We go inside the transformation.
Billie Eilishknew what she was getting herself into.
“It has been pretty insane and surreal since.”
YouTube
But Scott Manson, chief operating officer of music management company SB Projects, offers a pragmatic reason.
“There’s [no] on-camera fee.
That’s a very big distinction.
Demi Lovato in docuseries ‘Dancing With the Devil’.YouTube Originals
By way of that, these narratives are being driven by third parties.
Maybe they’re a filmmaker, maybe they’re a financier or creative producer who sees an opportunity.”
“We always avoid pitching something that isn’t completely baked creatively,” he says.
Courtesy of Parkwood Entertainment
When the time comes to partner with a director to clarify that vision, it’s all about trust.
Summoned for a preliminary meeting with Eilish, filmmakerR.J.
“It was very easy for me to be comfortable with them.”
Netflix
He and the young star knew that day that they were meant to make a movie together.
Adds Eilish: “He was really sweet….
He walked through his plan.
Something about it fit.
And made sense.”
“I met him as a friend [first],” Lovato says.
“So when we started, I trusted him already.
I didn’t have to work on getting comfortable.
“The better connection, the more intimacy and trust,” adds the aforementioned source.
In many instances, the subject is almost surprised that they revealed certain things.”
Lovato, for instance, felt a sense of ownership over the story Ratner was telling via the docuseries.
Indeed, you may have noticed all of the aforementioned projects found splashy homes on streaming platforms.
“How do we create a cultural moment around theJonas Brothers?
You drop the album simultaneously with the first documentary.
[Meanwhile] look at what Netflix does.
They’re not just trying to become a television online grid; they’re trying to become television.
That’s their thing they’re so wide.”
Head of YouTube Originals Susanne Daniels also promises flexibility.
“But sometimes people come to us with something that’s partially finished.
That was the case with ourJohnny Cashdocumentary [The Gift, 2019].
We acquired it based on what we saw, and then they finished it with us.
[And] sometimes it’s an initial pitch, likeJustin Bieber: Seasons[2020].
We’re right there with them from day one.”
I think our audience likes watching in chapters.
And certainly over the pandemic, we’ve seen that watch time grow significantly.
People enjoy the chapters, they enjoy bingeing the episodic, if you will.
“It covers what led into that life-changing moment through my recovery…. “The pandemic has slowed down the speed at which everything moves.
Warren continues: “They are artists; they have to [have] output.
That’s part of the thing that makes them happy, is to make stuff.”
The timing in the marketplace couldn’t be better.
This all feels new at least as a trend.
But, Cutler notes, maybe it isn’t.
A version of this story appears in the March issue ofEntertainment Weekly,on newsstands now andavailable here.
