Project Category: Premium Content Streaming, Documentary
About: MasterClass offers members online courses taught by accomplished professionals in their field. This series, Talking Shop, is part of their first foray into entertainment media and features MasterClass teachers telling the stories of the visionaries who influenced them. This episode tells the story of the GOAT Muhammad Ali as recounted by philosopher Dr. Cornel West.
Position: Producer - Story
I was on this project from pre-pro to delivery. As a team we crafted the story and beats to pursue once in the interview room with Dr. West after an introductory story call with him. From there, the team filmed on location while I, regrettably, was unable to join due to travel I had booked prior to our contract. In post, I dove deep into the seemingly limitless archival available about Muhammad Ali, and got to making story timelines for our edit team from the footage with Dr. West. I crafted this story with incredible care to historical accuracy, and respectful, well-researched attention to both the presenter and the topics. I am extremely proud of what the team was able to capture for this episode, and hope it is one day released to a larger audience.
Production Secret: Copyright, schmopyright. Am I right?
Just kidding. Every part of a project that is to be publicly released must have the appropriate usage rights, and I respect that. But, doc budgets on new series can be small. How do we get around that!? You rarely do, but you can get creative instead. While we had hoped to adorn the set with fight posters of the great Muhammad Ali, we just could not get rights to... any of them. Not in our budget or timeline. So, my AP called me in a panic. He was stumped... how can we make sure this set is on point? How can we do it with limited time and budget... like very, very limited time. I suggested that he go through each element that we couldn't clear, and think about why they were chosen. What did they represent to Muhammad Ali, or the era, or Dr. Cornel West? Take that representation and turn it into an object or piece of art that can be licensed. By releasing the attachment to the literal set dec and choosing a more abstract, representational yet meaningful design we side-stepped the clearance issues (or worse, blur/crop), while maintaining the integrity of the intention.
