The Briefing Room

Boom Pictures Founder Matthew Ginsburg is fresh off a successful stint running production of HISTORY’s epic 10-part WWII in HD, a color-film documentary series that presents human history’s deadliest conflict for the first time ever in HD. HISTORY, via Pennsylvania-based Lou Reda Productions, entrusted Ginsburg to lead a production team of 40 in pulling together more than 1500 hours of rarely or never-before-seen original color film, gathered from overlooked archives and forgotten private collections around the world, and crafting it into a massive and compelling story. HISTORY recruited Ginsburg based on his reputation as a proven creative talent with experience as an executive producer/show runner, director and writer on non-fiction series and specials, as well as documentaries covering subjects as varied as the heavy metal band Metallica (Metallica: In Their Own Words, Fuse), the global AIDS crisis (Tracking the Monster, VH1), famous stories of survival in American History (Extreme History with Roger Daltrey, HISTORY), and life as a senior citizen (Uncle Frank, HBO Documentaries).

The visually captivating and critically acclaimed WWII in HD covers every aspect of the U.S. involvement in the war, from the attack on Pearl Harbor to D-Day; from the bloody battles of the Pacific Campaign to the liberation of Nazi concentration camps. The series weaves the larger story of the war around the experiences of 12 Americans who played an intimate role in the conflict. The result is a documentary experience that delivers a very personal take on a well explored topic and does so with a renewed sense of immediacy.

In addition to being the series’ executive producer, Ginsburg played a major role in directing (5-episodes), co-directing (2 episodes) and co-writing the ten hours. Ginsburg and the team’s challenge was to coordinate the arcs of the 12 diverse characters - ranging from nurse to war correspondent to U.S. Armed Forces personnel - with the archival footage, while also telling the larger story of the war. The project was an impressive editorial feat. Ginsburg and the writing team used original news sources, journals, letters and new interviews to inform the characters’ stories. The team of producers, editors and assistant editors culled the best of the available footage (most of which was used in a representational manner) from the massive archive and then crafted scenes. Edited together with classic sound reels from the Library of Congress and the voice over performances of 12-actors who read the words of the series real life characters, WWII in HD presents a comprehensive and engaging narrative of the Second World War.

WWII in HD was produced for HISTORY by Lou Reda Productions in Easton, Pennsylvania. Scott and Lou Reda were executive producers and spearheaded the project from the beginning. Ginsburg collaborated with the Redas, as well as HISTORY. He worked closely with the team of 15 editors, who did the heavy lifting when it came to the task of telling the story visually. He also worked side by side with the series’ sound editor and re-recording engineer Joe Raabe, who created the soundscape for nearly ten hours of silent film. Ginsburg proved his skills directing some of Hollywood’s top actors. Emmy Award winner Gary Sinise narrates the series, while Justin Bartha, Rob Corddry, James Kyson Lee, LL Cool J, Rob Lowe, Josh Lucas, Jason Ritter, and Steve Zahn voiced eight of the individual stories, bringing the documentary characters’ war years, to life.

“Matt’s involvement in WWII in HD was pivotal,” says HISTORY executive producer Michael Stiller. “He brings proven show running skills with a film-maker’s sensibility. At his heart, he’s a great storyteller who gets involved in every element of a project, and he’s been doing exceptional work both individually and at Boom Pictures for years.”

“WWII in HD is the kind of project you dream of making,” says Ginsburg. “When HISTORY asked me to come aboard, I didn’t hesitate to say yes. The opportunity to tell these intimate accounts of this critical event in human history, and to do so, using these rare, color archival films was a tremendous privilege. This project was a true collaborative effort with a team, as equally passionate about the creative process.”

The series launch of WWII in HD - which debuted Sunday, November 15 from 9-11pm ET on HISTORY - claimed 2.6 million Total Viewers, 1.1 million Adults 25-54, 931,000 Adults 18-49 and a 2.1 HH rating. The premiere propelled HISTORY to the #1 cable network from 9-11pm in both Men 18-49 (670,000) and Men 25-54 (792,000). Additionally, the series is slated for DVD release in January.

For more ratings info visit TV by the Numbers.

Visit WWII in HD on History.com

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Credits:

EP/Show Runner: Matthew Ginsburg
EP: Michael Stiller, David McKillop (HISTORY)
EP: Lou Reda, Scott Reda (Lou Reda Productions)

Producer (series): Liz Reph, Frederic Lumiere

Co-director Episodes 4 & 5: Matthew Ginsburg
Director Episodes 6-10: Matthew Ginsburg

Writers: Matthew Ginsburg, Liz Reph, Ben Kaplan, Hunter Dunn, Alec Michod and Bruce Kennedy

Editors: Alex Hall, David Jakubovic, Salamo Levin, Alain Jakubowicz, Marco Jakubowicz, Ilya Osovets, Jacqueline Cambas, John T. Wright, Frederic Lumiere, Sammy Jackson, Lucas Abel, Kelly Hurd

Additional Editing: Christopher Cooke, Steve Heffner, Aaron Weisblatt & James Coblentz

Supervising Sound Editor and Rerecording Mixer (series): Joe Raabe (Gramercy Post )

Series Produced by: Lou Reda Productions for HISTORY

About Ginsburg:

Matthew Ginsburg is an award-winning executive producer and director. For the past seven years, he’s been creating, developing and producing nonfiction programming with Boom Pictures, the company he launched in 2002. Matthew is also an established Executive Producer/show runner, who collaborates with network development and production teams to help shape and shepherd outside projects that prove to be especially challenging.

Matthew recently finished collaborating on a pair of high-profile projects: the (10×60) docu-series WWII in HD (HISTORY/Lou Reda Productions), and the (6×60) docu-series Pitbulls & Parolees (Animal Planet/44 Blue.) Recently, Matthew executive-produced and directed the Fuse documentary Metallica: In Their Own Words. Additional projects include Animal Planet’s (8×30) docu-series Living With The Wolfman, a show he was brought in to redevelop with UK-based Tigress Productions. Matthew also executive produced two season’s of A&E’s docu-series Inked, executive produced and directed the feature-length, award-winning documentary Tracking the Monster (VH1), and co-created, developed, directed and ran Extreme History with Roger Daltrey, a series for HISTORY.

Before starting Boom Pictures, Matthew spent seven years creating, producing and directing long and short form nonfiction projects for broadcast and cable clients, including VH1, HISTORY, USA, HBO Documentaries, MTV News and NBC News. Notable projects include the award-winning feature-length documentary Uncle Frank (HBO), HISTORY’s first live broadcast Live From Pearl Harbor, 100 Greatest Artists of Rock and Roll (the countdown special that launched one of VH1’s most successful franchises), NBC’s Concert for America, Legends: Bruce Springsteen, and RockStory (nominated for a News and Documentary Emmy Award).

Matthew started his career at WRGB (CBS affiliate - Albany, NY) where he produced more than 900 nightly newscasts and a number of special projects, winning three Associated Press Awards for his work. Matthew is a graduate of Ithaca College’s Park School of Communications.

About Boom:

Boom Pictures is a team of New York-based freelance creative talent that develops, produces and directs series, specials, documentaries, commercials, scripted content and digital programming. Boom also consults network development and production teams to shape outside projects that offer special challenges. Launched in fall ‘02, the company is led by Matthew Ginsburg, an award-winning executive producer, director, and show runner.