THE STUDIO

A format is the asset. The screen is a distribution choice.

In unscripted, the valuable thing has never been the episode. It is the format — the engine underneath, the reason a show can come back for a fourth season and be remade in six countries. That is what gets licensed, and that is what pays for years.

We build formats for the vertical screen first, because that is where the audience and the money are moving fastest. But we develop them the way we were trained to in network television — with an engine that holds for sixty turns — so the same format works at ninety seconds, at thirty minutes, or wherever it goes next.

Micro series, verticals, shorts — the category is still arguing about what to call itself. We are comfortable with micro series, and clear about one distinction: a microdrama is scripted soap. What we make is unscripted, and almost nobody is building that yet. It is the part we already know how to do.

FOUNDERS

Richard Shore

CO-FOUNDER — BUSINESS & RIGHTS

Richard has built this company before. At RedLever Studios he assembled a slate of original short-form series, brought in the producers to make them, and financed them through brands who wanted to live inside the shows rather than interrupt them. RedLever was acquired by a global digital advertising network. Before that he practised entertainment law at Sony Pictures Entertainment and First Look Studios, across film, television and digital, and afterwards built several direct-to-consumer brands. He handles the deals, the rights, and the economics of the slate.

David Shaye

CO-FOUNDER — DEVELOPMENT & PRODUCTION

David is an Emmy-nominated producer who has spent twenty years creating, packaging and selling unscripted formats — original IP through greenlight, current production, and franchise extension. He co-created Botched for E!, a returnable franchise that has run for multiple seasons and been adapted internationally, and executive produced the relaunch of Dr. 90210. His Emmy nomination came for Skin Decision: Before & After at Netflix. Other credits include Revenge Body with Khloé Kardashian, Helter Skelter: An American Myth and Mad Dog Made. He was Vice President of Development at NBCUniversal across Bravo and E!, and at Entertainment One, and develops independently for Anagram Studios. He runs the room here: formats, casting, writers, and the production itself.

HOW A FORMAT GETS BUILT

Four stages, and we kill things at every one.

01 — CONCEPT

Is there an engine?

A premise is not a format. We are looking for the repeatable mechanic that can generate sixty episodes and then sixty more. Most ideas die here, and should.

02 — ROOM

Cast it and beat it out.

In unscripted the casting is the writing. Talent, story producers, and a full episode map before a camera is booked.

03 — PRODUCTION

Shot for the screen, not cropped to it.

Compressed schedules, vertical blocking, and a cost structure the economics of this business actually support.

04 — DISTRIBUTION

Licensed, adapted, extended.

Platform licensing, brand funding, or direct monetisation — then the part that matters most: the same format sold again, in another territory or another length.

Got a format, a brand, or a blank slate?

Tell us what you’re trying to make. We’ll tell you honestly whether it works in ninety seconds.

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