Vanguard's Documentary Origins
Ten years ago this week, Laura Ling and I, along with Serena Altschul and producer Pat Lope, started working on a MTV documentary on the methamphetamine business that led, the following year, to the four of us creating the MTV doc series, “Breaking It Down with Serena.” Back in those days, this was a fairly new genre, and viewed a bit skeptically. The previous year, Serena had had to fight hard for the opportunity that she, and Pat, and Laura and I got in October of 1999. And at that point, we were on the spot to prove that what was then a fairly radical approach to journalism based documentary filmmaking would appeal to viewers.
MTV’s “Breaking It Down,” series went on to become one of the two documentary ancestors to Current’s Vanguard documentary series. The other was a series of PBS documentaries, starting in the mid-90s that first Anderson Cooper and I, and then Lisa Ling and I, and finally Laura and I did. Ten years ago, at the mainstream network news level, there was a degree of formula to the film-making. For trying to deviate from the prevailing standard, Anderson and Lisa and Serena were sometimes figures of controversy and consternation. Behind the scenes, people in power would ask me things like “Why do you let him be so informal?” “Why do you let her be in every shot?” “Why do you trust her?” And “why can’t you hold your f***ing camera steady?” To which I would answer something akin to “Well…” and wait for the subject to change. But the actual answer was that Anderson, and Lisa, Serena, and then Laura were radical. They weren’t interested in annoying the mainstream simply for the sake of pissing people off. But they were interested in using whatever new film-making techniques that they could if they thought this would make their journalism stronger and make their documentaries more illuminating and compelling.
In the ten years since, there has been a lot of change in what the mainstream of this business accepts. Serena is at CBS News, Anderson has his own show on CNN, and you can go into your local video store and rent the National Geographic docs that Lisa has made in recent years. And Laura is the vice president in charge of Vanguard, Current’s documentary making department.
Today, I still don’t hold my camera steady, but the approach to film-making that we use in Vanguard is no longer so controversial in the rest of TV. In this week’s premiere episode, The Oxycontin Express, I can’t imagine much criticism coming, say, because Darren Foster chose to shoot an interview without using a tripod. Similarly, Mariana Van Zeller did not have to get in a big fight behind the scenes with anyone here at Current to establish the freedom to ad lib on camera while shooting Oxy. But where we no longer have to fight so much for creative freedom, we still struggle and push ourselves to look for new innovations, for ever-better, ever more compelling and illuminating ways to tell stories that otherwise don’t get told. We really appreciate this opportunity. We hope that you appreciate the result, our new season of Vanguard.
Watch a few episodes of Vanguard:
- Rebels in the Pipeline - Mariana van Zeller reports from Nigeria
- Narco War Next Door - Laura Ling reports from Mexico
- I Heart Global Warming - Adam Yamaguchi reports from Greenland
MTV’s “Breaking It Down,” series went on to become one of the two documentary ancestors to Current’s Vanguard documentary series. The other was a series of PBS documentaries, starting in the mid-90s that first Anderson Cooper and I, and then Lisa Ling and I, and finally Laura and I did. Ten years ago, at the mainstream network news level, there was a degree of formula to the film-making. For trying to deviate from the prevailing standard, Anderson and Lisa and Serena were sometimes figures of controversy and consternation. Behind the scenes, people in power would ask me things like “Why do you let him be so informal?” “Why do you let her be in every shot?” “Why do you trust her?” And “why can’t you hold your f***ing camera steady?” To which I would answer something akin to “Well…” and wait for the subject to change. But the actual answer was that Anderson, and Lisa, Serena, and then Laura were radical. They weren’t interested in annoying the mainstream simply for the sake of pissing people off. But they were interested in using whatever new film-making techniques that they could if they thought this would make their journalism stronger and make their documentaries more illuminating and compelling.
In the ten years since, there has been a lot of change in what the mainstream of this business accepts. Serena is at CBS News, Anderson has his own show on CNN, and you can go into your local video store and rent the National Geographic docs that Lisa has made in recent years. And Laura is the vice president in charge of Vanguard, Current’s documentary making department.
Today, I still don’t hold my camera steady, but the approach to film-making that we use in Vanguard is no longer so controversial in the rest of TV. In this week’s premiere episode, The Oxycontin Express, I can’t imagine much criticism coming, say, because Darren Foster chose to shoot an interview without using a tripod. Similarly, Mariana Van Zeller did not have to get in a big fight behind the scenes with anyone here at Current to establish the freedom to ad lib on camera while shooting Oxy. But where we no longer have to fight so much for creative freedom, we still struggle and push ourselves to look for new innovations, for ever-better, ever more compelling and illuminating ways to tell stories that otherwise don’t get told. We really appreciate this opportunity. We hope that you appreciate the result, our new season of Vanguard.
Watch a few episodes of Vanguard:
- Rebels in the Pipeline - Mariana van Zeller reports from Nigeria
- Narco War Next Door - Laura Ling reports from Mexico
- I Heart Global Warming - Adam Yamaguchi reports from Greenland
-
- groups:
- vanguard blog
