Short Film vs TV Pilot
- Thread starter sfoster
- Start date
I know some youtube comedy channels do great, and some product review channels.
I don't know of any dramatic narrative youtube series being profitable like that. If you can refer me to any I'd appreciate it.
There is nothing stopping someone from selling it as a TV pilot.
I have the same question as maz; who buys TV pilots made this
way?
You can't make money from a short film because no one buys
or pays to see a short film. Find someone who buys TV pilots
made this way and there is noting stopping someone from selling
it.
Putting it up on Youtube? Absolutely! Maybe even making money?
Why not?
I guess I don't know anything about how TV pilots are sold.
I figured you could just have the pilot created and then let a network watch it
Perhaps I have some reading to do
Generally networks/studios commission their own TV pilots though. The only situation I've heard of actually produced shows being bought up is by streaming services like Hulu... but again, that's when an entire season is already in the can rather than just the pilot.
Amazon Studios will look at self-produced pilots, but really they're more interested in scripts (and even then only if you're an established name).
Amazon Studios will look at self-produced pilots, but really they're more interested in scripts (and even then only if you're an established name).
Well, like you said about yourself, I have no idea really how pilots get produced.
I've always remembered Seinfeld talking about making the pitch...though to whom...?
But maybe there's a first time for everything. Maybe your self-produced YouTube pilot TV show will be the one to make that breakthrough. We can hope that such a thing might be, or might become, possible?
I know next to nothing about it, but I'm guessing that I might be happy just to achieve the kind of success enjoyed by The Guild.
Or might you be better off pitching it to networks or studios, or maybe to Netflix or Amazon. (Are they actually networks in their own right now?)
Good luck with it!
I've always remembered Seinfeld talking about making the pitch...though to whom...?
But maybe there's a first time for everything. Maybe your self-produced YouTube pilot TV show will be the one to make that breakthrough. We can hope that such a thing might be, or might become, possible?
I know next to nothing about it, but I'm guessing that I might be happy just to achieve the kind of success enjoyed by The Guild.
Or might you be better off pitching it to networks or studios, or maybe to Netflix or Amazon. (Are they actually networks in their own right now?)
Good luck with it!
The same backwards thinking as afflicts most no/nano budget feature makers is what would stop them!
You cannot just make a film (feature or short) and then broadcast it on TV or distribute it to commercial cinemas! In other words, you cannot sell a short as a TV pilot, you can only sell an actual TV pilot as a TV pilot, IE., a film/short made to TV broadcast specs. Unless you have a broadcast spec compliant short/film all you have in effect is some highly developed pitching material. As a general rule, broadcasters do not take indie content and pump in the time and cash to make it broadcast-able or at least I've never heard of a broadcaster doing this. If they liked the concept/content enough, they would more than likely just commission a re-make.
G
That would be cool with me if they do a re-make. As long as they pay me for the concept.
I don't need a treated audio room to make things meet broadcast specifications do I? I understand the advantages of it but I'm just talking about if I want to broadcast without breaking any laws.
There's got to be some kind of text book I can read. I've been posting here for a while now but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to say anything about sound without getting contradicted by someone more knowledgeable.
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Yes but in effect that means all the time, effort and money put into making the short in the first place has been wasted. I'm not saying that some form of visual aid during pitching might not be useful but actually making a complete pilot episode knowing that it's all going to be dumped seems pointless. Not to mention that your finalised realisation of your script could just as easily work against you as for you.
To just meet minimum legal requirements, then "no", you don't need a treated mix room. However, meeting minimum legal requirements (CALM Act, ATSC A85) is only one step towards meeting specific broadcaster audio requirements. As an extreme example, it would be possible to meet legal A85 requirements with a hideously crappy mix (inaudible dialogue for example) which obviously won't get past the front door of any broadcaster's ingest dept even though it's A85 compliant. There's no easy answer to your question as different broadcasters have different expectations of quality. To meet the expectations of the smallest TV stations you could almost certainly get away with an untreated mix room. As you move higher up the food chain, an accurate mix environment becomes more essential.
No, not only have I never heard of such a book but I can't even imagine how such a book could be written! Modern technology makes sound for film/TV appear pretty easy and straight forward and indeed for home videos and self hosting it is. But, with commercial theatrical systems and TV broadcast we're dealing with a whole range of complex technology, complex distribution models and market requirements, complex consumer protections AND usually higher aesthetic quality expectations as well! All of which means that at the commercial level there really is no alternative to specialist sound for picture audio post professionals and to become an audio post pro requires a considerable amount of technical knowledge (which regularly needs updating), practical experience and the right equipment. Unlike music mixing/production, it can't be learned from books alone, from audio schools/courses or be entirely self-taught.
Radio and small (local and public access) TV stations use fairly complex multi-band limiters installed on the broadcast chain to smash all the audio into a broadcast-able signal. In these cases you don't need much specialist knowledge and can get away with almost anything, as you can with Youtube (and other hosting platforms) which effectively have no quality controls or technical requirements. You can also get away with almost anything even at the higher commercial levels in some of the less well developed countries/territories. Youtube is primarily aimed at members of the public sharing their home videos, so I don't see anything changing there any time soon. The bigger, more commercial VOD providers have and are introducing tighter audio quality controls and there's even rumblings in the world of Radio. "Mastered for iTunes" is just such an initiative and the EBU (European Broadcast Union) is currently working on an entirely new set of specs for European radio broadcasters which reduces the variability and quality issues caused by crushing everything with broadcast limiters.
Learning who and what type/level of audio post personnel you need is certainly extremely useful (and essential at the commercial level), as is learning how to direct them and enable them to do their job efficiently/effectively but actually trying to learn commercial audio post yourself is a futile waste of your time (unless you actually want to be a specialist audio post pro)!
G
YouTube has changed it's policy towards sponsorships. They want a piece of the action now by forcing users to do the sponsoring through their add program.
(I guess they feel like: "Why are some people getting rich using our service for free?" ?)
When did this happen?
I was at a Youtube seminar earlier this year where they unequivocally stated that the content creator keeps 100% of the proceedings. At least from Youtube itself.
They did say they want to know that there are sponsorships on any film. Within their interface, it allows you to exclude advertising that conflicts with your sponsors.
They may have changed their policy or it may be country specific.
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/154235
It seems to be not a complete banishment, but they are rescricting sponsored prerolls and credits.
It seems to be not a complete banishment, but they are rescricting sponsored prerolls and credits.
I assume the TLDR is: Don't make adverts for your sponsors if you're also serving Youtube ads (being a partner).
I see that as being reasonably fair. Not sure where the lines are drawn.
Quite often, the sponsorship (and occasionally affiliate marketing) will earn a channel more than advertising could possibly earn.
I see that as being reasonably fair. Not sure where the lines are drawn.
Quite often, the sponsorship (and occasionally affiliate marketing) will earn a channel more than advertising could possibly earn.
Seinfeld would have made the pitch to a network (or several networks). He was a reasonably successful standup comedian at the time, and he had some good people on board his project apparently IIRC.
Ken Levine's blog (http://kenlevine.blogspot.com) is a good place to read about pilots and that kind of thing.
If you're an independent production company then there's nothing to stop you making a spec pilot, but generally networks order a pilot and then either dump it or take it to series (and then dump it after a few episodes, if they're Fox).