The Director

We knew we wanted to hire Joe, but we had two problems:  1.  He was expensive and 2. He lived in LA (with all of the other reality TV directors - I now understand why everyone goes to LA to shoot television shows). 

Bob was able to negotiate a VERY low, fixed price, for the pilot with an agreement that Joe would get first “dibs” on direction of a series if we were able to sell it.  20% of our budget was committed to pay for Joe and his travel expenses.

I was really surprised how much Joe did - I am still not sure ALL directors do as much - but he was inolved with the creative process - creating a storyline - complete shot lists - direction of the actors (i.e. non-actors) and the rough cut of the show.  Joe’s experience with reality television was a key factor in our program.

Now we still had to select a crew - since Joe was from LA he did not have a preference on the team we would ultimately select. 

Selecting a Director

It was clear to me that very few Dallas based directors had experience in reality television.  Most of the directors we talked to had very little broadcast television experience - they mostly had experience with commercials.  We needed someone who “had done it before.”

We were fortunate to have found a director (Joe Dea) who recently finished a consulting project on the Queer Eye for the Straight Guy set.  Joe is an Emmy-winning Director who works primarily in the reality television genre including prime-time network specials for NBC and FOX as well as the TLC hit series A Wedding Story - Joe directed the pilot and 52 episodes. 

His resume includes: 

REALITY

Disney Lunchtime - Disney Channel - Director

Motor Sport Ranch (pilot) - HD Republic - Pilot Director

Fool for Love (pilot) - Carsey Warner / Oxygen – Pilot Director

Rock & Roll Hotel (pilot) - VH1/Film Garden – Pilot Director

The 5th Wheel - Universal – Field Producer

Mostly True Stories - TLC / Burrud Productions – Field Producer

Weekend Flash/Man on the Street - Playboy TV – Director /Producer

Worst Case Scenario - Sony Tri Star / TBS - Seg. Director

Audio File - Tech TV - Host Wrap Director

Planet TV - Plant Hollywood Ent. - Chuck Cirino Productions – Seg. Director

Movies for Guys Who Like Movies - TBS /Norsemen Prod. – Host Wrap Director

Brain Attack (with Stefanie Powers) - A Doctor in Your House.Com - Director

Drive On (pilot) - Warner Bros. -  Director

AXN TV - Columbia Tri Star - Studio Host Wrap Director

Extreme World Records - UPN / The Gurin Company - Host Wrap Director

The World’s Funniest Kids - Fox / Brad Lachman Prod. - Seg. Director

Extreme Weekend - ABC / InterSport - Seg. Director

Sightings - Fox / Berkley Group - Seg. Director

Final Vision - NBC / Greystone - Seg. Director

New Visions of the Future - NBC / Greystone - Seg. Director

Secrets Revealed - NBC / Dave Bell & Associates - Seg. Director

Masters of Illusion - NBC / GRB Ent. - Director

Movie Magic - Discovery / GRB - Seg. Director

World’s Greatest Stunts - Fox / GRB Ent. - Seg. & Host Director (4 specials)

MTV Music News - MTV- Seg. Director

Playboy 360 - Playboy - Seg. Director

Playboy Behind The Scenes - Playboy - Seg. Director

A Tribute to Ian Fleming - Robert Halmi Jr. / GRB Ent. - Director

Roller Games - Quintex - Seg. Director

 

DOCUMENTARY

Wild Things - UPN / WT Productions - Seg. Director

What a World - Discovery / Film Garden Ent. - Seg. Director

A Wedding Story - TLC / Film Garden - Senior Director - 52 episodes

Real Romance - Romance Classics / AMC / Film Garden - Seg. Director

The Majic Bus - Film Garden - Director (feature-length independent documentary)

 

DRAMATIC

Dracula the Series - Robert Halmi Jr. / GRB - Directed Pilot

Americas Most Wanted - Fox - Director of Dramatizations

Missing Reward - Four Point Ent. - Director of Dramatizations

Scandals  - ABC / Steven J. Cannell - Director of Dramatizations

Secrets and Mysteries - ABC / Greystone - Director of Dramatizations

Max Headroom - ABC - Designed effects, miniatures & storyboards

 

COMEDY

How to Cook a Turkey with Ellen DeGeneres - Beserkly Ent.- Director

Three Men and a Bogey - Media Home Ent. - Director

Jocks - Comedy Central / Popular Arts - Seg. Director

Comedy Break - Viacom - Directed comedy sketches

VIDEOWEST Productions - Senior Director - Comedy (4 years)

· Take Off / Night Flight - USA Network

· ABC Rocks - ABC

· Backstage Pass - ABC

· Best of Video West - KQED/PBS syndicated nationally

 

FEATURE FILMS

Perfect Shadow - Fast Bojum Prod. - 2nd Unit Director

Terror Squad - Materhorn Prod. - Art Director & 2nd Unit Directing

 

VARIETY

Disney World’s 25th Anniversary Kick Off - Disney / Brad Lachman Prod. - Seg. Director

USA Hot Spots - USA - Associate Director (multi-camera concert show)

 

MUSIC VIDEOS

Music Video Director - over 30 music videos (see awards)

 

COMMERCIALS

Burt Reynolds One Man Show - Burt Reynolds Ent.- Director

Polygram Distribution Group - Gary Group - Director

R.C. Shocker - Mattel Toys - Director

Little Fred’s Revenge - Federated /Shadoe Stevens Ent.- Director

 

AWARDS

Toulouse International Cinema & Stunt Festival -  2nd Place Comedy - I Love Ta Lose

Emmy Award: Creative Technical Crafts - Secrets and Mysteries - Animated Titles - Director & Designer

Emmy Award: Directing - Single Camera - Reunited (Greg Kihn Band)

Rolling Stone Magazine’s Music Video Hall of Fame:

Commander Cody: Two Triple Cheese

Rolling Stone Magazine’s All-Time Top 100 Videos:

Greg Kihn: Jeopardy & Happy Man

Jon Butcher Axis: Life Takes a Life

Krokus: Screaming in the Night

Billboard Award nomination: Directing - Single Camera - Life Takes A Life (Jon Butcher Axis)

Emmy Award: Directing - Single Camera - Happy Man (Greg Kihn Band)

Emmy Award nomination: Directing - Single Camera - Down on the Border (Sir Douglas Quintet)

Athens Film Festival: 1st. Place Best Comedy Short: Two Triple Cheese

Emmy Award:  Directing - Single Camera - Two Triple Cheese

JVC’s Tokyo Video Festival: Best Comedy Short - Two Triple Cheese

Two Triple Cheese is in the permanent collection of the NY Museum of Modern Art.

EDUCATION - BFA Hartford Art School - Design / Painting /Sculpture

TEACHING

California Collage of Arts and Crafts: Intro to Video as Art

UCLA - Guest Lecturer

UC North Ridge - Guest Lecturer

 

The BIG Concept

We assumed our concept had to change if we were going to attract a “real” network to our show.  It had to be BIGGER with more people, elimination rounds, lots of sponsorship opporunties and so on.  I call it “concept creep”.  Think Survivor on a race track.  So we started to ask, “How much will it cost to produce a network ready pilot in an elimination format?” 

The answer was $100,000.00+

Our original justification for the pilot did not make sense with the new “reality” that our program was destined for FOX.  No network would buy a pilot that did not apply to the series.  We really needed a screener or promo reel.  After much conversation we decided to shoot the original pilot as downside protection - i.e. we could always sell it to an HD network if we were unable to sell the series to a network.  We would then take footage from the shoot and cut a second 3-5 minute “screener” to use as a sales tool with the networks.  We increased the budget again to a maximum cost of $50,000.00.  (see the first budget below)Msr_budget

Back to the original concept… (heads slightly deflated - but still big - we need a head meter)  How about Head +1-10?  We would be at a Head +7 level.

Our First Concept

Before our heads got out of control we had a very simple concept for the pilot and ultimately the series.  The show would consist of six eight minute segments:

1.  What is MotorSport Ranch

2.  Driver One Profile (home, office & track)

3.  Driver Two Profile (home, office & track)

4.  Driver Three Profile (home, office & track)

5.  The time trial & reactions

6.  The RACE!

The primary story points:

1.  What is MotorSport Ranch - History of facility.

2.  Who is at the Ranch - why and what do they do there?

3.  Who is Jack Farr?  Our three drivers?

4.  What are the features of the cars?

5.  Time trials & race - why three cars?  What do we learn?

Cast:

1.  Jack Farr - Owner MSR

2.  Michael Tari - Hedge Fund Manager

3.  Deborah Loth - Dentist/Mother of Three

4.  Jon Ward - Software Millionaire

But, again our heads…

Big heads?

So as I was saying, our heads were getting big.  Everyone was heaping praise on our silly little idea - again we had not even hired a crew to shoot our show - we only had an idea and a deal with the owner of the facility to shoot a pilot. 

Suddenly we decided that MotorSport Ranch could air on a real network - not just an HD network - perhaps a cable network like BRAVO or Discovery - maybe even a real network like FOX!  Well if we were going to sell our pilot to a “real network” we would need to “up the ante” and improve our intended production values (i.e. increase our budget).  Clearly, we had a REAL show here - I mean everyone in Dallas told us we were geniuses.  So that was that - we decided to increase the budget by 50%.

Well if we are going to sell this to FOX we need to change the concept - oh yea - what was the concept?

Looking for a crew

Once we decided on a concept and cut our deal a whole lot of nothing happened for several weeks.  Every few days I would call Bob and ask him if he had found a crew to shoot and edit MotorSport Ranch - he was always very positive - a trait Bob has perfected. 

One afternoon Bob called me and invited me to meet with a crew that had worked on another reality show based in Dallas - I had no idea there was a reality show based in Dallas…  We met with them and frankly I was not impressed.  They seemed very young and somewhat unprofessional.  Bob was running the meeting and decided they were a good fit and offered the job to them and everyone seemed happy. 

A week or two later Bob explained that he decided they were not a good fit - I let it go and asked what the next step was.  HD Republic shared office space with a production company called Mad River - http://www.madriverpost.com and they caught wind of the project and expressed an interest in producing it.  Bob engaged their services and we scheduled a weekend test shoot.  The day before the test shoot they backed out of the project indicating they were not confident that they could produce a reality program - their experience was in commercial work. 

I was starting to get worried…

BUZZ

Our failure to hire a crew was causing me to lose confidence in our show.  Just as I was starting to question the entire idea we started getting some strange telephone calls.  Dallas is a big city that feels like a small town - news travels fast.  Word leaked that we were going to produce a reality television program in the Dallas area and everyone wanted in on the deal. 

Interestingly we got a call from a major advertising agency who had heard about the program and pitched it to one of their clients - the client loved it - no one had talked to us.  Only after the successful pitch meeting did the agency call us.  They starting asking questions we could not answer - heck I did not have the slightest idea if much less when we would have footage for review.  The phrase “high-concept” was attached to our show.  Everyone was excited for us - if they only knew - wait?  Are we missing something? 

Whoops - we had not tied up the location!  Since the venue was the star we should have considered formalizing our deal with Jack.  If someone thought our idea was really that good they could steal our idea and cut us out of the deal.  We got on the phone with Jack and took him to lunch at Chili’s the next day.  By the end of the week we struck a deal with Jack and we began to breath easier. 

One other side effect - our heads began to grow…

Cutting the deal

When Bob and I talked about the idea of creating an HD television show we considered various options.  There are several ways you can market your television show idea including:

1.  Create a treatment and market it to various television networks (this works well for Mark Burnett, but not for first time producers like me). Check out Dane’s Blog.

2.  Create a screener (a short 3 to 5 minute version of the show costing $10K to produce).

3.  Create a 30 to 60 minute pilot (actually shorter without the commercial time costing $25K to produce). 

The treatment option was not really an option.  The screener option was appealing due to lower cost, but at the end of the day you could not sell it - i.e. you could never sell the screener - it was a sales tool.  Creating a stand along show - having it “in the can” is a great way to show a network you are serious - this is not just an idea - it is a product - one that you can actually watch.  So we decided to develop a low cost, one hour, HD documentary/pilot designed to sell to an HD network. 

Along with a partner I run a fairly successful IT outsourcing business called Architel - http://www.architel.com.  Making a television show seemed like a fun project, but it was likely to consume quite a bit of my time and a significant upfront investment.  I decided that it might be a good idea to bring him in as a partner - he was thrilled (his wife was not so thrilled - that is a story for another time).    Scott and I sat down with Bob at Starbucks and cut a very simple deal:

   • Partnership created to hold show called MSR Partners

   • Scott and I would own 50% of the partnership

   • Bob’s company, HD Republic, would own 50% of the partnership

   • Scott and I would fund the first $25,000.00 of the production costs in the form of a note

   • Show costs over $25,000.00 would be split equally between the partners

   • First Revenues go to pay note plus return

   • Next Revenues go to pay 25% profit margin for HD Republic on production costs

   • Final Revenues split equally

Whether or not this was a good deal remains to be seen.  Stay tuned…

Total Budget: $25,000.00

Possible Revenue (from sale of pilot): $40,000.00

Possible Revenue (from sale of series): $600,000.00 per year

Now we had a deal and we needed to figure out how to get the show in the can. 

Concept Two: The venue becomes the show…

So the idea of illegal street racing was quickly set aside, but from the burning embers a new idea emerged.  Instead of a reality show about kids racing on city streets we would profile real people who are members of MotorSport Ranch. 

MotorSport Ranch is unique in that it is set up like a country club instead of a race track.  Almost four hundred members with varied backgrounds show up on a weekly basis and enjoy a very unique experience.  See “What is MotorSport Ranch” for more information about Jack Farr’s creation. 

Now I had my idea - a reality show about a country club for normal and extraordinary people who love to race.  The race was on!

Concept One: Illegal Street Racing

My first concept for a television pilot to be shot in HD centered around illegal street racing.  At first glance this seemed to be a great idea:  a.  Generally the demographics for illegal street racing are positive - 18 to 25 year old males - a prime demographic for advertisers.  b.  At the time I had not heard of a reality program/series focused primarily on the illegal street racing scene.  c. Everyone I talked to loved the idea and d. I thought it was a good idea. 

After working through the details it became clear that it might not be as good of an idea I as orginally thought.  a.  Very few 18 to 25 year old males have HD televisions - the demographic for HDTV is male over the age of 35.  b. As it turns out everyone and their brother had a street racing program in production.  c. Everyone I talked to had no idea what they were talking about.  d. I had no idea what would sell.  And then there were several other very good reasons to reconsider the idea including the simple fact that the liability associated with a reality program about an illegal activity would make a trial lawyer’s mouth water. 

I did consider the possibility that we could develop a “fake” illegal street racing show instead and I had the perfect venue - a country club called MotorSport Ranch.