DCD Rights extends funding support for indies with four brand new factual series to launch at Mipcom

10 September 2019


Independent UK based distributor DCD Rights has secured production funding for four additional factual series created by UK and International indies, it was announced today by Nicky Davies Williams, CEO.  As the demand for market-tailored series continues, DCD Rights has further extended its Producer Support Initiative which offers indies highly-experienced  commercial and market sensitive editorial management to help raise finance, to enable factual series to be green lit and produced for international platforms and broadcasters.

To date, DCD Rights has enabled 55 hours of programming to be created since its initiative was launched.

DCD Rights has now delivered finance for a further 45 hours in four more brand new series which will be available for the first time at Mipcom. Disasters Engineered, 10 x 60’, produced by SWR Media, Intermission Film & DCD Rights in association with Dash Pictures for Discovery UK; 10 Steps To Murder 10 x 60’, produced by FirstLookTV for DCD Rights & Quest Red; The Day My Job Tried To Kill Me 13 x 60’ produced by Farpoint Films and Wildest Places 12 x 60’ produced by WildBear Entertainment.

Nicky Davies Williams comments, “At DCD Rights we believe that in today’s multi-platform and mega-budget world it’s vital for enterprising production houses to tell the world important stories that would otherwise be left untold.  Through our Producer Support Initiative we work with producers to help to secure the necessary budget to get these shows made.  Leaving the creatives to create, we provide editorial support and guidance that uses our long-held international experience and contacts to determine which series will work and then source the funding – be it soft money through subsidies or tax breaks, or through independent investors and then seeking partnerships with broadcasters.  It’s a great formula and one we intend to continue to expand in the coming months.”

Will Hanrahan, Founder and Creative Director, FirstLook TV, said: “Combining powerful reconstructions and interviews, 10 Steps to Murder is a gripping factual series that forensically traces 10 real-life murder stories. We’re delighted to be working with our friends at DCD Rights to bring this compelling true crime series to audiences worldwide.”

Daniel Sharp, Director and Producer at SWR Media, comments “The Producer Support Initiative has given us an exciting opportunity to work with DCD to create a thrilling series covering some of history’s most important and catastrophic engineering disasters. The vast catalogue of historical footage made available to us, alongside unique interviews with industry experts and academics enabled us to tell these stories in a truly exciting way.”

Launching at Mipcom for DCD Rights are Disasters Engineered where scientists study the world as it is and politicians debate the world they want, but it’s the engineers that create the world that has never been. Industrialisation, water distribution, electrification, automation and communications are all engineering revolutions that have transformed our world and changed every detail of our lives. However, for every future built, there are man-made mistakes that cause catastrophic disasters. Icarus-like moments when our overreaching, greed and desire to conquer the impossible don’t just cost reputations, but millions of dollars, environmental damage and lives. Chernobyl, Bhopal, Deepwater Horizon, The Titanic, Challenger and The Hindenburg are names not remembered for the great feats of engineering they initially were, but for the horrors that they became. Through extensive archive and expert interviews this series explores the stories behind mankind’s greatest engineering disasters. How and why they happened and what we have learnt from them. Disasters teach us more than successes, every set back offers an opportunity to move forward and innovate, because the greatest tragedy would be to never strive at all.

10 Steps To Murder features gripping stories told in the present tense in a unique documentary format tracing the step-by-step the path of both a killer and their victim in ten real-life murder cases. Each case exposes the flawed relationships, bitter feuds and confused psychopathy of events that accelerate towards the murder. This series uses accurate reconstructed scenes to illustrate the key moments of these tragic events alongside interviews from friends, family and the law enforcement.

The Day My Job Tried To Kill Me examines the stories of survivors that detail a day at their work that turned into a living hell. The show goes behind the headlines of some of the world’s most infamous workplace disasters and talks to survivors and witnesses of how that moment changed their life forever. Each episode features dramatic recreations blended with actual footage from the incidents to give the audience a fully immersive experience. Woven into these riveting cases will be the cold, hard facts of exactly what failed and what caused the unimaginable to happen. These deep dives into the incident gives the audience a close-up view of the human drama that unfolds almost every day around the world.

Wildest Places explores some of the most incredible natural habitats on the planet and an extraordinarily diverse range of wildlife. Covering the Pacific, Antarctic and Australia, it includes amazing never-before-seen footage filmed over more than 10 years. Wildest Pacific goes above and below the water to uncover spectacular and surprising marine life on our most significant coral reefs, bays and islands. At the far southern reaches of the world, Wildest Antarctic journeys to our coldest continent and southern seas, whilst Wildest Australia crosses a continent that has evolved wildlife like nowhere else on Earth. This series showcases astonishing aspects of animal life in an untamed world and features rarely captured animal behaviours in remote habitats.