How we work
Consent first, paperwork early, and no film made about people behind their backs.
Most of what goes wrong in documentary goes wrong before the shoot, in the part nobody photographs. This is how we handle it.
From first conversation to delivery
Approach and consent
We go to the community, the family or the institution before we go to a funder. If the people the film is about do not want it made, there is no film, and that is the end of it rather than the start of a negotiation.
Development
Research, recce, relationships. This is the slow part and the part that decides whether the film is any good. Months, sometimes years, before a frame is shot.
Rights and chain of title
Co-production terms, option agreements, underlying rights, contributor releases and music clearance settled in writing early. A film with an untidy chain of title cannot be sold, however good it is, and no broadcaster will take the risk on your behalf.
Production
Small crews. We shoot with local practitioners wherever the film is set, credited and paid properly, not used as fixers and dropped from the titles.
Post and delivery
Edit, grade, sound, versioning and subtitles in English and French, and a delivery package that meets what the broadcaster or festival actually asked for rather than what we assumed.
Co-production
Partners, not fixers.
Films about a place are better when someone from that place is making them, and that means a co-producer with a credit, a share and a signature on the agreement, not a local contact who disappears from the titles.
It also means the terms are written down before the shoot. Who owns the footage, who holds which territory, who approves publicity, what happens if one side walks away. Those clauses are dull right up to the moment they are the only thing standing between you and losing a film.
Questions
What people ask.
Will you look at my idea or my footage?
Write first and tell us what it is. We do not accept unsolicited material and will not read or watch anything sent before that conversation, which protects both of us.
Do you work in French?
Yes, throughout. Development, interviews, contracts and delivery. A Francophone subject filmed through an interpreter is a different film, and usually a worse one.
Will you co-produce rather than lead?
Yes. On proper terms, with the rights, credits, territories and revenue split agreed in writing before production rather than argued about afterwards.
What do you need from a contributor?
Informed consent in a language they actually speak, a release they have had time to read, and the right to withdraw before the edit locks. Signed paper that someone did not understand is not consent, and a broadcaster's lawyer will find it.
Who owns the film?
It depends on the structure, and it is settled before the shoot rather than after. Where we co-produce, ownership and territories are set out in the agreement. Where we are commissioned, the commissioner's terms govern and we say plainly what we need to keep.
Can you deliver to broadcast specification?
Yes, including subtitled and dubbed versions in English and French, and the paperwork package that goes with them. Tell us the delivery specification at the start, not at the end.
The company
Who you are contracting with.
Dunya Productions
A trading name of Al Dunya Ltd, registration 15244792, registered in England and Wales, with its office in Hove. A UK company, which matters for co-production treaties, funding applications and broadcaster paperwork.
Languages
English and French throughout, in development, in the field, in contracts and in delivery.
Scale
Small by choice. Few projects, long development, and the same people on a film from first approach to delivery.
Write first.
What the project is, where it is set, what stage it is at and what you need from us.