What Makes a TV Format Work with Clara Plestis

ON PRODUCTION with Clara Plestis

‍

Welcome to On Production, I'm Cameron and today I'm really excited to explore the creative tensions between entertainment and artistry with my guest, Clara Plestis. Clara splits her time between two really cool, fascinating worlds, which is producing inventive reality TV formats at SmartDog Media by day and by night and sometimes even during day, re-imagining jazz classics. and singing beautiful jazz standards. Recently, she's brought us everything from really cool, trans-specific song and dance battles on television to AI-powered dating experiments, proving that family-friendly content doesn't have to always play it safe. So today, I'm excited to talk a bit about how her jazz instincts influence TV storytelling and the lessons she's picking up internationally and why being creatively ambidextrous might be the new professional superpower. let's jump in. Claire, thanks for joining me.

‍

Clara Plestis (01:03.906)

Thank you so much. Excited to be here.

‍

Cameron (01:06.179)

So I'm really curious, when you're arranging jazz standards, you know, late at night, how does that shape your thinking about pitching shows the next morning? Can you give me a real life example of how your music directly informed a TV idea?

‍

Clara Plestis (01:20.32)

Yeah, of course. I mean, I come from a background of opera, which is super structured and kind of you're performing pieces that were written historically and you want to perform them accurately and kind of how they're written. But jazz, feel like you have a lot of liberty to storytell, to change it up, to switch up the song. And I think that's kind of what we're doing in TV. We're trying to switch things up. We're trying to tell our own story. Everything should have a narrative. Everything should have a POV. And I think that's kind of the similarities between expression in music and expression in TV is that everything has a story to it and there's an ending, a middle, and a beginning kind of.

‍

Cameron (02:04.311)

All good. See, that's why it's good that we edit. You know, I was doing some research on some of the shows that you've been able to be a part of. And I see that there's this recent show, Song vs. Dance, which blends US variety TV with Japanese pop culture. What have you learned about storytelling from that mashup? And is there something there that American viewers are hungry for but don't yet realize?

‍

Clara Plestis (02:27.968)

Yeah, so song versus dance is like our little baby at Smart Dog Media. We were always thinking like, how has song and dance, just those two, the two biggest forms of performance, never come together in one competition format. And so we teamed up with TV Asahi and we created this TV show where it's literally that. It's team song and team dance, each led by a coach and they go in head-to-head battles. It's like combining sports and Pokemon and singing basically and dancing into one incredible format. And I think what we brought over was really structured American version of high stakes format with the uniqueness of just Japanese culture. So the Japanese version has like a lot of anime in it. It has a lot of that, the trading card aspect, but we kind of brought our American ways over into it. And it was a really unique variety format that I don't think they really have over in Japan yet.

‍

The reception was incredible.

‍

Cameron (03:27.345)

That's sweet. So, you know, it's easy to assume that family friendly means playing it safe, but where do you find that sweet spot between reassuring audiences and surprising them? Like what's a risk that you maybe personally fought for in a show because you just trusted families to embrace it?

‍

Clara Plestis (03:47.734)

man. I mean, I think the whole goal with doing music performance shows or variety shows is kind of escapism TV. You want the family to come together and truly come together. You want these shows to be the one show that the entire family can come together and watch. You're not isolating someone. Something's not too inappropriate or some things. You just want everyone to come together and to escape their world and watch something out. Like, you know, we do the Masked Singer a mystery guessing game, the whole family's together, they're trying to figure out who the celebrities are. It's just a, you know, you're not compromising anything, but you're just having a great time and letting people just bond, I think. That's what we want all of our TV shows at SmartDog to do is we want everyone to feel included. We want everyone to escape for that hour, forget about the rest of the world and just enjoy pure entertainment. I think music does, I mean, I feel like music is the same, at least for me is like escapism.

‍

Cameron (04:39.579)

That's sweet.

‍

Clara Plestis (04:44.886)

You you kind of, when I'm singing at least, I forget everything else and I'm just focused on what I'm doing, which is singing and allowing myself to emote in that way.

‍

Cameron (04:53.669)

What's interesting, you should bring that up. was curious, know, in jazz, and I know you mentioned opera being your background, but that like a passion is in this jazz music as well. know, mistakes are a part of it. They lead to breakthroughs. Is there a world in your production career where like a production mishap turned into something memorable purely because you approached it like an improvising musician?

‍

Clara Plestis (05:17.362)

man, I mean, like when you're producing things, everything can go wrong, right? Like the days that we're doing, everything that we usually do is like live to tape. So we rehearse, we want everything when we film it to be exactly how we rehearse it. And that never goes to plan or maybe sometimes it does, but there's always going to be mishaps. And I think some of that spurs like the greatest moments that you can't anticipate.

‍

Yeah, I feel like jazz or just singing in general is the same way. You're going to make mistakes or you're going to feel something different every time you sing a piece, no matter how many times you rehearse it. You can feel new things, explore new areas. Yeah.

‍

Cameron (05:57.969)

That's super cool. You know, I saw when preparing for our interview that you've actually performed vocals on over 120 episodes of The Masked Singer, which is pretty amazing. What did all that time in the studio teach you about sort of creating memorable sonic signatures in TV? How do you capture, you know, something magical in just 20 seconds?

‍

Clara Plestis (06:07.605)

What?

‍

Clara Plestis (06:21.164)

Well, I got my start kind of before I even was doing development full time and getting really into production. I started doing voiceover work and that came from doing these jazz performances. I would do like, you know, a long time ago, I would do these little like jazz performances and I would invite agents and I got signed and I was in SAG. And so I started doing all these voiceover jobs. And at the same time, I was really amping up my development career. It's like, you know, developing is my main passion.

‍

And so we were developing shows. started working on the Masked Singer. And at the same time, I was kind of like interested in exploring doing background vocals. And so I got into that and I actually all the background vocals that we used to do on the Masked Singer are on stage. So you're not in the studio, you're on stage singing live, like learning 15 songs a week, picking them up and breaking them down to three-part harmony and you're on stage performing live the entire time we're filming.

‍

Cameron (07:18.565)

I didn't realize that, that's really amazing. You must get such a better audience reaction to when they're feeling the real stakes of a song being performed live. That's really exciting.

‍

Clara Plestis (07:20.043)

It was so...

‍

Clara Plestis (07:29.44)

it's so much fun and like also, you know, we don't know who's performing or well, I was in production so I kind of knew, but we don't know really who's singing. So all you're going off of is your in-ears and listening to the people that you're the other background vocalist you're singing with and the people in the costumes, you know, some of them are professional singers and they just enjoy having background vocals with them.

‍

But some of them are really inexperienced singers and they enjoyed having us there to support them and help them through the song and kind of guide them, which was lovely. And I just to tap into the world of background vocals, those people that do that professionally, is they're warriors. They're amazing. It's a fantastic job. they add so much, like music adds so much to TV, I think.

‍

Cameron (08:15.867)

That's really cool. Yeah, I mean, so much of your own life is music and then television as well, but then this idea of song and dance and like community, family, entertainment, like it just really aligns really beautifully, which is super cool. Now, another show that you all developed was Love by AI, which puts technology in charge of matchmaking. After seeing that experiment up close, how do you decide whether tech deepens human bonds or dilutes them? What's your take?

‍

Clara Plestis (08:33.132)

Yeah.

‍

Clara Plestis (08:44.79)

man. So that show was interesting. It was basically a dating show where AI found you your perfect match and then AI controlled your entire date. So it was what you were wearing, what you were talking about, the gifts that you gave to that person, the places that you want. AI was controlling it to basically ask the question, if AI was in control of your dating life, could it find you your perfect match or left to your own devices, would you be able to find love? It was crazy.

‍

It actually worked out. One of the couples in the series stayed together through AI. repeat your question.

‍

Cameron (09:20.977)

Not a problem. Do you think, you know, after seeing that that experiment up close, do you think that this technology deepens human's bond, human bonds or dilutes them?

‍

Clara Plestis (09:34.968)

Hard to say, because in that series, these were people that felt like they had explored every aspect of dating. They were just not having luck. And so their final thing to do was to turn to AI to help them find love. And I think in that sense, it did bond people. It brought people together that maybe would have never met. But also, there's something to be said about not using AI, I mean, to find love at least. But as far as like TV and film goes, AI I think is a helpful research tool. It's advanced Google as far as research goes, but I don't think, I don't know, tough topic.

‍

Cameron (10:18.801)

Totally fair. So I'm curious, you know, in your professional career, you have both this deep expertise in the production and the music side. you, and on the development side, you're bringing so much creativity to this work, I'm sure with the team as well, thinking through these different types of things to bring to market. But who's thinking, do you think you revisit when you're creatively stuck? You know, is it a jazz singer? Is it a television innovator? Someone totally unexpected?

‍

What makes their perspective helpful for you when you're trying to break through a logjam create?

‍

Clara Plestis (10:53.592)

think you always have to take a step back and kind of leave a project for a minute, know, revisit it at a certain time to see if you can find new areas to explore. You know, you always want to think when you're developing shows about something unique, something that's not been done before. You want to have your market research. You want to really know what's been created through history. You want to know what formats are going worldwide. You want to make sure that whatever you're working on is completely unique, completely different.

‍

answers a question. As I said before with music, everything should have a why or a POV. And I think when I'm stuck, I need to sit down with the format and be like, why does this exist? What are we trying to solve? What are we trying to answer? Why should someone watch this TV show? And then I think once I kind of break that down and answer that question, the idea comes, or the answer comes, or the rest of the format comes, the format beats come.

‍

And also that's another thing is that when I'm building a format, feel like you don't want to build a format on beats. You want the format to be solid. And that's kind of where I go with that. Lots of writing, always writing.

‍

Cameron (12:04.667)

Super interesting. To this point, if you had to swap a task between your jazz self and your producing self, let jazz Clara handle something from your TV career and producer Clara tackle something from your music job. What would you choose? What insights would each Clara bring back?

‍

Clara Plestis (12:24.102)

geez. Gosh, that's a good question. I have never thought of that. I don't know if I'd swap anything. I feel like the creativity is there on both fronts, but there's like a sense of freedom in singing and in jazz specifically that I feel like in TV you have to be a little bit more realistic on like what will work and what doesn't work, but jazz or singing is very much like

‍

You do what you wanna do, improvise, if you mess up, it's fine. As far as the development stages go, I feel like you really gotta make sure you know what you're doing. But yeah, no, I don't even know how to answer that. That's a tough question.

‍

Cameron (13:06.749)

I think it all connects back to each other, which is great. I'm really curious, you've seen a lot, if you imagine it's 2030, will a successful showrunner also need to be a performer, a coder, or maybe something totally unexpected? What new skills do you think will define really great creators versus those who are just good enough in 2030?

‍

Clara Plestis (13:17.069)

Mm-hmm.

‍

Clara Plestis (13:33.548)

I think market knowledge is the biggest key. Back when we did The Masked Singer, it was really one of the first shows that bridged that gap between Korean television and American television. And after that happened, we saw the boom of Korean television. So I think going forward, that's going to be top of mind is what's happening in the world. Formats are no longer, or TV is no longer just American TV, it's global TV.

‍

And I think that's gonna be really important moving forward is knowing the market, knowing what's out there and knowing how to build a show that everyone can watch. The show can be in America, but then it can be easily filmed somewhere else and everyone will understand it. And it's like kind of universally known. Yeah.

‍

Cameron (14:20.849)

Because you've had this opportunity to like think through markets, not just here domestically, but also internationally as well. Are there like from a global perspective, an entertainment format or a practice from another country that you think America should urgently adopt?

‍

Clara Plestis (14:39.272)

I mean, each market is so different. There's markets that just love cooking shows and that wouldn't work here. There's markets that gravitate towards just game shows and that wouldn't work here. you know, and also like the streamers versus the standard network TV or traditional television, those are both completely different buyers. would you mind just, yeah, I don't know. Sorry, I'm not.

‍

Cameron (15:06.865)

It is totally fine. mean, it's, just a, I like to ask sort of, off cultured questions just to sort of capture any insights that maybe you've, you've gathered over the years. one thing I'm really curious about as well is, you know,

‍

Cameron (15:27.953)

One thing I'm really curious about is...

‍

Sorry, I just totally lost my question here. I was asking you about underrated innovation globally. I also wanted to know, just lastly here, I had some questions that I actually don't think that you would want to answer because it could be about things you're bringing to market that you haven't brought to market yet. And I want you to have to, I wouldn't want you to say something that would be published if you guys haven't sold it yet.

‍

Let's see here. Here's a question. And this is my last question out of just curiosity. Do you have any production superstitions? Like, do you have any habits or rituals during the production of your shows that you genuinely think lead to better outcomes?

‍

Clara Plestis (16:18.518)

man, I think, you know, there are certain lucky stages. I think that we've filmed that. And every time we get to film at one of those sound stages, we get really excited. But I think you kind of just the day of that, don't, for singing, I had so many superstitions. And I also used to be a horseback rider and show jumper. And that was my life was just superstitions like.

‍

I hope I make it through this day and I hope I perform well and I hope I don't mess up a song. But for TV, there's so many people, there's so many working parts that you kind of just have to hope you're prepared and ready. And I think that's, that's what everything is being prepared. Practicing, rehearsing, rehearsing for music, rehearsing your TV shows, but definitely, you know, you can't anticipate anything. When we, when we did the Dick Van Dyke show, was Dick Van Dyke, 98 Years of Magic was a variety special.

‍

for CBS, you know, we did the best we could. worked all together. There was a 360 set with like 10 different moving pieces. You know, this crazy, we recreated the Dick Van Dyke set from his original TV show with the actual furniture from the Dick Van Dyke show. We had that split in half and there was a giant LED screen that we changed throughout the whole thing. On the flip side, we recreated the rooftops of London that were.

‍

actual working sets for dancers to dance on top of, steam coming out of like the chimney smokes. We brought in the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car that was on a like 360 rotator. And we had Dick Van Dyke sit in the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car while we were filming this special. And there's so many moving parts. We rehearse it so much. And you can just hope that on the day everything kind of works well and falls into place. And it did. It was a great success and you know that's all you can hope for but rehearsal for everything.

‍

Cameron (18:14.481)

That's awesome. Well, Clara, thank you for joining me on On Production. Super insightful and so interesting, this personal sort of experiences that you bring to this role, but then also the impact and the influence that these shows have had on audiences really around the world, which is really cool. Thanks so much for sharing and joining me on On Production.

‍

Clara Plestis (18:34.088)

Of course, thank you.