A&E And The NYTVF Offering Guaranteed Deals For Non-Fiction Series

“Five finalists will  receive development funding from the network; one winner awarded $10,000 and  the opportunity to participate in pilot production.

A&E Network and the New York Television Festival are accepting submissions for unscripted television formats from indie producers  and doc production companies. Entries should focus on big characters in  exciting and fresh worlds that are highly entertaining and of the moment.

Submission Requirements: A short treatment (1-2 pages) describing your original  unscripted format and a brief video introducing the subject(s). Five finalists,  selected by A&E, will receive notes and $2,500 to shoot additional tape. One winner will be  awarded $10,000 and the opportunity to participate in pilot production. All 25 semi-finalists will be invited to participate at the NYTVF and will be eligible for  additional opportunities.”

Find out more about grants and funding in the grants and funding category.

To purchase a download of the Funding Your Dream Documentary seminar, click here.

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Phillip – the Perfect Survivor Character

Phillip Sheppard, a cast member of Survivor: Redemption Island, was absolutely made for reality television.  Let’s face it, by now, we can all identify the casting slots filled on reality shows: the schemer, the hunk, the bi^&%, the black bi^$%, the mother, the outsider and the wild card.  The wild card is the character that doesn’t fit into any other conceivable category.  Usually they are a little socially awkward, a little brash and a little zany.  Phillip is a whole lot of all of these things and more. At the beginning of the season, Phillip seemed to be so disruptive and uncontrollable that I figured  he’d be kicked off immediately.  My husband and I hoped he’d stay awhile just to keep the show interesting and he has. 

Phillip claims to be a special agent (which he reminds players constantly) but doesn’t project the wherewithal to seem to be able to do such a job.  He says he is stealth but then blurts out everything he is thinking during tribal council.  Just to hear him give dissertations on whatever comes to mind makes me laugh. For example, he has a tatoo of a lion on one arm to represent the ferocity of his ire if you mess with his family.  The gorilla on the other arm represents the attitude he will take if you mess with his country.  He says, “Hell hath no fury like a lion and a gorilla when he thinks he is being provoked.”  With a bird feathers attached to his head, he shared the message of victory given to him from his ancestors.  He walks around in tidy-pinkies that gross out his fellow players.  Phillis is what we call in my house “special.”  And just when you think he can’t get any crazier, he announces that he is playing the crazy card to further himself in the game.  Perhaps there is some method to his madness.

I’m glad Phillip has lasted as long as he has.  His particular brand of nuttiness is refreshing even for reality television. I do wonder, as he watches the episodes at home, if he is hurt by how he is being portrayed.  Then again, he has given the producers a lot to work with.   Despite his silliness, there is an air of mystery about him.  Was he really a special agent?  The producers have cleverly  added a “?” to his on-camera title.  Is he really a fool or just playing the part?  Maybe the truth will be revealed in time. Maybe not. Either way, I’m enjoying the show.

Survivor host Jeff Probst, didn’t give Phillip much hope in the beginning.  Check out Jeff’s predictions here.

Here from Phillip himself in his pre-taping interview here. 

For more reviews, visit the Documentary and Television Reviews category.

Protecting Your Ideas

A lot of people new to the television industry have recently asked me how to protect their television program ideas.  The short answer is you can’t.  As Paige Gold, a lawyer who specializes in copyright protection, puts it “ideas cannot be protected. If they could be, most creative commerce would grind to a virtual halt. However, the exact way in which the idea is expressed may be protected.”

Let’s face it, television show ideas are a dime a dozen.  We’ve all seen lots of the same type of shows in various forms.  Hoarders is airing on A&E while Hoarding: Buried Alive airs on TLC.  Who knows how many people had that same idea.  Once that “idea” is acted upon in the form of a one-pager, treatment, pilot or program, that you can try to protect the actual “work” or “product.” 

The first step that most people think of is copyright protection.  Copyrighting is never necessary though it does offer a written record of the creator and the work.  The filing fee starts at $35 and you can do it online at http://www.copyright.gov/eco/.  You can also register your work with the Writer’s Guild where it will be given an electronic date stamp.  This cost is between $10 – $22. For more information visit https://www.wgaeast.org/script_registration (East) or http://www.wgawregistry.org/webrss/ (West).  You can find a lot of good information about the television and film industries as well there.  However quite frankly, if your idea is in written form, emailing it to yourself also works.  Or, you can have the document notarized and then mail it to yourself.  The thought here is to put a date on the work so you can establish a timeline advantage. 

Walter G. Lehmann, a managing partner at Lehmann Strobel PLC, suggests registering “the most complete expression of the work — a pilot for example, rather than a one-page treatment”.  He warns that, particularly in the case of written documents, just because you register it doesn’t mean someone else hasn’t already done the same.  Every time you submit an idea to a production company, you run the risk of the idea being stolen and it is often easy for the companies to saythat  they already had a similar idea in the works.  Lehmann says “In some cases you will be asked to sign a submission release acknowledging that the production company or distributor may be developing substantially similar programming and waiving your right to claim copyright infringement.  Signing such a release may be the only way to get in to pitch at all, but it is a risk you have to take.”  The Lehmann Strobel website has a lot of great law documents that producers can use including a sample submission letter.  Visit the “Resources” page at www.lehmannstrobel.com and click on “Producers”.

The best way to protect your idea is to make sure it is attached to something that only you can offer such as exclusive access to talent, experts, characters or location.  For example, I know an historian who owns legal documents and photographs that have never been seen before.  No one can steal that from him.  Sandra Thomas, a producer in the Washington, DC area, says if you can offer something that few others have “sign them up exclusively to you for a development period of 6 months or more if you can get it.”  Other than that, she says, “pitch to people you can trust”.  And if someone does steal your idea, at least you know it was a good one.

Review: The Two Escobars

A not-so-funny joke is repeated every World Cup season since 1994 about players who made mistakes during games by people who only read sports headlines.  “That guy better be careful. He might go home and get killed.”  The people making this joke don’t know who it was that was murdered (Andrés Escobar) or what country he was from (Colombia).  They were questions that I, myself,  kept forgetting to ask.

A relative new comer to international soccer competitions, I recently asked my husband “whatever happened to the Colombian national team?”  I remember footage of their bright uniforms, colorful play and wild hair.  My questions were soon answered by the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary called The Two Escobars directed by Jeff and Michael Zimbalist.

The Two Escobars follows the rapid rise and demise of the Colombian national soccer team in the 80’s and 90’s through the lives of its hero – Andrés Escobar and its patron – Pablo Escobar.  This documentary has all the elements of classic story telling: complex characters, rags to riches stardom and good versus evil.  The interviews with former players, family members and politicians are compelling in both content and composition.  The archival footage is vast.  It almost seems as if the past footage was shot with the knowledge that this documentary would one day be produced.  Not once did I think “they don’t have anything to cover this with.”

Pablo Escobar is depicted as a modern day Robin Hood – a poor boy that made riches by becoming a drug lord but sharing his ill-begotten wealth with poor citizens from Colombia.  He reconstructed homes in a fire ravaged barrio and built soccer fields for neighborhoods and schools.  It was his sponsorship of one of the national teams that allowed them to jettisons them to the top ranks of world soccer.  While watching this film, I was rooting for him as much as I was rooting against him. 

Andrés Escobar was a member of that team.  He was uncomfortable with the drug connections but relished being a role model for young people.  He became the team captain and used his money and position to help at-risk youth.  At a time when Colombia was suffering from the highest murder rate in the world, he became a symbol of hope and achievement.  It was easy to root for Andrés.

When the demise of both Escobars unfolds, we understand why.  For Pablo, it wasn’t just the Colombian government with the help of the Americans that finally got the best of him.  He was killed by the only person who could kill him, a former friend and rival drug lord.  And it wasn’t just an angry fan that killed Andrés after his own-goal that knocked the Colombian team out of the world cup.  It was a thug from the same rival gang that killed Pablo – a thug with a mammoth machismo attitude and perhaps too much to drink. With the death of the two Escobars, Colombian soccer sunk back into oblivion even more quickly than it had risen.

In the end, The Two Escobars not only taught me about Colombian soccer and history but reminded me that there are at least three sides to every story, that good is not always all good and that evil is not always without morality. It is ultimately a sad story and supremely human.  Mostly, it pointed out that any death, but especially that of someone who held the hopes and dreams of his country, is just not good fodder for a joke.

Secrets to Funding Your Dream Documentary

Here is an except from my interview with Bill Einreinhofer from the CD recording of the  teleseminar “How To Fund Your Dream Documentary.”  Bill is a National Emmy-Award winning producer, writer and director with over 20 years of television production experience.  He shared a lot of useful tips about how to raise money to produce a documentary.  Here he discusses how to approach potential funders.

SYDNYE: Before you introduce yourself and how fabulous you are and how fabulous your idea is, you need to know why and where and how much they give?

BILL: Yes. This is where you start looking at the giving history. This is where these various reference libraries, whether you go to the actual library or whether you view it online line, find out where the money has gone in the past. What are their interests if they are a foundation? Of if they are a corporation, who they are trying to reach? Corporations, I’ve gotten corporation grants to do public television programs, and it’s because those particular corporations wanted to reach the audience that public television gets. You have to figure out what the grant maker wants. And then be able to tell them, “I can deliver what you want to you.” It only makes sense. I mean obviously, it these people are going to be making grants or if they are going to be making advertising buys, they have certain needs. You have to understand what those needs and be able to tell them “this is how I can help you meet those needs.”

SYDNYE : So we’ll talk a little bit more a little bit later about distribution because that is part of it.

BILL: And this is probably the biggest mistake that many people make. In that they’ll put together a wonderful proposal. They’ve got a great theme. They’ve got colorful characters. A really, really good story, they’ve figured out exactly how to shoot it and edit it. They know what the look is and they don’t put anything about how they are going to distribute it. And if no one is ever going to see this program, this film, then why fund it?

You can learn more tips from Bill Einreinhofer about funding documentaries on the 45-minute audio CD “How To Fund Your Dream Documentary.”

Steal These Documentary and Series Ideas… Please!

So many ideas and so little time. So I thought I’d share some ideas for free in the hopes that someone in the universe will stumble upon them and turn them into wonderful, fun, insightful shows, series and documentaries. Or at least, get some good brainstorming going. Did I mention that they are absolutely free?

Signs of the Messiah – This would be a documentary following people who are looking for signs that the Messiah is coming in whatever religion in which they believe. I have a friend who studies rap music and hard rock lyrics because he believes that the second coming of Jesus will be announced through music. This made me wonder how many other people out there are sign seekers in such unusual and interesting ways.

The Science Behind Rock Concerts – This documentary would follow one popular music group as they prepare for a concert. As they prepare, the film would delve into how our ears hear music, how our brains process it, how instruments make music, how we are able to sing, why humans respond to music, how microphones pick up music and how speakers broadcast music.

Extreme Collectors – I was amazed to learn that there are people who spend thousands upon thousands of dollars each year to collect sneakers! What other crazy collectors are out there? I’m sure some of these collectors as colorful characters.

6 Degrees of Separation – On each episode, contestants draw a name of a celebrity out of a big name drum. Then they have 48 hours to get in touch with that celebrity. The less steps/contacts it takes to find the celebrity, the more points they get. They also get more points for face to face meetings. The show could be hosted by someone who sort of knows Kevin Bacon. The

Ultimate Couch Potato Life – this lifestyle series would be hosted by a good looking guy with a bit of a beer belly. On each episode, he would give tips on how to maximize the coach potato experience. The tips could range from comfort food recipes to entertaining on game night. There could even be a “tools and technology” segment that explores the many uses of TiVo and such things as chairs with built in refrigerators.

From Celeb to Politician – What makes celebrities like Ronald Reagan, Jesse Ventura and Arnold Schwarzenegger decided to turn in the glamour for a politician’s life? And what makes them so good at it?

A Week In The Life of A Reenactor – Reenactors tend to be pretty colorful characters. They often dedicate all of their spare time to researching, practicing and preparing for reenactments in an effort to make them as real and as accurate as possible.

Greatest Fictional Characters – and their impact on society. These characters can be from books, TV, movies or cartoons. They can be dogs, doctors, lovers, villains, heros or even cars. For example, what effects have Cliff Huxtable, Gregory House and Trapper John had on our collective American psyches? This could be done as a top-10 count down show.

Mommy Bloggers – this is a phenomenon that has reached Wall Street. Many blogs started by moms about family, child rearing and motherhood now have the backing of major sponsorship. Who are these mommy bloggers and how can you cash in?

International Holidays in the U.S. – I’d love to see how Hindus in Berkeley are celebrating Diwali and how the West Indians in DC go all out for the Carnival in Brooklyn. There are lots of international holidays being celebrated in our own back yards. You don’t even need a passport.

If you’ve any of these ideas on air already, that only proves that they are good. Hey, now that I’ve written these ideas out, some of them look kinda good. Hurry up and produce them before I do!  If you have any ideas that you’d like someone else to produce, please share.