A Sundance campaign is a license to lose money. Lots of it! Here’s why: Let’s assume that the average production cost of all 1,774 Sundance submissions for 2020 is $500,000. Actual budgets range from around $200,000 up to $5+ million. $500K is a conservative average for a feature, according to D-Word‘s Doug Block. Production Cost: 1,725 …
A Sundance Film Festival award lags only behind an Oscar nomination as a measure of success for documentarians. But what are the odds that a U.S. or international documentary will earn a slot on the program? Submissions: 1,774 Documentary Features were submitted to the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, which opens on January 23: 840 were from the U.S. …
How is non-fiction storytelling evolving in the age of Netflix? I talk with Ed Hersh of consultancy StoryCentric about his work with producers and channels. His focus is on how Netflix and a host of new Direct-to-Consumer subscription platforms are challenging the storytelling conventions that once dominated in the Linear/Cable/Satellite era. You’ll hear about: Program …
Happy New Year to all my friends, colleagues, clients, subscribers, readers, contributors and more! I’ve really enjoyed this year, using my industry knowledge and contacts to provide you with valuable information and context through my weekly newsletter, regular ‘pod-versations’ with experts, producing panels at major industry events like MIPDoc, and consultations with producers, platforms, nonprofits …
Here are our top stories for December ’19, curated with our friends at Sunny Side of the Doc. Losing Yves Jeanneau: Read a selection of tributes to Yves Jeanneau, Sunny Side of the Doc co-founder, executive director and our friend, who passed away on November 14 // Sunny Side’s Official Announcement // Peter Hamilton // Realscreen // TV France International // Telerama and many more. Development …
STEVE BURNS has enjoyed senior management roles at Nat Geo, Discovery Networks and CuriosityStream. Our podcast topic: HOW THE DOCUMENTARY LANDSCAPE HAS CHANGED SINCE THE ‘EIGHTIES. First, Steve shares his shock and loss on hearing that Sunny Side’s Yves Jeanneau had passed away. We discuss the rise of big budget international co-productions, “Occu-soaps”, character-led Reality, and …
Sunny Side of the Doc 2019 broke new ground for attendance from all sectors of the documentary eco-system. And that’s aside from the big step up in engagement that all the delegates felt throughout this year’s exciting event in beautiful La Rochelle. The highlight was the packed presentation by Netflix documentary executive Diego Buñuel. Here …
