Film Courage: How is selling a reality show evolved in the last 20 years?
Troy DeVolld, Producer/Author: I think it's much the same as it ever was a good idea is a good
idea but I also think that we're also way more reliant on importing existing concepts from other
countries you look at things like The Masked Singer where an executive was literally in a
restaurant having dinner and watching that show on television and went oh we should make that
that's different I mean we're we're more exposed to formats from other places than we've ever been
because people are looking for them they're trying to find something that's already proven
that they don't have to lose money on while they develop it so that may be a little bit different
you see the rise of guys like Avi Armoza who is one of my favorite people in the world
he's just a really cool guy who packages formats in Israel
that that's actually where you make most of your money because if you're producing television shows
in Israel it's a very middle class pursuit it's not something that you really make a fortune doing
but you have certain examples you know there's a show called couch
diaries that comes from there which is a great idea you just you get a passport
you take somebody to the airport you don't tell them where they're going they find out when they
get to the airport and they're going to a place that's going to help them overcome some issue they
have in their life like there was a kid that was terrified of women and they sent him to room with
these three women around the same age as him they took him out showed him a good time he had a great
time and just was suddenly became more comfortable around them they took a woman who was very sort of
mild-mannered and very religious and very proper center someplace to live with a family that didn't
observe the same religion that she did they got used to each other and had that experience
that show has been sold in something like 15 or 20 territories the world over and the Creator
Zippy Rosenblum which is the greatest name you've ever heard in your life isn't it Zippy Rosenbloom
is now an executive I think with Hachette so you know the idea that formats can be repackaged and
resold all over the world is kind of a neat thing I think it's a great way for creators
in other places to get seen in the United States which is no longer seen as the end-all beetle like
if it's not on American television it doesn't exist which is kind of how people used to think
I guess I'll stop there do you have to be working inside reality television to sell a show
it's not unhelpful I was in it for about eight years before I knew enough people
that I felt like I could call somebody up and go and that was even with an agency
I had a really decent agent and I just I didn't I didn't want to expose myself
before I was ready and really knew the full deal on how you should be pitching
so I waited until I was ready and it's much better to try to pitch after you
have connections and you have titles I got my agent after I worked was working on the Osbornes
so I would start calling people and go hi it's Troy default from Over The Osbournes and they go
oh I don't know who you are but I know the name of that show it was very easy to get meetings
so a person sort of fresh here in LA with no connections not working in the industry but
they have this amazing idea is that possible they can actually it is not unheard of but it
is really hard if you have talent attached you know if your brother-in-law is a quarterback
for a football team and you think that he would be great as the subject of a show and he has said yes
go for it but it's very rarely done did somebody completely fresh to things gets
something sold you've got to bring something with you you've got to figure out where your value is
as a producer if you've never done it before there isn't anything that you bring to the
actual production so give yourself enough time to get acquainted with some people and
make yourself bigger by associating with people that can pitch with you
I always pitch through an existing production company that has an existing relationship with
whatever Network I think is right for the show and that's just easier for everybody
because the credibility line is established who are the players involved in a show being sold
well you've got the production company which you've got the people who do development at
those production companies the people who have existing relationships with the network it's
Network Executives obviously have something to say whoever's in development whoever's in programming
and current series those are the people that you want to get interested in the in the work
how is selling a reality show different from selling a screenplay or a movie
screenplay or movie is more of a solitary thing coming out of the gate
a movie is going to go through several iterations and you're probably going
to be fired off the film and they'll bring on another writer who's established to complete that
if you have not read Tom Lennon and baron Ben Garin's book that's called making Movies
for Fun and Profit and Fun and Profit is crossed out so it's making movies for profit
they detail that pretty well about how fear that if you're the writer that starts
you know you'll get assault if it's a reality show I mean everything is super collaborative
but a reality show probably has more fingers in the fudge than almost anything because everybody
thinks they can contribute to a reality program why do you think that is because it's perceived
as something that's easier to do erroneously but it's also you know I think people have
more of an idea of how a reality show gets made than they do of how a film gets made
they assume that it's a you know just kind of this massive Beetle Bailey
cloud of flying fists and action that somehow settles into a finished product
I think you've said never blindly email anyone anything in the entertainment industry right
I would say that because email is so immediate it's like teleporting into
somebody's living room in your underpants and wanting to have a conversation with them
if you go through a channel or you meet them through someone that you know then it makes
sense if you're blindly emailing people all day get unsolicited contact and it also is a very
amateurish way to move forward if you're going to email somebody do it in a way where it's like
the indicate that you know something about them and be asking them for advice as opposed to asking
them for action on your behalf because when you write to someone and you say I like a lot of
things that you do I'm a little confused about the process I'm trying to get started I have
this thing that I'm trying to move forward with don't attach any documents that they would have
to read and expose themselves to the liability if somebody else is making a show similar to
yours to the Jew and a lawyer stand up at some point and go we should sue them because that's
just like the thing we pitched that they never wanted to look at but they'll emailed to them
and on social media as well some certain platforms are wonderful but people can be very hyper visual
yeah for heaven's sakes don't talk about the thing you're trying to sell on social media
oh not only that I'm sorry I meant in terms of trying to contact people
blindly again with an ask for them rather than right something could you read this
for me sure nobody wants to read I still think I still think every day about that
thing that Josh Olson wrote years ago that I don't want to read your script
it's a it's a great read it's like I have a pile of stuff next to my bed from my friends that I
need to read I have things I have to write I have things I have to do I cannot stop and take the
amount of time that it takes to read a screenplay to give somebody that I don't know advice so that
being said because that's disheartening to hear I realize that that is most people they're inundated
with sure the reality of this business are very hard to hear that's true okay but how do we how do
we overcome that in the sense of okay if it's an unknown and they have several screenplays they'd
like to have made what are the proper channels the proper channels are to look for representation
it's very hard to get anybody to read anything if it's not coming to them through an agent the
old phrase over you know over the transom nobody reads things that just pop in through the window
it's not a subpoena you don't tap somebody on the shoulder and they have to read it
okay so find representation what if they can't find that
you can use an entertainment attorney that has decent relationships with people to submit things
it's a little more rare and it's not going to be free they're going to take a percentage of
whatever you make off of that sale just like an agent would or ask you for an upfront fee
you just have to be prepared for that.