From Story Development Hell...to Heaven

The featured image with this article is by a severely disabled cartoonist named John Callahan known for his simple and darkly comic drawings. His observation about how L.A. and NYC view each other is a direct hit but based entirely on perception. The humour is built around the stereotype we all collectively agree on; people from L.A. are phony. This contrasts perfectly with how we think New Yorkers see the world; as brutally honest. It is commonly accepted that L.A. is about the commercial side of the entertainment industry while NYC is about the artistic side. The push-pull balance between the supposed crass commercialism (no one wants to admit to solely being about money!) with artistic purity (too artistic and it’s not a good investment!) is about reaching the biggest audience possible while not compromising on creativity or integrity. This philosophical conflict is part of the creative development process. The duality between what we would like to create versus what we think will sell often impacts each other to both their detriment. “Is originality the new commercialism?”

In last week’s article, I introduced the question, what is the story of your business and how can it be developed into a TV series? This week’s article on the development process will also hopefully provide some sobering facts before you begin down the long and winding creative road.

During my time in the television industry I have been involved in the development process across a wide range of programming (from cooking and cars, to travel and lifestyle and recently property renovation). The biggest obstacle in working on a new TV concept is narrowing the focus to a single idea, a ten second elevator pitch that both compresses the concept to its essence but also exposes its potential. Even then, commissioning editors are fickle and often unpredictable regardless of how finely tuned your presentation is. Industry experts may have a better educated understanding on what makes a successful project but as Hollywood screenwriter William Goldman once said “Nobody knows anything – what worked then may not work now.” In many ways and with the number of outlets there now is for distribution of content, it is more of a level playing field especially for new players. It can be daunting when developing an idea, in what direction to take it, and how it plays out. But when it comes to entertainment, no concept, no matter how odd or unusual, is off-limits. All commercially and artistically successful tv series have one thing in common: if perfectly executed, it will be discovered. Build it and they will come…In other words, the most unique aspect of your business, that is not common to other businesses, should be the focus of your development. The simpler it is, the easier the execution.

The answer to how to transform your business into a tv series is identifying what specific attribute contributed to making your business a success to begin with. Famously, billionaire Warren Buffet claims he invests in people, not businesses. So, it is likely the strength of your concept will be born from those who built your business. But before you dig down into your own origin story, it’s important to see the bigger picture of the process. 

If you use Chat GPT to help you with “transforming your business into a television series” it will tell you it is a highly complex process with a short overview detailing how to begin this process: 1) develop a compelling script that can attract a TV audience and especially what makes your business unique and interesting 2) Identify potential partners, that is production companies or producers who have previously created similar shows to your business/TV concept 3) Develop a pitch that succinctly communicates your concept and why it will make for a great television series. 4) Produce a pilot that showcases the best qualities of your tv series 5) Promote your show through social media engagement while working with a streaming platform or major broadcaster! Ai can be concise sometimes.

If your ambition is to go down the broadcast television route, there are other realities to consider. There are likely a hundred thousand unscripted reality, documentary and factual entertainment projects in development at any one time across the U.K. and USA and of these, only a very small fraction ever make it into a broadcaster’s pipeline for consideration let alone being greenlit and commissioned into production. Despite these odds, there are valuable other routes to market to help overcome the statistics and make your TV series a reality.  

The most affordable and effective approach is to develop your project and create a  dedicated channel (on streaming platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitch, Roku, etc). This will enable you to track a growing audience, establish copyright and ownership, and retain a greater percentage of IP if/when the series is sold to a broadcaster or bigger streaming platform. This “beta” period may also attract brands to sponsor your series and bring immediate return of investment whereas in television distribution, should you have any royalties, the payout cycle is minimum every 18 months. There is, of course, the value of developing an audience for your tv series, the broadcasters are always desperate to migrate across to their mainstream channel. The free content model will arm you immediately with data and analytics (fun stuff for accountants!), to bolster the value of your concept and illustrate there is a growing audience out there for it. In this scenario, the biggest challenge is to get it seen and shared with minimum investment in paid advertising. This approach is time again, what broadcasters suggest for those without television production experience. This way, you are in complete creative control and you generate a specific industry sales forecast on the viability of your series for sale down the line to more mainstream TV distributors. If you are still keen on developing directly for the biggest broadcasters out there, I will soon publish a more detailed analysis.

The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones. Make it micro and you’ll make it macro. Embrace what is more personal, more obscure, and that will likely set your story and content apart and appeal to those looking for a new perspective on the world. 

The next article I will debate the actual costs to produce a tv series whether it is for potential sale to a broadcaster or for your own channel. 

If you would like one-on-one help with your business story, you can reach direct james@stormlight-studio.com