Typed by hand. It may still contain mistakes; the recording is the original.
Announcer: Welcome to Producing Unscripted with Joke and Biagio.
Angry Man: Is this some kind of joke?
Confused Woman: Biagio-WHO???
Announcer: This episode….
Biagio: It is episode 26 and all we have got to say is do not make this pitch mistake. Being passionate about a project versus passion projects. The mistakes we are seeing over and over again in the pitches we receive.
How to know if your idea is a TV show, documentary, or web series. Please do not pitch us anymore shows of homeless people and it is not because we are heartless, and one cheese-tastic moment from me to Joke, it is pretty cheesy.
Announcer: Music courtesy of Dave Pelman Music, davepelman.com
Biagio: Hey everybody, she is Joke.
Joke: He is Biagio.
Biagio: We are married and we make unscripted film and television and want to help you do the same hopefully by teaming up with us.
Well, it is episode 26 and I just want to take a second to say publicly something that I have said to my wife privately between the last podcast episode and this one which is Happy Anniversary, honey. We have now been married for 13 years, been together for 17 years.
We have been making projects together for every one of those 17 years and I just want to say, “Honey, thank you for the best 17 years of my life.”
Joke: And the best 17 of mine.
Biagio: Well, that is very good to hear. Alright, that ends the cheesy segment of today’s podcast episode.
A lot of stuff has happened, last episode, episode 25 we announced our new submission portal which is up and running. If you did not hear about that, head on to producingunscripted.com/025. Pitches are coming in fast and furious. Thank you all, every single one of you who takes the time to pitch. We really appreciate it.
That said, and listen, and I mean this in the best way, because we only bring this up because we love all of you and we want you to succeed. That said, there is one big, giant mistake we are seeing made a lot. And even more since the portal has been up and running. And what is that mistake?
Joke: People are pitching passion projects.
Biagio: Passion projects. Now, now, I hear what you are saying, wait what is wrong with pitching passion projects? Before getting any further, I want to stress that being passionate about a project is not the same as pitching a passion project.
Joke: Now we do not take on a project unless we are passionate about it. You need that passion to carry you through months or even years of making a project. So loving a project and loving making it, and being excited about the journey that it will take you on obviously there is passion involved and you are then being passionate about a project. And that is a must.
However the passion projects we are talking about here are the long shots to save the world, feel good, educational etcetera type of passion projects. Something you may be very passionate about but most people may not be.
Biagio: Exactly. And by most people, we mean like your broad television audience.
Frustrated Advertising Consultant: Specific people, I need specifics. Spe-ci-fics.
Biagio: The thing is, for the projects you are passionate about to work as a television series, they have to be entertaining. They have to have a broad appeal. A passion project, it really is a project that is never really intended to make money or entertain the masses.
I mean the truth is your payment for taking on a passion project is the joy that comes from making your passion project. You are not going to get rich making passion projects.
Joke: Passion projects are usually super niche and would only appeal to a tiny, tiny audience. They also more likely than not, put their message or the goal to change the world first. And then any kind of entertainment aspect to it would be like a distant second or third. We are getting a lot of both of those right now.
Biagio: For example, let me explain a little bit more clearly. Let us say for instance, you an animal activist and you are pitching some kind of extinct animal project. That is probably not going to work as a TV show especially if the message of animal extinction is all that is driving the project. If that message is front and center, if the debate around it is all that really matters, that really is not a TV show.
Now however, if you are able to set aside that message for a moment, if you really want to make a TV show, and you find yourself for instance, a group of crazy over the top characters on life and death missions to fight for a species well then you might have a show like Whale Wars which was a hit for Animal Planet. See the difference? With Whale Wars, you are talking about a show that was really a thriller right, Joke?
Joke: Yes, the show was good not because it put the message of animal cruelty first but because it was following real passionate people on dangerous missions. It was a thriller and not just a documentary. It was entertaining and not just pushing a message. I mean the truth is some topics will just never be good TV shows.
Biagio: Ah yes, and on that note, I would like to formally request, I’m going to sound like such a jerk, but I would like to formally request no more pitches about homeless people. Now I know we have mentioned this several times now, I am going all the way back to episode three but from now on I will point people to this podcast.
We get pitched, I am not kidding you, anywhere from one to five homeless projects a month ranging from homeless documentaries to very interesting homeless people competition shows. We have been pitched these for years and it is not that we are heartless, right? We are not heartless. But listen, there is a reason there is not a homeless reality television show anywhere on the air waves.
Joke: Right. And just for the record, I do want to point out that we did try one or two of those when we started out.
Biagio: We did. We did.
Joke: Because I mean who does not want to go down the LA Mission and do some makeovers? But it just does not work because the thing is audiences come to television first and foremost for entertainment purposes. To get away from the struggles in daily life, to escape to a different world, one they have never seen before or one they might want to be a part of, or one that highlight relatable or likable characteristics, maybe in circumstances that they have not seen.
The point is, they do not come to television to be confronted with their possible guilt of walking by the homeless person that morning and not giving them change. Now that is not to say that shows about different classes or economic disparities cannot work. Undercover Bosses is a great show that allows you to see the less than fortunate little guy but you see them through the eyes of the boss who is in disguise and so you are rooting for change in the person, you’re waiting for climactic reveal of identity and transformation and you are constantly entertained with the fish out of water comedy.
Secret Millionaire also played on the in disguise aspect of classes mixing but the show sets up and delivers just in its premise alone called Secret Millionaire. That some random someone may be giving you a million dollars just because he or she feels like you deserve it for being you which there is something very kind of who the heck wouldn’t want that about that show.
So both of those shows deal with some of the same issues that I think some of the homeless pitches are trying to get at but they are doing it in a more entertaining way. If you have an incredible twist or an angle like that, by all means pitch us your idea. But if we are just talking straight up, let us follow homeless people around, let us get to know some homeless people, then please note for the record we are not now or in the foreseeable future, looking for those projects.
Biagio: No matter how creative you get with your homeless pitch, I am just saying we are going to pass.
Okay, now very important, if you are passionate about a particular subject, I want to be super clear, we are not telling you not to make those passion projects. Au contraire my friends, passion projects are very important for keeping your creative energies alive, for giving back to community organizations that means a lot to you just to feel good about yourself. But do not pitch them to us or anyone for that matter. Go make them yourselves.
Joke: The truth is that passion projects, they thrive on one thing, right? There is a reason they are called passion projects and that is passion. They are not fueled by money. They are solely fueled by the passion and hard work that you put into them.
So we have our own passion projects that require our passion and time and resources that we would not be able to get money for elsewhere either. And so since we have our own passion project, we do not really have what it takes to get your passion projects off the ground and since they are your project and your passion, it is only right that you should fuel it right?
Where do passion projects live? Where can you take them? From our experiences, there is really only two places. They are big places but one is documentaries and the other one is the web.
Please know you should not spend a lot of your money on them. You need to do them for the satisfaction that you get out of making them. That is your payment. Your passion is what drives them and you really should take them on if and only if you cannot not do them. If that makes any sense.
Biagio: Yes if something in you, something deep inside of you says I have got to make this project, then go do it. But you need to go do it. You do not want it to be pitching it to other people. It really is something you do yourself.
To sum up, yes you must be passionate about the projects you pitch but that is very different than a passion project. Projects that put a message, cause, or idea before entertainment value are passion projects. They are not TV shows. So you can either figure out how to put the entertainment factor first, slyly slip the message in so the audience barely knows it is there and then pitch that or else make a documentary or web series and enjoy the experience.
Joke: For the record, I love passion. My dad calls it “passion.”
Biagio: Passion.
Joke: I admire passion. I root for passion. So know that while we will not be your partners on your passion projects, we will be your cheerleaders and we usually are for other people’s passion projects.
Biagio: Yes so do not bring us your passion projects but do bring us projects you are passionate about getting on television that put entertainment first and can occasionally slip a message in. So that is it for this week. Until next time, bring us some good shows and I hope we get to team up soon.
Joke: Yes, let us do it!
Biagio: Let us do it! Bye everybody.
Joke: Bye-bye.
Announcer: Producing Unscripted with Joke and Biagio.
