How 9.14 Pictures scored a touchdown with NFL doc
By A A
29-09-2023
9.14 Pictures’ Don Argott and Sheena Joyce discuss how they stumbled into a history-making sports doc and why building their careers in Philadelphia, rather than moving to LA or New York, has paid off in the long run.
American football doc Kelce focuses on former player Jason Kelce
Don Argott and Sheena Joyce of 9.14 Pictures had initially envisioned their American football documentary Kelce as a snapshot of an NFL star playing his final season and contemplating life off the pitch.
They had spent around 16 months following Jason Kelce, captain of the Philadelphia Eagles, as he mulled a question faced by many NFL stars as they prepare to retire: what does my life look like if I’m not playing football?
The Philadelphia-based production company’s team captured Kelce and his family as he contemplated all kinds of paths beyond football, including becoming an organic gardener, raising cattle and podcasting.
But in the background, a much bigger story was emerging. The Philadelphia Eagles were putting together an impressive season, and as the NFL play-offs began in January, the team was tipped to potentially reach the NFL’s biggest game: the Super Bowl.
Don Argott
The intrigue was heightened by the fact that on the other side of the bracket was the Kansas City Chiefs, his brother Travis Kelce’s team.
Until this point, 9.14 Pictures had been working independently on the project. However, as the fanfare grew around a potential collision between the brothers – billed later as the ‘Kelce Bowl’ – NFL Films had also started to film content with the brothers.
The run continued and the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs both reached the Super Bowl, putting the whole Kelce family at the centre of the North American sporting world. This marked the first time in NFL history that two brothers had played opposite one another in a Super Bowl. To make matters yet more improbable, Jason Kelce’s wife, Kylie, was pregnant and due on February 12 – the day of the game.
“We’d been in the background for a year-and-a-half, and then to have this magical season where the Eagles go all the way to the Super Bowl and Jason has to compete against his brother was lightning in a bottle,” says Joyce. “We had spent so much time with Jason, Travis and their parents, so it was funny to then see this media crush.”
As 9.14 Pictures and NFL Films became aware of what the other was doing, partnering became a logical next step. 9.14 Pictures needed access to the Super Bowl, while NFL Films wanted access to nearly 18 months of footage captured by Argott and Joyce as Kelce contemplated his life post-football.
Sheena Joyce
The project was subsequently picked up by Amazon’s SVoD service Prime Video in partnership with Skydance Sports. The executive producers are Connor Barwin, David Ellison, Jesse Sisgold and Jon Weinbach for Skydance Sports and Ross Ketover, Pat Kelleher and Keith Cossrow of NFL Films. Joyce, Argott and Larry Platt served as producers. Argott directed the project.
While almost all the pieces fell into place, there was to be no fairytale ending as the Kansas City Chiefs narrowly beat the Philadelphia Eagles by 38 points to 35. Kylie did not go into labour during the game, although the story was captured in the feature-length documentary.
For Argott and Joyce, who launched 9.14 Pictures 20 years ago, the way the doc came together has been further validation that building their careers in Philadelphia – rather than moving to the more opportunity-rich hubs of LA or New York – has been the right decision, but that they didn’t always have such conviction.
“We struggled with that a lot. We’d often have conversations, especially in those lulls between projects, wondering if we had made the right decision by not moving to New York or LA,” said Argott.
“I’d say we’ve probably had those conversations seriously maybe four or five times. Five, 10 years in, you think, ‘Have we done ourselves a bit of a disservice by not being where everybody is?’ while still knowing that if you do good work and have a distinctive voice, you’ll find an audience and people will find you.”
The Bond is executive produced by Robert Downey Jr
Ultimately, Argott and Joyce are content with their decision to build their company out of Philadelphia and feel it has made them better documentary filmmakers and producers.
“It’s probably taken us a little longer because we’re not in the centre of the entertainment industry. But in a way, I’m prouder of the work because it was that much harder to come by and we have had to grind it that much harder,” said Argott.
While much has been made of the downturn in the scripted marketplace, the commissioning volume for documentary series and feature-length docs has also declined too over the past 12 months.
But in the two or three years prior, the prodco found itself with a large volume of work, which they pounced on with both hands. “To us, it was like ‘take it, take it, take it’ because you never know when it’s going to dry up,” says Argott.
In addition to Kelce, which debuted on Prime Video on September 12, new docs released by 9.14 Pictures this year include Thick Skin (Sundance TV, AMC+), a four-parter seeking to change the narrative and destigmatise obesity.
Despite the recent commissioning downturn, Joyce insists there remains a robust appetite for premium documentary, but producers must be ready and willing to weather market undulations.
Music docuseries Spector
Over the course of two decades, 9.14 has been on the front lines of market shifts across the documentary sector. Its second ever film was Two Days in April, an American football doc made under Red Envelope Productions, the production unit established by Netflix when it was still primarily a DVD-by-mail service. It also produced 10-part docuseries Slugfest for the short-lived shortform streamer Quibi, with the show eventually premiering on Roku after it bought Quibi’s library.
Its other credits include Spector, a four-part docuseries about music producer Phil Spector for Showtime; The Bond, a four-parter executive produced by Robert Downey Jr about the unique relationship between humans and animals, for Discovery+; Dio: Dreamers Never Die, about heavy metal singer Ronnie James Dio; Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time; and Framing John DeLorean.
The commissioning downturn may actually prove to be a positive, as it will lead to sharper storytelling, says Argott. “Not everything needs to be a three-, four- or six-part series. After Making a Murderer, everyone wanted 10, 12 parts for everything. Then it was, ‘Maybe six parts, four, three, two’ and now we’re hearing, ‘Maybe this can be a feature’ – and features were dead for a couple of years.”
“We have ridden these waves for 20 years through feast and famine,” adds Joyce. “We’ve always tried to choose projects that meant something to us, that we felt had great access, great characters and would allow us to tell an authentic story. We’ve continued to choose our projects within those parameters, whether the doc market is booming or totally dried up, and it has served us well.”
READ LESS9.14 Pictures’ Don Argott and Sheena Joyce discuss how they stumbled into a history-making sports doc and why building their careers in Philadelphia, rather than moving to LA or New York, has paid off in the long run.
American football doc Kelce focuses on former player Jason Kelce
Don Argott and Sheena Joyce of 9.14 Pictures had initially envisioned their American football documentary Kelce as a snapshot of an NFL star playing his final season and contemplating life off the pitch.
They had spent around 16 months following Jason Kelce, captain of the Philadelphia Eagles, as he mulled a question faced by many NFL stars as they prepare to retire: what does my life look like if I’m not playing football?
The Philadelphia-based production company’s team captured Kelce and his family as he contemplated all kinds of paths beyond football, including becoming an organic gardener, raising cattle and podcasting.
But in the background, a much bigger story was emerging. The Philadelphia Eagles were putting together an impressive season, and as the NFL play-offs began in January, the team was tipped to potentially reach the NFL’s biggest game: the Super Bowl.
Don Argott
The intrigue was heightened by the fact that on the other side of the bracket was the Kansas City Chiefs, his brother Travis Kelce’s team.
Until this point, 9.14 Pictures had been working independently on the project. However, as the fanfare grew around a potential collision between the brothers – billed later as the ‘Kelce Bowl’ – NFL Films had also started to film content with the brothers.
The run continued and the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs both reached the Super Bowl, putting the whole Kelce family at the centre of the North American sporting world. This marked the first time in NFL history that two brothers had played opposite one another in a Super Bowl. To make matters yet more improbable, Jason Kelce’s wife, Kylie, was pregnant and due on February 12 – the day of the game.
“We’d been in the background for a year-and-a-half, and then to have this magical season where the Eagles go all the way to the Super Bowl and Jason has to compete against his brother was lightning in a bottle,” says Joyce. “We had spent so much time with Jason, Travis and their parents, so it was funny to then see this media crush.”
As 9.14 Pictures and NFL Films became aware of what the other was doing, partnering became a logical next step. 9.14 Pictures needed access to the Super Bowl, while NFL Films wanted access to nearly 18 months of footage captured by Argott and Joyce as Kelce contemplated his life post-football.
Sheena Joyce
The project was subsequently picked up by Amazon’s SVoD service Prime Video in partnership with Skydance Sports. The executive producers are Connor Barwin, David Ellison, Jesse Sisgold and Jon Weinbach for Skydance Sports and Ross Ketover, Pat Kelleher and Keith Cossrow of NFL Films. Joyce, Argott and Larry Platt served as producers. Argott directed the project.
While almost all the pieces fell into place, there was to be no fairytale ending as the Kansas City Chiefs narrowly beat the Philadelphia Eagles by 38 points to 35. Kylie did not go into labour during the game, although the story was captured in the feature-length documentary.
For Argott and Joyce, who launched 9.14 Pictures 20 years ago, the way the doc came together has been further validation that building their careers in Philadelphia – rather than moving to the more opportunity-rich hubs of LA or New York – has been the right decision, but that they didn’t always have such conviction.
“We struggled with that a lot. We’d often have conversations, especially in those lulls between projects, wondering if we had made the right decision by not moving to New York or LA,” said Argott.
“I’d say we’ve probably had those conversations seriously maybe four or five times. Five, 10 years in, you think, ‘Have we done ourselves a bit of a disservice by not being where everybody is?’ while still knowing that if you do good work and have a distinctive voice, you’ll find an audience and people will find you.”
The Bond is executive produced by Robert Downey Jr
Ultimately, Argott and Joyce are content with their decision to build their company out of Philadelphia and feel it has made them better documentary filmmakers and producers.
“It’s probably taken us a little longer because we’re not in the centre of the entertainment industry. But in a way, I’m prouder of the work because it was that much harder to come by and we have had to grind it that much harder,” said Argott.
While much has been made of the downturn in the scripted marketplace, the commissioning volume for documentary series and feature-length docs has also declined too over the past 12 months.
But in the two or three years prior, the prodco found itself with a large volume of work, which they pounced on with both hands. “To us, it was like ‘take it, take it, take it’ because you never know when it’s going to dry up,” says Argott.
In addition to Kelce, which debuted on Prime Video on September 12, new docs released by 9.14 Pictures this year include Thick Skin (Sundance TV, AMC+), a four-parter seeking to change the narrative and destigmatise obesity.
Despite the recent commissioning downturn, Joyce insists there remains a robust appetite for premium documentary, but producers must be ready and willing to weather market undulations.
Music docuseries Spector
Over the course of two decades, 9.14 has been on the front lines of market shifts across the documentary sector. Its second ever film was Two Days in April, an American football doc made under Red Envelope Productions, the production unit established by Netflix when it was still primarily a DVD-by-mail service. It also produced 10-part docuseries Slugfest for the short-lived shortform streamer Quibi, with the show eventually premiering on Roku after it bought Quibi’s library.
Its other credits include Spector, a four-part docuseries about music producer Phil Spector for Showtime; The Bond, a four-parter executive produced by Robert Downey Jr about the unique relationship between humans and animals, for Discovery+; Dio: Dreamers Never Die, about heavy metal singer Ronnie James Dio; Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time; and Framing John DeLorean.
The commissioning downturn may actually prove to be a positive, as it will lead to sharper storytelling, says Argott. “Not everything needs to be a three-, four- or six-part series. After Making a Murderer, everyone wanted 10, 12 parts for everything. Then it was, ‘Maybe six parts, four, three, two’ and now we’re hearing, ‘Maybe this can be a feature’ – and features were dead for a couple of years.”
“We have ridden these waves for 20 years through feast and famine,” adds Joyce. “We’ve always tried to choose projects that meant something to us, that we felt had great access, great characters and would allow us to tell an authentic story. We’ve continued to choose our projects within those parameters, whether the doc market is booming or totally dried up, and it has served us well.”