Producing : Pitching vs Reading by John Patterson

Boy, I am right there with you John Patterson . I struggle with feeling confident in what items I choose to include in both verbal and written pitches. My scripts get more positive reactions than my pitches no doubt.

I wouldn’t give up on pitching. If the script consistently gets strong reactions once people read it, the challenge may simply be finding the clearest way to communicate what makes it special. A strong pitch opens the door; the script still has to close the deal.

Thanks. Yes,, I Will keep plugging away. The formula is there somewhere,

Hello John! I completely understand where you're coming from! I missed the fine print in the screenwriting "contract" that you must also be a good salesperson in addition to being a good writer! I would say, record yourself and listen to it (keep it short). If you're not sold on your own script, keep going to feel good about it :)

Hi John :) Firstly, HUGE CONGRATULATIONS on getting three separate Double Recommends! This is absolutely AMAZING! You’ve done the hardest part. Pitching can be a challenge, but now you’ve got a great product, which is the most important thing, you’ll get there! I find that practice makes perfect. You’ve already taken great initiative by taking a pitching course. Try booking a few pitching sessions without focusing on getting a request. That can add extra pressure. Instead, see them as practice and make your success criteria super simple: if you felt more at ease, that’s a win; if you felt happier with your pitch, that’s a win. What seems to work for me is copying my pitch onto paper, which helps me learn it off by heart. I only write it on one side of the paper, so I don’t have to faff around with sheets while I’m speaking. :) There’s also the option of the written pitch, but I love that you’re challenging yourself to keep improving your oral pitches. You could do a mix of both oral and written pitches? I’m nervous at the beginning too, but I’ve now switched my mindset from: “I really want to get a request.” to: “I have a great script to offer, and I’m gathering the right team to help me share it with the world.” I find this mindset has really helped me relax. As much as executives are giving you a great opportunity to pitch, remember that you’re also offering them a great opportunity to be part of the journey of a script that has received three separate Double Recommends. YOU’VE GOT THIS, JOHN! :)

Congratulations on the three Double Recommends! What are the parts that you love the most about your story? Try making a list of the things you love and have those be the things that you want to share in your pitch. If you love them, then I think you can show others what makes them so special and they will love them too. That way you can get them to be interested in your screenplay which is already well received.

Darrell A Pennington It's tough to try to keep a casual attitude while trying to sell yourself (which is mostly what your monologue is trying to do, after all). But I will keep at it. I will.

Jackie Letkowski Yes, I am terrible when it comes to reading the fine print. But this is the avenue I've chosen to walk down, so I will keep my chin up while doing so. Thanks for your note.

Judith Marie-Ange Edmorin After reading your thoughtful encouragement, I am ready to pitch RIGHT NOW. Just kidding, but I really do appreciate your attitude and your good wishes. Thank you for that.

Zoltán Varga Thanks also to you for your encouragement. I will figure this out.

Mari Bengston Thanks for the list suggestion,. I will incorporate it in my next (gulp!) pitch.

John Patterson yes it is. That's one of the reasons I decided to take on this additional approach with the ebooks.

Sometimes, I think professionals can very understandably get jaundiced, cynical, even a bit bitter when they are inundated day after day with statistically speaking what what will be something that never gets another moment of their time and probably isn't good enough to move forward. I don't want my future to only be in the hands of others.

So I decided to go straight to the audience. Nothing unusual, unique or dare I say 'novel' about the approach but the difference is this audience is eager, excited and available to soak up content. They want to read the next book and hope it is great but if not they still might enjoy it and even recommend it.

So I kicked in the additional layer of strategy and I am so excited for it. Cannot wait for the series to roll next Spring.

Congratulations on the Double Recommends, John Patterson! The Know It All sounds interesting.

Did you watch this free pitch webinar called "Pitching Tips from the Pros: Your Blueprint to a Successful Pitch"? www.stage32.com/education/products/pitching-tips-from-the-pros-your-blue...

And have you done the Pitch Practices in the Writers' Room? They're one of the best pitching resources in my opinion.

You could post your logline, synopsis, and script on your profile. That and networking are how I sold four short scripts to a producer. www.stage32.com/loglines

What an interesting idea Darrell A Pennington i am going to give this some serious thought. Thanks for the suggestion.

Maybe just keep sending it in lol. Skip the pitch if it's not ur strong suit, and develop a deck that speaks for itself. Probably poor advice but a patch for the time being.

One of the best recommendations I can give is to read Good in a Room by Stephanie Palmer. It really changed how I think about pitching.

Take Jaws. It’s not really “about a shark.” It’s about a father who’s also the law on an island, local politics, people’s livelihoods, their dreams for themselves and each other, fear, responsibility, and a whole lot more. The title and poster don’t do justice to all that nuance, but they do one very important thing: they hook you into wanting to know more.

I think that’s often the challenge with pitching. We want the person listening to understand all the nuance and details that made us write the thing in the first place, and that can quickly put them into what Palmer calls “detail hell.”

So I wouldn’t give up on pitching and just concentrate on getting the script into people’s hands, especially when the script itself is already getting Double Recommends. I’d focus on identifying the biggest, cleanest hooks in The Know It All and start there. Your job in the room isn’t to make them understand the whole movie. It’s to make them want to read it.

Joshua Young Such valuable pieces of advice! Thank you so much for mentioning Stephanie Palmer’s book, I didn’t know about it. Great insight about Jaws, and I also love what you said: “Your job in the room isn’t to make them understand the whole movie. It’s to make them want to read it.”

Joshua Young Really appreciate your remarks and will find Good In The Room. At it's heart, The Know It All is about my favorite themes in drama: discovery, transformation and redemption (leavened with humor of course).

Maria Restivo Glassner Thanks for your note, Maria. Yes, the deck is the next step for me.

Thanks for the link, Maurice Vaughan , I am going to check it out today.

You're welcome, @John. Stage 32 has two Screenwriting Lounge posts with pitch advice.

www.stage32.com/lounge/screenwriting/Pitching-44

www.stage32.com/lounge/screenwriting/Pitch-Advice

I relate to this a lot. I’m much more comfortable building the actual story than trying to condense everything I know about it into a few minutes. One thing I’m learning is that pitching is almost its own separate skill from writing. You can know your project inside and out and still have to learn how to communicate only the parts somebody needs to hear first. I’ve been working on simplifying mine down to the core character, conflict and emotional hook instead of trying to explain the whole world.

Congrats on the double recommends! Here are my two cents about pitches as an exec and a working writer so I am both on the receiving end of pitches and often the one pitching. When I was an actor I had a casting director give me an invaluable piece of advice about auditions which are essentially pitches in a different format, he said he could always tell when an actor was too hungry, and that all it made him wonder was why no one was feeding them, Basically there needs to be an ease about the pitch that can really only come from practice practice practice. The pitch should be so rehearsed that it feels off the cuff. There are two ways to go about doing this, one ask everyone you know to listen to you pitch and second record yourself, then record yourself again. You want to know your story inside and out and then you want to work on making the pitch feel conversational. If you can have it memorized, look us in the eyes, we want to engage with you, we want to be brought in on the journey, not just of the story but of how you came to write it. Make me laugh, catch me off guard, be a person I feel like I can have a cup of coffee with. A fun exercise to work on becoming a better is pitcher is take a movie or story that you don't like and try to pitch it in a way that would make someone watch it. But essentially my biggest bit of advice is to practice, pitching is an art and it can be learned!

Echoing the sentiments of the others here. No need to stop practicing the pitch and improving, but some people aren't as strong on the page as they are in the room. Perhaps you need to explore a collaborator (another writer who excels at pitching or a producer/manager type who believes in you as a writer).

I agree that above all, getting the script in the hands of the producer and let the work speak for itself is key. The better you can position those, the better!

Thanks Alexandra Hensley . I am going to work on making my pitch extemporaneous. I've been too concerned about "getting everything in" and not concerned enough about the overall impression I make. Thank you for this.,

Thanks Sean Hussey . It would be wonderful indeed if I could find a producer/manager who believes in the project. The search continues.