Dan Brockett
Forum Replies Created
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Hi Eric:
Please let us know how it works out, those of us interested in MB Extreme are looking for hands on reviews and experience.
Good luck,
Dan
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Hi Sterling:
I checked out your website, what a cool idea! I bet you have had some awesome adventures on your bike.
Your plan seems basically sound to me. While I have never produced a series, I did direct and produce two A&E Biographies and some History Channel stuff last year so I do have at least a small bit of TV experience.
My main advice to you would be that the chances of you “selling” your series directly to a broadcaster are slim. In the TV business, it’s all about relationships and who you know. Chances are, you will have to sell your concept to a production company that already has a business relationship with the broadcasters you are targeting. I am not saying that it is impossible to sell your show directly to a broadcaster, but it will be very difficult to get your show in front of the real decision makers. IMHO, 3X1 hour shows is not enough to merit serious interest from most broadcasters, they look for series with a lot of episodes but I suppose you could go back into production to shoot more espisodes after getting a commitment on your existing ones.
The “reel/pitch” idea is essential.
The most important bit of advice I can give is to GET AN ENTERTAINMENT LAWYER! You are entering shark infested waters and basically know nothing about the business end of the television business. In order to even submit the show “reel” to ANYONE, you will probably have to sign an agreement that basically says that essentially, the potential broadcaster can copy your concept without being sued by you. The broadcast outlets have to do this to protect themselves from being sued constantly by disgruntled producers who feel that the network ripped off their idea. It happens all of the time.
I wish that I had more specific advice but I have not sold a series, just produced and directed a few epsiodes for bigger prodcos.
I would also target potential broadcasters and start doing your research on them. Have you checked the Discovery Networks producers portal? You can at least see what all of the Discovery network channels are looking for on there. https://producers.discovery.com/ Just realize that your chances of selling them a show from submitting to them from the website are almost zilch, you really MUST submit through an established vendor or they will not deal with you.
Best of luck,
Dan
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Hi:
The company I work at has three full time paralegals on staff who do rights clearances all day, every day of the week. We do all of our work for the movie studios and on the largest project I am producing at this moment, we have four lawyers from the studio on the project as well.
Ambient music DEFINITELY needs to be cleared under all circumstances, forget fair use if you are selling the project.
As a documentary producer, I am seeing typically 40 to 60% of the total project budget going to various rights clearances. I must say that IMHO, stills are much tougher to clear than music but we also have an in-house composer and sound engineer as well as a 100,000 track music library so we do almost all of our own music here except for scores from features. Fortunately, our clients are typically the rights holders of the music used in the films so we can typically use it, but not always.
Intellectual property rights was forecast 10 years ago by Barrons as one of the areas in business that will have almost unlimited growth. It’s sad that every rights holder we contact assumes we have bottomless budgets and can spend a ton of money to clear material. We recently tried to clear :60 of an obscure early 1960s variety show, the rights owner wanted $25,000.00 per second. Needless to say, we passed on this robbery. It’s a shame too, because it is becoming almost impossible to make interesting, creative and moving docs on historical or vintage subjects where a lot of archival material is needed in order to tell the story, the budgets are just ridiculous.
I would heed Frank and Ron’s advice, you don’t need to be sued and it is happening more and more.
Good luck,
Dan
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Hi all:
Genelec 1029As with the Genelec 7060 sub all ran through a Mackie 1402 VLZ board.
Bought the Genelecs about 8 years ago when they first came out and have loved them ever since. I know them inside out and they “translate” mixes pretty well.
Best,
Dan
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Hi:
You might take a look at this https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/basic_audio_filter_tutoria.html
FCP’s audio filters do not have any noise reduction capability although the new Soundtrack Pro does.
Best,
Dan