Wanna' read along? Here’s a machine-generated transcript you can use. Yes...expect a few mistakes, especially with funky industry terms, interesting names and tagging whoever's talking. If something sounds weird, trust your ears. But...sometimes that really is what we said!
Biagio: Hey, everybody. She’s joke.
Joke: He’s Biagio.
Biagio: We’re married. We make unscripted film and television and want to help you do the same.
Joke: Hopefully by teaming up with us.
Biagio: All right, everybody. Well, it is our our episode 66, which we are dubbing our end of year special. I don’t get too excited. It’s not that special, but it is our end of year special.
Joke: I’m talking about, like, raising expectations. I’m not ready for this.
Biagio: I like to lower the expectations and then hopefully overdeliver. But if not, at least we lower the expectations. No, but seriously, we thought we would wrap up. This would be our last podcast of 2015, our last episode. We’ll be back in 2016, but we wanted to wrap up the year by talking about three things that we’re really excited about, just in general for for filmmakers and aspiring producers right now in this business.
Joke: So, so not just like things are excited about in general.
Biagio: No. Because I mean, in general, I’m excited about a lot of things people would not care about, like the Rico theta or the new DJ asthma. I bet half our listeners could care less, but I’m excited.
Joke: I’m excited about all the holiday treats.
Biagio: There’s going to be a lot of holiday treats. I’m gonna have to avoid them this year because I’m on a diet.
Joke: But don’t try it.
Biagio: Don’t try it. Especially in jokes. Mom makes these cookies once a year and she makes them one at a time by hand on a waffle iron. Oh, I’m getting.
Joke: Old. Family recipe like over 100 years old.
Biagio: Yes, and it’s going to be over 101 years old before I have them again, because this year I have to pass. But that’s all right. Let’s get into the good stuff, people.
Joke: So things to celebrate about our industry, about our business as we’re into this holiday season.
Biagio: Yes. So number one, it is a long one. But but but I think this is important. Despite confusion over how people will watch TV shows in the future, content creators are still in demand.
Joke: Yeah, I mean, I think we all know just watching the news and, you know, reading trade papers, that our industry is a little bit in flux right now. We’re not quite sure where these Nielsen ratings are going to end up. And networks are finding that viewers are watching television, not necessarily on television sets anymore. The millennials have, you know, not even they don’t do caught cutting because they never got the cord. And so there’s some pressure and stress about where are the viewers going. The good news for our side of the business is that as content creators, people are still looking for content, and more than ever. There are so many television shows out there, and so there is there is a concern about, you know, popping and being seen and people finding you, but there is a great appetite for content. So as a content creator, that is absolutely something to celebrate.
Biagio: Yeah. So in other words, if you’re a storyteller, if you’re a filmmaker, you’re someone who wants to get out there and tell visual stories. The good news is whether people watch on TV or watch on the internet, whether or not networks fall apart. One thing is clear content creators are always going to be in demand. So. So I’m very excited for all of you who are creating content. And to our network execs, we’re wish you the best. I’m sure you’ll be just fine. All right, moving on. Moving on to number two. Reality is getting a lot more real. And that’s I’m really excited about.
Joke: Yeah, I mean we’ve seen it coming, you know, for the last couple of years. But it’s nice that a lot of it is paying off in terms of audiences are looking for more authentic stories, more authentic people. You know, we’re hearing more of the the doc and, you know, the word factual is being thrown around like it’s something to be proud of. Now, where it used to be like, no, no, no, we’re not factual, we’re just entertaining. We’re just entertaining. So that’s exciting. It’s exciting that, you know, people are coming to unscripted for, you know, entertainment, obviously, but you know, like substantive stuff, not just, you know, people getting wasted drunk and throwing things. So I hopefully this means that we can start embracing what we do with just a little more pride and a lot less guilty pleasure of it all. And, you know, just understand that unscripted now has its place in the television landscape and, you know, we belong there.
Biagio: Yeah. I mean, listen, people love to demonize what they think of as reality TV. And, you know, in some cases with good reason. I mean, reality TV got a dirty name. But, you know, when you’re really talking about what reality is and all the things that are sort of covered by the broad term of reality, there’s some really good TV in there that gets made. I mean, things like, you know, the last 48 or, excuse me, the first 48 things like the first 48, you know, there’s there’s television shows that have a real doc edge to them. And what’s exciting is that networks are interested in getting programing that feels a lot more real, because, I mean, honestly, what’s the point of doing reality if it’s just poor man’s scripted TV? People will watch scripted? The great thing about reality is it’s unexpected, it’s real, it’s raw. And and as filmmakers, as people who consider ourselves documentarians first and everything else second, we’re excited that reality is embracing the real more. Okay, now, point number three, and this is something I’m a little bit more of a personal note that me and joke are excited about, and has to deal with all of you. You, our listeners, are getting much more sophisticated, and the reason I’m excited about that is, as those of you who who have listened to the show for a while now, one of the things we do here is we allow our listeners to pitch shows to us. And in the early days, you know, listen, people tried really hard, but there was a lot more misses than heads. And what I’m excited to tell you is that those of you who’ve been listening to the podcast, who’ve taken the time to read our free guide about how to pitch a reality show, and I’ve applied that to your work. We’ve seen your pitches get better. And many of you know, because we’ve spoken with a lot of you that you guys, your pitches have become I mean, just it’s night and day from where you’ve started. So I want to thank all of you who’ve taken the time to listen to this podcast and take it seriously and read our free it’s a free ebook. I mean, it’s free, you know, read the free e-book, How to Pitch a Reality show. It costs you nothing and tells you everything. Then not only we, but most companies look for, you know, in a reality television pitch. So to those of you that have done that, we want you to know we’ve seen it. We’re a little behind on getting back to many of you on your pitches, but they have gotten so much better. So thank you to all of you who’ve taken our advice. Now, as we mentioned, this is our last podcast of 2015. We’ll be back on January 12th, 2016 with lots more tips, tricks and secrets about working in unscripted film and television. Now. Good news. Well, good news for us anyway. We’re already working on two new television series and a new pilot for 2016, so stay tuned for not only more about that, but as usual, we’ll be sharing our real world takeaways, you know, in tips that coming directly from our productions and, you know, just stuff that we’ve learned over the course of, you know, beating our heads against the wall every time we start a brand new show. Right, honey?
Joke: Yes. No, absolutely. But, you know, we keep doing it because it feels good.
Unidentified Voice: You stop. Good. When you stop.
Biagio: That’s a great. And that to be referenced, the probably only two of us get. But that’s okay. So anyways, until we’re back. Be sure to follow the two of us on Twitter. We’re at Joke and Biagio. If you haven’t already read our free e-book, How to Pitch a Reality Show, just Google How to Pitch a reality show where, number one on Google, it’s a big long e-book. You can download it or read it right there on the website, and for the cheat sheet on how to pitch shows to us that will actually take seriously and be happy to look at, just head over to Producing Unscripted three zero, and that will give you the lowdown on how you can submit your shows to us for us to consider. So until then, honestly, thank you all so much for listening to this podcast. It’s great to know you’re out there, and we really appreciate every single one of you who listen. And those of you who submit shows to us, you know, just thanks and best to you and yours and we’ll see you next year.
Unidentified Voice: Happy holidays.
Joke: See you in 2016.
Biagio: See you in 2016.
Unidentified Voice: Producing Unscripted with Joke and Biagio.
