Richard Propper

World Screen Weekly, June 22, 2006

President
Solid Entertainment

Before setting up their own distribution companies, most people have had years of experience selling programs at other firms. Richard Propper’s career path, however, while very successful, has been quite unconventional.

Propper attended film school before working for a production company in Los Angeles, where he learned the ins and outs of producing programs. Despite the production expertise he had gained, Propper quickly decided that he wanted to get into international distribution. With very little experience in that field, but with a great deal of drive, ambition and good instinct, he set up Solid Entertainment in 1996 and has been in business ever since. The company started with eight natural-history documentaries produced for Discovery and today boasts a catalogue of more than 450 separate titles.

Solid Entertainment specializes in documentaries—current affairs, history, science, technology and wildlife. It has made such a name for itself among producers looking for someone to sell their shows domestically and internationally that Propper and his staff receive between 40 and 50 documentaries each month. They choose the best of what they see, selecting titles that will appeal to international broadcasters, and then distribute them around the world.

The key to Solid’s success has been the high premium Propper places on quality, which has turned his company into a significant source of award-winning documentary programming. Among the broadcasters in Solid’s roster of clients are Animal Planet, ARTE, the BBC, Channel 4, Discovery Channels worldwide, Canal+, HBO, M6, NBC, NHK, National Geographic, ORF, Orbit, Premiere, RAI and ZDF.

Through the years, Propper has witnessed the ups and downs of the documentary industry. This year, judging from NATPE and MIPTV, he has noticed that the demand for documentaries is healthy. “There are new companies selling documentaries, and that means that there are more films out there,” says Propper. “But it’s become more competitive. We are definitely finding that when we are [negotiating with a producer for the rights to a] film, we are not the only distributor. Producers are shopping their titles around.”

Propper has also noticed that certain genres of docs are more in demand than others. “Science and technology have been doing well for many years—monster machines and great big devices—and so have automobiles and vehicles,” he says. Solid is offering a number of programs to serve this demand. Hot Rod TV is a series of 13 half-hours, produced in high definition, which focuses on vehicles that go beyond conventional automotive design. Pininfarina is a 50-minute special about the Italian design house behind such iconic cars as Ferrari, Maserati and Cadillac. Marine One, also 50 minutes, grants unprecedented access to the U.S. presidential helicopter and to its comings and goings.

Current affairs documentaries are always of interest to broadcasters. Solid has Turmoil, which won the Best Documentary Award at the 2005 San Francisco Film Festival. It examines the sketchy politics underpinning U.S. relations with Venezuela. Dynasty of Terror: The Search for Bin Laden and Uncle Saddam are two docs by the award-winning French filmmaker Joel Soler. The Gods of Rice is about the grain that feeds nearly half the planet every day. Tracking the Great White, another one-off, looks at great white sharks.

Since MIPTV, Solid has closed several deals, including Recon Marines: Brothers in Arms to National Geographic and Empires of Steam to ZDF.

After ten years at the helm of Solid, Propper still enjoys the business. “I like the filmmakers and the buyers,” he says. “I think that we are changing the world a little bit by bringing truly good stories and representing programs I can feel good about when I leave the office at night.”