I was chatting with a TV producer friend of mine earlier tonight and happened to mention the faux reality show idea that I plan to shoot the first (and maybe only) episode of later this year. She asked me a bunch of questions and said "Sounds great! Give me a treatment or 20 minutes of video and I'll get it in front of the networks next month." WHAT? I just came up with the idea for this thing last week, I am nowhere near ready to shoot any footage. Does anybody have any really good links to how to do a treatment and pitch that work? Since I am new to this part of the industry, I'm really looking for a paint by numbers sort of format here.
Oh CRAP!
- Thread starter Lucky Hardwood
- Start date
What if you got a ghost writer to help you get some stuff done in time. Meaning hiring a person to write it for you but you'll take the credit for it. Just an idea. Otherwise you will just have to find a way to get it done. You could give the ghost writer direction on what it should have in it. Then let the person write it then critique it. I would think some one would know someone willing to do a work for hire ghost writting for your treatment or first script.
Or hire someone to rewrite your stuff in to the industry standard format so that it is more likely to be picked up by a studio. You would want a writer that is experienced in writing for pitches, teatments, and scripts for studio pickup.
Or hire someone to rewrite your stuff in to the industry standard format so that it is more likely to be picked up by a studio. You would want a writer that is experienced in writing for pitches, teatments, and scripts for studio pickup.
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I believe that I may well have a solid synopsis. I've got my WGA registration and will be soliciting opinions tomorrow.
can't wait to hear how it goes.. sounds like a show i would love to watch..
Thanks! I completely redid the synopsis and logline. When I sent the new logline to my friend, she said, "That line is perfect actually. Just PERFECT!" It was a text, so I'm quoting. I would post the new "perfect" logline, but she asked me to keep things under wraps until after the meeting.
For those of you who are interested in the progress, or lack thereof, of this show pitch I have an update. The update is that the meeting hasn't happened yet. Originally, the meeting was supposed to be in the middle of October. That date was pushed because of production delays on another show. The network guy was then going to be in town at the end of October. I had to nix the meeting that he wanted on the 31st due to my plans to be in New York at that time. Now, my New York trip has been cancelled so I'm available. Too bad because the main player on the other show lied and was under contract to a different show at that time, so the show that the guy that I'm going to be pitching to can't use the slut (she actually is a slut, that's why she was cast in the first place) and all the stuff with her in it has to be reshot with a new slut. The latest news is that I'm looking at the end of November before this meeting can happen.
Uhh, I don't think it's a great idea to be calling one of your actresses a slut.
She's not my actress and she answered an ad for slutty women who want to be on TV so she's a self proclaimed slut. Sadly, she's also a lying slut and screwed up the whole production schedule of the that show which messed up the timetable for my pitch meeting.
I was chatting with my friend last night and she said that she has gotten interest from other, larger, networks and that we may have multiple pitches for this idea before the end of the year. At this point, I just want to make my damned pilot and get it over with. If this drags out much longer, I may just start auditioning actors and get some props together along with a skeleton crew and film the thing on my own.
I just found out last night that the song I'm hoping to license as the theme song is owned by Danny Elfman and was licensed to a movie some time back as an exclusive. The good news is that the contract term for that agreement ends in six months. The bad news is that, being an Elfman tune, I shudder to think of how much it will cost.
I had a breakfast meeting about the show today (yesterday by the calendar). I met with a show developer who plans for me to pitch the show to the Producer of Swamp People. He said that we shouldn't have any problems selling the show. He also said that, after talking with the Producer, I should be ready to pitch two other shows as well. Fortunately, I have the seeds for two other shows. Now I have an unknown amount of time to get two other concepts together enough to pitch the rough sketch ideas when I meet this Producer. The developer says that it's okay if the ideas aren't fully fleshed out but I should be able to talk about them and have loglines in place. It is starting to look like this thing might actually happen. We shall see.
Yeah this is exciting haha, I just now read through all of your posts and want to hear more.
It is a strange and wonderful ride. I hope that the show sells and everything works out, but I'm not counting on it. The thing to remember here is that the whole idea for this thing was so that I could have a short film to make and show in the hopes that it would help me get funding to make my first feature. My original concept for this was something that I could script, cast, shoot, edit, and release for a relatively small budget. If the show gets bought and made, that helps me along the path to the feature even more.
Today I was told by the developer that he wants a script ready to go in two weeks. How do you script a fake reality show? I think that, if I script out the dialog and such, the show will not ring true.
I get that. My question is how do I actually script the whole thing? I have been working along the lines of casting method actors and having them embody their roles and throw planned situations at them. We would tell them basically what they should do but let them improv the reaction/dialog. If I don't like how they do it, just have them do it again until I do. Her said that he wants a shooting script. I am out of my depth with this whole TV thing.
Lucky Hardwood, I've read your helpful posts on other threads, and saw that you donated an old camera to DreamBig. You seem like a really good guy and I hope this turns out great for you!
I have a plug to make. If you end up shooting/casting this yourself and if you have a suitable role, my daughter (age 16) would love to audition. She has a lot of improv training, which isn't necessarily about comedy but about thinking on your feet to respond realistically in a scene, so she'd do well whether this was fully scripted or semi-scripted. Her resume and head shot are here: http://resumes.actorsaccess.com/nadia_g
If my plug is out of order, I apologize, and please disregard. In any case, I sincerely wish you the best of luck with your project!
I have a plug to make. If you end up shooting/casting this yourself and if you have a suitable role, my daughter (age 16) would love to audition. She has a lot of improv training, which isn't necessarily about comedy but about thinking on your feet to respond realistically in a scene, so she'd do well whether this was fully scripted or semi-scripted. Her resume and head shot are here: http://resumes.actorsaccess.com/nadia_g
If my plug is out of order, I apologize, and please disregard. In any case, I sincerely wish you the best of luck with your project!