, written and series produced or executive produced television formats for CBBC, DMAX and THE DISNEY CHANNEL.