Make Reality TV: 5 Steps to Great Cast Relationships

Cast relationships — how you communicate with and prepare your cast — is key to making a great reality TV show or documentary series. Making sure those cast relationships stay strong both during and long after a show is done is not only crucial to your success in this industry, but it’s the right thing to do. So today we share how to pitch and make great reality TV shows and documentary series all while earning and maintaining great cast relationships. Cast Relationships: The Key to Great Reality TV Shows and Happy Experiences After making TV for quite a few years, we believe there’s nothing more important than earning and keeping the trust of your cast, and ensuring those cast relationships stay strong all during production and well after. A few things we cover today to help you do just that: * The right way to prepare your cast for pitching — or making– a reality TV show or documentary series. * How to get great story without putting words in your casts’ mouths. * Which TV business facts you must teach your cast before you shoot. * And why it’s crucial know…when the toilet paper runs out. Our Cast is Our Family Wesley Branch, one of the stand-out characters on our MTV show CAGED, was seriously injured in an accident, and is currently paralyzed from the stomach down. His friends and family have started a GoFundMe page to support his recovery. Wes is an incredible guy, and loving father to his four-year-old son. We’re proud supporters of his recovery fund, and hope that you’ll consider helping him out, even if all you give is $1. The GoFundMe page is here. Cast Relationships Go Beyond Any TV Show Hit the giant PLAY button above to learn more about working with your cast, from the first time you consider pitching them for a show, all the way through you final episodes and beyond. Transcript coming soon! Helpful and Related Links The page where you can support Wes and his recovery: Wesley Branch GoFundMe page. Joke mentions dealing with network notes and managing their expectation, something we talk about in Make TV Networks and Studios Happy – Dealing With Network Notes Found great characters? You’ll need to put them on tape. Here’s a guide to getting great interviews for documentaries and reality TV. The easy step-by-step guide to pitching us shows. Our all important first 8 episodes with a clickable table of contents on the Joke and Biagio Youtube channel. Subscribe to Joke and Biagio on Youtube. Seriously,

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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.