How To Sell Your TV Show Plus a Sundance Episodic Darling
Explicit content warning
06/29/23 • 90 min
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So you have written a tv show that you want to sell, but how do you do it? How do you get people to become intrigued and vested in your idea? How much should you practice your pitch, and can you use gimmicks in the pitch meeting to grab attention?
In today’s episode, No Film School’s Charles Haine, GG Hawkins, Jason Hellerman and the team behind the show, Chanshi discuss:
- Defining what an “If Come” is
- Realizing that the showrunner must have past experience on other other tv shows
- Answering the ‘why now’ and ‘why you’ in a pitch meeting
- How to not feel icky when selling an idea
- Evaluating agents and managers just like they evaluate you
- Using unique gimmicks and stunts when pitching
- Chanshi - a hilarious, heartfelt, yet dark tv show filmed in Israel
- Why they didn’t write the main character as ‘more likable’
- Difficulty casting American actors in Israel
- What it was like having two directors on set for the show
Memorable Quotes
- “Your excitement for the idea will be contagious.” [13:10]
- “When you’re selling anything, you’re not just looking to sell it. You’re looking to find the right partner.” [14:02]
- “You cannot practice your pitch enough.” [27:09]
- “We both hated writing. That’s what brought us together.” [51:25]
- “Finish on time or we’re going to shut your cameras off.” [60:00]
Resources:
Find No Film School everywhere:
On the Web
https://www.facebook.com/nofilmschool
https://twitter.com/nofilmschool
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/user/nofilmschool
https://www.instagram.com/nofilmschool
Send us an email with questions or feedback: [email protected]!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
So you have written a tv show that you want to sell, but how do you do it? How do you get people to become intrigued and vested in your idea? How much should you practice your pitch, and can you use gimmicks in the pitch meeting to grab attention?
In today’s episode, No Film School’s Charles Haine, GG Hawkins, Jason Hellerman and the team behind the show, Chanshi discuss:
- Defining what an “If Come” is
- Realizing that the showrunner must have past experience on other other tv shows
- Answering the ‘why now’ and ‘why you’ in a pitch meeting
- How to not feel icky when selling an idea
- Evaluating agents and managers just like they evaluate you
- Using unique gimmicks and stunts when pitching
- Chanshi - a hilarious, heartfelt, yet dark tv show filmed in Israel
- Why they didn’t write the main character as ‘more likable’
- Difficulty casting American actors in Israel
- What it was like having two directors on set for the show
Memorable Quotes
- “Your excitement for the idea will be contagious.” [13:10]
- “When you’re selling anything, you’re not just looking to sell it. You’re looking to find the right partner.” [14:02]
- “You cannot practice your pitch enough.” [27:09]
- “We both hated writing. That’s what brought us together.” [51:25]
- “Finish on time or we’re going to shut your cameras off.” [60:00]
Resources:
Find No Film School everywhere:
On the Web
https://www.facebook.com/nofilmschool
https://twitter.com/nofilmschool
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/user/nofilmschool
https://www.instagram.com/nofilmschool
Send us an email with questions or feedback: [email protected]!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Previous Episode
The Festival Challenging Industry Norms & It's Best Feature Doc Winner
The Bentonville Film Festival (BFF) was founded in 2015 by Academy Award–winning actress Geena Davis. The mission of the festival is to influence mainstream media to increase diversity and the presence of underrepresented groups in their content. We were honored to speak to two filmmakers who presented projects at the 2023 festival.
In this episode, No Film School’s GG Hawkins, director Meghan Ross, and filmmaker Sierra Urich discuss:
- Meghan’s project, Here to Make Friends, and its diverse cast and crew
- The difficulties Meghan had in filming her episodic proof in Texas, when abortion became illegal
- Sierra’s film, Joonam, that won ‘Best Documentary Feature’ at BFF
- What it was like to watch footage with actual subtitles, compared to the translation she received during filming
- Getting excellent feedback and guidance from a supervising editor
- Discovering the storyline in post production
- How the most uncomfortable scenes end up being the most meaningful
- Forgetting about the physical filming tools as much as possible
- What it was like to feature her film at Sundance 2023
Memorable Quotes
- “There’s a requirement for inclusivity in all the films that are featured at Bentonville.” [6:21]
- “Pay yourself first because if you don’t, you may never get paid.” [29:31]
- “When you’re dealing with real people with real personalities, you’re just along for the ride with them.” [36:48]
Resources:
Find No Film School everywhere:
On the Web
https://www.facebook.com/nofilmschool
https://twitter.com/nofilmschool
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/user/nofilmschool
https://www.instagram.com/nofilmschool
Send us an email with questions or feedback: [email protected]!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Next Episode
What Can Tribeca Doc Editors Teach Us About Tools, Tone and Working Remote?
How do you figure out your film’s story in the edit, when your story has no script at all? The skill of editing is absolutely critical to the filmmaking and storytelling process.
In today’s episode, No Film School’s GG Hawkins and editors, Kelly Kendrick and Jamie Boyle discuss:
- Their experiences at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival
- The similarities between the documentaries
- How to tell a story with multiple characters
- Balancing the dark moments and joyous moments by toggling between the characters
- The challenges in portraying well-intentioned, yet flawed characters
- What the collaborative process looked like during editing
- Receiving feedback and taking in the essence of the notes being given
- Integrating text and print into the documentaries
- Favorite editing tools and hacks
Memorable Quotes
- “We didn’t want to try to tell people how to feel about the stories.” [19:18]
- “You kind of become a middle man and you don’t even know what’s been communicated to everybody.” [40:18]
- “I don’t think there really is an unhelpful note, it’s more so just getting to the seed of what they’re needing.” [43:27]
- “It’s so satisfying to make a scene shine before you’re sending it out to festivals or directors.” [52:19]
Resources:
Find No Film School everywhere:
On the Web
https://www.facebook.com/nofilmschool
https://twitter.com/nofilmschool
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/user/nofilmschool
https://www.instagram.com/nofilmschool
Send us an email with questions or feedback: [email protected]!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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