Press Releases

24th June 2010

How do you measure a documentary’s impact? For some, it might be letters from grateful viewers, press cuttings or another Bafta on the mantelpiece.

For Jane Root, it was a Styrofoam cup. “I took my kids to see How To Train Your Dragon at my local cinema, and I suddenly realised I was drinking out of a cup branded with my show. That’s how big it got.”

Root’s indie Nutopia has only been up and running for two years but the former BBC2 controller and ex-Discovery Channel president wanted to get out of the stalls with a serious declaration of intent. Over 12 hours, The Story Of Us documents the making of America, with contributions from the likes of Michael Douglas, Colin Powell, Donald Trump, Meryl Streep and no less than President Obama himself, who stamped his seal of approval on the project with a personal introduction.

That her realisation should occur in a cinema was fitting for a series that has used movie techniques to bring a younger audience to The History Channel. The ace up its sleeve is its generous use of CGI, 360 shots in all, enabling the viewer to see everything from the Hoover Dam to Mount Rushmore spring up before their eyes.

“The drama is deliberately exciting,” says Root. “We wanted to reach the people who watched The Bourne Identity and Avatar at the cinema and who play video games. You can use these visual influences on their lives without short-changing them on the facts. People are used to immense inventiveness in how their programmes look and you need to stand up to that.”

The project was born out of Root’s business partner former C4 chief exec Michael Jackson’s reminiscences about Alistair Cooke’s America, and his realisation that nobody in US TV had comprehensively tackled the history of the country in 30 years. Extraordinary changes in the White House gave the idea added impetus.

“There’s been a huge amount of talk about history in the US as people reflect on what it means to have the first African-American president inaugurated in front of a building built by slaves,” Root reflects. “Suddenly, history had leapt out of textbooks and into a popular discussion about where we came from and where we’re going. We joked that it was every family’s patriotic duty to watch it.”

Nutopia’s primary base is in Root’s Los Angeles home, with a second office in London, but it would be a mistake to characterise it primarily as a US indie. She’s thinking global and wants to achieve this with a cross-pollination of British and US talent.

Future plans

The Story Of Us will play on The History Channel in the UK and is also likely to be of interest to a terrestrial broadcaster. But its concept is essentially a format, a way of bringing history to life that could in theory be adapted for any market. Mark Burnett is touting the idea abroad and has begun talks about local adaptations in 12 territories, including the UK. Meanwhile, Nutopia is toying with a 3D version of the original.

Root says compressing America’s rich history into 15 months required a prolonged “heads down” settling-in period for Nutopia, which she wanted to build without third-party investment. “We all made the decision that we would make this into our big moment and I spent a lot of time personally on that show because it’s a symbol of what we’re going to be like,” she says.

Doors are opening at other networks and in time she expects Nutopia’s output to divide roughly into one-third large-scale documentaries and two-thirds factual entertainment. The current slate includes 9/11: The Test, a 90-minute co-pro for History, C4 and BBC Worldwide, plus a peaktime history format for C4 and Baby Talk, which will use CGI techniques to show the world from infants’ perspectives.

Root has surrounded herself with big-hitters from the UK: not just Jackson but Peter Bazalgette; former Love Productions executive David DeHaney; Laura Franses, formerly of Raw TV and Amaze TV; and ex-Brook Lapping executive producer Phil Craig.

She made America her home six years ago and describes the US TV market as “constantly hungry”, with more money than ideas – a contrast with the “incredibly painful” process of cancelling something old to do something new at BBC2.

“If you come up with something big and you can speak in the US voice to a US audience, there are opportunities,” she says. “But you must really bond with them, and not try to sell them something that’s more BBC2 or BBC4. Their shows are fast-moving by British standards and there’s more narration, but that’s what this audience wants.”

For Root, the biggest change in her attitude to production since her Wall to Wall days is that networks need shows that can define their brand. History now has that with The Story Of Us, which broke records for the channel on its first night.

“When I was at BBC2, it took me a few years to work out that if you have three really big things a year, you have a network that gets talked about,” she reflects. “Once I realised that, the rest of my life became easier. But hardly anyone ever offers anything on that scale. I was always spoilt for choice if I wanted a great one-off, but I never had enough things that the whole country would engage with. I know Michael felt the same and that’s what got us thinking.”

She says it’s fun to get back into production, knowing the things that happen at networks behind closed doors that she could never have imagined previously. She acknowledges the “gutsy, ballsy move” that History president Nancy DuBuc made in commissioning The Story Of Us.

The decision fits with Root’s self-image as a “high-risk gambler” and she admires what she sees as pockets of comparable ambition in the UK. She praises Peter Fincham for sticking to his guns over The One Show when at BBC1 and then super-sizing The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent at ITV1, while marvelling at the transformation of MasterChef and the creativity of C4’s Inside Nature’s Giants and One Born Every Minute.

Risk or not, The Story Of Us has, she says, given Nutopia the confidence to go it alone. Having staged the discovery of oil in Texas and the bombing of Pearl Harbour in a single day, and coped with a flood washing away the Jonestown set yet still coming in on budget and to schedule, Root marvels: “Having done this, we really feel we can do anything.”

by Robin Parker – Broadcast

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/people/the-producer/jane-root-nutopia/5015353.article

Former BBC2 controller Jane Root’s fledgling factual prodco Nutopia has signed a long-term first-look distribution agreement with BBC Worldwide (BBCWW), in return for investment in programming.

The move binds the two together for two-years, during which BBCWW will handle UK and international distribution of all Nutopia programmes.

BBCWW said it was looking forward to working with the indie, which was set up in 2008 by Root, and predicted it would become an internationally renowned producer.

Nutopia CEO Root said: “This is a really dynamic time for Nutopia, and we are already developing some really ambitious and innovative programming for broadcasters on both sides of the Atlantic. We are very excited to be working with BBCWW going forward. As a top distributor to territories across the globe, it is the perfect partner for our titles.”

The start-up surfaced in October 2008, with Root at the helm. Much speculation had surrounded her future after she left her role as controller of Discovery Channel in the US, with many predicting she would take up the reigns as controller of BBC1 or HBO.

Jesse Whittock
2 Dec 2009
© C21 Media 2009

New York, NY, May 11, 2009 – HISTORY™ has greenlit production on a groundbreaking initiative of epic proportions, a 12-part series called, AMERICA THE STORY OF US, it was announced today by Nancy Dubuc, EVP/GM, History. continue