Reality Television And The Limitations Of Copyright 

Great article today in the Huffington Post written by David Ginsburg - here's a blurb in case you didn't see it...

Recent weeks have seen much entertainment industry and legal attention to an aggressive dispute between two networks over a pair of "reality" television shows. CBS has broadcast Big Brother in the United States since 2000, and it got wind of a prospective but as-yet uncompleted show entitled The Glass House it believed ABC was developing for a June 18, 2012 debut. In general, both shows involve a group of people living together in a house, sequestered from the outside world, continuously monitored by numerous television cameras, and on both shows contestants are eliminated over a respective season until there is a prize winner. To Read more click link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-r-ginsburg/glass-house-lawsuit_b_1622293.html

My thoughts are that I totally agree, you can not copyright an idea in reality. There have been so many knock off's of knock off's that one idea gives light to another and so on. That is what has made reality REALITY! For every idea that we take out into the marketplace there have been 3-5 others that have pitched - that same idea - only yours might be slightly different. My connections and my timing might also might be different as well. 

I think that ideas are a dime a dozen and it seems to me that CBS approach should have been different. What if they were flattered that the idea was a spin off and similar from theirs? What if they went on with the attitude that "we have created so many hits in the past, present and our future is going to be even better!" Let Glass House try and have a run. I think that anything that gets on the air these days is lucky. Its hard to sell and get things green lit! Lets change that focus and work on future stuff that has the potential to be the next "Survivor," or "Glass House," vs. taking people to court. Let's make this genre even better than it is.

What are your thoughts about David's article in the Huffington Post today?  I'd love to hear your thoughts...

Follow Up to Poker Faced Pitches

I wanted to write a post to follow up after our "Poker Faced" pitch meeting that we had at "said big corporation" with "said Jr. Development Exec."  Hence the mouse with the trumpet - we overcame our obstacles with our show from the lessons we learned at that pitch...

So, I came back to the office frustrated and confused.  Their big top executive wanted us to pitch the concept after they heard it.  We were pitching the people below them.  (I still don't completely understand this process of pitching someone under the main big person who likes the concept -  but wants the people under them to say no after hearing your pitch, because they've never got anything green lit the entire time they are at "said corporation."  It totally baffles me.


We brainstormed and completely took every single note they gave us and reworked and reformatted the show.  I mean complete overhaul.  Since we didn't have money for a sizzle on this particular project I knew we needed some kind of a visual to show anyone we pitched so they could have a peek into SEEING what we were thinking.  So, I found a clip on the Today Show of Matt interviewing one of the people I could see on our show and we made a CD of the interview.  We incorporated that into our pitch.


We had two other pitches lined up with production companies and on our first pitch (before 11 am - which is apparently the best time to pitch during the day) we knocked it out of the park.  It happened to be thundering during our pitch, a dog was running around barking and it was loud and noisy, but we pitched and they liked.  I really felt that our visual clip was what sold it.  So, right now we are working on our deal, the talent's deal and moving forward.


I guess the point I am getting to is that all pitch meetings give you clues on how to make it better and how to refine what you have.  It may have been one of the weirdest pitch meetings of my career but it made our show better and WE are in the process of signing a deal to produce this with a production company that we like!  And to top it off, I had to go into "said corporation" again for a meeting with someone else - and I saw one of the people who we pitched and I wanted so badly to tell them "remember our show we pitched you in that awful meeting where you stared me down the whole time - we got a production deal, ha ha!"  I have heard that they still have not gotten anything green lit since!  Oh well...

Poker Faced Pitches

Have you ever been in a pitch meeting that right from the beginning felt like you were in a meat locker? You could see your breath because it was so COLD? I am not talking about the room being cold at all, if you catch my drift. Yup. That was a pitch meeting we had this week. It was like a meat locker inside. And really, it wasn't our team. We actually came in because a big executive wanted our concept to be heard by some of the folks underneath them. We pitched this big corporate place before and experienced the same cold bone chilling feeling.

Picture this, your executive walks in. He or she shakes your hand with the "cold fish" handshake, smiles slightly and sits down. Every word that comes out of your mouth they are examining. The whole pitch they are poker faced, no inflection, no smile, no real interest and are set on hating what you have? When they finally do make a comment - your left going hu? No personality, no presence, nothing to add value to even try and act like you like us or the idea of the project or yourself for that matter!

I have been in many pitch meetings where if they like a small bit of what you have - you talk about ways that it could be better. We brainstorm together and make the outline of what we came in with be something even better. That happened to us when we went to pitch USA recently and the exec loved the conceptual idea and we sat there for two hours talking about how we could make it better, bigger and fit into what they had. It was one of the best meetings that I have had in a long time, outside of a few great ones at FremantleMedia.

I really didn't want to pitch this place again esp after our first meeting with the uninterested Jr. executive. But my TV intern reminded me that this meeting doesn't mean that it will end up the same way...I had my doubts and boy was I right--again. When you pitch someone that has a job just to have a job and hasn't ever gotten anything green lit EVER - and has only had one production job...it makes you wonder what the heck you are doing there.

Granted, I appreciate any time given to me to hear my ideas. But what I don't appreciate is the hardness and the lack of personality when meeting with someone. At the end of the pitch they didn't even walk us out! They disappeared so fast that they were not even in the hall when we left! I am actually still scratching my head 5 hours later going, what happened there? What do they like anyway? ESP since their big exec wanted them to hear the pitch...

The bottom line, you should pitch people you like but sometimes when a bigger contact initiates that they want their team to hear the pitch, you go do it. You smile, you say thank you, you shake hands and then you walk away talking about them outside of their building...

Two Years have Passed Since My Last Post!

Two long good years have passed since my last post. I can't believe that it has been so long! I have to admit that I had so much going on that I barely had time to write and update anything. Since my last post, I finally landed a deal at a huge world wide company and a first look deal as well. My business I created has taken off - as many of you know I run a Media Consulting firm. My core business over the last three years has been helping clients and brands with getting major media! It wasn't what I had originally envisioned for myself, but with the economy as bad as it was - I needed a way to survive. What better way to do that than with the skills I already had! With the help of my coach Eli Davidson (in fact she is the one who helped me get featured and on the cover of Kiplinger's Financial Magazine) I started a business.

Needless to say, I have been burning the candle at both ends - doing what I love. Balancing both worlds - media and producing. Everyone reading this knows that I love reality television and LOVE creating it. I love a good title that can spark an idea. That's what happens to me quite a lot. It happened the other day and next thing I know I am pitching it and they LOVE it. So, now its off to do some initial casting and find my subjects.

I promise to write more often now...see you soon! Oh and PS if you think you have a great idea, we want to hear about it! Contact us on our webpage and we'd love to see what you have!

Lessons from The Big Guys

Its been a crazy year with lots of pitches. I am finally seeing some results from my hard work. I have pitched my way all over Hollywood - meeting with some of the best and brightest Executives in town. We pitched last week in NYC at A&E and TruTv and LA for NBC. Now, its back to LA and set for another two big meetings today and tomorrow.

One great lesson that I learned this past month. I've created lots of shows over the past two years and learned a lot from the Talent. When creating a show around a talent you MUST make sure you do one thing with your Shop and Pitch Agreement...make sure that you have your talent sign an agreement that is longer than three months with a clause that will cover you when you are in the middle of pitching!

See the problem with Reality TV is you are dealing with newly found talent and they don't necessarily know our industry. They might think they know. They don't realize that any pitch takes time to move up the ranks and get a green light to start production. There are so many roadblocks, that you could never imagine. Russell Simmons has a great story about this very subject. I have blogged about him in past blogs. He states in his book "Do You!" how long he fought for MTV to take a chance with "Runs House," which did end up on MTV. BUT they told him NO over and over again - and he fought hard for his project and he believed in it 100%. He worked hard to get the end result - a show on the AIR!

What I got was "something should have happened by now." Mind you we pitched two weeks ago. Sometimes people are their own worst enemies. This business is all about who you know, who likes you and is your stuff good and LUCK! Glenn Larson, who had like nine series on the air at once once told me that there are so many factors that go into getting a show on the air. (From IMDB: Glen A. Larson is the man behind some of the world's best known primetime shows. His highly successful productions (successful both financially and popularly, less often critically!) include "Knight Rider" (1982), "The Fall Guy" (1981), "Battlestar Galactica"(1978), and "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century", "Knight Rider" (1982) and "Magnum, P.I." (1980). His venture "One West Waikiki".) He said "There are lots of office politics and you have to have LUCK on your side! It isn't just one factor like a good show that will get it on the air." So, for anyone who thinks that they will land a show with one pitch is crazy. You have to pound the pavement and you are going to get a lot of Passes or No's before you get a YES. And look - you can even get a YES and then someone up above changes their mind and says NO! You could even have a check in your hand - and shows in the can - and they still cancel it!

Everything takes time. Nothing happens over night in Hollywood. Patience is your friend. Having good Producers pitching you is also key. And Producers who know everyone in town is even better!

What I learned at Digital Hollywood

This week Digital Hollywood was put on at the Lowe's Hotel in Santa Monica, CA. What a great event! Even though the printed program was probably the most difficult program book to follow, I made my way to see several content summits that were held.

Day 1: My first round table was the luncheon where Mark Koops spoke. As many of you are aware Mark is a superstar in the TV world. He is co-creator of the hit series on NBC "The Biggest Loser" and managing director at Reveille. If you don't know that production company you should. Its got some major hits under its belt (the Office, Ugly Betty).

Next I hit up the Advertising Platform: Social Networks, TV & Video, Broadband, Mobile and Games. All things about understanding what advertising in the next generation will look like. Moved on to the Master Class workshop "Comedy: Superstars and Hidden Gems." Good stuff from Mike Polk from Break.com and Andrew Steele from Funny or Die. We ended up leaving it was a packed room and stuffy and hot - standing room only. Then I moved on to the Digital Hollywood Pitch Camp. This was a goodie - one of my favorite topics of course! 5 people got to get up and pitch while a panel of elites (Alex Barkaloff - EP Digital Lionsgate, David Gale - MTV, Mark Vega - Luce Forward) gave feedback on the pitches. Here is a breakdown of tips they gave in no particular order:

• Know what is it you are conveying?
• Audio & visual tools are a plus!
• Have a pitch that is intuitive and subjective.
• Innovative idea that understands the marketing of it.
• You get it!
• Know your audience.
• Have a great one liner. (your logline)
• Good idea that is adaptable.
• Have energy and excitement.
• You have to have a good idea, interesting characters are not enough!

The day ended with a nice cocktail reception by the pool and who doesn't love free drinks!

Day 2: I am still looking in the program trying to figure it out. The program is the worst piece of literature I have ever TRIED to read. I make my way to the Celebrity Media and Reality Shows Transforms to Broadband, Mobile, Social Media and TV. This one was a good one as well. Then on to the Video on the Smartphone Jumpstarting Revolution. Made my way to the Moguls, Indies and Youtube Stars hosted by David Gale and a few other great players. Last but not least, The Hollywood Real Deal Reinventing the Strategy the Platforms and Revenue Stream. This was a great session with Justine Bateman, Frank Nine, George Ruiz, Paul Kontonis. Here is a breakdown of tips this session provided:

• Keep your web content to 3-5 minutes. 3 minutes = 3 pages.
• Every episode has a mini cliffhanger that will demand attention.
• Characters have their own social media networks.
• Production/Writing Staff = key!
• It involves the audience.
• Demo/audience very important.
• Its an added benefit if you have stars that can talk with major outlets because of their celeb status.

I would recommend Digital Hollywood next year to those of you who didn't attend. Its a great way to hear from the experts what is going on in the industry (changes, future). Its also a great way to network. I met so many new faces and some old friends too. I feel as a producer its important to be cutting edge. So if you don't know about what's ahead in the industry your stuff is going to suck.

Performance Pitching

Two Tuesday’s - November 10th & 17th

2 Week Bootcamp with Producer Nicole Dunn & Motivational Speaker and Author, Eli Davidson...

Most times you only have one shot to pitch you, yourself, brand or your book. You’ve got to get their attention in a short amount of time. This workshop is for anyone who has an idea and wants to pitch it. Authors, Experts, Brands, Business Owners, TV Show ideas, Segment Ideas, Book ideas…You’ll pitch and we’ll give you tips and suggestions to help you brainstorm to create the perfect pitch.

In this workshop Motivational Speaker and Author Eli Davidson teams up with Team Emmy Nominated Producer & Creator Nicole Dunn, to help you get into the pitching game. Television Producer Nicole Dunn has personally pitched in over 200 meetings (Network Executives, Development Executives, News, Show ideas, Experts, Authors, Directors, Producers, Publishers) Put Jet Fuel in your pitch!

Being able to write a good pitch is an important business tool to have, no matter what line of work you’re in! You’ll learn to craft your pitch to be unique and stand out from the rest of the crowd. People will respond and return your calls, and book you! You’ll be able to pitch something that people care about hearing more about.

With a well-written pitch you will attract the interest of almost anyone (Producers, Directors, News, Editors, Book Publishers – even your boss!)

Each class will focus on your pitch. We’ll hear everyone’s ideas and help you make them spectacular. The first class is hands on! Everyone must come with a pitch. Not only will you learn from other people’s pitches, you’ll learn from your own.

• How a great logline will book you every time.
• How to be relevant.
• You’ll learn that doing research about who you are pitching and their target audience will land you the job or not.
• How to spot a news trend and piggyback off of it.
• You’ll hear examples of good pitches vs. bad pitches.
• You’ll hear examples of good tips vs. bad tips.
• You’ll work on perfecting a 30 second elevator pitch that you can use to pitch anyone with.
• What Ideas are worth pitching?
• What problems are you solving?
• What solutions are you offering?
• How to Deliver.
• How to follow up.

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO REGISTER NOW!
http://www.dunnpelliermedia.com/Dunn_Pellier_Media_Consulting/Schedules.html
Two Tuesday’s - November 10th & 17th 2009
6 PM PST

CALL IN FROM ANYWHERE: 6:00 PM PST

2 Weeks for $249.99
$1000 dollar value!