Hiring the right crew!

If you are producing a reality series in Los Angeles or Toronto, you won’t have an issue finding a great crew, but if you are working in an atypical television market like Dallas it might be a challenge. Fortunately, Robert knew the crew that worked on another reality series based in Dallas called Cheaters. I didn’t know much about the show, other than they seemed to hold their cameras steady and tended to stay in focus more often than not.

Robert arranged a meeting and we met the crew at Robert’s offices in Deep Ellum. To be frank, I wasn’t impressed with their youth, unprofessional dress or off color remarks. Of course, I have never really talked to a ‘crew’ before so I am not certain what to expect. Robert was running the meeting and decided they were a good fit. He asked them if they would take the job (i.e. production of the pilot episode) and they accepted. I stayed quiet.

Two weeks later Robert called me and suggested that he didn’t think the crew we hired were a good fit for the pilot. I never really got the scoop on what happened, but it didn’t seem to matter so I simply asked what his backup plan was. Robert’s landlord, a television production company called Mad River, was interested in producing the pilot and Robert told me he engaged their services for the pilot. We scheduled a test shoot and to our surprise they backed out of the project, indicating they were not confident that they could produce a reality program (their experience was with commercial work).

I began to ask myself, “is the problem them or is it us?”

We shifted our focus from finding the ‘right’ crew, to finding the right director. After interviewing several local directors with extensive experience directing commercials, I started to get worried again. How were we going to producing a reality pilot in Dallas? It turns out that very few Dallas directors had experience in reality television and the ones who did weren’t available. We could take a risk on a director without experience, but given our budget, timeframe and experience we really needed to find someone who as ‘been there, done that’ on a reality television set.

Robert was working with an agent in Los Angeles who represented a reality television director named Joe Dea. Joe was just finishing a directing engagement with NBC/Bravo for the hit reality series, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Joe is an Emmy-winning director who works primarily in the reality television genre including prime-time network specials for NBC, FOX as well as the TLC his series A Wedding Story. Joe’s reality experience includes:

Knight School with Bobby Knight - ESPN - Director
Disney Lunchtime - Disney Channel - Segment Director
Fool for Love (pilot for Fake-A-Date) - GSN / Montana Prod / Carsey Warner – Pilot Director
Rock & Roll Hotel (pilot) - VH1/Film Garden – Pilot Director
The 5th Wheel - Universal – Field Director
Mostly True Stories - TLC / Burrud Productions – Field Director / Field Producer
Weekend Flash/Man on the Street - Playboy TV – Field Director / Field Producer
Worst Case Scenario - Sony Tri Star / TBS - Field Director
Audio File - Tech TV - Host Wrap Director
Planet TV - Plant Hollywood Ent. - Chuck Cirino Productions – 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. - Field Director
Extreme Weekend - ABC / InterSport - Field Director
Sightings - Fox / Berkley Group - Field Director
Final Vision - NBC / Greystone - Field Director
New Visions of the Future - NBC / Greystone - Field Director
Secrets Revealed - NBC / Dave Bell & Associates - Field Director
Masters of Illusion - NBC / GRB Ent. - Director
Movie Magic - Discovery / GRB - Field Director
World’s Greatest Stunts - Fox / GRB Ent. - Field & Host Wrap Director (4 specials)
MTV Music News - MTV- Field Director / Field Producer
Playboy 360 - Playboy - Field Director
Playboy Behind The Scenes - Playboy - Director / Producer
A Tribute to Ian Fleming - Robert Halmi Jr. / GRB Ent. - Director
Roller Games - Quintex - Field Director

Joe seemed like the real deal and the fact that he was available and interested was even more important. We knew we wanted to hire Joe, but we had two problems: a) he was expensive and b) he lived in LA. Robert negotiated a VERY reasonable fixed price for directing the pilot with an agreement that Joe would get first “dibs” on direction of he series should the program get picked up by a network. Almost 20% of our budget was committed to pay for Joe’s work and his travel expenses.

Of course, we still didn’t have a crew…

Never swim alone, that goes for reality television production too.

Several weeks had passed since Robert and I first discussed the possibility of producing a reality television show in HD. We had never discussed exactly what we would produce, nor had we discussed what a deal between us might look like. It was time to cut the deal. Robert and I met at Starbucks and hammered out the deal. Robert and I would create a limited partnership that would own the show. Each of us would own 50% of the partnership. I would fund the first $25,000 of production costs (i.e. third party cost without markup) and any production cost over $25,000 would be split equally between each party. The first revenues would go to pay off the first $25,000 plus a 12% return. Second revenues would go to pay 25% profit margin (i.e. on the production costs) to Robert’s company. The final revenues would be split equally. I am not certain this was the best deal I could have negotiated, but it was the easiest deal.

If you accept the fact that the potential upside to producing a television show is fairly limited, but the downside is relatively unlimited, it will immediately make sense to include as many people in your project as possible. My business partner in several other deals is Scott Ryan and I offered to cut him in on the deal offering him 50% if he would cover 50% of the costs. I explained that I might be a bit distracted by the project and that by including him in the upside he the distraction wouldn’t cost him anything on any of our other projects. He jumped on the offer and became my partner in the show as an executive producer.

At this point I was still convinced there was significant money to be made and I wasn’t really interested in cutting anyone else in on the deal. This was a mistake. Ironically, I could have raised the entire amount from friends interested in ‘producing’ a television show. Another thing I learned that you might not realize, production credits cost you nothing, but you can trade them for services or even sell them. For example, offer your lawyer a production credit in exchange for free legal services or at a minimum discounted legal services. My advice? Cut as many other people into your deal as possible. Again, if you are hoping to make money you are sorely deluding yourself. Accept the dilution and get busy making your show a success. Mark Burnett only got paid $455,000 for the first season of Survivor, today he makes $1,000,000 per episode.