In early September, I had the pleasure of giving a workshop in Bangkok for 16 participants  from independent production companies and from members of the staff at Thai PBS.

My specialty is children's programme – production and international trends.It's good to see that it has been increased capacity for production of own national children's program in Thailand.

The efforts put into the production of children's programmes around the world differ widely.

In early September, I had the pleasure of giving a workshop in Bangkok for 16 participants  from independent production companies and from members of the staff at Thai PBS.

My specialty is children's programme – production and international trends.The efforts put into the production of children's programmes around the world differ widely. It's good to see that it has been increased capacity for production of own national children's program in Thailand.

Children today must relate to global media to a far grater extent than before, but children need to take their own cultural ballast with them in order to be able to understand and take other cultures, values, and religions seriously and accept them.

What we offer children regarding nationally produced programs helps to strengthen their identity and their linguistic and cultural foundation.

The smaller the language and cultural area – the more important this is. The training of local producers is important to make these program as good as possible.

The workshop aims at providing the participants an introduction to children's perception of media, new trends as Transmedia, different age-groups,  as well as a introduction of working methods to make them excellent media-workers with and for children.

I had brought with me the best international programme, the participants had brought with them their own productions – and in addition, we worked with drama structure, documentaries, games – and had drama exercises with improvisation.

We had a full day with screening and discussion of participants' own programme. 

This seems as a successful part of the workshop, in addition to an introduction of the discussion with my comments they had a very with active feedback on each other's programs. It is not so often the independent producers meet and have this kind of discussions – so they thought this was a great opportunity to get known and to learn for the feedback from their colleagues.

The participants was split into 3 groups with the task of drafting three programmes for children:  drama, documentaries and game show – and they showed great enthusiasm in the pitch of these projects – ranging from acting demonstration of sequences – to production via mobile phone of the hole program – with the participants themselves in all the roles – an impressive use of the new technology!

The participants had a variety of background, – and had a rare enthusiasm, commitment – and humor.

It's always nice to come to other countries and cultures and to feel communication in humor – humor brings us together across cultural barriers, and it's good to keep some childishness when you work with children programme.

By Mr. Kalle Fürst, Director of Fürst & Far Film and Fjernsyn