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Phylis Geller

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President, Norman Star Media Phylis Geller has been an award-winning producer and media executive for over twenty-five years. She has overseen programs in all genres, including history, science, drama, performance and children?s series, and has worked with many international partners.

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Most recently Geller wrote and produced The Appalachians, a three-part documentary series for public television. She was writer/producer/director of COSMIC JOURNEY: The Voyager Interstellar Mission and Message for A&E, which was nominated for the national Emmy award as Best Science Documentary, 2004. She was executive producer and co-writer of Korean War Stories for PBS, which won the national Emmy for Best Historical Documentary, 2002. She has also produced four PBS pledge specials with financial expert Suze Orman, two of which were nominated for the national Daytime Emmy as Best Service Program. Before establishing Norman Star Media in 1999, Geller was Senior Vice President of Cultural Programming and New Media at WETA in Washington, D.C. Projects she supervised included The Kennedy Center Presents and In Performance at the White House, and Ken Burns?s Thomas Jefferson, Lewis & Clark, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Prior to joining WETA, Geller was Senior Vice President of National Productions at KCET/Hollywood. Projects included documentary series such as The Astronomers and Secret Intelligence. In addition, she produced numerous dramatic programs for American Playhouse and specials for Great Performances. Geller has also served as Head of Special Projects for Mandalay Media Arts, and as Senior Vice President for National/International Production at Maryland Public Television. Earlier in her career, she was a producer at WNET, New York, on the drama series Theater in America, where she produced plays by Wendy Wasserstein (Uncommon Women and Others) and Edward Albee (All Over), among others.

ARE YOU A DOCUMENTARY - FACTUAL -NON FICTION - REALITY -LIFESTYLE - PRODUCER?

So you want to make documentaries. Did you actually think you knew what the word meant?

It used to mean an exploration of a true-life subject, whether contemporary or historical. The "traditional" documentary, what we think of as cinema verite, was a non-fictional, "slice of life", factual work of art. It was investigative, like FRONTLINE (PBS), or observational, like the work of Fred Weisman. It was carefully constructed history, like the BBC's Civilization. In any case, the audience was supposed to believe that what they saw on the screen was "true".

But the word "documentary" has morphed many different forms now come under the general heading of "non-fiction". The term covers everything from an HGTV series to a Ken Burns opus to Roger and Me. New formats spring up every television season. Theatrical documentaries have achieved amazing commercial success, and their style has changed dramatically from early cinema verite - indeed, they have become more like drama. Stylized re-enactments, manipulated time frames and creative editing styles have made the genre much more interpretive. Maybe this narrative shift in the documentary form is the reason for its new-found popularity. But where is it all heading?

The early 21st century may be a golden age for non-fiction filmmaking. Affordable new digital cameras and desktop editing systems allow more people to make movies. The theatrical market is wider than ever, cable networks still need to fill volumes of non-fiction TV hours, and the potential seems limitless for on-demand distribution: VOD, webcast, podcast, mobile TV and straight to DVD. This should be great news for producers. Just remember that the more films are made, the more competition there is for distribution.
With the growing variety in "non-fiction" formats, as well as the multiplying distribution mechanisms, one can get confused about how to stay in business. You have a story to tell: how do you decide the best way to tell it? Where should it be shown?  Are feature documentaries and television shows defined differently? How do you begin to find financing?
In this article, we will offer an overview of the contemporary landscape for non-fiction production.

THEATRICAL DOCUMENTARY
No one used to believe that a theatrical documentary release was a viable business move. Now, we hear talk about bidding wars and box office stats. It happened with films such as Bowling for Columbine, Super Size Me, Fahrenheit 9/11, March of the Penguins and An Inconvenient Truth .  The success of these and other films shows the public is actually interested in real life subjects when presented with good storytelling.
It is also true that documentaries have far lower budgets than dramatic movies, so that can be attractive to film companies; even a limited theatrical release can be highly profitable. Fahrenheit 9/11 set a new record for documentary profits, earning more than US$228 million in ticket sales and selling more than 3 million DVDs which brought in another $30 million in royalties.
In addition to being more interpretive, feature docs today need not just "inform", they may "influence". They editorialize, they opine, they no longer follow traditional journalistic standards. In America, documentaries grew up in the early days of TV, nurtured by journalistic doctrines of fairness - and federal licensing requirements concerning equal time. The cinema frees the filmmaker from these restrictions; the measure of "fairness" becomes whatever the market, and the press, will bear.  We are in an age of point-of-view documentaries, which critics have started calling "docu-ganda.". While some bemoan the loss of "balance", these films have fostered significant public discussion on critical issues, from corporate greed to the war in Iraq to global warming.
This is likely another reason for their new popularity. Audiences may see something that rouses their passions and they become energized to spread the word-of-mouth.

What is going to make a theatrical documentary successful? Here are some thing that feature distributors look for:

• A mixture of vision, innovation, strong storytelling, and the ability to sustain their running time.
• A real sense that a film will get the audience away from their televisions and paying money to see it in a theater.
• Ideas that we feel we haven't seen before (Every producer thinks their idea is new and original, but that's rarely the case. Even if the idea isn't entirely unique, you have to have your own special take on it).
• Filmmakers who can deliver with a sense of style and emotion that will really grip an audience.

THEATRICAL/ TELEVISION COMBO
We all know the biggies: HBO and CINEMAX have long supported documentaries that are released theatrically before airing on the cable channel. Even PBS has some history with this approach.
Discovery, A&E and MSNBC have entered the fray. Discovery Docs is an initiative of theatrical releases. MSNBC created some stand-alone documentaries
to merge with its own programming for "Doc Block". A&E Networks has launched A&E IndieFilms, a prime time programming umbrella featuring new independent feature documentaries. National Geographic maintains an office for developing feature projects.

These broadcaster deals generally combine theatrical, TV and video rights with an equity investment. So you lose most of the ownership - that's what happens when you need to get money upfront, unless you are successful at the non-profit grant route. In fact, most distribution deals ask for all rights in all media. Filmmakers need to be educated about the revenue potential of ancillary streams like DVD, and try to hold on to as many rights as they can.

Some recent films have done well with no established distributor up front, being released by the filmmaker directly on DVD. The expert on this is Robert Greenwald, maker of Uncovered, Unprecedented and Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism. The latter was released on DVD over the internet. It cost $300,000 to make, and in three weeks sold more than 100,000 copies at $9.95 apiece. Even though it had been so widely exposed, it was still picked up by theatrical and DVD distributors. (See www.robertgreenwald.org/docs.php. Another model for self-release and distribution is "Loose Change", www.loosechange911.com )

So for the best return on investment, use that old credit card, or sit down with your rich Uncle Frank.


TELEVISION AND NON-FICTION
The world changed the day someone came up with "reality television". Talk about a new definition of "truth"! But factual entertainment - whether it's the latest reality show or something that looks more like a traditional documentary - has been one of television's greatest success stories in the last couple of decades. It has proven very appealing to viewers.
Most of the television programs we call 'reality' and 'factual' are less enlightening than they are diverting. Viewers watch for entertainment, not to learn about real-life issues. They like relating to real-life, flesh-and-blood individuals who are appealing, or even offensive. Producers are clever enough to use proven techniques from drama, especially soap operas. The way "characters" are cast, the way multiple story lines are developed and followed, the climactic moments of joy or sadness: no one is reinventing the wheel in reality formats. Or in "lifestyle" programming, which I recently saw defined as "a hybrid between reality TV and factual entertainment". (Still with me?)
For producers, the rise of non-fiction programming on television, especially cable, has been a great boon. There is work to be had. The multi-channel digital universe expanded the number of hours broadcasters must fill. The thing to remember is that most of this programming is produced quickly and on very low budgets. Producers with their own equipment who can write, shoot and edit their material have the best chance of making any margin on a typical cable non-fiction budget. For the small or medium-sized production company, volume is key. The more on-going series you can produce, amortizing staff and equipment costs and multiplying the small margins, the more likely it is you can stay in business.
There are still some television outlets for full length documentaries. Some cable channels will commit to fully financing a film.  Yet many patient and passionate producers remain committed to PBS, despite the long, tortuous process of raising money; they are attracted by the greater degree of creative control and the potential to retain copyright, with more ownership of the back-end.


ON DEMAND
In theory, by now the gatekeepers were supposed to become less important, i.e. low-cost productions could be delivered direct to the user, without having to go through the old system of competing for networks and traditional distributors. But so fast. The marketplace still rules.

It would seem that multiple platforms would invite gatekeepers to embrace modest, niche projects that could be "successful" by reaching a limited audience. In fact, any service or catalog that is driven by the marketplace will push the most visible, popular product. Netflix doesn't headline the small, independent film, but proven items like March of the Penguins and Super Size Me. The quirky findings on YouTube are a different story, but there's no money to be made there (yet). So even in the on demand universe, recognizable names tend to rise to the top.

But even for your modest film, you will hardly find a broadcaster or distributor that does not insist on rights to all the existing platforms: broadcast, VOD, DVD, webcast, podcast, mobile tv. Language used in the old Hollywood studio system has reared its head: 'rights in all media, now or forever invented in the future.' Savvy independent distributors or producers" reps do their best to separate rights, limiting them to mechanisms the buyer is already exploiting, regardless of vague intentions to "start a VOD service in a couple of years". But it is becoming harder to do this, and producers face a serious loss of future revenue.

Nevertheless, producers must take web distribution seriously. We can hope for the day when video on demand becomes a viable form of first-run distribution. The main thing to remember is that the ease of making films more cheaply will continue to glut the marketplace. In Manhattan, around 600 films are scheduled to open theatrically this year, nearly double the number at the start of the decade. Thousands more films will play only festivals, or go straight to video or the web. How will you make your film stand out and reach the audience you want?  We all know that web culture and taste is not driven by top-down gatekeepers. Will new works be discovered through the social networks that define popularity on the Web? "Straight to video" used to be the kiss of death. Now it is working. The same may happen with on demand, as word is spread through web-publications and blogs, avoiding the huge costs of prints and ads. There are already sites like GreenCine, Jaman, EZTakes and also Google Video, through which you can purchase or "rent" a wide variety of films. AOL recently launched a website called True Stories that is dedicated to documentaries, both those previously released or prior to theatrical release. (http://movies.aol.com/truestories). This could be a platform for new films seeking distribution. The site also lets directors post personal blogs about their work, as well as bonus footage and interviews. Viewers can send comments and find out how to get involved. Is this the coming Utopia for the determined filmmaker with a story to tell?
It is still too early to be sure, but not too early to hope.

Resources on documentaries

• American Film Foundation
• The DocsOnline Foundation
• Big Sky Film Institute
• Documentary Filmmakers Group, UK
• EMB Film Unit
• Film Arts Foundation
• International Documentary Association
• Institute of Documentary Film
• The Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program
• The Documentary Institute