IS THAT A SHOWREEL IN YOUR POCKET?

“Oh boy”, drools my agent, eyeing the DVD in my hand, “Is that Tape for me?”

My agent loves ‘tape’ – those five minute, well crafted ‘mini-shows’, (actually on DVD – but are still referred to as the old VHS version of them), which introduce your new pitch to the world in the most TV friendly way; on TV.

Wow, does he love tape. He loves it more than writing the words ‘packaging fee’ in a contract. Tape is perhaps his favoritist thing in the whole wide world.

The reason he really likes tape is that on tape your idea is already plain to see - it’s developed, clear and above all - especially for my agent - it doesn’t need any explanation. Most production companies now shoot tape for their pitches. It saves time, confusion and can really leapfrog a whole bunch of that killer time they call ‘development’, (which I’ve recently heard defined by one disgruntled producer as ‘the period of time it takes for your network executive to actually understand the idea’).

So, when do you shoot tape and how do you do it?

If it was possible I’d say shoot tape for every idea, and shoot it as soon as soon and in as short a period of time as you can. Now, unless you’ve been prescribed the Fountain of Cash drug - or if you’re ON some form of drug - this is almost impossible.

So how to decide WHICH ideas to shoot tape for?

This week I have to make that decision myself. I have two ideas; one is a big, blow-em-up science show, the other a tough talking ‘Intervention’ type format. In the case of the ‘Intervention’ show I have ‘talent’ (IE a person who I think will make a great host). I don’t yet have faces for the science show, but the idea is more complicated to ’sell’, and could benefit from a good tape to make it clear.

So, which one will I choose? Vote now!

Well, I’ve decided to make tape for the ‘Intervention’ type show. Why? Well, the primary reason is that it’s much closer to being a tv show. It’s a clear, simple new twist on a familiar format, (and that’s a total bonus!), and it has great talent attached, so will be that much clearer for the execs to ‘get’.

More importantly, as a production company I’ll see return on this idea much faster than the science show which we still have to cast - even if it is the most Mythbustingtastic idea ever.

The final, vital reason I’ve gone this way is that I know for almost no money we can produce a great looking reel that looks at least as good as comparable shows on tv. And THIS IS IMPORTANT.

Because, there is one DOWNSIDE to shooting tape.

No matter how many caveats you give, no matter how much benefit-of-the-doubt the execs give you, whatever you show them, it WILL look like the show you’re trying to sell. So, if you’ve got your mate to shoot it for you, it’s badly lit, you stole some shots from a VHS tape you found dangling from a tree - THIS IS what the execs watching your tape will believe is not only your very best idea of the show, but also will take it as a demonstration of your very best work.

I cannot tell you the number of times people show me horrible pieces of tape with bad/no sound, crappy edits and terrible music choices - and the young producer looks up at me when it’s finished and says something like, “oh, of course, the show will be BETTER than this”… Er… No, it won’t, because as far as I can tell this IS your show. You haven’t had networks mess with the idea, or deadly time constraints. This is the show you’re tying to sell me.

So, only ever shoot tape if it HELPS your show. And if the finished tape doesn’t live up to the show in your head - dump it. Quickly. It’s actually better to go to a pitch with no tape at all if it’s anything less than good.

But, finally, another great reason for shooting good tape is because, as my agent found out this week, if execs don’t want the show you’re pitching, they might still love what you do. And this week alone, we’ve already had two calls from networks who know us only through our tapes… and they’re calling US wanting us to pitch for shows they’re developing in house.

And my agent REALLY loves that.

THAT REALITY TV SHOW ‘LOOK’

It’s EMMY TIME!!!  

So, the Primetime Emmy nominations came out yesterday, and as I scanned down to the Reality TV show sections, (to see which of my friends would be buying me drinks this week - and which shows I SHOULD have worked on),  my finger suddenly stopped dead on a strange section.  

“BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY IN A REALITY OR UNSCRIPTED TV SERIES” 

Now, like a lot of people in tv, I’m a filmmaker who has been strangely drawn to the fast turn-over world of TV – so, let me tell you something… there are FEW reality shows on TV to which the word ‘Cinematography’ should be applied.‘Lovely’, perhaps. ‘Generally in focus, and sometimes in the frame’, certainly’. ‘Somehow caught by a static night-vision camera’ – you betcha. But, ‘Cinematography’? I think not.

While stuck in a house in the wilds of middle-America some years ago, (shooting a well known series about the TV friendly form of swapping your wife), it struck me that what the show really needed was some decisions to overcome the inherent problem of these shows; that they all look the same, and worse - that ‘reality tv show look’ simply doesn’t tell the story well.

It was pretty much my first major show, after doing a lot of cable – so, this was a great time to shine in network primetime – and I felt it should look the part. The tv equivalent of putting on its Sunday-best.  So, I chatted with the Director of Photography. Now, he’d been flown into the country to shoot this, and he’d shot commercials and feature-films. It was clear the production company DID, at least, sort of care about how the show looked – so I wanted to use him as I would if I were shooting a drama.  We talked story, scenes, breakdowns of character arcs – mood, lighting. We walked the location every morning before the rest of the crew arrived – and we had secret signals to let each other know when to instigate a certain ‘special move’. Finally, if for no other reason than simply to ensure that each day’s filming looked different from the last, (to give the show a real visual progression over the hour), we came up with a system of shooting in different director’s styles each day.

Monday, first day of the shoot would be bright and fun – “John Hughes”, I’d whisper to the DoP as we prepped the day. He’d nod, and for the rest of the day the shots would be built up with centrally framed mostly three-shots or medium wides, so we could fully appreciate the group dynamic and the general fun reactions people were having.  By day three things had turned… “Polanski”, I coughed as the mood turned dark. Sure enough, the nervous, can’t-quite-see-round-the-door shots flowed – and the scenes looked AWESOME.  

By Friday things had calmed down, and the story turned to the kids, “Spielberg, (pre-Janusz-Kaminski… more like Allen Daviau)”, I winked at the DoP, (that wink was one of our ’secret signals’… We were particularly proud of that one). So, all the practical lamps we could find in the house were placed low down where we could, and we swapped out the bulbs to make them warmer. The kids looked angelic and the scenes were roundly applauded as ‘perfectly shot’. The point is we REALLY thought about how to shoot this show. But, this case, I assure you is VERY, VERY, VERY uncommon in reality tv.

I interviewed an assistant-producer this week who’d worked on an enormously successful show about ‘good-old blue-collar working folk doing a dangerous job’. He told me that not only do they not have a director or producer with the team, they have a ‘Cinematographer’ who shoots all sorts of pretty stuff, without much knowledge of the story, and the assistant-producer shot most of the show himself because with nobody else there, who’d shoot it?  

“It’s really just point it at the men and let them do their thing”, he told me “I shoot it mostly on auto”.

So, back to my finger stopped dead over the EMMY listings. This show got nominated for Best Cinematography.

Independents Day - (or How I learned to stop hating the reality TV monster machines)

So, this week I want to pat myself on the back. For one whole year I’ve been paid by my own company, and only my company.

We’ve only been going as an Indie company for just over a year – and it’s time to reflect on all the good things that means.  

First off – I’m my own boss. So I get to call myself into my office and ask myself to take dictation, take my own messages – and learn my own annoying tastes in complicated coffee.  

Second – The money I make is the money I earn – if I don’t sell tv shows I get to enjoy the fruits of my labors.

Third – I decide how much work to do – Yes! If I don’t stay late again, work through the night and work another weekend to finish those proposals the network have demanded to have by the next approvals board to decide about taking your show to series, it’s entirely my choice.  

Yes! Choice and self determination is the way forward.  

There are many reasons for being your own boss, and those listed above are only some of them. The others include; not foaming at the mouth when you read that the big, non-union network reality show you slogged your guts out on last season to make the “tiny budget” work, just got sold for $70M to a cable station, (no, I won’t get any of it – not even a thank you card or a picture of my old boss sitting in his brand new rocket car). Not looking at your weekly rate and imagining if the production company will ever make it go UP, rather than making you work 6 day weeks “oh, and whatever other time you need to do the show”. And finally, maybe, one day having some breathing room so that you can really sit back and THINK about how to make a show better.  

These are the reasons I started my company. I have two awesomely talented partners, and they were two other great reasons, but, not giving someone else the benefits of my hard work is pretty much my A1 reason.  

Now, I’m not going to tell you it’s been easy – far from it… I haven’t bitten my nails so much about the rent check being due for a long, long time. And, if you’ve been reading about my rollercoaster ride here in my blog, you’ll already know my attitude towards getting excited about ‘great news’.  

I guess the only, single thing I miss about working for ‘the man’ has been someone patting my head gently, saying the tv producer equivalent of ‘that’ll do pig’. So, hence my self patting frenzy today.

Because, even though it might be hard, frustrating and strangely amusing in these months – in the not too distant future I may very well get to drive my own Rocket Car.