Handling Criticism in Hollywood: Your How-To Guide

It’s episode 85 of Producing Unscripted, and today we’re discussing a crucial skill that will help you in business…and life. Handling criticism. If Steven Spielberg, Mark Burnett, and Shonda Rhimes have to deal with criticism, you can bet the rest of us will, too. Here are six useful tips, along with real-world advice, to help you when handling criticism.   A Really Great Article from RealScreen on Handling Criticism Today’s post and episode sprang from a recent article in RealScreen Magazine written by Chris Palmer and Shannon Lawrence. The article discusses handling criticism in a smart, “keep your sanity” kind of way. And sanity is important in this business! After reading it, the two of us talked alot about how handling criticism is something that is just “part of the job” we’ve learned to accept over the years. But it was not always that way. Learning to Love (Or At Least Live With) Criticism If you want to work in the entertainment industry, you will get critiqued daily. Perhaps hourly (or minutely.) When we first began our career, it was hard not to take those critiques personally. We got over it. You’ll need to get over it, too. At it’s best, criticism is a tool that can make your projects great. At it’s worst, criticism is bad advice given by people who really don’t get your project. Either way, you’ll need to deal with it. In today’s episode, we discuss the six tips Chris and Shannon give in their article. We also give you some personal insight into why we, as working professionals (and a working married couple) see these tips on handling criticism to be right on the money. Just some of what we cover today: * Six tips to help you when handling criticism * The Jedi mind-trick that will help you pull emotion out of any situation * Talking with executives and team members in helpful ways * Keeping your sanity when things get rough * What to do when the critique you get is just plain wrong * And…a slew of previous jobs Biagio likes slightly less than working in TV and film Want to work in showbiz? You’ll be handling criticism. Hit that giant PLAY button above and set yourself up for success. Transcript Coming Soon! Helpful and Related Links * Dealing With Network Notes – your CRUCIAL guide to working with network and studio execs. How to take their notes without ruining your project or your relationship with them. * Survive Production: 7 Weird Tips Guaranteed to Save Your Sanity and Help Avoid Burnout – some of these will also put you in the right state of mind for handling criticism. * Follow us on Twitter: @JokeAndBiagio – we hang out there often and try to respond to most tweets. Let’s Make Some TV Together Trying to break into unscripted TV, reality television, or documentary series? Want to pitch to our company? Here’s how:

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*Named "New and Noteworthy" across all podcasts, as well as TV & Film, Arts, and Education. Subscribe now. Ready to create, pitch, and sell documentary series, unscripted TV shows or reality series and specials? From creating pitch tapes to meeting with TV networks, developing your ideas to discovering reality TV stars, this podcast features tips on working in unscripted film and television that you won't find anywhere else. Get top-industry secrets and even pitch your shows to Award-Winning Documentary Filmmakers and Unscripted Television Producers Joke Fincioen and Biagio Messina. Recently, the duo have helped both new and experienced producers bring projects to television on MTV, BIOGRAPHY CHANNEL, INVESTIGATION DISCOVERY, A&E, and CNN/HLN. Your show could be next. Subscribe now. ABOUT JOKE AND BIAGIO: With over a decade of experience in unscripted film and television, this married couple has made TV shows, specials, and pilots for CNN, HLN, A&E, The CW, Biography Channel, NBC, CBS, Discovery, Investigation Discovery, Discovery+, E!, IFC, Logo, Oxygen, Style Network, VH1 and MTV. Their feature length documentary DYING TO DO LETTERMAN played in theaters across America, was invited by the International Documentary Association to qualify for Academy Award® consideration, and named “New and Noteworthy” on iTunes alongside The Dark Knight Rises, Brave, and Beasts of the Southern Wild. Subscribers to this podcast will learn the secrets of the Unscripted TV and Film worlds, and how to apply them toward career success. Subscribe today.