Do I need to have tape to show when pitching a reality show?
Many production companies pitch reality shows completely verbally. Many production companies pitch with a tape or a demo or a presentation of some sort that they produce. I tend to lean towards verbal pitching, because I believe that the executives imagine what they like. As you're describing a show to them, they're imagining good-looking people to them, they're imagining their favorite colors, they're imagining their favorite location and they get in their own head a vision of what the reality show is; and then they feel like they own it more, they understand it more, and they like it more. If you commit to demonstrating your vision for the reality show - and often it's not even really your vision for the show, because it was done so low-budget and you didn't have the cameras you wanted, and you don't have the right cast - you're probably hurting yourself. You're probably showing them something less than what it could be, frozen in a way that they don't necessarily like: it's not their favorite color, it's not their favorite location, it's not their favorite-looking person - you could actually hurt yourself. There are times - and I've done it, too - where a presentation tape really helps when pitching a reality show to a network. If you're trying to convince them that a talent that you're working with is somebody really great, often somebody sitting in a meeting, at a pitch, is not the same as they are going to be on television. If you're trying to, for example, pitch a comedian, often in meetings they are not funny. In a sense it's a professional pride that they don't turn on the jokes just because it's a meeting. So often it helps a comedian, if you're pitching with a comedian, to have a tape of either their stand-up act, or them doing the funny thing that you're pitching that this comedian can do. Sometimes that helps make it so that if you are pitching a person who's being professional in the room, you can show them being silly on television and so everybody in the room can understand what you're pitching.
