Finding a sales agent, selling a piece

[Petruk]

Folks,
Perhaps you have some ideas here.
Last year I convinced a shooter friend to help me create a short video portrait of a guy in my area who is a specialist in repairing player pianos. He's one of the last in the country. We watched work and followed him out on the road to repair a rare steinway player piano owned by a wacky and talkative old lady.
We shot a bit when he took her piano apart (around halloween) and another day when he returned it and got it playing again, just in time for some Christmas (with some xmas music rolls running through the machine.) Anyway, a nice piece.

The plan was to perhaps make a long piece about various craftsmen who are the last of their kind, or perhaps try and sell the short segment to a magazine format show.

Anyway, other work got in the way of trying to sell the piece. I wonder if anyone knows of a person specializing in sales of short self-contained pieces to regional and perhaps foreign TV? There used to be companies, like AtlanticTV in NYC that sold segments internationally, and companies like Ivanhoe currently sell medical breakthrough stories (that they produce).

Does anyone know how to find a market for these orphan pieces? I'd appreciate any suggestions.

DMCG

 

[Nino]

Folks,
Perhaps you have some ideas here.
Last year I convinced a shooter friend to help me create a short video portrait of a guy in my area who is a specialist in repairing player pianos. He's one of the last in the country. We watched work and followed him out on the road to repair a rare steinway player piano owned by a wacky and talkative old lady.
We shot a bit when he took her piano apart (around halloween) and another day when he returned it and got it playing again, just in time for some Christmas (with some xmas music rolls running through the machine.) Anyway, a nice piece.

The plan was to perhaps make a long piece about various craftsmen who are the last of their kind, or perhaps try and sell the short segment to a magazine format show.

Anyway, other work got in the way of trying to sell the piece. I wonder if anyone knows of a person specializing in sales of short self-contained pieces to regional and perhaps foreign TV? There used to be companies, like AtlanticTV in NYC that sold segments internationally, and companies like Ivanhoe currently sell medical breakthrough stories (that they produce).

Does anyone know how to find a market for these orphan pieces? I'd appreciate any suggestions.

DMCG

To start, AtlanticTV is mainly an international crewing and production company, I know them well and I don’t think they buy projects unless it happens that they have a demand for it. However it doesn’t hurt to let them know what you have, if it’s really a wacky program you might find some interest, Brits love wacky american shows. Also keep in mind that craftsmen are a way of life in Europe, it’s a rarity in this country.

As far a Ivanhoe goes I know that they producer their own medical programs and have access to the profession, and unless you have something exceptional that they can not get themselves it might be a bit hard to make a sale there. Also they are known as being very “frugal?” with compensating their crews and in what they spend producing their own programs.

I don’t know what the value would be of a piano repairman unless he has some sort of old specialty, we have a piano, isn’t a Steinway but we have it tuned every years as well as repaired when needed. To get a network interest you really need something unique and different.

Also, most networks are not interested in one show, they want to know about the potential of an ongoing series of shows, 13 used to me the magic numbers. You might use the one you have to show as a pilot but you must have a detailed plan for more shows to even be considered.

Most cable channel have guideline on submitting shows ideas. Warning, they are very restrictive, keep in mind that they get inundated with ideas. For most, unless you are an established producer or production company with a track record in creating series of programs the odds are that they will never even look at your ideas. Check individual web sites.

It is a business of who you know rather than what you know.

Look at the TV itself, that’s always your best teacher and marketing tool. See which channel has something similar or has the potential to show some interest.

Most shows on these cable channels are produced by independent production companies commissioned to produced a series of show. Many of these companies also pitch their own ideas and some of these ideas might come from people like you. They have the inside with the cable company and their ideas are more valuable than yours.

Look at the credits at the end of the show to see the name of the production company.

 

[dhart]

Just talked to an old producer friend of mine in LA who produces for HBO (35 year veteran in the biz). Here's his take on the cable show business.

1. No one is making any real money.
2. You have to be an established (have done work for a major cable network) before they'll even talk to you (and yes that is the chicken or egg dilemma).
3. They want to make sure you have the financial "muscle" to finish in case something goes wrong.
4. One of shows are nearly impossible to sell (unless you're Nancy Polesi's daughter
5. Cable show production is all about relationships, good ideas I hate to say it, are a dime a dozen and cable show executive producers are more likely to "green light" something if they know you personally.
6. A bunch of pin headed cable show executives will send you telephone books full of "notes", which are changes you'll have to make to your show before they'll accept it.

But if you hook up with an established LA production company you might have a chance. Be careful, the town is full of sharks. Good luck.

 

[Petruk]

Perhaps I wasn't clear in my post.

The piece would be short - 4-6 minutes - the kind of human interest piece that sometimes conclude a news broadcast. It isn't a half-hour or a series.

I'm not trying to sell it to Atlantic or Ivanhoe. What I pointed out there is that they sell short news pieces to local news stations around the country and in europe. My question is this: is there a sales agent, not affilliated with those companies, who does that kind of thing, just as there are sales agents for feature films and documentaries.

I have, in the past, pitched short pieces to foreign networks - one on an inventor at MIT, for example, which Al Jazeera paid me to shoot. This case is similar but different - I already have the piece - I'm just looking for someone to buy it.

Thanks.
DMCG

 

[The Thing on The Sticks]

It sounds like what you are talking about is more along the line of licensing a piece of stringer video, more than selling a show. Im not sure if there is anybody working as a broker for this kind of stuff but it wouldn't hurt to expand your search to any stringers you might know.

Let us know if you find something we don't know I have always wondered about doing something similar.