Every year at the Realscreen Summit, the producers represented by our sister company, CABLEready, gather to discuss the various networks we met with during the past few days. Tons of straight talk, speculation, recommendations and – most importantly – sharing. This is the kind of relationship we like to have with and among our program suppliers.
After about 45 minutes of info, all in the general theme of “Here’s what they’re doing and what they want,” one of us (name doesn’t matter, though she gets full credit from me) went contrary right off the bat:
“EVERYONE SAYS THE SAME THING,” she said. “y’know, strong characters, big stories, docusoaps, formats, blah-blah-blah.” Rarely does anything truly new come forth or are there any secrets revealed. Just about everyone of the 50 or so “30 Minutes With” participants had a mantra that became redundant sometime Tuesday morning.
Ya think a network is going to tell 100 or so people at a 1,000+ conference their plans? In this marketplace? (Or any other, for that matter.) Why leak your strategy to the competition? As a result, rare is the candor of a speaker in these settings. Though there are exceptions. A&E’s Rob Sharenow wins our award for SUMMIT SPEAKER OF THE YEAR. He turned up everywhere and was always smart, funny and brutally honest.
Not that we all threw away our notes last night, but it is a good thing to consider when submitting your programs to a network. The very best way to stay up to date more than once a year is to subscribe to CableU. We had most of this info (unadorned with conference hype) in our network needs section a full two weeks before D.C. Count on CableU.tv to get it to you first!!
Sorry for my promo but after two weeks on the road with NATPE and Realscreen, I’m still in a sales mode. And if we sell for you, that is a good thing.
One more thing: CableU’s Bulls&%t Bingo at The Summit was a big hit … dozens of buzz-words, overused phrases and silly slogans arrayed like a bingo card. We gave away some iPods to those who caught the words as they floated out from the daises in D.C. We also picked up a few new overused goodies for the list:
- DNA
- 3D
- Genre-busing
- Transactional Docusoap
- Credible-Obsessive
- New Jersey is the new Alaska
- Big Dream Shows
- Cloud
…and if you can explain this one, you’re in on the secret….
- “Bevel-edged Approach”
See you on the road, at a conference, or in your office. Thanks for a great couple of weeks everyone!
Yes, it’s definitely true that most of the nets are saying the same thing – big characters, big stories, etc. I do want to stress, though, that I think it’s not too inaccurate. What entertains people most? Other people! Stories! Of course that’s what the nets are going to look for. As independent producers, it’s our job to bring the networks what they want – even if they aren’t quite sure what it is they need. Sure, I’m positive there are strategies that aren’t always revealed, but I say: if they want strong characters and great storylines, let’s give it to ‘em! (Keeping it in their wheelhouse, of course.)
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Stuart Volkow Reply:
February 25th, 2010 at 3:13 am
Maybe the secret is there is now secret strategy! That Elizabeth is right, character and story has been and probably always will be the spine of great TV and Movies. My lesson from the last few weeks has been that network strategy is similar to Hollywood. Drive as fast as you can while looking in the rear-view mirror! See what works and back your strategy into it. Or, as one summitteer put it to me, BS Backwards!
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