The Ins and Outs of Becoming a Showrunner for Unscripted TV
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Webinar hosted by: Adam Matalon
Award-winning Executive Producer, Showrunner, Creator and Director at Chatsby Films Inc.
Adam is an award-winning executive producer, show runner, director and creator. Born in NYC and raised in London, he is a dual national and was born into a theatrical family. He spent his formative years as a working actor in New York and London’s West End in numerous productions and this set the stage for his strong storytelling instincts This performance background combined with his photography degree and a strong technical knowledge of all production crafts, has allowed him to develop a formidable arsenal of production and creative skills. Moving into TV and film he has done almost everybody’s job except PA. At home in both scripted and unscripted arenas TV Adam has executive produced scripted and unscripted programming in a variety of genres delivering programming for most of the major networks and cable broadcasters. He recently produced the 14 part scripted digital series Tainted Dreams nominated for a 2014 digital Emmy and in 2015 he executive produced and helped launch two successful brands Donnie Loves Jenny starring Donnie Wahlberg and Jenny McCarthy, and a new African American plastic surgery format for Lifetime called Atlanta Plastic. 2016 marks the launch of a new personal production shingle, work on a variety of unscripted development and alongside Aether Pictures, producing a new feature film about the real life story of a transgender opera singer. Full Bio »
Webinar Summary
Learn directly from Adam Matalon, award winning executive producer, show runner, director and creator who's worked on over 20 projects on cable and network television.
The unscripted and reality genres are becoming more and more fragmented and producers are forced into more and more niche areas of expertise. This is creating a vacuum in which producers wanting to step into showrunner roles are unable to do so because they lack the overview expertise. In this Next Level Webinar, Adam Matalon challenges that notion and investigates the role of the showrunner in today's current climate of television.
As more and more networks and production companies are struggling with staffing their leader, there are fewer and fewer opportunities. We will discuss the reasons for this and how storytellers, producers, writers, and directors can best prepare themselves for leadership roles in the fast evolving television and digital space. Adam will break down the process of taking a project from presentation, through production and on to delivery to the network; something that is vital for all aspiring showrunners both in the reality and unscripted space as well as a scripted space.
Adam will also touch on the best ways for building an environment that will make you more employable, how ‘storytelling’ is utilized in a reality show and the various documents needed to accomplish the task of getting the 'greenlight.'
What You'll Learn
- How scripted and unscripted programming are very similar
- Understanding the chain of command and avoid unnecessary confrontations
- Day-to-day operational tasks and how to accomplish them
- How to move a show forward after being greenlit
- budgets, prepping each department, communication with networks, etc.
- Taking an auteur's approach to reality; why a 'voice' is so important
- Building your team and strong delegation techniques
- Developing your personal management style
- Proper communication with your team and the network
- Understanding audience trends and long term needs of your project
- Hidden tasks every showrunner ends up doing
- Recorded, in-depth Q&A with Adam!
About Your Instructor
Adam Matalon
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Reviews Average Rating: 4.5 out of 5
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Shaun V. Scott Excellent view into the showrunner world! -
Tyson Culver Worth every penny and then some. An awesome soup-to-nuts breakdown of all things showrunner - articulate, real-life examples, downloadable & editable content, and just a kick-ass overview of what it takes to be the big cheese. -
Mike Chinea Adam knows his stuff. A lot of material to cover in a very short time. A good general overview.
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