Make Reality TV & Documentary Series | A Podcast & Blog from TV Producers & Filmmakers Joke and Biagio
The reality TV podcast to help you create, pitch, sell, and produce reality television shows and documentary series – Producing Unscripted.
We’re Joke and Biagio, and we make reality TV shows, documentaries, and factual programming for a living. These days we have over 100 hours of film and television under our belts, but we remember how impossible it seemed to break in when we were two kids living in our one-bedroom apartment.
We started this podcast to teach you the nuts-and-bolts of making reality TV, but more importantly, to give you a path to pitch your projects to us.
Enjoy the podcasts below, and maybe we’ll even get to work together someday.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 17:32 — 17.3MB)
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Whether you’re pitching unscripted television to us, or anyone else in Hollywood, there are certain mistakes you should never make. Many of you (hundreds) have recently submitted pitches that make the same three mistakes over and over again. Today, we tell you what they are and how to avoid them. Make sure you get these three things right and you’ll dramatically improve your odds of unscripted television success.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:52 — 23.1MB)
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Nothing can make your production seem more professional — or more amateurish — than the quality of your sound. Today, audio pro Brett Ulery shares tips and secrets to help you get pro sound on any budget (and we share the $32 audio secret that shaped our careers.)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 35:51 — 34.1MB)
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People ask us all the time how we edit our TV shows. Until recently, it was a complicated, rambling answer filled with a mish-mosh of pseudo best practices. Not anymore. We’ve just taken our entire company in a brand new direction. We’re now making TV with Adobe Premiere and the Creative Cloud suite, and the results will be on national television in just about a week.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:31 — 25.6MB)
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Reenactments in documentary, film, and TV projects give visual life to past events. They do so by re-creating those moments in a cinematic way. You’ve seen them in groundbreaking films like The Thin Blue Line by Errol Morris, HBO’s recent The Jinx, every crime show on Discovery ID, and in our own upcoming series, Snapped: She Made Me Do It on Oxygen. But what goes into creating the visual style for your reenactments? What are your must-have shots? How do you keep things from getting generic? And why are reenactments a touchy and sometimes controversial subject?
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:13 — 19.8MB)
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Ever wonder how to go from idea to green-lit series? In today’s in-depth episode, we take you step by step through the process of starting with a title and ending up with a TV show that premieres September 9th on Oxygen! It’s called Snapped: She Made Me Do It. We’re going to tell you how we did it (and why Oxygen is such a terrific network to work with.)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:13 — 21.6MB)
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Do you need an entertainment attorney? Are you sure? How much will an entertainment attorney charge you? And when choosing an entertainment attorney, how can you be sure you’re picking the right one?
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 14:55 — 14.9MB)
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Should you shoot your own TV pilot? It’s not a simple yes or no question…but there are some simple guidelines to help you decide what your next move should be. Whether you’re just starting out, or negotiating your next reality TV series, we give you the scoop (plus, some candidly honest stories from our most recent TV series!)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 16:03 — 14.7MB)
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Is there any such thing as a dumb question? YES. Use these three secrets to always know when, where, and how to ask questions without driving professionals up the wall. Asking questions in Hollywood is an art. Here’s how to do it without wasting time and looking clueless!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:42 — )
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There’s one thing we do on every piece of tape we ever edit — whether it’s a full-blown television episode, or a brand new pitch tape. And it’s never let us down…
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 14:54 — 14.9MB)
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Here’s a HUGE mistake aspiring producers make when pitching what they think are viable TV series: they pitch profile pieces instead. It’s something we’ve seen a rash of in the past few months, and we want to help you avoid this mistake immediately. Not kidding — we just passed on at least 40 or 50 projects that made the mistake we’ll help you remedy today. After today’s post, you will pitch TV series, and never, ever again accidentally pitch a profile piece disguised as unscripted television show.