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. He’s 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. Well, welcome to episode 106, which, of course, means you’ll be able to find today’s show notes at Producing Unscripted 106. Today we’re going to be sharing what we think are the top three cover letter mistakes people make when submitting a pitch. Now, this is whether it’s to us, a network or a studio executive. Anytime you’re pitching and writing a cover letter, there are certain things that multiple people have written numerous times, certainly to us. And we noticed some of our network friends that you should avoid no matter who you’re pitching to.
Joke: But before we get into today’s episode, we do want to take a moment and honor Anthony Bourdain. I think, as you all know, some sad news he’s no longer with us. And while we didn’t know him personally, he has had a lot of impact on the business that we are all working in unscripted business. And he worked very closely with our friends at CNN, who obviously also have a personal impact to this news. But I think what we wanted to to mention is that not not only was he a name in the world of cuisine, and not only is he a name in the world of of travel and foreign affairs and bringing people together, even in our tiny little corner of the world, we saw the impact he had because I would say, you know, and I’m just kind of guessing here, but I would say a good 30 to 40% of the pitches that are brought in through this portal are people wanting to do their version of an Anthony Bourdain show where it’s just travel or just food, but we he gets mentioned a lot. So obviously he’s had an impact on you guys. And and I think that’s kind of the lesson to take away from this whole thing is he was living this life that a lot of you aspire to, a life that we looked at and was like, that would be the perfect retirement, traveling the world, being able to write your own ticket in terms of doing the show you want to do with a network who’s supportive, you know, eating fabulous food, meeting amazing people. It all seemed so great. And I think the reason that his death hit us so hard is that for someone that seemed to be living his best life, he was still dealing with a lot of pain. And so I think it’s just, you know, let’s not judge other people. We may think some people who who seem so much more successful than us might have it all, when in fact they maybe don’t. And I think also in our personal life, it’s it’s about finding the joy and the inspiration in the little things along the way. It’s not just focusing on, you know, the goal and the destination, however cheesy it sounds. It is about the journey and about finding things that fulfill us every day. Instead of waiting, you know, to find that one thing that may fulfill us in the future. So, rest in peace. And, you know, again, let’s all appreciate the impact he has had on so many people and definitely our business.
Biagio: Well said, Joe. Well said. Now we’re going to go ahead and we’re going to we’re going to move on to our topic, which is when you pitch a show to us or anyone else, you’ll include a cover letter or provide information to give a brief overview of your show. So.
Joke: So real quick because some people aren’t, maybe not from the cover letter age, right? Because it’s like, you know, even you submit the report, there is no like here’s your cover.
Biagio: Letter.
Joke: But there is a section right where it’s like, hey, tell us a little bit about about yourself.
Biagio: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So basically what you provide information to give a brief overview of your show or you and no matter who you’re pitching to, there’s going to be some version of this, some version of the cover, some version of a cover letter. My computer just fell and knocked over half the table. Well, that happens sometimes.
Unidentified Voice: I don’t know if you’re going to cut this out or.
Joke: Not, so I don’t know whether or not to laugh, but it was funny.
Biagio: Well, it was funny. Well, there you go. I mean, we are we are, we are talking about, you know, documentary in reality, after all. So that’s what really happens anyway. So backing up. So you’ll be writing some version of a cover letter. And so the problem is this is where a lot of newcomers go completely wrong, either by, by overselling or by showing that they don’t really understand the business. And in fact, there’s three things that we get so often and I mean weekly that I thought we would point out these three things as what we believe are the top three pitch mistakes. Because if you don’t make these, you’ll be so far ahead of the game. And more importantly, we’ll also tell you what to say instead.
Joke: Now, just for the record, it’s not because we see this mistake that we throw your pitch out. We don’t know.
Unidentified Voice: Of course.
Joke: We still look at it, but we want to have this conversation because I think, you know, maybe if you’re pitching to another company, they they may throw your pitch out and not look much further. Right. So so it’s like, you know, look, we’ll still read your pitches, but it’s just good to know.
Biagio: All right. So the first mistake, the first cover letter mistake I’m the next or I’m pitching you the next. So many times as joke said, we’ve heard I’m the next Anthony Bourdain or I’m pitching you the next Chelsea Handler. But there’s there’s some problems with this approach.
Joke: Yeah.
Unidentified Voice: Because.
Joke: Those are high bars. Right. You know, we talked about the impact Anthony Bourdain’s already had. But if you’re going to say I’m the next so-and-so, it’s like you’ve now really raised the bar. And and that’s now the lens with which I’m going to view your pitch through.
Biagio: Yeah. And also don’t forget like by saying, you know, I’m the next so-and-so, nobody’s looking for the next Letterman, nobody’s looking for the next day, and they’re looking for what might be the next you or the next person you’re pitching. So I want to give you a couple examples of a better way to sort of approach. Instead of saying, I’m the next or I’m pitching you next. For instance, if you’re a piece of talent, you might say, I am the executive chef behind five restaurants. I’ve written numerous articles for major magazines with my own unique take on food. Now I’m working to translate my voice into a TV show. Or, you know, if you are pitching, you know what you believe will be the next Chelsea Handler. A better way to frame it might be I’m pitching you a show featuring a female comedian who’s having a lot of success. She’s had a Comedy Central special and has a unique YouTube channel that shows off her point of view on life. We created a TV format tailored to her strong comedic opinions. Either one of those would get our attention right? Joke?
Joke: Exactly. And then you you leave it up to the producer or the buyer who is receiving your pitch to kind of go like, oh, I like this. She’s kind of like Chelsea Handler, and I like Chelsea Handler. And then then that works. But if you’re like, you know, I’m the next Chelsea Handler. And it’s like, well, I’ve worked with that person and I don’t want to work with them again. Then, you know, you already put yourself in a bad category. So I think Biagio is right is one, you don’t want to raise the bar or you don’t know what that name means to the buyer in their head. So focus on you or focus on your talent and what strengths they have.
Biagio: Exactly. All right. Moving on to pitch. Cover letter. Mistake number two. My show is so much better than anything on TV. We hear this one a lot, right?
Joke: Yeah. So my show is so much better than anything on TV. Is is again, it’s quite the bar to set. And it also right away it’s like okay well we know your bias. It doesn’t it doesn’t really come across as, as selling so much as it might be. Like blind arrogance, I don’t know, like, you know, or naivety like, you know, I’m not saying comes from a bad place, but it just, it doesn’t really help the process. Right? I think it’s focusing on, you know, what makes your show unique or why you know it. It belongs on television at this time, right? Because sometimes we get a great pitch and it’s just like that. That would have been a great show five years ago or ten years ago, you know? So I think being able to say like, this is a great show now and why, you know, there’s a reason why this show maybe could end up being better than anything else because of these things that come with your show in this timing, you know, in the TV landscape, it’s just a better way to go.
Biagio: Yeah. Just discuss, you know, discuss your project, you know, in a way that shows your enthusiastic about it without completely overselling or sounding like you don’t understand the business.
Joke: And for those of you who are like, nobody says that. Just they do.
Biagio: They do. They do all the time. So I want to move on now to a closely related mistake pitch cover letter, mistake number three I have your next hit show or this show is a guaranteed hit. No one can guarantee a hit. Not Mark Burnett, not Steven Spielberg, not David E Kelly. These are industry giants who’ve all had flops at some point, so if not, even they can guarantee a hit. It’s very it doesn’t come off great when the first words out of your mouth is, this is guaranteed to be a hit show.
Unidentified Voice: I wish.
Joke: I wish anybody in this business could guarantee a hit or could know what will make it a hit. There are so many factors involved that have an influence on that. So again, it’s it’s we appreciate your passion and we appreciate, you know, the believe you have in your project. But you know, to most people out in this business that’ll come across right away as a as a red flag as opposed, you know, in terms of you not not really understanding the business or maybe not fully understanding your show itself.
Biagio: Yeah. Even if you truly believe this in your heart of hearts, you know, you know, a better approach would be something like, I’m extremely passionate about this project. I think it resonates with the news in the world today. And this could work as a piece for A&E, Netflix or Amazon. Now, of course, make sure your project could actually work for those networks or whatever networks you pitch it towards, but that tells people you’re enthusiastic without overselling, that you have an idea of where you show might fit in the marketplace, which is so much better than the words. I have your next hit show, and I don’t know if people necessarily mean that literally, or if sometimes they’re joking around or if they realize what they’re saying, but it comes off as a very sort of newbie mistake, and it’s one you don’t have to make. It’s because, you know, we’ve told you what to say instead. So there you go. These are three things that we think we’re pretty important to share.
Unidentified Voice: And again, I think it’s important.
Joke: Like Biagio said, these are things specifically we’re talking about a cover letter. Right. Because as we just said, maybe you’re saying it tongue in cheek or you’re saying it as a joke that doesn’t always read that way. Like someone may read this with not the intention that you’ve put it there. So if you if you’re in a person to person, you know, pitch meeting and the pitch is going really well and you want to just be like, hey, hey, maybe this is your next hit, Joe, you know? Then it’s like, okay, we all see what we’re doing here. We’re just talking about specifically in like your opening salvo, your cover letter, your way into a production company or a buyer. It’s like selling is important, but you don’t want to oversell. You don’t want to undersell. You stick to what you know, your passion for the project and and stick to the specifics of what makes your show special.
Biagio: There you go. So thank you so much, as always, for having a listen. We’ll be back next month with a new episode. Episode 107. In the meantime, you know, as as many of you know who listen to this podcast, part of the reason we do it is if people would like to learn how to pitch to our company, you can do so through the producing unscripted site. Just go to Producing Unscripted and sign up for the newsletter and follow the directions. And even if you never pitch a show to us, the site is full of free information about what it’s like to work in documentary and reality television. It’s a resource that’s been growing for five years. There’s a lot there. So, you know, even if you think that my voice is annoying or you would never want to work with me a joke, there’s plenty of information there that we hope will help you whatever direction your career takes. So that’s it. Until next time.
Joke: Happy pitching.
Unidentified Voice: Producing Unscripted with Joke and Biagioyou.
