Brian Beaton was a generous friend of this newsletter and of my consulting practice. I was so saddened to read of his sudden passing. I learned just this month that as a young man Brian was a leader of the anti-conscription movement that opposed Australia’s draft of young men to fight in Vietnam. That took real bravery! And …
The SVOD market just became much more competitive. Amazon announced two new monthly subscription options for its Prime SVOD service: $8.99 monthly for a new video-only version of its Prime service. $10.99 a month for access to the full Prime service, including video streaming, free two-day shipping on Amazon orders, music streaming and other services. Refocus on …
ABC Australia is implementing a major reorg that will see all programming report to Rebecca Heap in her new role, head of audience and digital. ABC said the reorg was a reaction to ‘dramatic audience behaviour shifts’ and meant it was taking a ‘platform agnostic’ approach to creating and distributing programming. Creative responsibilities will be divided …
“DEMYSTIFYING VOD” was the ambitious goal for our featured panel at this month’s excellent AIDC in booming Melbourne. The sparkling panelists were: Rebecca Heap, Head of Strategy and Digital, iView / ABC Australia Sharon Ramsay-Luck, Head of Sales & Business Development, ABC Commercial Roger Jackson, Co-founder and COO, Kinonation, Los Angeles The feedback was that it was ‘mission accomplished’ for …
Here is my expanded selection of our ever-popular and instructive Case Studies. Each documentary or reality project is unique. The 21-project collection is a mosaic that describes models for your future productions. As they say in Recovery programs: “Take what you like, and leave the rest!” Read now before my free, practical research and analysis …
David Attenborough is featured on BBC1 this week diving in a Triton submarine to capture magical sequences on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. This story flags several questions about the direction of the Wildlife genre: Kit Wars? Will costly kit like the Triton edge out the legendary patience and expertise of the wildlife cinematographer as the key success factor for …
Beginning with Ruby Chen on the dock, following are insightful delegate interviews captured by Madelyn Most in compatible La Rochelle. Ruby Chen is co-Founder and CEO of CNEX Foundation based in Beijing China which is dediated to supporting artistic documentaries about contemporary Chinese life. Marie Ange Billot-Thebaud is a writer, director, producer of Jatropha Films Productions based in …
My newsletter features detailed Case Studies that reveal the life cycles of documentary films, factual television specials and reality series. We tell the inside story of each project, from development through funding, production and distribution. And we usually have the numbers: budgets, copro deals, box office, license fees and more. Why Case Studies? In my consulting practice, clients …