Breaking Into Hollywood – When Should I Just Shoot A Project Myself?
demo tape is called a “sizzle reel.” And your battle cry is all too often, “I’ll just produce the show myself!” Slow down. I had an interesting discussion last weekend with two major reality production and network execs, both of whom were happy to get sizzle reels since they feel reels help them sell an idea to others on their team. But I have often heard exactly the opposite from execs: “Sizzle reels can kill a deal.” One concern is that reels often don’t match the vision your pitch was building in an exec’s mind. Bye-bye sale. Another concern is that a good producer conforms a pitch to work with the brand of each partner s/he meets with. So a sizzle reel you shoot that satisfies one prod co’s brand may completely violate the mission of another company, etc. How many reels do you plan to shoot?
For more detailed dissection of when to sizzle or not, read my book,
