{"id":16155,"date":"2021-05-12T09:00:33","date_gmt":"2021-05-12T13:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev2.worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2021-05-13T09:02:08","modified_gmt":"2021-05-13T13:02:08","slug":"examining-the-past-to-make-sense-of-the-present-in-extra-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/examining-the-past-to-make-sense-of-the-present-in-extra-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Examining the Past to Make Sense of the Present in Extra Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nutopia\u2019s Nicola Moody, executive producer of <\/em>Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer, talks to <\/em>TV Real about the timely exploration of science and medical innovations.<\/em><\/p>\n

The science and medical innovations that conquered some of the deadliest diseases and doubled life expectancies across the globe are under examination in Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer<\/em>. Produced by Nutopia, the four-part series made its debut on May 11 on PBS in the U.S., and Cineflix Rights is taking the title out to the global market.<\/p>\n

Set in the context of today\u2019s Covid-19 crisis, the doc series explores lessons learned from previous global pandemics, including smallpox, cholera and the Spanish flu. Across four episodes, it reveals how scientists, doctors, self-experimenters and activists launched a public health revolution, saving millions of lives, fundamentally changing how we think about illness and ultimately paving the way for modern medicine. Steven Johnson and David Olusoga lead the conversation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real starting point for the series was Steven Johnson\u2019s idea for a book on longevity, which he began thinking about a few years ago,\u201d Nutopia\u2019s Nicola Moody, executive producer of Extra Life<\/em>, tells TV Real Weekly<\/em>. \u201cIt was his initial insight, this idea that the doubling of the average human lifespan over the past 100 years was actually a phenomenal but completely underappreciated achievement in the history books. It had been ignored, but it\u2019s up there with the Moon landing or the inception of the internet. All of us at Nutopia, with Steven, felt this was a new, surprising and mind-blowing idea. We decided to develop a series to ask, how did it happen?\u201d<\/p>\n

The team started developing the idea well before Covid, at a time when \u201cstories about public health in the TV industry felt a little bit dull and not very relevant to our lives,\u201d Moody admits. \u201cAll of these incredible discoveries and innovations we were researching and developing about the pioneers of public health had become a bit invisible, then the world was engulfed by the Covid pandemic, and it was obvious that we had a really powerful story to tell. The series took on an urgency and relevance like never before.\u201d<\/p>\n

The episodes cover \u201cVaccines,\u201d exploring the history and use of vaccination; \u201cMedical Drugs,\u201d focusing on the more recent medical inventions that combat illness directly; \u201cData,\u201d looking at how the emergence of fact-based research, data mapping and analysis has improved public health; and \u201cBehavior,\u201d examining the importance of public engagement during a health crisis.<\/p>\n

Johnson and Olusoga combine expertise to guide viewers across 300 years of medical innovation and go behind the scenes of modern medicine to meet the unsung heroes who are tackling Covid-19 and other public health threats.<\/p>\n

\u201cSteven is a very perceptive science writer; he\u2019s authored many books and hosted podcasts and TV series,\u201d says Moody. \u201cDavid is an award-winning author and brilliant historian, filmmaker and TV host in the U.K. At Nutopia, we\u2019ve worked with them both for many years on different projects. David and Steven seek to make history and science inclusive and surprising, diverse and expansive. Extra Life<\/em> does this through telling stories many of us may never have learned in school.\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea, she explains, is to tell stories that may be unknown or may have more context and story behind them than people generally know. \u201cIt\u2019s telling us how we can understand the past and learn about the present and the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

The series is a mixture of past and present, science and history, using archival material, graphics and the two hosts sharing the storytelling. The idea was that each of them would film their own stories, exploring the pivotal moments of our past, Moody says. \u201cRight from the start, our main narrative idea was to bring the two of them together so that they could discuss and share their own knowledge and perspectives on the wider story of life expectancy. As you can imagine, in the middle of Covid with two hosts on either side of the Atlantic, it was a bit complex. We wanted them together; they\u2019re very charismatic storytellers and have plenty to say. We worked with PBS and decided back in September that we\u2019d film stories first, then begin to edit them, then get David and Steven together to film the conversations so that somewhere through the edit we\u2019d be able to weave this intelligent story together. Obviously, our plans were sidelined, so we decided to film a very high-quality Zoom-style setup; it\u2019s a visual grammar that nowadays we all know very well. We set up a camera shoot with Steven in New York and David in Bath in England, and our directors were in London. Everyone was connected via Zoom, directing through the platform with a crew on location with each of the hosts.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was quickly apparent that both hosts were quite relaxed on Zoom. \u201cIt felt like a natural way for them to interact,\u201d adds Moody. \u201cWhat you find is that the conversation weaves through the history and the present-day narrative of the pandemic, and it is the narrative backbone that we were looking for. It helps you understand the context of the past and the present. They are really enjoyable to watch!<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking at it now, you wouldn\u2019t imagine that we had to suddenly come up with a plan in a couple of weeks,\u201d she continues. \u201cYou would think it was always going to be that way. If you watch the episodes, while you do see a sense of social distancing, you don\u2019t feel any sense that Covid has made us not be ambitious with our visual execution or desire to tell very fascinating stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Extra Life <\/em>exemplifies the types of stories that Nutopia wants to bring to the TV landscape. \u201cWe always aim to create groundbreaking projects with startling perspectives, mind-blowing ideas that are also global,\u201d Moody says. \u201cExtra Life<\/em> encompasses all of those ambitions perfectly. The idea behind it is mind-blowing; no one had really looked at that idea before\u2014it was hidden in the history books. It is a global story; it is taking place in a world that has been affected by a pandemic that is global. The stories we are telling from the past are global, they happened in Africa, the Middle East, Hungary, America, the U.K.\u2014all over the world there are fascinating stories to tell. The method we have taken, the approach to the style with these two hosts telling the stories on Zoom, having extraordinarily intelligent and interesting conversations, is groundbreaking. It fits Nutopia\u2019s brand perfectly.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nutopia\u2019s Nicola Moody, executive producer of Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer, talks about the timely exploration of science and medical innovations. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":350,"featured_media":16156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,69],"tags":[5450,1278],"class_list":["post-16155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-profiles","category-top-stories","tag-extra-life-a-short-history-of-living-longer","tag-nutopia","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nExamining the Past to Make Sense of the Present in Extra Life - TVREAL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/examining-the-past-to-make-sense-of-the-present-in-extra-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Examining the Past to Make Sense of the Present in Extra Life - 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