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SS Little-Devil · 18-12-2011, 19:19

Lol. Have you never once watched an episode of Reality TV?

I KNOW there will be challenges. I'm betting on it. I hope we all become close friends, but agree things could go badly, or someone might just jump ship at some point, or if not working out, could get voted off the boat.

There's no reason I can't have a second or third string, and one person in particular that I want involved can't make the whole trip anyway. This brings up some good points about why I or my production company should own the boat.

Now this has been fun, but I don't think I can explain the whole business side of things to you, and to be frank, don't want to. I've said too much already. Good luck with your pursuits!

**atoll** · 18-12-2011, 19:41

check out bumfuzzle.com , a great insight into self promotion on the high seas ,lessons to be learned there if you can endure it......or...Entire population of Kanton Island saved by British sailor who finds them starving to death | swns.com

perchance · 18-12-2011, 20:18

Show us a sample of your work.

maxingout · 18-12-2011, 20:41

I look forward to see how this project comes together. We shot a video and made a DVD called the Red Sea Chronicles using Canon XL1 and XL2, and I can attest to the fact that making a good product is no guarantee of profitability.

Having been down that road myself, I wonder how you will create compelling footage with such a mundane thing as sailing across the Pacific. We had a tsunami in Thailand, and pirate worries in the Gulf of Aden, and it's still a major challenge putting together footage that people want to pay money for, or that networks would be interested in.

I remember watching "Adventures in Paradise" when I was a kid, and the plot was thin by modern standards. I doubt anyone could sell the same thing to a network today, unless it was reality TV with over the top conflict on board a yacht.

If you pull this off, you will get an Emmy from me. And if you make money, I will take the remaining 200 hours of footage that I have, and I will create two more films.

The Red Sea Chronicles - A First Class Sailing Adventure.* Captain Dave.

Good luck.

SS Little-Devil · 18-12-2011, 22:04

Cool Dave. Good work. Yes unfortunately making it, does not necessarily mean selling it. Have you considered buying 30 minute blocks of airtime and then selling your own ads for the 8 minutes? Too bad you didn't think of putting product placement or brands into your content. If you're not doing well selling DVD's you should consider monetizing it on the web or try to distribute through itunes. If nothing else, start a web series and make some money on ads surrounding the content or Google's overlays. You might be surprised and if you get enough interest and viewers, it might get purchased by a network.

My advice FWIW. Good luck.

Dkdoyle · 19-12-2011, 04:52

Wanderer - south seas.
Or wherever you are filming similar to survivor. Gives you more then four

Vasco · 19-12-2011, 05:09

What you're going to do has been done before, only on a slightly larger vessel, see Picton Castle. There was a tv series. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tallship_chronicles They had a fatality when a crew member was swept overboard 2007 November archive | who killed theresa?

David_Old_Jersey · 19-12-2011, 09:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by SS Little-Devil

I'm not trying to create a sailing portal to get ad revenue at all. Not sure where your thoughts are all coming from....

This is for a TV show, and the the page will be no different than the network pages you see promoting a TV show or movie, with trailers, contests, etc. You will not find ONE show or movie out there without product placement or brand integration, and believe me, advertisers pay to to get that exposure. I'm not interested in making money from advertisers on page views or click-throughs. I want to make TV and movies and advertising, particularly in TV is the be all and end off of that. Many times the advertisers are on board before production starts. When they are not, the networks invest in the production based on business logic surrounding their ability to sell advertising around it later.

Wasn't talking about page views or click throughs

(nor a sailing portal).........just saying (as one additional option to consider) that if the show is worth an advertiser spending money on then they will be making more than the adverts cost.....or at least intend to. So there is additional gravy to be had

.

Unless it is also Coca Cola / Microsoft style brand awareness rather than purely shifting product - why not try and capture some of that shifting product side by cutting out some of the middlemen?.....appreciate you want to make TV / Movies and not get into retail / production

but plenty of scope to negotiate deals where others do the hands on side of delivery etc - with your money coming from product actually shifted, whether own product(s) and / or someone else's.........under own brand or that of others (or a mix of both).

E.G if the crew are always drinking "Mom's Kansas Apple Soda Pop", for it's "cool refreshing taste of America"

(or whatever / wherever

) amongst many other things (paid for in the conventional manner) - then why not be the person who owns that brand or at least gets a decent cut of the retail.....not of course to the exclusion of your other approaches.

Kinda like "meshing" for business, nowadays don't need to stick to the historic (conventional?) boundaries / approaches. If a business can employ an Advertisor - why can't an Advertisor "employ" a business?...no reason why it can't.

Anyway was just a passing thought

Cheechako · 19-12-2011, 09:21

"Through the Looking Glass" with an old mariner loking through the monocular as the logo. Can I go too? :>)

SS Little-Devil · 21-12-2011, 12:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vasco

What you're going to do has been done before, only on a slightly larger vessel, see Picton Castle. There was a tv series. Tallship Chronicles - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia They had a fatality when a crew member was swept overboard 2007 November archive | who killed theresa?

Cool. Well this was a much larger boat, and a much larger group of people, but it's a great resource. Hopefully it was successful and will be something to reference. If not, then I'll argue that my show will be quite different, which it will be anyway. Thanks for the info and I'll see if I can find more on this. The idea that someone has done something before, does not preclude it from being done again. To the contrary, it can add validity to it. Every director will have a different spin or artistic vision of how to present the story or content, and the cinematography will be quite different depending on who the DP is, combined with that vision.

I've already had interest in a couple of distribution channels who will be providing coverage on the project after the new year, and once I send in the project proposal, so that's a good first step. If I don't pre-sell it, then we'll see what I come up with for a finished product and go from there.

Like I said, if know one is interested in picking it up, I'll keep the budget and crew small, have fun and if at the end of the day the finished product doesn't sell for TV, it will make a good web series that everyone can (hopefully) enjoy for free. And maybe, just maybe, I can recoup some costs through advertising or use it to add credibility to my career and get the next paid project, perhaps my first feature. You only live once. <sigh>

SS Little-Devil · 21-12-2011, 12:32

Hi David.

I get you. Product placement and brand integration is certainly part of the plan, and the thought sometimes occurs where you want to introduce something or create you own brand.

For instance, if you at the video synopsis for my TV show Un-Do Influence, there is a drink in there we make fun of. I thought, what if we were to actually find a suplier for that juice and release it under that brand name created through the show. Sure we make fun of it, but it would be kind of like releasing Duff Beer into the market. Perhaps we could get some kind of cult following for it.

The reality is, that now you have a whole other business to set up, finance, manage and provide fulfillment for. It;'s not as easy it sounds and I would have my hands full with the show. Plus we'd be putting out money to establish a new brand, vs bringing in money from an already established brand. It's really a recipe for disaster. Experienced business people will understand that you can diversify too far and go broke quickly. You need to focus your efforts, at least until those efforts pay off and things are going smoothly enough to look at a next step.