A 1.5 million Euros co-production between Japan’s public broadcaster NHK and France’s Gedeon Programmes was a highlight of MIPDoc 2018. The series: JAPAN FROM ABOVE. Executive Producers Shin Yasuda and Nicolas Deschamps shared their co-production process in my panel after the World-premiere screening. We expanded the key points into an informative Case Study covering a …
‘The Vietnam War’ from Ken Burns & Lynn Novick earned a hit-level PBS audience. This post on the 18-hour, $30 million ‘Vietnam’ series wraps up my coverage of PBS’s impressive factual ratings. (Read below my personal take on ‘Vietnam’ that is based on my eyewitness experience in wartime Laos as a 22 year old researcher / reporter …
NOVA is PBS’s signature Science strand. It is presented by WGBH Boston and carried on almost all of PBS’s 350+ stations. Viewers: Despite generally shrinking audiences for broadcasters, NOVA’s 3-Season rating trend is positive: 1.95 HH (2014-15) 1.89 HH (2015-16) 1.99 HH (2016-17). The Median Age of NOVA viewers is 63. This year’s quick turnaround …
I Am Not Your Negro would have earned my vote for the Feature Documentary Oscar for 2017. ITVS was a key funder of Raoul Peck’s marvelous film which envisions the book James Baldwin never finished, a radical narration about race in America. ITVS’s contribution to independent documentaries deserves a big cheer at this moment when publicly …
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 …
In Fall 2014, producer Antje Boehmert was in post-production with Berlin-based director Carl Gierstorfer on Rise of the Killer Virus, a medical detective story on the pre-history of HIV. The team closely followed the breaking news on the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Carl began to look for opportunities to cover the story. His research went into …
I enjoy studying the life cycles of documentaries, factual specials and reality series. My goal is to uncover: The inside story: from development through funding, green light, production and distribution. The deal: budget, copro terms, box office, license fees and more. And, of course, Takeaways. For the holiday season, here is a selection of my popular and …
I’m just back from Vienna for the sold out World Congress of Science and Factual Producers. Pitching strategies were very much part of the conversation. We invited Fernanda Rossi, the globe-trotting trailer-guru to share her expertise on the Do’s and Don’t’s of creating a winning sizzler. Thanks Fernanda! by Fernanda Rossi, Author of Trailer Mechanics: …