Veteran programmer Dan Salerno checks in on the appearance, functionality and content selection of Discovery’s ‘month new’ streaming service, discovery+. Sample screenshots follow. Listen to Dan Salerno (15′) Peter Hamilton · Dan Salerno & disovery+ No surprise: d+ is heavily targeted towards female viewers who are attracted to the lifestyle brands TLC, HGTV, Food, ID …
Ellen Windemuth executive produced Craig Foster‘s beautiful film MY OCTOPUS TEACHER, a new Netflix release. (Now OSCAR-shortlisted, I’m republishing my popular September 2020 podcast with Ellen in response to the undiminished hit-level appeal of “OCTOPUS” to Netflix subscribers of all ages and territories.) She describes the years’ long journey of her friend, South African wildlife …
For last week’s World Congress of Science and Factual Producers I reached out to Ed Hersh, industry vet and consultant, to share his top takeaways. It’s always been one of the go-to gatherings of documentary producers, commissioning editors, and funding foundations, but this year it was online instead of in some exotic global city. We …
World Congress of Science & Factual Producers. WCSFP Takeaways with Ed Hersh. Podcast Read More »
Tom Jennings’ DIANA IN HER OWN WORDS became a social media sensation when Netflix paired his documentary with the hit drama series THE CROWN on its user interface. In our podcast, Tom describes the massive, emotional wave that swept around the world, a mood captured by singer Demi Lovato‘s post to her 93.3 million followers: …
How are the channels responding to the rise of Netflix and the streamers? They’re launching their own streamers like NBC and Peacock, providing their brand and content, like Nat Geo to Disney +, or maybe just getting caught in the headlights. Dan Salerno is deeply specialized in documentary and unscripted programming, and together we pull …
How the channels are responding to the rise of the streamers. A podcast with Dan Salerno Read More »
Abramorama COO Karol Martesko-Fenster reveals how COVID forced a rapid turnaround in the theatrical distribution strategy for Discovery’s Apocalypse ’45. He describes the ‘virtual theatrical’ release for Oscar nominee Erik Nelson’s gripping archive-based documentary about the Pacific campaign that brought WW2 to an end. Karol shares his pre-COVID strategy and its radical switch into a …
Director Erik Nelson describes Apocalypse ’45 as the “first 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan meets Apollo 11.” He shares his original concept; how his almost casual pitch to Discovery‘s Howard Swartz led to a full commission; the archive research and transfer process; his veteran interviews; the pre-edit planning, editing and final delivery. Our informative …
Making Discovery’s APOCALYPSE ’45: A podcast with director Erik Nelson Read More »
Smithsonian Channel is a partner of the Smithsonian Institution, and is recognized for its carefully curated factual schedule: What is Smithsonian’s documentary and unscripted strategy? What do they want? What are examples of recent trend-setters? For a Sunny Side Meet the Executive session, SVP Programming & Development Chris Hoelzl shared Smithsonian’s vision and programming priorities. …