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: 15:25 — 15.4MB)
Subscribe: RSS
You’ve seen The Jinx on HBO. Enjoyed great crime recreation shows on Discovery ID. Laughed out loud at Drunk History on Comedy Central. Maybe even gasped at TLC’s Sex Sent Me to the ER. These are great, cinematic recreation shows. Today, we’re going to tell you how to create and pitch re-creation shows of your own. Who knows? Maybe we’ll even make one together.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 18:04 — 17.8MB)
Subscribe: RSS
When you start talking to a network, studio, or even a production company, one piece of creative material becomes crucial… your style guide. But what is a style guide? What goes in it? And why do politics and psychology play a huge role in how you put it together? Today, we’ll answer all those questions, plus give you real world examples of how we created style guides for three of our own television shows.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:26 — 27.3MB)
Subscribe: RSS
It’s episode 50! 50 episodes? We can hardly believe it ourselves. Thanks to all of you who’ve tuned in, written to us, sent in submissions, and encouraged us to get this far. Today, to celebrate, we turned the content over to you. We’re answering questions directly from listeners. We bet at least one of these questions (if not more) have been on your mind. Today, we answer them.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:53 — 4.8MB)
Subscribe: RSS
Bueller…Bueller…? This episode is more of a “love you and we’re thinking about you” message than a full podcast, although there is at least one piece of exciting news revealed…
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 14:46 — 14.8MB)
Subscribe: RSS
Hollywood is a numbers game. And it will drive you crazy. Today’s episode is about far more than simply selling a lot of projects. It’s about keeping your sanity and your happiness while pursuing a dream. Whether you’re pitching a reality TV show, writing screenplays, selling yourself as a director, or trying to work in any other area of showbusiness, today’s advice will help you get there in one piece.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 16:47 — 16.6MB)
Subscribe: RSS
In past we’ve encouraged you to “soft pitch” ideas. Unfortunately, we’ve never actually told you how to do that. The result is that many of you are sending in submissions that are not soft pitches at all. Instead, they are broad ideas that hurt your chances of success. That ends today. You’re about to learn how to soft pitch the right way. This will help you focus your resources, decide which projects to spend time on, and impress the heck out of us.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 17:32 — 17.3MB)
Subscribe: RSS
Just back from Real Screen 2015 (and both sides of the pitch table.) Having taken and overheard many “hollywood pitch meetings” gone wrong, we realized that most aspiring producers go wrong at the exact same point in their pitch meetings. Not you…not after today! Here’s the one thing you can do to guarantee you get something positive out of every single pitch meeting you take. It can be summed up in three words:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:17 — 11.6MB)
Subscribe: RSS
Your reality TV pitch can be derailed early on by one giant POV mistake… and so many of you are making it! A huge percentage of the pitches we receive suffer from this misstep. But not your pitches…not after today. Because you are going to…
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (12.4MB)
Subscribe: RSS
Happy 2015! To kick off a great year, we wanted to start out with five traits you can actively develop to become a better film or TV producer. And it’s all brought to you today by the letter “L.”
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:14 — 11.6MB)
Subscribe: RSS
We had a meeting last week. Like many meetings we take, someone had a great idea for a reality TV show or documentary series. It was set in an interesting world, but this person wasn’t sure if the idea would work best as a Follow-Doc, Format, or Hybrid (and you already know what those industry terms mean, right?.) Luckily, there’s a simple way to answer this question every time…