The Doc Project presents… THE [UNOFFICIAL] CBC RADIO DOC PITCH GUIDE

THE CURRENT Documentary Editor Joan Webber ([email protected]) ​ ​

What docs air on your program? Typically our docs run about 22 min (though we have run docs as short as 8 min and as long as 40 min.) In a nutshell, we want original journalism ­ so unique stories or unique perspectives on stories in the news; stories that are current (so either happening now or have some new relevance due to current events); stories that involve great "characters" (these people can be heros, or anti­heros ­ ­ someone who has a compelling tale to tell.) In terms of treatment we like variety ... so our docs can be narrated, un­narrated, involve archive, music, actuality, dramatized readings... you name it.

What makes a great doc pitch? For me, a GREAT doc pitch is one that tells me I'm in for an original, dramatic (even funny) story. Ideally I say wow, that's a story I haven't heard before. The best pitches are short, to the point and reveal that someone has experienced or is experiencing something that has altered his or her life... and that that experience may be a microcosm of ­ or shed light on ­ a bigger issue. So, if you tell me, for example, you have a story about a doctor who had a routine hysterectomy but later found out that ­ unbeknownst to her ­ a tool called a morcellator had been used ­ and that tool actually spread a cancer she didn't know she had... and that she and her husband (also a doctor) then found out that this has happened to a lot of other woman... and then she and her husband began lobbying the FDA ... it then put out a warning about the tool... but the couple wants a full ban... and meanwhile they still wait to see what happens with her health. I'm interested. I'll call you to talk. If you write to say you want to do a story about a topic ... people are protesting a pipeline... and it's a divisive issue... I think ­ news story. I find it hard to imagine how a whole dramatic documentary will play out. I want to know if there is a unique narrative with enough twists and turns that will engage me for 22 min. But if the story is about how a family or neighbours have become locked in a nasty personal battle involving sabotage and a court battle ... all because of the pipeline debate... then I'm intrigued. I'll call you. For me, the very best doc pitches are something akin to the blurb on the back of a good book. Who's the story about ... what's going to happen to them?

TAPESTRY Executive Producer Erin Noel ([email protected]) ​ ​

What docs air on your program? Anything from 4 mins to 30 mins. Can be a simple as a single voice telling a story, or a doc that includes scenes, travel, many voices and scoring. Stories are personal. People over experts.

What makes a great doc pitch? Real people have already been found. It's easy to find experts. But do you have the 'real people' lined up? Why you? Are you involved in some way, do you have a 'take' that this piece needs in order to sing? It can be as simple as: I know I can get these people to talk to me in a way they won't talk to others ­ but there's got to be a reason why the person pitching should be the person to do this. Why must the listener stay tuned for this story? Is the tape irresistible? Can they connect the moral of the story to their own life? Why would someone stay in the room to hear this?

1 THE SUNDAY EDITION Documentary Producer Karen Levine ([email protected]) ​ ​

What do you look for in a doc pitch? ● I don't need an elaborate pitch. ● A paragraph will do (I'll ask for more detail if it's enticing) ● I look for a spark. ● I look for clarity. ● I look for the possibility of strong narrative. ● I look for an idea. ● I like a surprise. ● I look for unlikely combinations of events and people. ● I want food for thought. ● Length is not an issue ­ anywhere from 4 minutes to an hour ­ whatever a story deserves.

SPARK Executive Producer Michelle Parise ([email protected]) ​ ​

What docs air on your program? ● Usually between 5 ­ 7 minutes long. ● Smart but conversational in tone. ● Sound rich, with the freelancer in the tape as much as possible. ● The freelancer has a personal stake in the story, or at the very least, there is a clear reason why *they* are telling this story, instead of us just doing it. So basically, the opposite of news documentary style reporting. ● Some narrative. What we like to call "IPA" ­­ an Illustrative Personal Anecdote. ● An epiphany at the end that leads to some kind of solution or change in thinking, or what we call "futurecasting" at the end, where there is a sense of where this trend or story will be in a few years/how things may develop and why.

What makes a great doc pitch? Brevity and clarity ­­ don't tell me the entire story in the pitch, just tell me what the story IS. Why YOU are doing it. What we will hear. That's it. If we're intrigued by your pitch, then you can elaborate! I can't tell you how many pitches I read that when I'm done I still don't even know what the story actually is ABOUT. Which leads me to… Knowing the difference between FOCUS and TOPIC ­ this is the #1 mistake people make, especially because they think they're just pitching to a "tech" show. We are actually a society & culture show, so pitching "Cyberstalking is a problem on the internet" is not a focused story pitch, that is just a topic that exists in the world. Give me a STORY with something NEW in it that advances things.

2 IDEAS Executive Producer Greg Kelly ([email protected]) ​ ​

What docs air on your program? It can be any format, presenter or no presenter (harder), interview­based or field­based. What typifies a good Ideas doc is that it has an idea that is operative right now, some way some how, and makes you want to listen as the hamburger patty of thought gets tossed, flipped, fried and eaten.

What makes a great doc pitch? Clarity: clarity of subject, speakers, scenes, structure and purpose. Of course a pitch can't spell everything out; otherwise, it wouldn't be a pitch. It'd be the doc itself. But a sense of where we're going and why it matters. "we should do something on Aristotle" is not a pitch. "We should do something on Machiavelli because there are these two opposing schools of thought duking it out right now..." is much closer.

DAY 6 Executive Producer Jean Kim ([email protected]) ​ ​

What docs air on your program? We typically air short (eight to ten minute) docs. I'm open to longer ones, it's just not the norm. We like pieces that sound contemporary and candid. We don't like things that sound like long news stories. As with every story we air ­ the content has to be surprising. We like stories that play to broad the range of our program. The doc topic has to have layers. It's got to be about more than one person doing one thing.

What makes a great doc pitch? Here's an example from this week's show: "World of Warcraft turns ten years old on Sunday. It's more ​ than just a game, it's a social phenomenon. I'd like to talk to three people whose lives were changed by playing the game. A woman who met their husband, a man who became addicted to playing and a woman who used her World of Warcraft skills to get a serious job." This works because you have: 1) news peg 2) narrative 3) characters 4) opportunities for sound 5) a larger theme about the role that games play in people's lives

That's what makes a good doc pitch. What makes a great doc pitch is all of those thing PLUS a story I've never heard before.

3 DNTO Executive Producer Iris Yudai ([email protected]) ​ ​

What kinds of docs air on your program? DNTO is all about personal storytelling. By "personal", we don't mean "navel­gazing" or "selfie­radio". To us, personal means a moment that changed you. Personal means revealing. Personal means intimate. It means authentic. We sometimes air short docs, in the 4­7 minute range. Often our hour­long episodes are tied together by a theme, so we might put out a call for stories on a specific topic. More recently we've been exploring full documentary episodes that centre around a particular character in the news (a ​ Somali refugee, a new MP) or current event (the federal election, Blue Jays in the finals). ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​

To you, what makes a GREAT doc pitch? 1. A hook. Clearly answers the question: Why now? ​ 2. Stakes. What happens matters to the character and to us. ​ 3. Emotion. Why you personally are excited about the story. ​ 4. A compelling character with a goal. What's their motivation? ​ 5. Scenes. Action. ​ 6. Big picture/relevance.The individual story is a microcosm for a bigger story that is playing out/we ​ know why our audience should care.

THE DOC PROJECT Documentary Producer Steve Wadhams (steve [email protected]) ​ ​

What kinds of docs air on your program? The docs on the “Doc Project” are usually personal stories with one or two (maybe three) main characters where the attempt is to spend time with this person, or these people, inhabit their world for 20 minutes or so and learn something about them while we’re there ­ and above all feel something while we’re there, get to the emotional heart of their story. The form can be anything that works, from journalistic to impressionistic, but usually we’re looking for well crafted scenes with a beginning a middle and an end and which make a point and drive the story forward. Many stories are built on two types of scene ­ actions scenes in the ‘here and how’ and scenes from the memory to capture the ‘backstory’ ­ the ‘how did it come to this?’ Doc Project stories are often structured as a novel would be ­ getting to the ‘big’ by way of the ‘small’. Character driven stories. It’s the opposite of the ‘news’ model where the story is ‘hung’ on the opening paragraphs and cut from the bottom. But in truth there are no hard and fast rules and we welcome all imaginative ways of liberating a shaped and powerful story out of a messy ‘block’ of human experience! Audio sculpting perhaps?

To you, what makes a GREAT doc pitch? Above all we are looking for sense of inquiry ­ a feeling that the person pitching is interested in finding something out that matters. In other words a story with purpose and movement and tension ­ and a sense of trying to sort out some ‘unfinished business’. Not a static portrait or a ‘situation’ with no potential movement and change. If the pitch can tick a few more boxes that helps too. e.g. “what’s at stake here? And for whom? Where is the dilemma? Is there a ‘dream’ or a ‘quest’ ­ a sense of trying to get from ‘here’ to ‘there’? And of course what are the possible scenes ­ active scenes ­ something happening in front of the microphone ­ and scenes from the past to capture the backstory ­ the ‘how could it come to this?’ or ‘how did it come to this?’

4