Esteemed reader Julia writes: "I'm an archaeology graduate in the UK, and really want to get into producing historical/archaeological TV documentaries. But so far, having tried everything I can think of, I have only been able to find the name of ONE company that makes some of these (Atlantic Productions). There must be others! Who makes/produces the documentaries we see on National Geographic, Discovery and History television channels?"There are several good starting points in your search. First, you might try looking at the descriptions of past winners of awards given at International Archaeology Film Festivals. Two English-language lists of upcoming international film festivals of archaeology are the FEDARCINE (the European Federation of Film Festivals on Archaeology and Cultural Heritage), also listed in German and French; and The Archaeology Channel's list of upcoming Archaeology Film and Video Festivals.
Also, you might contact the University of Bristol's Archaeology Department, where they have taught an MA in Archaeology in Screen Media for several years. I suspect they maintain a library of archaeology documentary programs and information about companies that produce them.
Finally, I've compiled a list of these and other resources on documentary film making in archaeology that you might want to explore.
- FEDARCINE
- TAC: Archaeology Film and Video Festivals
- MA in Archaeology for Screen Media University of Bristol
- Documentary Films in Archaeology: Resources
- Documentaries at About, a collection of resources from Erik Moe
- More Frequently Asked Questions in Archaeology
Comments
Many UK TV production companies make archaeology programmes on an occasional basis alongside other programmes like Celebrity Cooking or The Worlds Most Dangerous Cats!!!
Off the top of my head Tiger Aspect, Lion and Darlow Smithson have all produced archaeology or history programmes. The BBC does a lot of training, you could contact them, but be prepared to work on Top Ten Knitting Catastrophes along the way.
Thanks, Alun! I’ve added links to these production companies to the Documentary Films in Archaeology page.
We have been involved in a lot of these productions, most recently a NGS shoot done by Granada Media out of the UK….
In 2004 I worked with a German company called Boundary Productions on a documentary about the Roman frontiers in Europe. Not sure what they’re working on now, but their website is:www.boundary.de (they’re really nice people!!!)
Sorry – totally missed Boundary on the resources page (duh). Anyway, they’re a great company (and I promise to pay closer attention…)
No, Marcy: You didn’t miss it, because it wasn’t there until after you mentioned it here!
thanks! this is a great learning experience for me, too!