Anonymous Reality TV producer has worked in the UK and the USA, and has worked on some of the biggest reality shows on TV. He owns his own company, and for the time-being is writing anonymously to protect his future income. In time, he may reveal his true identity. And I bet you nobody cares.
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November 18, 2008
I’m often asked how you can start working in Reality TV - and someone I’m working with now suggested I pass on to you some of the advice I gave her this week… so here it is, lucky you! Usually when someone asks me how to get into Reality TV, after I’ve checked their head for injury, I say something like - “Well, what do you want to DO in Reality TV?” Do you want to direct it? Shoot it? Write… oh, sorry… no writing jobs in Reality TV of course… Silly me.
People almost every time answer that they want to produce Reality TV. This is perfectly acceptable, it shows drive and a vision for their career - but just know that when you ask this of most Reality TV producers it makes you sound a little like the work placement kid who walks into the New York Investment Bank and tells the CEO that he thinks he’s ready to take over the reigns now.
I don’t know what it is that people hear about reality TV producers, but it can’t be that they’re all wealthy and pretty much rule the TV roost, could it? If this is the case, I hope they’re right… because that would be cool.
You see, here’s the thing about Reality TV. Say what you want about it’s low moral value, its outrageous working hours and it’s treatment of the public, (I know I do), but at its heart is an industry run by people who LOVE what they do. They’re passionate about it. Some of them are even GOOD at it.
Often this goes unnoticed, due, in large part to the general lack of appreciation for the art of the work. Yes. I just said art. Doing what we do is a skill, takes practice and experience and that takes time.
Now, we’ve all heard the stories of the kid who came up with this show and made it big, they’re definitely out there. Here’s a true story. A cameraman friend of mine was working on a big network show with some snotty kid as a PA one year, who didn’t know his arse from his elbow, but was hired by the same kid the very next year. He’d come up with some massive reality tv hit show, one you’d have heard of. This time my friend doesn’t call him snotty kid, but ‘Executive Producer’.
So, it CAN happen. Keep working at it - and then please hire me. But, don’t expect it. It really does take an enormous amount of luck, cash or nepotism to get you to that point.
So, back to where we were - “what do you want to DO in reality TV?”
My suggestion for places to start would be office or on-set PA if you’re just out from undergrad, or research or Associate Producer positions if you’re post grad. Be keen, be smart, listen and ask questions. Don’t take my job and we’ll be just fine together.
Remember the two routes to tv and film production - the production route and the studio or network route. So this is a very important decision. Which way do you want to go?
You might decide you want to start right at the top, you can’t be doing with the rough and tumble of getting coffee and carrying flight cases, so you want to go to where the desks are well polished, the lunches are long and the logos outside the skyscrapers are enormous. The networks. Where the real money is and where the greenlight power resides.
But, be careful what you wish for. You can start your path in a great gig at a tv network and eventually become a fantastically gifted TV executive over many years… but if all you really wanted was to direct or produce TV you’ll likely have missed the boat. TV execs are gifted at a great many things, (I’m told some of them can juggle), but knowing how to MAKE producers MAKE tv shows for them, and actually MAKING a tv show are poles apart. Something that I often imagine I can hear in the tv executive’s voice when he’s asking how difficult it would be to change something or other.
But, if what you’re after is a career developing ideas, handing them off to be screwed up by producers who spend their lives making yours’ more difficult, when taming prima-donna talent gives you a buzz, when poaching some big show from another network is what gets you up in the morning, then I’d say get yourself into a TV network immediately. But don’t forget your security pass, or to fill in all that paperwork, the weekly development meetings when you’re told the budgets have all got to be cut again, and that none of the shows you’re bringing in fit the new corporate tag-line of “OUR NETWORK (Insert network name here): WHY JUST WATCH TV WHEN YOU CAN LITERALLY SMASH IT OPEN AND LIVE INSIDE IT?” Oh, and don’t forget that your boss, the person you attached yourself to for four years of hard work to ensure that you’d get a promotion to a VP of Something title, will almost certainly get canned after only a year in the post. It’s the circle of life.
I remember a joke a very experienced reality TV producer told me last year… “What does a TV executive call ‘six months’? …. A career”.
Anyway, good luck to you. I hope if this is what you want to do that you pick up my shows and even better, lobby for your bosses to give me an overhead deal to pay for my team. Here’s the biggest secret to being a TV executive in my book, one which will immediately set you apart from most of those out there working today… Actually watch tv, and if you could avoid giving a note simply because you feel you have to, do SOMETHING you’d earn the undying trust and respect of the producers out there working hard, extremely long hours to try to make you look as good as they possibly can.
You might also get lucky and work with that rare breed in network TV; an extremely experienced independent producer who has taken the bait and given up life on the road to come work for the network. Money’s great, kudos and hours are fantastic… but they get stupendously bored. They’ll make a great splash, turn in some mindbending shows that get critically acclaimed but seldom watched in large numbers, and then who get fired or they jump ship because they’re going insane with the parking passes and the sound of the photocopier, and the inevitable drum-drum-drumming which signals the end is near. These guys don’t last long.
So, what if you want to go into production, the practical side?
This week I worked with a great young Producer who had worked her way up from in-house AP to producer in six months, she’s hard working and sharp as a nail. She also came from Harvard, so that helped. She’d seen a posting on a message board and applied, got her feet behind a desk as an assistant researcher for a few months before bagging the gig as an AP - and proved herself. And now, here she is working with me this week, filming on a tropical island (I’m serious, it’s lovely!). Sure, she’s got a ton to learn, she’d be the first to tell you that, but she’s proven she’s ok with that, and she wants to hear what she’s doing wrong at every step. She’s going to go far. And take my job soon. I should probably not let her come back from this island… I should… er… ‘vote her off’…. Text or call in to register your vote… Press *1 to have her ‘disappeared’…
So, this would be the first port of call, check out your school or alum message boards, put up postings yourself asking to be hooked-up, (you never know who you went to school with who might be Mark Burnett’s secret love-child), and try not pitch yourself as anything other than simply smart and eager to learn.
Seriously, it doesn’t matter how many student films you’ve produced, my advice would be to not use that as justification for calling yourself a Producer when you apply. Let that stuff drip out as you work, your employers will be thrilled to think they have someone on their staff who is also a filmmaker. It’ll take them back to their roots and they’ll probably take you under their wing. But save it for the wrap party, not the interview.
Secondly, I’d suggest you take a spin around Craigslist. Production companies are generally on the prowl for a deal, and they’re very likely to try a posting for interns, PA’s (especially short term pick-ups for a quick shoot or for an out of town production visiting for a short period of time). Go and spend time on sets. This is great for networking, but, more important for getting an understanding of on-set etiquette, the hierarchy. Nothing is more likely to end your employment than stepping on someone’s toes, and you won’t even know you’ve done anything wrong until they just don’t hire you again. The easiest way of stepping on toes is to dis’ someone on set, so get to learn how to behave on set.
The other position you could take would be ‘ON-SET PA’. This is the hardest job in show business - if you’re good. If you’re bad, you’ll definitely have some great gigs, some awesome times, travel all over and you’ll think you’re the bees knees… then suddenly it’ll dry up because enough people know all you do is slack off and take too long to buy sharpies. Unless you have something else to fall back on after that, you’re done. And you’ll forever say that you were unlucky you worked with such terrible production companies, that’s why you were prevented from moving up.
So, while I’m here, let me speak to any of you PLANNING on becoming a lazy on-set PA - yeah, please listen up. Just tell me when you come to the interview that all you really want to do is slope off and not-so-secretly smoke weed, that your car is only a lend-er from your mom and you aren’t insured to drive it, or that you’re incapable of reading a map and you possess no initiative whatsoever, that you always misjudge distances when driving and have a predilection to scraping production vehicles as you drive close by them… that you can’t read your own lunch orders list and that your reaction times are so slow that when an executive producer turns a corner and clearly catches you goofing off and not doing what they’d asked you to be doing, that you only have time enough to laugh a smile and a look that says ‘ok, you caught me’… Because it would really help me not have to live through all these true-life scenarios ever again.
To the rest of you, here are some great resources to finding work on shows.
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/tfr/
http://jobs.myspace.com/a/ms-jobs/list/q-Reality+TV
…and here are some links to some UK resources, they’re all shooting over here, and might be keen to have some resumes from people over here ready to work:
http://www.productionbase.co.uk/
http://www.walltowalltalent.co.uk/Default.aspx
http://www.broadcastfreelancer.com/broadcast/Home.do
Ultimately, I’ll go return to my mantra, if you watch tv, watch to the end of the shows, see which companies make the shows you like, look for their logos - then look them up on line. Most of them have a page for contacting them, or for submitting a resume. Then, if you live in LA or NYC keep reminding them you’re out there, perhaps every month or so, (but don’t hound them), if you don’t live in LA or NYC and there’s no TV production going on near where you live, then try a local TV station, check on-line for bigger productions who might be filming near you, and go over to volunteer, (they’re going to turn you away, but keep at it, finally they’ll not be able to resist a keen, free pair of hands I PROMISE you!).
Alternatively, if you’re ready to commit, really ready to go for it… I’d suggest looking on line for the cheapest possible flight you can find, give yourself a window of 6 months to open yourself up to as many deals that are out there, then; book it. Find a friend in LA on Facebook or My Space who you know has a couch… then try to book a gig, even for free, for that period you’re here. This option TOTALLY blows. I know. But it could be your only way of doing it - and it might just work. And if it all works out, you’ll get one lead. Maybe that one will even pay! And then, if you’re good, keen and work hard without complaining, I know you’ll one day be on a desert island, with me wondering how to dispatch you before the shoot ends… Good luck!
November 8, 2008
So, a few months ago I made the case that the Olympics were the biggest reality show on Earth. I’m going to add to that a tie for first place - The US Presidential Election.
For anyone crouching round a tv anywhere in the World this week you would have seen something pretty amazing. But, the election of Barack Obama wasn’t the only amazing thing you might have seen on Tuesday night.
You would also have seen a LOT of the footage being made which you’ll see in archive clips in movies in the future. Imagine all those clips you see of JFK talking about ‘choosing to go to the moon’… or FDR talking about wanting to build a lot of bridges.
But, it wasn’t so much the history making moments on Tuesday that have scored their mark in TV history. From Obama’s use of buying enormous amounts of airtime, to his understanding of the language of TV. For my money, it wasn’t any of the technological or Gen-X elements of Obama’s campaign that proved the most powerful, it was the fact that in this day and age it’s still the simplest understanding of TV language that I think for me stands out the most.
I want to talk today about the role that the different approaches to televising the candidates may have played in this historic election, and how having a basic, yet clear understanding of how people watch tv that can make the difference.
First, we have to agree to ignore WHAT is was the candidates saying in this little breakdown, because we’re talking about how things looked - how the quiet tv in the bar, or the hubbub of CNN passively in the corner of the living room, still managed to project an idea of power or weakness, into the brains of the voting public.
This is the very language of TV we’re talking about - this is the same language that governs Reality TV whether we’re thinking of Rock of Love, a Survivor episode - or electing the most powerful dude in the World.
Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher used to ensure that the press-pack was always placed somewhere BELOW her eyeline. The result was that every photograph or TV news shot of her ended up looking up at her. And what would a psychologist say about this? He’d say that subconsciously to the viewers at home she looked powerful and we felt subject to her.
So, let’s think about some of the iconic moments of the election.
My favorite was those much vaunted Town Hall meetings, and principally the Town Hall Debate, which the McCain camp had lobbied for and been ‘victorious’ at getting. Do you remember these? These were the debate which occurred ‘in the round’ with audience members all around, and with none of the familiar officiousness of a regular debate, allowing the candidates to walk around, pause, or hang off a bar-stool like Tony Bennett. In my view, watching these debates avidly as a reality TV producer, I thought these were colossally BAD for McCain. He looked shorter, older, and more distant and less at ease than Barack Obama, who calmly swooped around the stage, walked like a young man and, frankly, looked better from behind. 
Now, content-wise, who knows, they stuck to their talking points - but the distinct impression I took away was that like him or not, the people watching at home would somehow feel that Obama was a stronger leader. Somewhere, something in their minds would have tripped. 
The second most important moment in the race was Barack Obama’s fantastic acceptance speech on Tuesday night. First off - get extras - for any epic you’re going to need extras. If you can count Oprah in amongst them you’re all good. He had 250,000 people there, he had, I counted, 6 cranes, a blimp and as many helicopters as they have available in Chicago. McCain’s camp had a good number of extras, and only an endless supply of Country and Western singers rather than Oprah - but there was something restrained about it - almost like those times I’ve produced the last episode of a series nobody expects is coming back. It’s all there, but not quite.
The important thing about Tuesday night’s speech was to unify, to project Presidential qualities, without too much fanfare, because this was an acceptance speech rather than a victory party. That was smart producing, anyone who wanted to party was already partying - it’s the glum faces flicking over from the McCain concession speech who Obama’s event was aimed at impressing.
My final - extra special favorite tv moment on the trail was Sarah Palin’s Katie Couric interview… I think even more people saw that interview than who watched the acceptance speech. Now, in this case let’s definitely not forget the amusing content, or the absolute twaddle spoken. Just because here, the TV made more of an impact on the race than any number of posed debates, or spun press conferences. Here’s tv at its very best. No amount of editing could possibly have rescued that mess - indeed, I suspect the editors at CBS news did their very best to clean that interview up to make it clear they weren’t trying to totally trash Palin. They had the material they needed.
I LOVE TV.
So, I’ll keep it short this week - I’m off to shoot a nature show this week - something I’ve not done in a while, I’ll be looking forward to filling you in next week!
October 26, 2008
Ok, so, I’m sorry I’ve been away for a couple of weeks. I always hate reading ‘sorry I didn’t blog’ at the top of these things, but in this case last week I got a late afternoon call to go and take over directing a network show in the wilds of the mid-west - so at least it was at least relevant to my blog!
I’ve recently been blogging about some ‘process’ stuff, agents and lawyers, and about how they fit into the life of a Reality TV producer. This week I’m picking up from my blog about lawyers with a blog about Contracts. It’s not sexy, but I think it’s really important to be reminded of the basics whether you’re a young producer starting out, or a seasoned executive. Brace yourself.
In the olden days when one caveman asked another caveman if he’d agree to come and help him make some fire, they were as good as their word. Minutes later grilled mammoth burgers all round.
Then one day, a disgruntled caveman, let’s call him ‘UG’, wandered over the hill in search of his missing fire-making-buddy. You can imagine his anger when UG saw his friend crouched over some sticks starting a fire for someone else. “WTF?!” UG exclaimed forcefully, (although truth be told, every exclamation he made sounded forceful and pretty much indistinguishable from anything else). The unabashed fire-buddy looked up, and earnestly as he could said “This guy is cooking me Bison. It’s just business”.
The next day UG became a lawyer.
This is at the heart of every contract you will ever be a party to in TV or Film. When things happen to us that we don’t like it makes us feel bad. The Contract is our way of trying to avoid feeling bad. It’s very basic and very human.
Just to be clear, it’s important for me to make the point right up front that a contract doesn’t have to be tens of pages filled with long words. A contract can be a verbal one, (remember Kim Basinger’s verbal agreement to appear in Boxing Helena? That reportedly cost her $8M), it could be an email, a single line on the back of a napkin - provided it has your signature at the bottom, and you both agree, it’s a contract.
The problem with contracts though, is that not enough people know that contracts are a preventative step rather than an aggressive one. This is especially true when we’re starting out, and we’re dealing with people who haven’t been doing this for years. So in the process of trying to cover all the ways we can avoid getting each other screwed - some people end up feeling threatened and bad.
Sometimes, more often than you’d believe, the very act of trying to get a contract signed with someone is the very thing that ends the relationship - or worse, plants the seeds that will eventually bring the project down.
Here’s an example. I had to do a contract recently where I was engaging a sports team for a reality show. The guys were all great, the promo tape we’d shoot I knew would be fantastic, and I knew this show could sell. All I needed before we did anything was a signed contract with this guy giving me exclusivity and the right to produce the show.
Unfortunately, during the process he got the idea that because I was explaining all the ways that we were both protected from being screwed, that I was actually in the process of screwing him. No matter how much I tried to explain to him that these things weren’t actually happening to him, they were just on paper, he just didn’t get it. After many, many hours of explaining, reading and re-explaining he finally agreed to sign.
It was hard work - but without that contract I had no project.
Here’s the biggest, simplest truth about working as a producer or production company in reality TV or feature films… YOU HAVE TO LEARN THE LAW. You have to learn to read contracts and you have to have a basic, working understanding of the very horrible messes you are opening yourself up to if you screw it up at this stage.
Here’s the second biggest, simplest truth that fells many a producer; YOU WON’T WANT TO.
In the haze of excitement about selling your show, getting a gig, or in your desperation to sign someone, you just simply will not take the time to read, I mean REALLY read, the contracts and understand them. Something will get overlooked and you’ll be regretting it in the very near future.
So, some important advice: Read contracts. Read em. Any contract you can read, have a read.
Then, finally, ASK. Do not be afraid to say, ‘I don’t understand what this means’. Sometimes I ask my lawyer to translate a line, or a paragraph - just so I’m crystal clear. I’ll then write that in the margin of my copy so I can explain it to the smart person who asks me later on.
I won’t be the first to say that nobody thinks I went to Harvard. But I know a guy who did. And he’s the guy who get’s paid a decent percentage of my budgets to tell me this stuff. (See last week’s Blog about Lawyers).
In the first few years you will make and sign a lot of contracts. In those contracts you will make a lot of mistakes. They will cost you money and you’ll be very frustrated. I know, I made mistakes. I made one last week - a term I didn’t understand correctly was used and I signed the contract. Turns out that one word means I will have to return a few thousand dollars of cash to a network. But, it’s ok. I know I saved a bunch of other issues from coming up and costing us even more in that contract because I’d worked hard to understand it. You win some, you lose some.
Here’s the second major piece of advice today: It is your responsibility to learn to understand contracts. It’s a very big part of your job.
Here’s an example that might come up in your very first contract… A tv show you create. Great format. Great show. And line 556 of your contract with the production company or network says ‘Producer shall have the right to remove Owner at Producer’s discretion, with no recourse, and no further monies payable to Owner’. So, this is rubbish legalese, but I’m making a point, if you can’t read that sentence and say to yourself, ‘hold on a minute I’m not going to sign that because it says that I can get removed from the show at any moment without being paid a single penny!’, then you definitely need to read more contracts.
Lifesaving? No. VITAL for your future? Certainly.
So, now I’ve hopefully made it clear how important it is for you to understand contracts, now, what should you use them for?
Every time you have an expectation of something from someone you should get yourself a contract. When you start your company, you should write down an agreement between you what you each expect from each other, and what will happen should the company fail. Be honest, be simple.
When you want to sign up a host, or ‘option’ and idea from a producer, writer, journalist, or get the rights to a book, you’ll need a contract.
They’ll become a part of your life - it’s your job to try to keep it as small a part as possible so you can spend more time making reality TV!
At my company, we’ve tried to keep a ‘standard’ set of contracts on hand. This way you don’t have to start from scratch each time you want to sign one, it will also speed up the process. You can even fill in most of the major bits you know, including names and addresses, which will save your lawyer time and you money.
You’ll also need to contract your employees, locations (a location release), and people you shoot (personal releases), the equipment you rent, the offices you move in to. So there’s a lot to do, a lot to read and a lot of carefully filing you need to do.
But, it’s ok. You should never forget that this is as much a part of Reality TV as filming people yelling at each other. It’s a part of the job that will let you come up with great shows.
Above all it’s a part of the job which means you OWN something. Now you can shop your project with, people attached, or access to a specific company or you can have a book, or the rights to a newspaper article. You OWN it. Now, if the networks want it, they have to have you too! Great!
My final word on contracts is to say that a contract is between two people. You should never forget that. For a contract to be successful it MUST, work for both parties. You give, you take. Ultimately if both of you can walk away from the contract feeling happy, then you’ve made a great contract.
I’ll get back to life on the road of Reality TV next week.
October 4, 2008
Last week we talked about Agents, and asked ‘As an Independent Producer, Do I Need One?’ - so, today let’s ask the same of the Lawyers. Do I need a lawyer?
‘In the beginning there were lawyers. And it was good. And value for money’
At least that’s how the revised draft came back.
Of course, I hadn’t even asked for a revision, but the lawyer suggested the original was “far too open to broad interpretation” and this way at least the other side don’t get everything they want.
So, this is the main issue with the dark art of the lawyer. They have the capacity to manipulate reality in ways that you could never have even conceived of previously. They also have the capacity to talk out of their collective rear-ends.
Lawyers will all tell you that we all definitely need to hire one of them - mainly because they fill the world with incomprehensible documents which only lawyers can understand.
So for this reason alone, given that the UN haven’t yet passed the ‘Send All Lawyers off to Live in the Arctic - with no coats on’ Bill yet, I think it’s safe to say ‘YES, you need one’.
So that’s out of the way. That was easy. But, what do you need to know about lawyers?
Before you cry “you better be going somewhere with this, Councilor”, first let me tell you where a lawyer fits in the food-chain of my work as an independent producer, and what it is he does.
There are four areas where we work closely with our lawyer; 1) ‘Optioning’ material, (‘buying a book’ or arranging a co-production deal with other producers who have ideas we want to make), 2) Negotiating contracts with networks for shows we’ve sold, 3) Employment Contracts with cast and crew, and 4) General legal compliance issues for shows we make.
Stay with me - this really IS as genuinely brain-numbing as it sounds. But, stay with me, because this is VERY hard learned stuff which I hope will save you and give you more time to spend reading John Grisham books or watching Law and Order. And I promise I’ll put in a joke somewhere. Or a picture of Waldo.
So - how do we use a lawyer?
First, we’ll use our lawyer to secure the rights to the show we want to make. If it’s a show we’ve created in-house we wouldn’t bother him with this, but if we’re working with a producer who has come to us with a show we want to make, or if we want to get the rights to a book, or someone’s life, we’ll ask him to draw up and negotiate the contract. (More on Contracts next week… oooh goody!).
Before we’ve even started production on a show, before we’ve even shot the pitch tape, we’ll call our lawyer and tell him about the idea. We’ll tell him the areas we think will cause us problems in future, or need some more advice on. You don’t need to have spent any time at Harvard to know that getting it wrong at this stage can potentially kill your show’s chances of ever being sold to the risk averse networks - let alone getting your show actually made.
For instance, we have one show which deals in part with school-aged children. If we’re going to be taken seriously by a network when we pitch the show to them we need to show that we’re a responsible company, and we’re a team who know the terrible litigious future that lay in store should we screw up legally right at the start.
So, we need to know the current laws on putting these children on television, we need to know what legal deep water we’re getting into in terms of getting their releases signed (with divorced parents, or custody battles, what used to be simple release forms are fast become prime time-wasting country), and what extra bits of paperwork would be useful to make our case should anything ever go to court.
Also, we ask the lawyer to play devil’s advocate and give us a list of possible recriminations from the children, their families or schools should anyone take issue with how we portray the any of them in the show and we listen to his suggested ways out should it get that far. That way we can spout his answers when the network exec inevitably asks us these same questions in the pitch meeting. Yes, we get to sound smart. That’s worth his fee alone.
Essentially, we go in wide-eyed, full of optimism that we can and will find a way around any potential issues - but with the very grown up attitude that we must cover our asses.
If we’re casting a show we’ll ask him to take a look at our ‘standard’ Host Shopping Agreement, the one we use when signing up any potential hosts for any show, to see if it needs amending to cover this specific show.
Then, assuming the networks LOVE the idea, our agents will negotiate the broadstrokes of the deal with the network, then hand over the negotiations to the lawyer to work out the full, ’short and long form contract’ with the network’s business affairs department.
In short, I use my lawyer for anything that might one day cause me to go to prison.
It’s a well oiled machine.
But here are the spanners that frequently screw up that machine.
1) Lawyers are expensive. Yes, of course, they’ll save you money if it all goes to hell. But, just like my solar-powered jet-pack, while I bet it’ll save me super-amounts of cash in the long run, until then I’m forking out a LOT more money than I ever thought I would be. I’ve heard of producers paying around $400 for writing a single letter. (To be fair, it was a whole 2 pages. Double spaced).
2) Lawyers are busy. Very busy, mainly on other people’s work - and the better the lawyer you get, the busier with other people’s stuff they’ll be.
3) Not only are busy lawyers less easy to pin down, but busy lawyers are often also not fully concentrating on your contract even when they’re looking right at it. They miss things. Even the best miss things in my experience.
So, here are the some things that I’ve picked up along the way to remove spanners or limit their damage.
First, find a lawyer who charges by commission, not by the hour. They’re out there, and if your lawyer agrees, you’ll know they’re invested in you and your future. That’s a great sign because it means they’re inent on keeping you OUT of prison. That’s a good thing. (Expect to pay somewhere in the region of a 3-5% fee. This will be on top of the 10% fee you’re paying your agent).
A lawyer might even agree a ‘buy out’ fee per project - a flat rate. I know this happens with feature films sometimes. But KNOW what you’re paying, don’t be shy. Ask, be clear. Get it in writing.
When you meet a lawyer you like, try to arrange a lunch or coffee date at least once a month - just 10 minutes of face time will keep you on their mind.
Know what really is important to you in any deal - make a 5 point list - give it to your lawyer BEFORE they start negotiating the contract. (We always assume that your lawyer understands innately what you want, but they won’t know unless you tell them).
Read EVERY line of EVERY contract. Make the time. Ask questions, look up strange Latin phrases on Wikipedia, most of them are up there. But, you’re just going to have to face it, if you’re in the business of working with the law, you’re going to have to brush up on your Jonny Cochran skills.
If you don’t like the look of something in the contract - ask to have it changed. That is, after all the whole point of this. Despite what you might end up telling people when you’re desperately trying to get them to sign something, there IS NO SUCH THING as a standard contract.
Keep tabs on your lawyer - send nicely worded update emails letting him know the status of your projects - which are in reality thinly veiled prompts to publicly remind him what he’s not yet done.
Be very open about tactics with your lawyer - try to make them see you and include you as part of the team. I cannot emphasize enough how easy it is for lawyers to go rogue, doing what they think is what you want - but which might be miles from what you really want. This also goes for your long term goals - giving your lawyer context REALLY helps them negotiate a contract.
For instance, telling your lawyer that your priority in the next six months is to sell a series to BRAVO will really help him know how easy to go on the Bravo business affairs people. If you tell your lawyer your priority in the next six months is to get the message out there that you’re a really expensive company who cost a lot of money to work with - you can see how the negotiating would be different. But all too often this simple idea is not thought of as relevant and weeks (I’m serious WEEKS) of time are wasted going down expensive wrong roads.
Don’t be scared to look stupid. It’s ok - you’re in TV, everyone thinks that already - what have you got to lose? Ask questions, go through the contract line by line if you have to, ask your lawyer to send you a one sheet ‘plain English’ summary, or ask his assistant to email you a glossary of terms they use a lot.
Don’t expect things to move fast. They really don’t. We just had a contract completely signed this week - four months after we’d shot the presentation tape, been paid for it and screened it to the board of the network, and almost eight months after the first handshake over the deal. Make a sock puppet, or write your Holiday cards rather than waste a second worrying about it getting done. There is NOTHING , NOTHING you can do to make people think you’re imporant. You’re not, (at least not when compared to who and whatelse they’re up to ).
I’ve been wracking my brain for a good funny anecdote about a lawyer, and I genuinely cannot think of one that I’m able to laugh at. A legal screw up at this early stage will leave you damaged, exposed and quite possibly horribly exploited. Being screwed will leave you bitter, or allow you to blame someone when your career falls apart… “If it wasn’t for that STINKING lawyer at Screwum-Bleedum-Cleenum and Leeve, I’d have sold Survivor first!”.
So, do your homework, keep good notes, file things neatly - keep everyone talking and above all - don’t be scared of lawyers. You need them. They need you. Like a lion tamer and his lions - when it works it all looks effortless and wonderful.
But get it wrong and you become just another unfortunate limbless lion tamer.
September 24, 2008
A question I’m often asked is ‘as an indie producer do I need an agent?’ It’s a question I ask myself. Especially after getting off the phone with mine.
Here’s the truth. I’ll make it snappy. ‘No. You don’t need an agent’.
So, this should be a short blog, shouldn’t it? We’ll it’s a bit more complicated than that… and I sometimes change my mind. So stick around.
In the UK when you’re pitching a tv show, you sit in the office of the person who says ‘yes’ or ‘no’. You stare at them, see the color of their money, then you walk out with a handshake and, if they like your show, a deal. There and then.
Many of those British kings of reality TV who now sit at the top of the Reality TV tree over here in the USA, operate in exactly the same way with US networks as they used to in London. And they still don’t have agents.
And they have nice cars - and have done ok. So, no, they didn’t need agents.
But, what if you’re an Indie producer, all alone in the world, with your foot on the bottom rungs of the ladder? Should you spend the time and effort to get yourself an agent?
This is where I can help out, I think, because I have an agent, he reps me both as a producer/director AND for my company.
First, it might be useful to know what my agent really DOES do. We have a team of two agents who rep us, and they arrange meetings for us, take the first pitch from us to roadtest how they sound, put pressure on networks to convert ‘maybes’ into ‘yeses!’, agree a basic framework for the deal, (then hands everything over to the lawyers… I’ll talk about lawyers next week).
What my agent DOESN’T do is: arrange meetings without being asked to, call any network they don’t already know, deal with international broadcasters, anything to do with strategy or long term goals, really try to sell anything (if they get more than three ‘no’s’ in a row the project is dead to them), ….I’m getting the idea that there are more things in the ‘no’ column. Are you getting that same feeling?
There’s and old joke that has a producer complaining to another producer: “my agent just called, told me I’m a loser who’d never get another meeting because I’m a worthless piece of crap and my shows are a total waste of his life”… the other guy replies “Your agent CALLED you?!”
This is not a bad example of the reality of this love-hate relationship.
You see, the thing that the agent ‘does’ without even lifting their finger (which is just how they like it) is they add value to your package - you’re pre-screened, if you like. You’re through the first gate. You’re ‘tested’.
Put yourself in the position of the network exec. Every time he goes out of his house he’s going to be besieged by people who want things from him. He’s going to bump into the daughters of friends of friends who ask if you’ll take a look at something. A guy in the elevator is going to pitch to you right there and then on your way up between the first and twentieth storey. Every time someone opens their mouths, you can bet they’re going to be a producer with an idea - and they’re going to expect you to be their ticket to a nice big house.
So, the last thing they want to do is work out which producers are real and which are going to ask him to buy them a house. Your agent will automatically do this for you - just by ‘being’ your agent.
But, dangerously, what getting an agent will do for you is to give you the VERY false impression that while you’re busy making your rent by shooting “Date My Dog” or a home-makeover show, your agent is out there flogging your shows, pounding down doors to get offers on your shows. That would be a VERY wrong impression.
From actors’ agents to the biggest tv network in town, if you’re not bringing in the big bucks THIS WEEK, they are in all likelihood not even THINKING about you. Let alone selling your shows for you.
And this is a tough lesson to learn the hard way. I’ve learned it. Call, meet, arrange your own contacts at networks, send them your shows directly, and call your agent when something good happens. Just the knowledge that you have an agent is often enough to get you through the door.
Another hard truth is that you’ve got to, absolutely HAVE to, get out of your mind the notion that your agent is some form of arbiter for what the industry is looking for. Your agent absolutely, positively IS NOT.
Nice suits? Probably. A buddy-boy-frathouse-banter and a pocket-full of Lakers tickets to hand out to clients? Highly likely. The chest-bash, man-hug? They learn that on day one in agent-school.
But, knowing what makes good TV? That’s why you’re on this side of the table - and they’re over there, with their over-familiar style and dislike of eye-contact.
This last year, we’ve put three shows into real-life, “here’s some cash” development with various big name networks. All three of these shows our agents hated. I mean - really hated. Our own belief, not to mention money, went in to proving them wrong, and by the time we screened our promo tape for them, and they knew we were right, they’d completely forgotten that they HATED those ideas just weeks before. In one pitch meeting with a network one of our agents even piped up that ‘of all their ideas this is the one I said they should run with, I’ve always LOVED this show’. Of course, in a pitch meeting I’d rather he lie than tell the truth… but, still.
Your agent DOES do a few things very well, he tells you when someone from out of town is going to come into town. He can send you the overnight ratings - which is very useful. He can arrange a meeting with someone he knows, and he can tell you what some network exec said at breakfast that morning about what they’re looking for.
If you’re looking for anything else - I mean ANYTHING else, then, you’re going to be very badly disappointed.
Agents do not make you successful. Agents do not sell you or your shows. Agents will not be the reason you finally sell a show. And finally, Agents - and this is extremely important - will always try to make you feel exactly the opposite.
They’ll try to make you feel like you owe them for all the work they’ve done for you, they’ll try to make you feel guilty about not sending out even more shows than you are, (as an explanation for why they haven’t sold any of your shows), and they’ll even attempt to make you feel bad for them that you’re screwing this all up so horrendously.
What we do is difficult enough, and there are enough time-wasting activities to block your path from selling shows, to unnecessarily add yet another. So, think carefully before embarking on the process of finding your agent.
If you’re a go-getter, who has GREAT shows, wonderful tapes, awesome hosts and you’re good at pitching your ideas - I’d say SELL your show first, direct to a network, jump into bed with a bigger production company - use whatever skill you have to get in the door, and then, if they like your show and want to make a deal, call a great, well known entertainment lawyer to negotiate it.
Then, one day, probably years up the road, when your show is kicking ass in the ratings, you’ll get a call from agents… a lot of agents. Like ex-girlfriends the night after you started dating a new girl… they’ll call. When you speak to them, if you can resist telling them to use their phone as an ad hoc endoscope, you’ll arrange to meet.
When you go to meet them you can ask them questions about what they’ll bring to the table, ask them exactly what they’ll DO for you. And make sure you are satisfied with their answers, make sure they understand you know what you’re talking about - and that you have expectations.
Because, above all, the secret to dealing with your agent - is to always remember this one key piece of information. They get paid out of money you’ve earned. They are literally taking money that simply would’t be earned if you weren’t so good at what you do. They’re taking this money to provide a service.
They work for you.
So, do you need an agent?
Ultimately, in a world dominated by fear, anything you can do to tell a network that you’re ‘one of them’, that ‘you’re a pro, who won’t piss their money up a wall’ is going to work for you.
So, while a big part of me is pained to say it, ‘yes’, if you want to be taken seriously, right out of the gate, you need an agent. There, I said it.
Ow.
