How Tigerlily Takes Titles Further

The prolific producer Tigerlily, based in London and Glasgow, was co-founded by creative partners Natasha Dack and Nikki Parrott almost 25 years ago. “We did not want to work for anyone else,” says Dack. Since its founding, Tigerlily has amassed a laundry list of credits, with its non-scripted work including the recent BAFTA winner White Nanny Black Child for Channel 5, a documentary on legendary music producer Brian Eno and its upcoming title on the first woman in space, a co-production with Haviland Digital.

“It’s been a fantastic journey so far making all these amazing feature documentary films,” notes Dack. “We started at the right time, as people were really craving creative documentaries and were open to funding them outside of broadcasters.”

Lately, tax credits and sources of creative funding are key to getting non-scripted productions past the finish line, but Tigerlily has been keen on this strategy since the beginning. “We are quite good at sourcing cash internationally,” explains Parrott, who serves as managing director. “We work with co-producers who can access their local government funds and bring in local tax money, too.” While European funding is no longer available directly to Tigerlily, finding co-producers who still have access to it is the name of the game.

Outside of European funds, “regional funds are a good source,” says Parrott. “Screen Scotland has championed all our feature docs.” Tigerlily also regularly seeks investment from smaller philanthropic funds and works with the BFI Doc Society, along with neighboring broadcasters such as BBC, Sky, Channel 5 and Channel 4.

Beyond securing funding for non-scripted, ensuring mass appeal for each title is always a great challenge. There are certain pillars that drive success: “You need to develop big narrative stories with strong characters that drive audiences to the film,” says Dack, adding that “a universal storyline” is also crucial. Worldwide, crime and investigation documentaries continue to thrive.

Overall, the most cost-effective method for production is shooting on-location as opposed to using pre-recorded footage. “When you shoot the footage, you own it,” the founders explain. Often, this works out cheaper than buying expensive archive footage and having to clear it all in order to sell it. However, they note that it depends on what the story needs.

Eno, which made its global debut at the Sundance Film Festival this year, employed many of these funding strategies to reach “a larger budget for a Tigerlily production, at over a million,” says Parrott. “With revenue from exhibitions and sales, it should make back its investment, which means we can get more revenue back into the company.”

Tigerlily Two, part of Tigerlily’s umbrella of companies, has positioned itself as a Scottish firm within many international markets and festivals, aiming to land as many co-production partners as possible. “We have made huge progress,” Dack says. “Our strategy is to develop more quality U.K. projects aimed at global audiences that create new international partnerships and alliances for Tigerlily Two.”

All in all, an international outlook is at the heart of Tigerlily’s approach. “We all know film and TV are global industries, enjoyed by global audiences,” says Dack. “We know there is a market out there, and we aim to capitalize on it.”