Where'd You Find This: Turning the Soul Train Archives into a Digital Series

Role: Social Media Producer, BET (2016 to 2024); Producer and Editor of this series

Timeline: 2020 - 2023

Headline result: A series that brought landmark first-TV performances from legacy acts back to a new audience, with rights cleared and every episode edited in-house. [Add your best metric: views, followers gained, or press.]

The challenge Turn an archive of landmark television performances into a series that younger social audiences would watch and share, without running into rights problems.

What I did

• Went through the Soul Train archives to find the first TV performances of huge legacy acts, including Tevin Campbell, Aaliyah, and Dru Hill.

• Built each episode around the performance, the interview the act gave, and facts about the group.

• Worked with our legal teams and the publishing rights holders to negotiate publishing rights.

• Edited all of the footage myself.

Results

• Cleared publishing rights for the archival performances featured in the series.

• A repeatable format that turns archive footage into new content.