The Feds takes ‘Hardware Challenge’ global + localises ‘My Life Made in France’ for OZ + NZ

The Feds, Australia’s next generation, multi-screen content production house has ramped up its international formats portfolio on both the sales and acquisition fronts.

Keeping up the winning momentum of taking the top prize at the MIPFormats International Pitch competition in Cannes, France in 2014 for ground breaking format ‘Zombie Bootcamp’, The Feds has been active in the U.S. and European markets over the last 12 months.

Strengthening its commitment to original content development, The Feds has recently struck a series development deal with global power house, Red Bull TV, which will be detailed in due course.

On the acquisition front, The Feds has secured the Australian and New Zealand rights to hotly contested French format ‘My Life Made in….France’. Created by Upside Distribution and Camera Subjective, ‘My Life Made in France’, features a Parisian based journalist who decides to take the concept of  “going local” very seriously by trying to live for a year only using products manufactured in France.

‘My Life Made in France’ debuted last March on primetime in France on Canal Plus attracting the pay TV channel’s highest ratings for a documentary to date. In September, My Life Made in France secured the Prix Spécial Format 2014 awarded by TV France International to the most innovative programme with the greatest potential for export.

Says Lizzy Nash (pictured), founder and director of content and broadcast, The Feds: “We were impressed by the traction that the series attracted from the international market when it debuted at MIPTV last April. To be able to secure this title for Australia and New Zealand is incredibly timely given our local manufacturing issues, labelling and distribution concerns particularly for consumer goods and food produce. These are universal themes with very distinct local variations.”

Significantly, on the global format front, U.S. multimedia studio and distributor Electus International has bought the original format created by The Feds, and licensed the format for ‘Hardware Challenge’, a six part, half hour entertainment series featuring three screen special effects technicians who create extraordinary contraptions from every day materials that are readily found in hardware stores.

Says Nash: “Hardware Challenge takes D.I.Y skills and creativity to a whole new level. Devised as a friendly challenge by Australian SFX experts who have spent years making the impossible possible on screen, the concept was developed by The Feds as an original format that showcases the skills of the SFX industry and entertains with daring and creative D.I.Y. possibilities.”

The experts for the original pilot featured Australian SFX stars Dave Goldie, Lloyd Finnemore and Artie Spink, known for their special effects work in the Gods of Egypt, Mad Max: Fury Road as well as Wolverine, The Great Gatsby, The Matrix and Mission Impossible 2.

Says Nash: “As a format, ‘Hardware Challenge’, entertains and engages audiences across the board that are fans of inventiveness and ingenuity. Additionally, it highlights the smarts of the global SFX industry which we are confident will have appeal in the U.S. and internationally.”

In 2014 The Feds secured Screen Australia funding under the Enterprise Program that has significantly bolstered their efforts to take innovative Australian content across global borders.