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 24. We are talking five ways you can break in to unscripted television. Five kinds of people we are dying to work with, which one are you? Specific advice on steps you should take once you figure out which category you fall into. How to work with us without uprooting your whole life? Surprising skills you might not even realize you bring to the table.
We sold another project to a major cable network with one of you. And teaser alert Joke has been letting me get my geek on all for you.
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, welcome to episode 24 and I have been being really geeky lately. Have I not, honey?
Joke: Oh yes.
Biagio: I am kind of like a super geek out. I am building something really cool for all of you that I hope you are going to love, more on that at the end of the show. But I am hoping that you will like it because Joke knows I have been spending way too much time on it, would you agree?
Joke: Yes, I mean I think we are in week five now of this process.
Biagio: Of this special project. I really hope it works out for you guys. I put a lot of love into it. But anyways, we will talk more about that at the end of the episode.
We also have a lot going on right now. We are in the middle of casting season two of Ghost Inside My Child which came from one of you, Suzanne Stratford, who is now having her second season on the air of which she is a producer. So congrats Suzanne and hopefully one of your shows will be next.
You see, we are also working on four pilots and presentations with various networks. One of those also came from one of you. I am not allowed to talk about that one yet but it is proof that apparently the advice on this podcast is working honey because we are selling shows with people.
Joke: I know. It is very exciting.
Biagio: So why not you next? And actually that is what we are talking about today. Obviously you already know that if you want to pitch a show to us, the first step is to go sign up for our newsletter which you can do on the front page of producingunscripted.com, you cannot miss it. Just type in your email address and follow directions.
But one of the things we have not addressed yet is really what kind of working relationship do you want to have with us? What kind of person are you in the realm of unscripted television?
Joke: And what we found from all of you guys, contacting us and pitching to us, or even just communicating with us, is most people fall into one of five categories. And that is what we are going to talk about today.
Biagio: We are going to help you figure out which category you fall into and then give you specific advice to increase your odds of success and basically cut out hopefully a bunch of busy work you might be otherwise doing.
Okay, five different kinds of people you will likely fall into at least one of these categories. Okay the first category is a little unique. Do not worry, all you filmmakers and producers, you will fall into categories two through five. But category number one, you want your own TV show.
A good deal of the pitches we get are from people that are not actually filmmakers. They are people who really believe their family or their life or their business is a TV show. Now that is very different from being a producer on a show. That is being talent on a show.
Joke: So this first category, by the way the next four categories we will talk about producers. So this first category is about talent. If you find yourself talent and you believe you, your family, your business, the people you work with, friends, that you guys should be on television. People that keep telling you, you should be a reality TV show. You guys keep thinking, “Man, if only there were cameras around right now.”
When you are that person, this is the category you fall into and the big piece of advice we have for you is put yourself on tape and this does not need to be something really big or expensive. It could be a simple camera phone, a little simple video camera is all fine. It is just really for people to get who you are and for us, as producers, to really understand what the show could be. We really kind of need to see how good you are on camera.
Biagio: Yes and I really think my big piece of advice for you is do not waste time trying to become filmmaker if that is not what you want to do. We have run into some people who unfortunately they want to be on camera but they think the only way they to pitch themselves to us is to learn how to shoot and learn how to edit and learn how to put together a TV show. Guys, that is a skill that takes years to develop and a lot of people listening to this podcasts are filmmakers but a lot of people who want their own show is not.
Do not worry about becoming a filmmaker just put yourself on tape telling us why you think you should be a show. And a perfect example of this actually was our MTV True Life Special Secrets, Lies, and Sex.
Joke: Yes, those guys thought they were a TV show in one area.
Biagio: What is important to note about this is they did not have to go out and shoot any kind of fancy tape. They basically used webcams, iPhones, flip cams, to send over some little interviews where they simply told us their stories and that was enough for us to know there was a potential show there.
Okay, let us move on to the next kind of person we would love to work with and who you might be.
Number two, you are already working in reality TV or documentary series but feel like you do not have a place to pitch and you know who you are. You feel producers, editors, even new accountants, shooters, anybody that is already working in our industry but really does not normally want to walk up to the boss and say, “Hey, I have a show idea.”
Joke: Yes, most bosses in this town when we were starting out, just do not even want to hear it.
Biagio: That is true. No one ever wanted to hear our ideas which is part of the reason why we turn out the way we did. In wanting to welcome pitches, we know it is hard. You are working in the industry and you are like my boss is sitting right there but I feel like if I walk in and pitch them it is going to be unwelcome and honestly most bosses put up that vibe. We know because we worked for most of them.
Joke: Again everything from field producers, story producers, all the way to anybody else that is filling the job on the crew list. By the way, we have had two projects with people like this. MTV’s Caged came to us through two young editors. We actually hand-edited with them but we knew they were young editors at another company and again they felt like they could not go talk to the boss at that company.
But we opened our doors and we teamed up with them and they did great. They worked as editors on the show, story producer on the show, and then one of them also went into the field as a supervising producer in the field because he had started doing that at the other company.
So actually having a job already in the industry makes it a lot easier for you than to also get an actual paying gig on your own show because you are emotionally invested, you get it, and there is not a whole lot of money out there for producers so by being able to actually fulfill a line item in the budget you end up walking away with a lot more than if you were just a producer on it. We also just teamed up with two casting directors.
Biagio: Yes, two young casting directors.
Joke: And so he said, “Can I pitch in my project?” And he had actually been out with an agent pitching it with his partner to different companies and then we ended up teaming up with them. We cannot tell you too much about it but it turned out really well and it is in the process now. It is at a major cable network.
The point is it is because you have worked in the business, you may not know everything that the executive producers are aware of or what the networks are looking for because you are not necessarily talking to the networks. But you are aware of certain basic truths about our business, about what it takes to tell a certain a story, what it takes to produce a certain show. You bring a value with you already and so our number one piece of advice to you is really do exploit that.
For example, the casting directors came in with just some Skyped tape of these characters that they had found. It was enough for us to be really interested and then we spent some more money to go and actually shoot a sizzle reel which then we sold.
The editor is same thing, they found some great potential cast member, someone better than others but one Christmas they went home, just shot some footage on a little camera but because they are editors, they put it together and really awesome sizzle and it had music and it had graphics. You could see that they really cared about it. We did not end up shooting anything new for that. I think Biagio just kind of took a pass at it.
Biagio: Yes I did a little re-edit, a little polish and changed the music but otherwise it was mostly there.
Joke: Yes. Again you bring a lot of value and we just want to remind you that if you are one of those people we have not opened door, you already broke into the business but in terms of breaking into the producing ranks we are here and we can help you do that.
Biagio: Yes. That brings us to number three. Maybe you are not in the business but you are already a hands-on producer.
This is all of you documentarians, all you family videographers, you indie filmmakers, the YouTube generation. You are somebody that is very comfortable picking up a camera, shooting some footage, editing all kinds of stories into something that is entertaining and watchable.
Joke: You have the skills. You have everything you need to just go out there and just start putting some people on tape. If you think somebody is a show, put them on tape and send it to us. It does not have to be fancily edited with graphics or anything.
It is you guys are storytellers. You know what it takes to kind of explain something, documentarians, even wedding videographers. There is a story to a wedding video, right?
All those kinds of skills that you have, that you may not think translates, they do to a certain extent. Use those and just go out and do it. We always say it is a numbers game. Sending us something and getting a pass is not a fail. It is just a discarded attempt that you keep going.
Biagio: We always say it is a numbers game and reminder go back and listen to episode four. So important, producingunscripted.com/004 because that lays out a very simple way to get in touch with us and work through a bunch of simple steps so you do not go broke making these tapes.
We can have little mini discussions along the way so you do not put so much effort to one tape that you are like, “Wow that just exhausted me physically, mentally, financially, emotionally.”
No, no. It should be simple steps especially for you hands-on producers, all you YouTubers like you should be making a ton of these little tapes and taking these steps. Because the more you make, the more chance you will find some gold that can turn into a television show.
Joke: And since you have the skills and the equipment, these tapes really should not cost you any hard dollars, it will just cost you some time.
Biagio: Yeah, exactly, exactly.
So moving on to number four. You are a journalist of any kind. I mean a TV reporter, a newspaper columnist, blogger, old school media, new school media, whatever. You are telling stories about a wide variety of people already.
Joke: Your job is to tell stories. Your job is to find stories. Period. So what better training -
Biagio: There is no better training.
Joke: Than to come to us as a storyteller than being a storyteller in real life. You come across stories all the time. You come across people all the time.
And listen, we will be the first to tell you that some stories are just five-minute news segment. They really are not a series. They make for great, and by the way, some of these are amazing. I mean 60 minutes is a great TV show and they tell amazing stories in 12 minutes but sometimes that is really, that is it. That is the only story there is and sometimes you could totally see those stories as like wow that character is a TV show or that could really keep going, etcetera, etcetera.
So the reason we bring this up is Suzanne Stratford who brought us Ghost Inside My Child is a journalist and this is what she does and she goes through a million stories a week and she is in a prime spot to find stories like Ghost Inside My Child.
Do the research. You guys are great researchers because you always have the fact checked and find out whether or not is this just a one story example or was there really a phenomenon, with these reincarnations, these recollections, these memories that these children were experiencing? And she found out that it really is a phenomenon and that there are multiple children and that this absolutely could be a TV series. And that is when she brought it to us.
Biagio: Okay so that moves on to category number five. And that is you are happy being a part-time player.
Joke: In other words, you do not fall into the previous four categories. You are category all your own. Meaning like you may not be a shooter. You may not be an editor. You may not have already broken in. You may think I am not a TV show. You are not a journalist. However, you are the person walking down the street going “Oh my God, those two people at that diner are a total TV show.”
Well we want to hear from you and we want to partner up with you. And maybe this means that you are not going to give up your day job. You are not going to give it all up and have these big dreams, starting a career over again in Hollywood.
That is not your goal. Your goal is maybe just to be part of the phenomenon and part of the story and get your feet wet. Get a producer credit on television. Make a little extra money on the side and just kind of be an observer and participant in the process rather than giving up your entire life to pursue a career into this.
Biagio: Yes that is fine and by the way, you might fall into one of the previous categories and be like, “I still don’t want to uproot my life and move to Hollywood and give up my wonderful home and my family and my kids.” Great! Then just pitch us more concepts more often. It is a numbers game. Most of them will probably be no’s but every now and then one of them will be a yes.
And you get a producer credit. You get bragging rights. You get a little bit extra pocket change and I think a lot of people would be very happy to do that. We would be happy to work with you in that capacity.
Joke: And there is actually one of you listeners out there that we are starting to team up with who is more of a writer. And so they are not a shooter, they are not a videographer, they are not looking to becoming a producer in Unscripted Television but they had a great idea and they did some research and sent it our way and we think there is enough of a nugget for us to pursue it.
Again, it is just about if you see something, communicate it. There is only one way to move forward and that is pursuing the opportunity and see if there is something there.
Biagio: And again listen, being a part-time player means making part-time money. I mean, let us face it, as we have said over and over in this podcast, you do not make a lot of money by being an idea person. You either end up working on the show or essentially taking a pass of fees or to walk away from the show, and the pass of fees are very small. They are in the hundreds to like the small thousands depending on the network.
It is not to get rich money but on the other hand if you see something, no hurt in pitching it and then making a little extra money on the sides. So there you go, there you have it. Five different people that we love to work with.
You want your own TV show. You are already working in reality TV or documentary series but you feel like you have got nowhere to pitch. Guess what, you do now. You are already a hands-on producer but not in the business. You are a journalist of any kind or you are happy being a part-time player.
So which one are you, where do you fit in? Pick one of these roles in your own mind so you know how to best approach us.
Next time is episode 25 and we have something special planned. I think a lot of you will be really excited. I hope so because this is a the geeky project I have been working on and Joke is ready for me to die.
Joke: I am but I am actually also really excited about this because I think it will streamline the pitching process and the development and the learning process for both us and you.
Biagio: It is going to get announced next time, episode 25. But people who subscribed to our newsletter, which again you can sign up on the front page of producingunscripted.com will find out about that a few days early.
So if you are not already on our newsletter, for heaven’s sakes please go sign up, producingunscripted.com.
Joke: It is free.
Biagio: Hopefully we will see you on our big 25th episode in two weeks.
Joke: See you then.
Announcer: Producing Unscripted with Joke and Biagio.
www.producingunscripted.com
