Saturday, March 05, 2011

Children's programme workshop in Bhutan

In its efforts to provide localised content for children's programmes, the Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BBS) has sought the help of ABU members to train its producers.

While children's programming is an area where even national councils have given up, BBS has set itself the ambitious target of producing 25 percent of the network's children's and youth programming within the next five years, BBS General Manager Tashi Dorji said.

Towards this end, the first ABU Prizes TV Workshop on Improving Children's Programme Content will be held from 14 to 16 March in Thimphu, Bhutan. The workshop's trainers are Japan Prize Secretary-General Hiroko Sakaue, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting's (IRIB) TV Producer/Director Negar Estakhr and ABU Senior Executive (TV) Hanizah Hamzah.

Ms Hanizah said: "The Prix Jeunesse Foundation asked if there were any training events on child programming which it could contribute towards and I immediately thought of this workshop in Bhutan."

She added that award-winning productions from the Prix Jeunesse Suitcase, a training tool for children's TV professionals, would be used during the workshop. Participants will also be exposed to the children's programmes which won the Japan Prize and the ABU Prize, in addition to IRIB's puppetry shows.

She said that BBS had specifically requested training in puppetry and, coincidentally, last year's Japan Prize children's category winner employed puppets, so it provided excellent reference material.

Apart from training the participants in character development, puppet staging, decoration and sound synchronisation, the workshop will explore how to adapt Bhutanese folklore for children's programmes, Ms Hanizah said.

The workshop will be followed by a week-long training course on storytelling for a young audience by Stéphane Bouillaud of Canal France International.

(Source : Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union

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