My Salary Confessions: The Exec Producer
'Overqualified and underemployed,' is how this person describes themself. Plus: A Banff dispatch
Hello from the Banff World Media Festival, folks. I’m here through Tuesday, having moderated a panel on international media yesterday — thank you Bing Chen, Sandra Dewey, Lisa Kramer, Asif Sadiq and Cori Wellins! Later today, I sit down with a great group of showrunners: Tassie Cameron (Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent), Anna Fishko (Orphan Black: Echoes), Barbie Kligman (the forthcoming Doc), Nkechi Okoro Carroll (All American and Found) and Meredith Scardino (Girls5Eva). If you’re here, say hi!
I’ve been wandering in and out of sessions at the festival, and on the development side, there are affirmative echoes of all the things I’ve heard in recent months. “The biggest thing that buyers are asking for are ongoing shows,” said UCP and Universal International Studios head Beatrice Springborn during a panel. Why? For one, the big marketing lift (read: expense) that has to be made for one-and-done limited series.
Which ongoing series specifically? Soaps, she said. And “a lot of streamers are looking for action, since they've seen some success in that over the last couple months, with Reacher and Hijack and some other shows.”
But there are also a few optimistically contrarian voices here in Banff, such as Media Res Studio COO and WBD alum Sandra Dewey. Despite the drumbeat of chatter that audiences want comforting, escapist, broadcast network-style programming, she “just really [does] not accept that conclusion or ascribe to that thinking at all,” she said, particularly in light of the success of series like Netflix’s Baby Reindeer. That kind of authenticity resonates with audiences, she says.
When it comes to localized content, Dewey added, “we haven't caught up yet to how to take all these amazing, unique, authentic voices from all around the world and make them available in a way that's easy and accessible to audiences yet — but we'll get there.
“The truth of the matter is,” Dewey continued, “when there's an authentic story to be told from someone who's speaking in this rich voice and something that hasn't been heard before, audiences are responding to them.”
On to the main event.
Since we published the first installment of Salary Confessions a week ago, dozens more of you have reached out to complete the Google Form and tell us how much you make, how sustainable (or not) life is in the city you’re in — and how you’re feeling about your careers. (Truly alarming how many of you responded to the question of whether you felt like you could someday own a home with “lol no.” What does it say that even employed Hollywood workers think owning a house in L.A. or NYC seems laughably unrealistic?)
Today’s spotlight is someone, who, like others, is discouraged by what they see: “If you want to succeed, fuck people over and play the politics.”
Here’s the interview, a glimpse of someone, a TV veteran, now in limbo mid-career and facing hard choices:
