Wanna' read along? Here’s a machine-generated transcript you can use. Yes...expect a few mistakes, especially with funky industry terms, interesting names and tagging whoever's talking. If something sounds weird, trust your ears. But...sometimes that really is what we said!
Biagio: Hey everybody. She’s joke. He’s Biagio. We’re married. We make unscripted film and television and want to help you do the same.
Joke: Hopefully by teaming up with us.
Biagio: Well, today we have a great piece of advice we’d like to share. Something that was said to us by one of our own reality TV judges back in the day on Scream Queens, and it’s something that I think all of us should keep in mind who undertake any creative endeavor. Joke. What was that piece of advice and and what does it mean to you?
Joke: The advice is pressure is a privilege.
Biagio: Pressure is a privilege.
Joke: And this was taught to us. And actually I think it was addressed. It addressed to our Scream Queens by John Homa, the legendary acting coach, not only of the show, but in Hollywood in general. Pressure is a privilege. And he talked about it as a sense of when you are under pressure, you feel there’s a lot of pressure in your job or there’s a lot for you to do, or, you know, it’s a big moment. You know, for the actors, it was, you know, pulling the scene off or, you know, as a producer of, you know, I have to deliver the show a good show all the time on budget. There’s a lot of pressure there. And he explained that pressure is a privilege because for you to feel that pressure, it means someone has trusted you to do that job. Someone either hired you or someone gave you that job because they believed you could do it. And that is a privilege. And for that, you must do everything you can to fulfill on that trust and to do a good job. And that was really cool. I mean, that’s a different way of looking at pressure. And we all get scared at times. You know, we get overwhelmed or we’re like, wow, shoot, how am I going to pull that off? How are we going to do that? Shoot. Well, and and it’s nice. Instead of just thinking about the, the negative feelings of that pressure, thinking about it from the positive feelings that someone believes, you can do this, someone has trusted you to do this. Someone’s even given you the budget, or someone has given you the access, or someone has said, okay, you go do this. And that’s where that pressure comes from. So we we use it as a mantra here a lot.
Biagio: Yes. We do.
Joke: Not just people that we’re dealing with or we remind them pressure is a privilege, but just also for us, you know, if you’re working on multiple shows or even just one really incredible pilot that you’re trying to pull off and all that stuff where it’s very normal, even for us to, you know, go to bed and be like, oh man, how is this all going to come together? A little scared about how we’re going to pull this one out?
Biagio: That happens more often than you might think.
Joke: Yes, we are all human here. And so that’s when we tell each other. Pressure is a privilege. And it does it does help put it in context. I mean, it doesn’t make the pressure any less pressure, but it does help put a more positive spin on it.
Biagio: What does. And listen, let’s let’s call it like it is. Some people thrive under pressure. Some people crack under pressure. We’ve hired both kinds only to learn later, you know just what kind of pressure handler they are. And especially, I mean, listen, every business has its own kind of pressures. Obviously, we understand the entertainment industry because this is where we’ve worked now for longer than I care to admit. But especially in our business, the pressure can get ratcheted so high. You know, networks can ask for a lot. Budgets can shrink, creative ideas can be really big. And and you really want to pull them off the right way, only to start seeing all sorts of obstacles in your way. And it’s not a stretch to say that over the course of a shoot day, a shoot week, and an entire production schedule for a project, the pressure grows every single moment. And yeah, like joke pointed out, that can just scare the heck out of you. But it’s funny because I think the Scream Queens, you know, which was one of our very first big shows as a production company, you know, being to fairly young executive producers being handed the reins of a large show, working with Lionsgate and VH1, knowing that we’re essentially doing a television show that was going to end up supporting the saw franchise. Pressure was high. And so I think that it was kind of fortuitous that the the advice came along at that point, because I can remember doing Scream Queens and Humor saying to the actresses, pressure is a privilege. And that was something he would repeat often both on and off screen. And just, you know, that’s the way you have to think about pressure if you want to stay sane. And I think that’s true. I think it’s really helped us.
Joke: Yeah. I mean, and to me, it’s such a great saying because it translates to any business, right? I mean, I’m sure if you’re a surgeon and you’re about to cut someone’s body open or their brain open, you’re like, what am I doing here? But, you know, it’s a lot of pressure not to mess up at that point, but it’s a privilege because that person is trusting their life in your hands and because they believe you will treat it with all the care that it deserves. So I think that there is something, you know, we’ve talked about to try to not have the pressure overwhelm you. You have to compartmentalize it at some point, and you have to you have to focus on the task at hand. But when it does creep up, it’s important to to look at it as a privilege, because at the end of the day, it is. If there’s no pressure on you, it means no one’s asking you to do anything. No one has any expectations of you. And so therefore there’s no pressure. So for someone to have expectations of you, for someone to have trusted you with either a budget or access or you know, their life story or whatever it is, that is a privilege. So. So yeah, on that note, this week, as we’re feeling a lot of pressure from all sides, we are reminding ourselves pressure is a privilege. And we figured why not share it here?
Biagio: Absolutely. Hey, listen, if you’re not feeling any pressure, you’re probably not trying hard enough, right? So, you know, feel that pressure, embrace it. And remember those great words of the fine John Homa. Pressure is a privilege. And speaking of which, if you’d like to feel some pressure from us and possibly team up on a unscripted television show down the line, you know what to do. By now. You’ve heard the podcast. Just head on over to Producing Unscripted. Com, sign up for the newsletter, follow the directions and you can pitch your your unscripted television concepts to us. And if it’s something we feel that we can be helpful with, we may just team up with you. In the meantime, we’re off to work on three projects today, so we’ll be feeling that pressure. But honey, that pressure is what?
Joke: It’s a privilege.
Biagio: It’s a privilege. All right, see you all in two weeks, everybody.
Joke: Bye bye.
Unidentified Voice: Producing Unscripted with Joke and BiagioGeo.
