Sunny Side of the Doc | 19-22 June 2023

Documentary Business

Peter Hamilton Consultants, Inc

Documentary Production

Documentary Production by Peter Hamilton. Peter’s expertise is documentary production, documentary budgets, documentary funding & how to make a documentary.

Scandi Prison Reform Comes to Chester, Pennsylvania. A $600k Nordic Coproduction Case Study

More than 100 million Americans, myself included, share the harrowing experience of being involved with a family member caught up in the nation’s notorious prison system. American jails rely heavily on punishment versus rehabilitation. But there are stories of hope. Swedish filmmakers Tomas Lindh and John Stark just premiered on SVT their absorbing series that …

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AI for Documentary Filmmakers: Enhancing Storytelling & Workflow. A Pact Webinar with Philip Shane

AI – Artificial Intelligence – was a hot topic for producers attending the recent MIPDOC / MIPTV market in Cannes. I’m technophobic, and I sense among my colleagues this fear that AI programs like ChatGPT are going to eliminate jobs in content production just like the Internet and desktop publishing decimated print journalism. Here to …

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AIDC: Local Content Quotas for Aussie Streamers. Conversations with Simon Nasht & Dan Goldberg

I recently mingled with 800 delegates attending AIDC – the Australian International Documentary Conference – on a beautiful, late Summer day in Melbourne. Two award-winning producers described local industry highlights: Industry veteran Simon Nasht (Smith&Nasht) spoke about the uncertain impact on producers of forthcoming local content quotas on Netflix and the scaled-up streamers. And Mint Pictures’ …

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Netflix 2023 What You Need To Know Now


TLC Buys Series. Dan Salerno’s Program Schedule Analysis & Takeaways for Producers. A Pact Webinar

TLC is actively premiering new programs as we move into the Streaming Era! Discovery Networks US plans to order 4,500 new hours in 2023, according to Kathleen Finch, chairman and chief content officer at Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) US nets. What pitches do TLC decision-makers want to see from producers? The short answer: female-targeted Reality …

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A&E & History Channel: What Are They Buying? Dan Salerno’s Program Schedule Analysis. A Pact Webinar

Are A&E and History Channel still buying programs as we move into the Streaming Era? What do they want from their producers? Unlike Nat Geo and Discovery, A+E Networks’ decision-making is not complicated by the need to synchronize with their corporate parent’s streamer. Veteran international programming executive and respected senior consultant Dan Salerno dives deep …

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National Geographic Channel & Nat Geo Wild: What are they buying? Dan Salerno’s Program Schedule Analysis. A Pact Webinar

Are National Geographic Channel and Nat Geo Wild still buying programs as we move into the Streaming Era? What do they want from their producers? Veteran programming executive and highly-respected senior consultant, Dan Salerno dives deep into their programs schedules in today’s revealing webinar. This is episode #2 in a series produced by Pact, the …

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Netflix 2023 What You Need To Know Now


David Bowie Tops Music Documentary Update. Huge Stars. Unique Access. New Footage. Mega Budgets

HBO Max‘s release of the David Bowie interpretive bio doc Moonage Daydream reminds us that the market leaders can spend big on Music: $25 million by Apple TV+ for Billie Eilish. $30 million by Disney+ for Elton John. In this post, Camran Shealy updates her July 2022 profiles of commissions that feature musical celebrities and …

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Best Documentaries of 2022: The Picks from the Players. The Oscar Noms & More

What were the critics’ picks for Best Documentaries for 2022? Caitlin Cooper surveyed Variety, Deadline, Sundance and more to provide links to their selections. Among them are prize-winning indies such as All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, Bad Axe, and All that Breathes. Dominating the competition are Brett Morgen’s Moonage Daydream for HBO Max, and …

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