The IFPA is excited to announce an amazing opportunity that we've landed for the world of competitive pinball — players and pinball enthusiasts alike. We have signed a deal with the production company Go4Johnny Entertainment, who has worked on shows such as Survivor (CBS), The Apprentice (NBC), I Survived A Japanese Game Show (ABC), Crowned (CW), Big Medicine (TLC), and Deadliest Catch (Discovery). Together our goal is to get a pinball reality show on TV. For this to happen, WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Go4Johnny Entertainment is currently in the casting portion of the process, and similar to putting together a tape for Survivor, they are looking for submissions from players and enthusiasts to cast for "The Pinball Project". With our involvement, we're planning on creating the most lucrative and exposed pinball tournaments in the history of the sport. This could be a real game changer that could benefit the entire pinball industry and community, but again, WE NEED YOUR HELP!

We need to show Go4Johnny that our community of players and enthusiasts is diverse, large, and interesting enough to try and move forward with the concept. The worst possible outcome is them not receiving any online submissions, and this show is dead on arrival. If you've ever been interested in sharing your pinball passion to the world, or are interested in possibly competing for hundreds of thousands of dollars, take this opportunity to submit an online casting video. We don't know how long this casting process will last, so please don't hesitate if you're interested.

Visit "http://www.go4johnny.com/" to go to the Go4Johnny Entertainment homepage, and you'll see "SUBMIT CASTING VIDEO" on the top menu bar on the right hand side. Click on that, and follow the instructions.

Below is the detailed release from Go4Johnny Entertainment:

"Calling all pinheads, flippers and pinball enthusiasts of all ages and genders! Do you eat, drink, and sleep pinball? Do you collect as a hobby, or play competitively? Are you ready to show off your collection? Do you put pinball before everything else, including, sometimes, significant others? Do you keep your pinball playing hidden from your coworkers? If you are ready to share your flipper lifestyle, send us a tape following the guidelines below.

PLEASE NOTE: By sending a tape, you agree and consent to its use for production purposes by Go4Johnny Entertainment, Inc. If you are under the age of 18, you must have the consent of a parent or guardian to submit a tape. Due to the number of submissions we receive, we can only respond to those who may be potentially cast. Thank you in advance for submitting!

Submission Guidelines:

Please submit a tape 3-5 minutes in length. No need to edit or add music, we are just looking for your amazing personality to come through on raw footage.

IMPORTANT: At the beginning of the tape, please hold up a piece of paper that can be easily read through the camera with the following information: your name, your age, your city, and your phone number. We recommend printing out a piece of paper with this information typed in large font. Please also start off your tape by saying these items aloud. If we don't know how to contact you, we can't cast you!

Show us your life! Show us your machines! What does pinball mean to you? How is it a part of your life? How has it affected your life? How does your family, loved ones, friends and coworkers deal with your flipper lifestyle? Why do you think you should be on this show?

All major media formats are accepted, including *.mov, *.wma, *.m4v. PLEASE NOTE: Once you click upload and submit, your file gets automatically submitted and there is no way to cancel the process. If you believe a file was submitted in error, please send us an email at [email protected]."

To my knowledge the whole point of teaming up with th IFPA on this is to push the competitive aspect of the game. While shows like the World Series of Poker have characters (Phil Hellmuth for example), our plan is to run extremely serious tournaments for big $ that may happen to feautre entertaining characters with interesting back stories.

If the goal was simply to make fun of enthusiasts I'm not sure why they would want us involved. I know the production company was glued to the PAPA TV coverage of PAPA 16 all day today.

Is it going to be the Real Housewives of Pinball County, or the World Series of Pinball ... I'm not sure, but I'm willing to put in the work with these guys to find out.

Josh

We're in constant contact with the production company, and have signed a contract with them to be a partner in the development of the show, should it ever get enough traction to get off the ground.

I'll be reviewing submission videos with them, along with developing the format for the potential tournaments that will take place.

Hopefully there will be enough submission videos to review, that they will want to proceed with the next steps in the process.

Josh

Not sure how long they will have this up, but hopefully at least a few weeks.

I just received access today from the production company to be able to view submissions. Looks like there have been 6 so far. Keep them coming!

Josh

16 videos submitted so far . . . I don't think they are expecting Survivor type numbers, but hopefully we'll get more than a couple dozen before the cut-off, or this thing will definitely be a non-starter.

October 1st is the cut-off. Even if you aren't interested in being on the show, please do submit a video just to help get our numbers up. Asking the production company for $100,000 to give away for a tournament is much easier with hundreds and hundreds of players submitting videos . . . it will be much tougher to ask if we get 20 submissions

Josh

Nobody is restricted from submitting a video, so nobody is restricted from playing in the tournament.

If this does get off the ground it will be WPPR eligible.

Josh

I'm not sure if a recent banking statement is required for tax purposes, but rather just a SSN . . . but we would have to look into that specific request.

For example, I could say anyone that films themselves slapping another person in the face is eligible to compete in a tournament, and one could argue that anyone COULD go slap someone else, but I would look at that as a completely unnecessary requirement.

The idea of the video submissions being a requirement is that if we're on a closed set having the event, the production company would be able to account for all the players that would be included on the participant list (every video requires the person to put up name/age/city/phone number). IMO a 3 minute video even if it's just saying "Hi, I'm Solar Ride, love playing pinball, been playing for 20+ years, and would love to be part of anything competitive pinball related with this process." you can then film the ground for the remaining 2 minutes and 45 seconds . . . at least they will have you on file

Josh

As the easiest way to contact someone, or send them details of a potential event, I can see why that may have been added as a requirement

Josh

Currently up to 28 videos submitted.

3 weeks left until the production company decides if they want to proceed with the IFPA on this.

Josh

Remember that submitting a casting video does not mean that you are agreeing to be a part of the project in any way.

Step 1 in the process of the casting company was to simply see if there was any interest within the pinball community to do . . . SOMETHING.

If they don't get enough submissions (which they see as interest by the community), then it's dead.

Step 2 in the process, if they do get enough submissions, is to look at the people and try to formulate ideas for what the show can possibly be about. If a majority of the submissions are tournament players - then it'll be a focus on tournaments. If a majority is about collecting machines - then it'll be a focus on collecting machines. If it's a wide range of interests (which I think is the one thing that makes pinball so great), then it's possible for the show to try and cover all aspects of how pinball interacts with our lives.

Step 3 - THIS IS WHERE YOU CAN CHOOSE TO BE SKEPTICAL AND NOT PARTICIPATE. Once the production company locks into what their plan of attack is, they will contact the people they are interested in using for the project. At that point you aren't forced into being a part of anything. This is the point where WE have the power to say, sorry, I hear your pitch about the show and I'm not interested in being exploited in that way, etc.

What I'm asking the pinball community is to try and help us get beyond Step 1 in the process. If we do that, and can find a way to get enough submissions to even get to Step 3, I'll be just as skeptical as the rest of you guys as to whether the IFPA will want to participate in the series.

I simply want to try and get us to that point of a production company wanting us first, and then we can decide at that point if we want them.

Josh

38 submissions and counting . . .

There have definitely been some that have stood out more than others. I know even with the small amount of submission the casting company has definitely liked some of them.

Ultimately Cayle's comments are spot on. With 38 submissions (still the count at the moment), we're far from getting past Step 1 in this process.

Josh

I haven't seen any from the CO crew yet but look forward to laughing my ass off at them

Josh

Not from what I can see . . . did get 2 more today, so we've hit 40.

Josh

Not quite . . . up to 46 as of this morning.

Josh

Up to 51 submissions.

It's in Eddie, thanks!

It sure did Dave . . . your place looks AMAZING

Up to 85 submissions.

Up to 133 submissions . . . not sure how long they will keep the casting call up on their site to be able to upload.

Just got a quick update from the production company following their winter break hiatus.

They are busy throwing together a sizzle tape to pitch to networks starting mid-February. Sounds like they have a meeting set with TNT/TBS already regarding this concept, along with a few other lesser known networks so far.

Fingers crossed there's enough on that tape to sizzle someone's interest to buy the concept.

Can't believe it's been a year and this thing still isn't dead yet.
Latest update is they have an outline for a show that they will be pitching to networks over the next few months.

The bad news is that it looks like only 13 people will be selected to participate. The good news is that the $100k top prize is something they have included in the details of the competition that will be pitched.

It looks like the submission page is actually still up on their site, so anyone interested in a 1 in 13 chance at 100k ... Sign up while you can. If they find a network their next step is casting.

I'll update more as I get more news.

Josh

I can't go into too much detail due to my NDA, so we'll have to wait and see if it gets picked up.

Definitely in the vein of the other shows they have produced (Survivor, Celebrity Apprentice), where someone gets eliminated each episode until there is a winner at the end.

Submitting the tape is the sign up so if you did that a year ago you're still eligible.

Link to submit a video should be in the first message if this thread.

It'll be interesting to see if they can sell it to a network. I will say the treatment they are submitting is pretty entertaining even for the most casual non-pinball savvy observer, so fingers crossed it gets picked up. It'll mean 100K for someone.

Win 100K flat . . . the final challenge involves the last 3 contestants. The winner of that final challenge wins it. There's no separate challenge to determine the final amount.

They seem to think the 100K payout is no problem. Perhaps the budget to actually produce the show is much less compared to other shows they have produced.

I'm not going to worry about anything like that until it actually gets picked up.

Nothing. Everything ended up DOA.

We did get this sizzle reel out of one of the production companies: