The Reality TV Director and Producer Guidebook
by Donald Bull
Price: $4.65 USD. 21870 words.
Published on February 7, 2011. Nonfiction.
Non-Fiction and Reality TV now accounts for almost a third of all broadcast television. So how do you create a TV show when you have no script? How do you find the story as you are shooting it? And most importantly, how do you track and follow stories with the least waste of time and the most efficiency? THE REALITY TV DIRECTOR AND PRODUCER GUIDEBOOK has the answers.
Location: United States
Member Since: Feb. 07, 2011
Donald Bull
Biography
Donald Bull
Work Biography
Donald Bull is an Executive Producer who has a proven track record as both a creator of television shows and as a show runner who can manage large productions. His fifteen years in unscripted TV give him a strong knowledge of the different formats in alternative and non-fiction programming.
Donald Bull is the creator and Executive Producer of Dr. 90210, which has been a hit show on E! Entertainment Television for six seasons and seventy-five episodes, airing in twenty-six countries. He established an office with production and editing facilities, and employed fifty people per season.
In 2010, he has been Executive Producing the spin-off of Dr.90210 titled Extreme Dr.90210. In 2010, He also was the EP and show runner on pilots for both Lifetime and for A&E, one for Fly On the Wall, and the other for KPI-TV.
In 2009 he was hired by Snackaholic Productions to be the EP and show runner on The Swell Life, a series for OWN which will air in the coming months after the network launches. He also was the Co-Executive Producer of Jackson Family Dynasty, about the remaining brothers from the Jackson Five.
He was also an Executive Producer on Southern Belles, a reality show by Endemol USA for SoapNet TV. He was an additional EP who structured the stories, finished production, created a system so the episodes could be completed, and was the liaison between the network and the production company.
In 2010 he executive-produced four pilots: My Deaf Family with Marlee Matlin, Drama Queens for Lifetime, Perfect Parts for A&E, and Living with My Ex for WE.
He established Intersection Productions in 2000 with his wife, Robin Berlin. Through their company, Donald created and executive-produced several television pilots, including My First Ride for VH1, Comedy Court for Buena Vista Productions, and Military Wives for Buena Vista Productions.
He has also created formats and visual presentations for his own concepts, which include: The Ringmaster, Hostel Takeover, Reconstructed, Perfection California, The Healer, The Price of Fame and Sky Gypsies of the American West. See the follow pages for some of these reels.
Donald has experience with each step of production and post-production in reality TV. He has been an editor, a story producer, a director, a supervising producer and an executive producer. He has a "hands-on" knowledge of what makes shows work, and how to fix troubled shows.
He was the supervising producer for Camp Jim for MTV, and created a format that allowed 15 episodes to be produced in three months, airing back to back -- one of the fastest successful reality schedules ever. He was a producer for the tenth season of Bunim-Murray's The Real World, MTV's longest running show.
He directed The Osbournes for MTV, Road Rules for MTV, and directed and edited Class Reunion, the first ever reality Movie of the Week, produced by Bunim-Murray for NBC. He directed and edited Bug Juice for Disney Channel. He also directed episodes of Newlyweds for MTV.
This has given him relationships with the top reality production companies (Bunim-Murray Productions, Evolution Film and Tape, Original Productions, Endemol USA). He also has relationships with Disney, Buena Vista Productions, A&E, Lifetime, ABC, TLC, Discovery, E!, MTV, and VH1.
Donald is a good manager with a good reputation. He creates efficient systems and delivers television shows on time and on budget, with the drama in the product, not the production.
Other highlights:
As an editor, Donald was often hired to create the first episodes of several TV series, including Camp Jim for MTV, Making the Band for ABC, Love Cruise for Fox, and Disney Channel's Bug Juice.
He wrote, directed and produced Dodgeball, a 35mm short film that has been in 36 film festivals. It won Best Short Film in four festivals and was honored in five others.
He produced and directed the comic documentary Men Talk Sex, which has been in ten film festivals and won several awards. It is distributed by Fanlight Productions in Boston and is sold to video stores and colleges and universities across the country.
Intersection Productions also does non-broadcast work, including USC Flashback Football. Donald and teacher Devon Smith, have also created a non-profit program for children called Story Detectives that helps teach students to be writers. Students use stories they find in the world around them to write monologues which are then performed by professional actors. The program is going into its fourth year.
He has written and sold screenplays and won several writing awards.
He also wrote The Reality TV Manifesto, a primer for directing reality TV, which is used on many reality shows.
He was an editor for ten years, and learned how to tell a story at Bunim-Murray Productions where he edited many episodes of The Real World, Road Rules and several other shows.
He attended UC Berkeley as an undergraduate where he received Bachelor of Arts degrees in Biology and English, and then went to UCLA Film School where he received a Masters of Fine Arts Degree in Film and Television Production.
Work Biography
Donald Bull is an Executive Producer who has a proven track record as both a creator of television shows and as a show runner who can manage large productions. His fifteen years in unscripted TV give him a strong knowledge of the different formats in alternative and non-fiction programming.
Donald Bull is the creator and Executive Producer of Dr. 90210, which has been a hit show on E! Entertainment Television for six seasons and seventy-five episodes, airing in twenty-six countries. He established an office with production and editing facilities, and employed fifty people per season.
In 2010, he has been Executive Producing the spin-off of Dr.90210 titled Extreme Dr.90210. In 2010, He also was the EP and show runner on pilots for both Lifetime and for A&E, one for Fly On the Wall, and the other for KPI-TV.
In 2009 he was hired by Snackaholic Productions to be the EP and show runner on The Swell Life, a series for OWN which will air in the coming months after the network launches. He also was the Co-Executive Producer of Jackson Family Dynasty, about the remaining brothers from the Jackson Five.
He was also an Executive Producer on Southern Belles, a reality show by Endemol USA for SoapNet TV. He was an additional EP who structured the stories, finished production, created a system so the episodes could be completed, and was the liaison between the network and the production company.
In 2010 he executive-produced four pilots: My Deaf Family with Marlee Matlin, Drama Queens for Lifetime, Perfect Parts for A&E, and Living with My Ex for WE.
He established Intersection Productions in 2000 with his wife, Robin Berlin. Through their company, Donald created and executive-produced several television pilots, including My First Ride for VH1, Comedy Court for Buena Vista Productions, and Military Wives for Buena Vista Productions.
He has also created formats and visual presentations for his own concepts, which include: The Ringmaster, Hostel Takeover, Reconstructed, Perfection California, The Healer, The Price of Fame and Sky Gypsies of the American West. See the follow pages for some of these reels.
Donald has experience with each step of production and post-production in reality TV. He has been an editor, a story producer, a director, a supervising producer and an executive producer. He has a "hands-on" knowledge of what makes shows work, and how to fix troubled shows.
He was the supervising producer for Camp Jim for MTV, and created a format that allowed 15 episodes to be produced in three months, airing back to back -- one of the fastest successful reality schedules ever. He was a producer for the tenth season of Bunim-Murray's The Real World, MTV's longest running show.
He directed The Osbournes for MTV, Road Rules for MTV, and directed and edited Class Reunion, the first ever reality Movie of the Week, produced by Bunim-Murray for NBC. He directed and edited Bug Juice for Disney Channel. He also directed episodes of Newlyweds for MTV.
This has given him relationships with the top reality production companies (Bunim-Murray Productions, Evolution Film and Tape, Original Productions, Endemol USA). He also has relationships with Disney, Buena Vista Productions, A&E, Lifetime, ABC, TLC, Discovery, E!, MTV, and VH1.
Donald is a good manager with a good reputation. He creates efficient systems and delivers television shows on time and on budget, with the drama in the product, not the production.
Other highlights:
As an editor, Donald was often hired to create the first episodes of several TV series, including Camp Jim for MTV, Making the Band for ABC, Love Cruise for Fox, and Disney Channel's Bug Juice.
He wrote, directed and produced Dodgeball, a 35mm short film that has been in 36 film festivals. It won Best Short Film in four festivals and was honored in five others.
He produced and directed the comic documentary Men Talk Sex, which has been in ten film festivals and won several awards. It is distributed by Fanlight Productions in Boston and is sold to video stores and colleges and universities across the country.
Intersection Productions also does non-broadcast work, including USC Flashback Football. Donald and teacher Devon Smith, have also created a non-profit program for children called Story Detectives that helps teach students to be writers. Students use stories they find in the world around them to write monologues which are then performed by professional actors. The program is going into its fourth year.
He has written and sold screenplays and won several writing awards.
He also wrote The Reality TV Manifesto, a primer for directing reality TV, which is used on many reality shows.
He was an editor for ten years, and learned how to tell a story at Bunim-Murray Productions where he edited many episodes of The Real World, Road Rules and several other shows.
He attended UC Berkeley as an undergraduate where he received Bachelor of Arts degrees in Biology and English, and then went to UCLA Film School where he received a Masters of Fine Arts Degree in Film and Television Production.
Where to find Donald Bull online
Website: http://www.intersectionproductions.com
Facebook: Facebook profile
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/donald-bull/5/bb3/640
Facebook: Facebook profile
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/donald-bull/5/bb3/640