100 Years of American History, 100 Documentaries

In an age of rapid change why take on so longterm a projectamp160 quotHISTORY as a brand has a tremendous amount of equity in the documentary spacequot said Eli Lehrer HISTORY39s Executive Vice President of Programming pictured belowamp160 Given the public39s growing appetite for nonfiction Lehrer and his team had a strong desire to capitalize on that equityThe first batch of nine docs are in various states of production about topics ranging from the birth and evolution of the video game industry to the Iran Hostage Crisis to the statesponsored drug abuse rampant in the Third ReichLehrer and his team got somewhere between 400 and 500 proposals for just this first batch alone though there were a select few filmmakers HISTORY approached directly with alreadydeveloped ideasamp160 quotBut the majority of the slate was us going to the community and saying 39This is a major project we39re taking on What are the stories you39re passionate about telling39quot Lehrer saidamp160amp160quotThere39s a huge number of documentarians who share our passion and had stories they39d been kicking around and thinking of developing on their ownquotThese filmmakers include Oscarwinning director Barbara Kopple who will be tackling the Delta Force mission that failed to end the Iran Hostage Crisis as well as the teams behind CNN39s 3970s 3980s and 3990s and Showtime39s The CircusquotWe range from something lighter like the Cola Wars to Watergate one of the defining events of the last 50 yearsquot Lehrer continuedamp160 quotWe39re always looking to find the balance between the high and lowquotamp160 Of particular excitement in this first batch which again are all still in the throes of production is that of neverbeforeseen material from September 11 2001 for Where Is Angel a doc about Air Force One on that dayquotI think we can do a better job of finding stories from those first 50 yearsquot Lehrer saidamp160 quotPart of what I love about this programming brand is that it is such a potentially diverse array of storiesquotWhy the last 100 yearsamp160 quotIn part it39s driven by a nice round numberquot Lehrer explainedamp160 quotBut in some ways it39s easier traditionally telling stories from the last 100 years because there39s more archival footagequotamp160 There39s simply less archival footage from the years before World War II making it difficult to assemble documentaries that aren39t simply retreads of the work done by say Ken Burnsamp160 quotThere39s not a lot of video of Ulysses S Grant to fall back onquot Lehrer jokedHISTORY is so committed to the new brand offering that they39ll be using it to showcase their new VIP ad podsamp160 The idea behind these pods is simple The first 2030 minutes of premium content in drama series like Vikings or documentaries like those comprising History 100 will be presented by a single sponsoramp160amp160quotThe new formats create more content for the viewer and offeramp160marketers a premium experience where they get to own the first two acts of a showquotamp160said Peter Olsen AE Networks39 Executive Vice President of Ad Salesamp160 quotWe see this approach as a win on two frontsquotAs far as History 100 goes that means the filmmakers and the network can worry less about keeping viewers around after those first couple of commercial breaksamp160and more about just telling the story at the proper pace which Lehrer counts as a winamp160amp160quotThese HISTORY pods will give us a tremendous amount of runway over the first 20 or 30 minutes of these shows to really get people into these storiesquot heamp160saidamp160 quotThis is a different experience than you39d usually get on the channelamp160 I think it will elevate the entire undertakingamp160and the docs themselvesquotCombine the quoteventquot nature of the documentaries and the talent behind the scenes and you39ve got the makings for a special brew though Lehrer doesn39t see the result as all that different from HISTORY39s history amp160quotThese are the kinds of docs we39ve been doing piecemeal over the last 20 yearsquot he notedamp160 quotBut weamp160never created an overarching brand to tell the audience what we were doingquotClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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100 Years of American History, 100 Documentaries

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Oriana Schwindt

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100 Years of American History, 100 Documentaries

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