RIZE USA - DCD Media

RIZE USA
Launched in October 2011, Rize USA is a London
and LA based television production company
focusing on factual, factual entertainment and
reality programming for the international market.
A co-venture between Founder/Creative Director Sheldon Lazarus and transatlantic
production and distribution group DCD Media plc, Rize has enjoyed a strong year
winning over £2.5 million worth of new business from major UK and US broadcasters.
Series highlights include the 6 part High School Moms for TLC and Discovery Fit &
Health (US) and the 3 part series Confessions of a Wedding Planner in production for
BBC2.
Rize has also delivered the internationally publicized special Bubble Skin Man for TLC
(US), as well as several one-off documentaries for Channel 4 in the UK such as the
critically acclaimed The Girl Who Became Three Boys, Accused: The 74 Stone
Babysitter, My Social Network Stalker for Channel 4’s prestigious ‘True Stories’,
and The Boy With Two Heads due to air later this year.
Rize recently signed a first look deal with Caters News, the UK’s leading news and
picture agency, giving the company exclusive access to breaking news stories and
allowing the company to secure TV rights to highly sought after stories.
rizeusa.com
About Sheldon Lazarus,
Creative Director
Sheldon Lazarus is Creative Director
of London and LA based TV
production company Rize USA
which he founded in October 2011
Sheldon has a prestigious track record in delivering successful primetime non
fiction and reality programming for the international market with hit shows
including A&E’s signature series ‘Billy The Exterminator’ or TLC’s series ‘Mall
Cops: Mall of America’.
Recent credits notably include ‘China’s Elephant Man’ - National Geographic’s
highest rated documentary of 2009 and Channel 4’s 2nd highest rated
documentary in 2008 (UK title: ‘I Am The Elephant Man’); ‘The Pregnant Man’ the highest rated documentary on Discovery Health US in 2008 and Roma 2008
Best Factual Award nominee; ‘650 lb Virgin’, 2009’s highest rating documentary
on TLC, its sequel ‘650 lb Virgin: The Weight is Over’, and one off special ‘Baby
High’ for MTV US. Sheldon’s executive producer credits also include ITV1’s
Saturday night entertainment series ‘Penn & Teller: Fool Us’ presented by
Jonathan Ross and the BAFTA winning BBC children’s series ‘Richard
Hammond’s Blast Lab’.
Sheldon’s previous notable factual and documentary films also include ‘Half Ton
Mum’ for Channel 4 which achieved the highest documentary ratings for the
channel in over a year in 2008; ‘The World’s Heaviest Man’ a 3 part series for
TLC and Discovery UK; ‘Deaf And Blind Triplets’ for Discovery Health; ‘Growing
Without A Face’ for Five; ‘Half Ton Son’ and ‘Britain's Conjoined Twins: Faith &
Hope’ for Channel 4; ‘Conjoined Twins: Sister Bond’; ‘Child Frozen in Time’; and
‘Marlie’s New Face: 4 years On’.
Before founding Rize USA Sheldon had been Creative Director, Factual at
transatlantic non fiction producer September Films since 2007 and Head of
Factual at UK production company At It Productions since 2003.
[email protected] rizeusa.com
2
DCD and Sheldon Lazarus (Billy The
Exterminator) launch US/UK
production company Rize
3
Rize
USA
wins
over £2
million
worth
of new
business
23 March 2012
4
14 July 2012
RIZE USA announces first US commissions
14 July 2012
5
6
Case study 1
THE GIRL WHO BECAME THREE BOYS
1x60 documentary
Truly startling The Daily Mail
A story of deception and abuse and consequences of misusing modern social networks
People Magazine
A fascinating look at an extraordinary crime The Sun
Extraordinary The Independent
A chilling downright strange story that will leave you baffled The Telegraph
A Rize USA Production, August 2012
Director – Norman Hull
Executive Producer – Sheldon Lazarus
RATINGS
Averaged 2.5 million viewers / 9.9% share 9 to 10pm on
Tuesday August 7th 2012 on Channel 4
Peaking at 2.6mill & 10.6% in the final quarter
Achieved over 338,550 viewers on VOD
‘amazing figures’ according to Channel 4
“In a valiant attempt to grab the attention of sports mad British viewers,
Channel 4 aired The Girl Who Became Three Boys…managing to trump all
(non-Olympic) rivals in the 9pm hour with an average audience of 2.5 million
and a 9.9% share.”
Media Guardian
SOCIAL MEDIA RESPONSE
The film generated a significant social media buzz
trended on Twitter during UK premiere on 07 August 2012
Worldwide rank #3 of most popular topics prompting over 30,000 tweets
voicing their amazement at the story
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PRESS
First Broadcast August 7th @ 9pm on Channel 4, UK
4 stars - A bizarre and heartbreaking account of how youthful naivety can be so easily
exploited in today’s world of interactive media
Mail on Sunday
A story of deception and abuse and consequences of misusing modern
social networks
People Magazine
Extraordinary film
The Independent on Sunday
A fascinating look at an extraordinary crime
The Sun
The dark side of the relative anonymity offered by social-media sites
The Sunday Mirror
A truly startling documentary
The Daily Mail
First love going very very wrong
The Mail on Sunday
A chilling downright strange story that will leave you baffled
The Sunday Telegraph
A bewildering hint of the disembodied world inhabited by modern teens
Time Out
This gift of a subject was well served by the programme makers, who guided viewers firmly
through a welter of tangled friendships and shifting tenses…a vivid testimony to the potent
blend of insecurity and overconfidence that defines our teenage years
The Guardian
Unbelievable might have been a word applicable to the events recounted in The Girl Who
Became Three Boys, were it not for the fact that they were indisputably true
The Daily Telegraph
The Girl Who Became Three Boys was a black comedy beyond belief
METRO
THE GIRL WHO BECAME THREE BOYS
Twenty-one-year-old Gemma Barker from Staines is currently serving 30
months in prison for fraud and sexual assault. Over the course of several
months Gemma invented and impersonated three different boys, 'Aaron', 'Luke'
and 'Connor' and under these three separate guises went on to seduce two
teenage girls.
This film tells the extraordinary and chilling story through the personal
accounts of Gemma's victims.
Aaron, Luke and Connor each had their own Facebook page, email address and
mobile phone number, and through emotional manipulation, both as their friend
Gemma and as the three 'boys', Gemma was able to create a complex set of
identities and relationships in order to get close to 18-year-olds Jessica Sayers
and 'Alice', who speak frankly about their experiences.
The Girl Who Became Three Boys also explores Gemma Barker's possible
motivations for her bizarre, criminal behaviour. This is a story of deception,
abuse and the damaging consequences of misusing modern social networking
on the lives of two innocent teenage girls.
Case study 2
MY SOCIAL NETWORK STALKER:
TRUE STORIES
1x60 documentary
Perils of the Internet  The Daily Mail
Astounding documentary The Sun
Talk about the enemy within…The Times
One of the most high profile stalking cases
in recent years
Premiered on 20 Feb @ 10pm on Channel 4’s True Stories
A Rize USA Production (doc, 1x70’) for Channel 4/True Stories
Produced, directed and filmed by Luke Campbell
Executive Producer: Sheldon Lazarus – Editor: Gwyn Jones
RATINGS
First Broadcast 20 February @9pm
on Channel 4’s True stories
The film ‘trumped the channel’s slot average’ (Broadcast
Magazine) by around half a million viewers and attracted a
16% share of 16-34 year-olds.
Channel 4 and Broadcast Magazine reported that the
film ‘hit all the key demographics rating well above slot
average performing particularly well with its intended
audience, 16-34s, and really well with ABC1s’.
PUBLIC/SOCIAL MEDIA RESPONSE
The film trended on
Twitter during
transmission and the
next day the press
called for tougher
penalties:
The moral of this sad
tale is that the
punishment for cyberbullying is woefully
inadequate (Metro)
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Cyber-bullying is a particularly corrosive kind of persecution says
The Observer about My Social Network Stalker: True Stories
The key purpose of this documentary special aired on Channel 4’s
prestigious ‘True Stories’ strand was to unveil the damages created by
the most new common form of harassment in the UK and US’ - internet
stalking – at a time when social media has captured an ever-present
place in many of our lives.
For the first time on television the film examined the Perils of the Internet
(The Daily Mail) through one of the most high profile stalking cases in
recent years, the true story of Ruth Jeffery, a British student harassed
online for three years, exposed on adult websites and pushed to the
verge of suicide by a mystery online stalker who turned out to be her
own boyfriend.
Aside from the shocking twist in the story – Ruth boyfriend of 10 years
turned out to be the enemy within (The Times), the film’s focus on the
sinister world of cyber-bullying (Metro) generated a significant press
buzz: Modern life with all its technology may be wonderful but there are
side effect as Ruth Jeffery found out to her peril …a fascinating
documentary that shows just how miserable a life can be made when a
stalker uses social media to do their dirty work (The Sunday Express).
PRESS
Perils of the Internet  Daily Mail
…Astounding documentary The Sun
Cyber-bullying is a particularly corrosive kind of persecution
The Observer
This eerie and well-told documentary does a good job of
recreating the environment in which such a villain might
operate The Guardian
…fascinating documentary Sunday Express
…disturbing The Independent on Sunday
A shocking tale TV Times
…harrowing tale…4  Daily Star
Talk about the enemy within…The Times
Chilling documentary Metro
‘BUBBLE SKIN MAN’
AIRED 20 JUNE 2012 ON TLC
MEDIA COVERAGE
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16
ACCUSED: THE 74
STONE BABYSITTER
AIRED 03 JAN 2012 ON CHANNEL 4
MEDIA COVERAGE
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18
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SCREEN
OUR
HIGH SCHOOL MOMS
THE GIRL WHO BECAME THREE BOYS
Aired from 12 Aug 2012 on
TLC/Discovery Fit & Health
https://vimeo.com/48878369
Aired 07 Aug 2012 on
Channel 4
https://vimeo.com/46612
849
password:barker2012
MY SOCIAL NETWORK STALKER:
TRUE STORIES
BUBBLE SKIN MAN
Aired 20 June 2012 on
Channel 4
http://www.youtube.com/w
atch?v=g0uyqPiH05w
CUTTING EDGE:
THE CURIOUS CLARK BROTHERS
THE BOY WITH TWO HEADS
COMING SOON
Aired 03 Jan 2012
https://vimeo.com/38
094613
password: faceb00k
Coming soon on
Channel 4
https://vimeo.com/467
10505
password: Rize2012
COMING SOON
In production for
Channel 4
https://vimeo.com/425
33773
password:
clarkbros2012
CONTACT
Rize USA (US)
Tribeca West
12233 West Olympic Blvd,
Suite 352
Los Angeles, CA 90064
T +1 (424) 442-2450
Rize USA (UK)
Glen House,
22 Glenthorne Road
London
W6 0NG
T +44 (0) 20 8563 9393
Email us at:
[email protected]
rizeusa.com
© RIZE USA 2012
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