Reality TV: An Insider's Guide to TV's Hottest Market (19 page)
Read Reality TV: An Insider's Guide to TV's Hottest Market Online
Authors: Troy DeVolld
Maximizing IMDb and Other Resume and Credit Websites
As you network, be sure that you are visible on important resume and credit websites that are referenced later by those professionals you’ve just met as they seek to verify just who you really are.
The Internet Movie Database (or IMDb), located at
www.imdb.com
, is a website chock full of compiled cast and crew credits for movies and television shows. Many, if not most, employers will cross-check your resume against credits listed there, also seeking out potential hires by pulling up a successful show in the same vein as their new project and scoping out the folks who made it happen.
While it’s unlikely that Brad Pitt or Julia Roberts have much to worry about in the way of having any credits go unlisted there, you should make yourself responsible for ensuring that you are not only listed on IMDb, but that the credits listed there for you are accurate.
You can submit revisions and credits yourself, but don’t volunteer an abundance of personal information in your listing. I’m still trying to get over having had my birthday (including the year) submitted to my profile by someone.
If you can swing it, subscribe to their IMDbPro service at
www.imdbpro.com
so that you can reap the added benefit of being able to pull up contact information for producers and production companies when it comes time for you to go hunting for work.
In addition to adding your data to IMDb, you’ll also want to make sure you keep your resume updated at
www.realitystaff.com
. The website, founded by Jared Tobman, who has since gone on to great success as a Senior VP and Executive in Charge of Production at Reveille, is one of the top sites for experienced professionals in the genre to connect with future employers and employees alike.
Another frequently used site for referencing credits is
www.inbaseline.com
, which is updated regularly by a full-time research staff.
Some Final Thoughts On Networking
Let me close out this chapter with this bit of advice: Network like crazy, but with sincerity. No one likes to feel used, and it’s more important to build relationships than to hand out your business cards in bulk. Take both the time to learn from those who came before you and to pass what you’ve learned on to the newbies who follow.
And now, on to the chapter I’ve teased you about long enough — the one where I tell you how to make a million dollars off an idea you wrote down on a napkin.
Or, rather, not.
CHAPTER EIGHT EXERCISES
JOIN SOMETHING!
If you are a student, find and join a professional organization like ATAS at the student level. Are there any local film organizations or groups that you can join? If not, consider seeking out an online community.
If you are no longer in school and not yet working in your desired professional field, consider joining any local organization with regular meetings just to brush up on your conversational skills.
If you are already a working media professional or educator in the media arts, find an organization that you can join at an academic level. ATAS offers this.
ASK A QUESTION!
Watch a favorite Reality show and single out a Supervising Story Producer or Story Producer whose name appears in the credits of an episode you enjoyed. If you can find them online or by dropping them a line at their production company, ask them a few questions about their process and what advice they’d give to someone looking for a career in Reality Television.
Don’t be shy. And don’t ask me in this exercise, because I’m the easy target. Make a connection!
Supervising Producer Dena Waxman consults with Story Producer Kanika Utley and Editor Stuart Archer. (photo courtesy of Dena Waxman)
Notes:
1.
Hollywood Reporter
, July 8, 2010, “Emmy’s Most Nominated Individual Adds Five.”
2. There’s no such thing as writing a reality show on spec, alas.
3. As with all things, it may come along faster if you ask for it.
4. As quoted in
Writing For Episodic Television.
5. TheWrap.com, June 1, 2009: “The Wrap Investigates: 11 Players Have Committed Suicide”
6. BroadcastingCable.com, February 13, 2005, “A Reality Waiting to Happen.”
7. BroadcastingCable.com, February 13, 2005, “A Reality Waiting to Happen.”
Creating Your Own Shows
L
et me take a moment to say hello to all the get-rich-quick types who went directly to this chapter as they browsed in the bookstore:
Hi, folks! Buy this book and start at the beginning!
That’s right…
at the beginning
!
Most people think pitching a Reality show is as easy as coming up with an idea, and that after walking into meetings for a few weeks repeating “It’s about a family that runs a junkyard” or “Ten people live in a house and have to decide which of them is hottest,” that someone will cut them a check and they can spend the rest of their lives living it up in Malibu.
Not so. At least, not usually.
As a side endeavor to my career as a Supervising Producer, I’ve been pitching shows for some time now, all with varying degrees of success stopping just short of a sale. I’ve propped doors open all over town with some wonderful people who are happy to hear whatever’s next from me, but so far, no sales.
Am I bitter about it? No. Selling a show is a lottery, one where your chances increase exponentially if you know what you’re doing, but a lottery nonetheless. The best show on Earth won’t sell if it isn’t on the shopping list at a particular network, and even then there are likely three other established producers ahead of you in line with similar concepts.
Don’t let a little thing like the odds stop you, though. It has to happen to somebody.
Creating a Reality series and gaining access to people who can make it happen is a rough go for someone new to the genre, but nothing’s impossible.
The Workable Concept
When creating your show, you’ll first need to come up with an idea that not only works, but has a likely home. Where does it belong? Who’s it for? Is it a big, broad idea for network or a small idea just right for a niche-interest cable channel? Which network? Which cable channel?
“A good producer should know whether a show is genuinely makeable or not. There’s no point in trying to sell a show that’s impossible to cast or produce. Someone who has never made a show may not realize that their genius idea is in fact impossible to pull off.” —
Nick Emmerson, President of Shed Media US
Ask yourself the hardest question about your show: “Can it realistically be made?” Let’s say you’ve come up with a show called “Celebrity Choir,” featuring twenty new celebrities every week coming together to form a choir. Sounds cool. People like celebrities. And they seem to like singing. So, where should the network park your money truck, genius?
Whoa! Sounds like you haven’t thought this one through.
You really need to ask yourself if the show could even
find
a hundred and sixty willing celebrities to participate in an eight-episode season. Further reflection on the probable cost and nightmare logistics of producing the show quickly transform
Celebrity Choir
from a cool concept into a total turkey.
Once you land on a realistic, exciting, workable format, it’s time to start thinking about your pitch.
The Pitch
As with all film or television concepts bracing for market, you’ll need a solid pitch… a brief distillation of what your show is about that can be verbally related to a prospective production partner or network exec in just a few minutes.
Rumor has it that the 1987 film
Dragnet
had the shortest pitch of all time, just a bar of the original TV show’s theme song followed by the name of the star: “Dunnnn da dun dun… Dan Aykroyd.” While it’s unlikely that your show will boil down into something quite that simple, it’s important you hook the listener just as quickly with the first line or two of your pitch.
I always kick mine off with a question (for example: “What would happen if six college students from New York City suddenly found themselves broke in Tokyo?”) or some variation of the show’s logline, the single-sentence description of the show that conveys the basic idea as well as where your conflict will come from.
1
Some logline examples from my own files:
“Eight castmembers spend a season touring allegedly haunted locations, challenged each week to tell the difference between tall tales and terrifying true stories with the ultimate goal of winning a cash prize.”
“Can legendary songwriter, artist, technologist and Hollywood party thrower Allee Willis continue her self-guided, self-funded artistic evolution without losing her eyepopping home base, the kitschy palace of creativity known as Willis Wonderland?”
“We’ve seen the beautiful people fall in love on TV for years… now it’s time for the geeks to make a few love connections.”
Once you’ve got your show boiled down into a simple logline, flesh out the rest of your pitch. Keep it short. Two or three minutes, tops. Worried that that’s not enough time to explain every facet of your show? Don’t be. A well-done, exciting two or three minute pitch can turn into a half hour meeting on the spot if you manage to get the listener excited about an idea.
For now, though, just concentrate on how you can describe your show to a potential buyer in just a minute or two.
As with the logline, the object is to tease the buyer into wanting to know more, not to just vomit information. Think about your last encounter with a salesperson who had memorized every detail of the product they were selling, soullessly barfing product specs and catchphrases. Your pitch is supposed to engage, not repel… build in opportunities for your pitchee to participate or respond when you can!
Remember, the sooner you wrap up your pitch, the sooner the exec can start asking questions. It’s also a good idea to go into every meeting with at least two backup ideas in case things go sideways and the exec says, “Not interested, but what else have you got?”
Don’t be discouraged if a show doesn’t sell itself in the room. That’s a rarity, even when the show is of interest to the exec you’re pitching it to. Chances are, the person you’re meeting with answers to someone else, and they’ll need to kick your show upstairs for further discussion.
And that’s why you need something called a “one-sheet.”
The One-Sheet
The basic contents of your pitch should be memorialized in a one-sheet summary, designed to be left behind if requested.
2
Here’s an example of how I do mine:
Art House
If your walls could talk… what could they say about your style?
LOGLINE:
Humdrum rooms are enlivened by makeovers inspired by a single piece of art added to the space.
THE SHOW:
When the average homeowner thinks about adding original works of art to their home, dollar signs start swimming in their heads. ArtHouse, with the help of our art and design savvy host, will unite homeowners each week with a local artist, help select a piece for the home, and turn the room it’s displayed in into a thematic showplace.
STRUCTURE:
Each episode begins with our host dropping in to assess our guest family’s personal style. From there, we’ll bring in a local artist who’ll present three works for the family to choose from.
Now that the artwork’s been selected, it’s time to incorporate it into the home. A wild pop-art painting of a pirate might inspire an allout pirate-themed room, while an abstract work in calming blues and greens might inspire a restful sanctuary. Just as every work of art is different, so will be the makeovers they inspire. New color schemes, furniture selections, specialty lighting and more will provide viewers with the inspiration they need to add some artistic flavor to their own homes!
No makeover show is complete without a proper reveal to friends and neighbors, so we’ll end each episode with a small gathering of acquaintances to
ooh
and
aah
over our homeowners’ new rooms.
It’s easier to bring real art home than you think!
