BBC Bitesize: ‘The Regenerators’ – INSPIRATION and ACTION Commission Brief

Introduction to BBC Bitesize:

BBC Bitesize is a highly trusted brand that students know they can turn to for reliable and trustworthy information that is produced in a high quality and entertaining way.

Bitesize values:

• Quality learning resources with high production values, tailored to the needs of our audience

• Clear, concise delivery of the key educational points - bite-sized chunks

• Inclusive and accessible to every level of academic ability

• Factually correct, high-quality and curriculum-relevant

• Simple, straightforward language

• Funny, quirky or irreverent tone where appropriate

BBC Education Campaigns: Large scale, impactful initiatives that aim to tackle a societal or cultural deficit – often in partnership with others.

The Regenerators Campaign:

Campaign background: • Children and young people are highly engaged with the environment and according to the latest Girl Guiding survey of almost 80,000 5-24 year olds, it is their number one concern. However, 80% of teenagers (14-16 year olds) surveyed by the Body Shop in 2019 felt pressured to save the planet but didn’t think they were well-enough equipped to make a difference • Awareness of issues around climate change and the pressure to protect the environment is leading to climate anxiety. Last year a Newsround survey ( 2,000 8-16 years ) found that 1 in 5 children have had a bad dream over climate change fears, and 3/5 worry that climate change will have an impact on their lives. Sadly 2 in 5 said they do not trust adults to tackle this challenge and 3/5 young people don’t feel their voices are being heard.

Campaign description: • In a bid to alleviate eco anxiety and empower young people to adapt to a more sustainable world BBC Bitesize is launching The Regenerators, an ambitious campaign, aimed at 5-16 year olds. • Whether at home or school, the Regenerators will equip children and teenagers with the knowledge and tools to understand the issues associated with climate change, how our actions can make a real difference and inspire them to take simple steps to live more sustainably. We will create climate champions who will motivate others to do the same and pave the way for

future generations to grow up in a carbon negative society and thrive in a more sustainable world.

Campaign objectives • Raise awareness amongst young people of the impact of climate change and the importance of changing the way we live. Equipping them with knowledge and the tools to take positive action and face the future, including preparing them for sustainable/green careers. • Create inspiring content that will help 5-16 year olds to take simple steps to live more sustainably and thrive in a more sustainable world while celebrating the wonders of the natural world. • Reduce climate anxiety by giving young people aged 5-16 a voice to make a real difference and to motivate friends and family to do the same, and celebrating the achievements of young people in combating climate change

There will be two strands to the campaign: • EDUCATION/school: We will create content to ‘green’ the curriculum and encourage young people to explore sustainable careers • ACTION/Home: We will inspire primary aged children and families to take simple steps to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle and empower teenagers to use their voices to motivate others to adopt a new lifestyle – whether this is writing to MPs, sustainable shopping, having the latest tech but still being eco-friendly, or changing their eating habits.

The campaign will sit on its own site on BBC Bitesize.

The Commission: For the ACTION strand

We are commissioning a collection of 15 short, online films intended for three different audiences across the Bitesize online platforms and social media accounts.

1. Families and Young Children: It all starts at home: Inspiration to have a greener life – reducing waste, saving money and living more sustainably.

• Waste: How to be a zero waste hero (e.g. plastic/toys/clothes/books ) • Nature: The wonders of the natural world on your doorstep • Food: Greening your plate (waste more than food miles) • Energy: Don’t simply standby: Save energy, money and the planet (home/transport) • Water: Stay clean but go green

2. Tweens and Teens (9-14)

• Green is the new black: Go green and stay fashionable • Carry on gaming: Making latest tech last as long as possible • Feel good about what you eat

• Putting nature and re-wilding at the centre • Leisure and hobbies: Have fun, save money and protect the planet e.g. sport, music, art, photography etc

3. 14+ USE YOUR VOICE: empowering young people to make a difference and create a better world through inspiring stories

• How to persuade others to care more about the environment (families, friends and community) • Have your say: How to engage with politicians or companies about something you feel should be changed to help protect planet… • The power of working together; How volunteering with community/youth climate groups or setting up your own can make a difference /empower you • Power of words: make a difference through writing – eg music/poetry/plays/articles • How I found my voice (stories about what motivated young people to act)

NB: We need fashion to appear in at least one of the USE YOUR VOICE films.

Deliverables A collection of 15 films, to be 2-3 minutes in length each.

• A suite of 15 films, delivered for online use with transcripts, subtitles and clean versions including separate music beds and audio files • Films should include voiceover, music, and sound effects where possible.

15 x accompanying assets, one for each film, appropriate for social media promotion:

• Each reversion must engage the audience in the first 3 seconds • 80% of our audience watch social media videos without sound, so big text graphics and subtitles will help get the message across from the outset, grabbing our audiences attention • All 15 reversions to be between 30 to 45 seconds in square (1080 x 1080) HD H264 MP4 format.

Tone and Themes

• Tone: hopeful, fun and engaging • Easy and accessible ideas which will save money – e.g. creative use of recycling • Instilling a love of nature, sense of community and mental wellbeing • Non-political and non-confrontational in tone and content • Make sure changing lifestyle is accessible and not adding to pressure young people might already feel • Contributors: eco-influencers, children and young people should be at the heart of ALL the films. It is essential that, where applicable, contributors and

locations featured represent the diversity of the Bitesize audience in terms of gender, gender identity, sexuality, race, ethnicity, disability, socio-economic status and regionality. For example, approximately 25% of school children today identify themselves as not being White British. BBC Bitesize has produced a ‘Diversity and Inclusion Commissioning Guidelines’ document to support the attainment of the BBC and BBC Bitesize’s diversity targets.

Style and Delivery

• Delivery should be quite pacey and natural. Cutting styles, formats and graphic styles that this audience recognise should be considered and shown as part of your treatment and submission. Your ideas should work hard at getting the audience’s attention and engagement and films should encourage multiple viewings. • Each film should stand alone in its own right as an engaging piece of content but also should feel part of a connected suite. • The Regenerators team will require final sign-off on voice and on-screen talent. • Where used, music should be production/mood music. No commercial music should be used in the videos unless there is an editorial reason to do so and this needs to be agreed with BBC Education prior to inclusion. • BBC Bitesize requires full consultation during the production process, including the reviewing of drafts to ensure the scripts hit the learning points, and full sign-off on completed scripts, voiceover artists, and contributors.

Technical Specification

• Each film to be delivered in HD H264 MP4 format with separate audio tracks; subtitle files (XML); metadata; post-production paperwork. • Clean versions of each video to be delivered: o Without audio o Without graphics o Without audio and graphics o Music only version • Uncompressed audio provided in multiple editable audio layers. • To deliver 1 x high quality holding image per film (HD Quality – 1920x1080 or higher – 16:9 ratio) as JPEGS to be used as placeholders for online films/ publicity. • All content must be cleared for use online, with all rights in perpetuity. • All project files and assets.

Post-production paperwork is to be completed using Silvermouse and production management will guide you through this process. Paperwork will include a timecoded post-production transcript, online compliance form and completed metadata forms for each film.

Educational Consultant You will need to contract and work with an educational specialist/consultant who will be involved throughout the process to ensure all learning objectives are covered and content is accurate and relevant. All content (i.e. video concepts, storyboards, initial scripts, final scripts, final versions, etc.) will need to be reviewed by the consultant before it is sent to BBC Education for final approval.

Sustainable Productions BBC Education is working to ensure that all its projects are environmentally sustainable. As part of this, we ask that any independent supplier we work with has an environmental sustainability policy, carbon literacy aware staff (free training can be found here - http://wearealbert.org/help/get-trained) and that all productions, where appropriate, complete an Albert carbon footprint calculation. A good way to demonstrate your environmental credentials is to undertake Albert certification. More details can be found at http://wearealbert.org/ and https://www.bbc.co.uk/delivery/sustainable-productions

Covid-19 In answering the brief, proposals should include how the content can be produced and delivered safely during the ongoing Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. To safeguard everyone – through development, production, and delivery – proposals need to demonstrate compliance with the government’s Covid-19 Secure guidelines, and relevant Covid-19 industry guidance. Please adhere to: https://downloads.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/tv-production-guidance-managing-the- risk-of-coronavirus-in-production-making-v1.pdf https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19

BBC Health & Safety The BBC needs to ensure that any Independent Production Company it commissions is able and competent to make the programme with due consideration for health and safety. The following link will take you to a guide which outlines the BBC's health and safety vetting procedure and requirements: https://www.bbc.co.uk/safety/generalsafety/thirdparties/working-with-indies If the content being commissioned involves working with children, then ensure that you are familiar with the BBC’s Child Protection Policy and the Child Protection Safe Guarding Framework, which provides a guide to the minimum levels of safeguarding on any productions. Information on this can be found here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/tv/production/articles/working-with-children

Diversity and Inclusion The BBC is for everyone, and to reflect our audience in its entirety diversity, both on and off screen, must be at the heart of everything we do. As part of your submission, you will need to demonstrate that your editorial team on this project is inclusive and diverse. Suppliers that support our strategy and goals, and reflect them in the ideas they pitch, stand the greatest chance of being commissioned.

Budget The BBC Education tariff for this project is £1,500 (excluding VAT) per minute. Budget is dependent on the idea and the editorial ambition and the maximum overall budget for this commission is £67,500 (excl. VAT).

Please provide a budget summary. The finer details of the payment schedule will be agreed with the BBC Production Manager on commission. However, without exceptional business justification, BBC Education will pay no more than 5% of the total fee on signature, no less than 50% of the total fee on final acceptance of (i) project delivery and (ii) post-production paperwork and the remainder of the payments against delivery milestones as agreed within the budget summary.

Commissioning Schedule

Project brief live: Friday 7th May 2021 Deadline for proposals: Monday 24th May 2021, 5pm Proposals reviewed and shortlisted: 25th – 27th May 2021 Pitch meetings held: Tuesday 1st June 2021 Commission awarded: w/c 7th June 2021 Project kick-off meeting: w/c 14th June 2021 Final delivery: Friday 8th October 2021 Please note that this document is for information purposes only and does not form part of a contractual agreement with the BBC.

Contracting

Any exceptions to this must be agreed with BBC in advance of inclusion. This is a stand-alone new media commission and the BBC will require all rights in the content, worldwide and on all platforms. This commission will be contracted under the BBC’s Digital Services Agreement. Further information on the BBC’s framework agreements can be seen on our Commissioning pages here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/online/articles/how-we-work#framework

Proposals

Proposals should be provided as either MS Word documents or PDFs. They should be a maximum of 10 pages long. Any large files (over 5mb) should be delivered separately from the proposal itself (via a password-protected video site or secure file transfer).

Proposals should include:

• A company overview: What relevant experience does your company have to deliver this project? • Creative approach: A creative treatment to demonstrate what creative approach you would take for this commission, in order to cover learning points described, and giving a sense of the style and tone to be used. • A summary of creative solutions for two of the themes listed above. • Resourcing: Please define your project team, including: writer, director, subject matter experts, and so on. • Logistics: How do you intend to deliver the project? Please outline your technical, project management, and risk management approaches. • Schedule: Please provide a production schedule, including feedback and sign- off stages. • Budget: A summary of your proposed budget should be included in your written proposal and should clearly outline the overall cost per minute of content you intend to create for the commission. Your budgeting should not assume the BBC will deliver archive footage at no cost. You may be asked for a more detailed budget at a later date.

Selection Process The BBC will use the following standard criteria to evaluate the proposals submitted:

• creative approach – originality/suitability for Bitesize audience • ability to meet editorial requirements, including appropriate consideration of diversity and inclusion • pricing/ value for money • project management/production plan (schedule and budget) • prior experience of company and core staff experience • presentation of response

Next steps All proposals, and any queries, should be submitted via email to The Regenerators campaign producer - Cheryl Townson [email protected]

The closing date for submissions is 5pm on Monday 24 May 2021 and the delivery deadline is Friday 8 October 2021.