Success Stories: JUN'22 Online Pitch Brings Script Request

After a five pitches over Skype in the past week, I've gotten a request for my script, The Tale of Itchy! I'd considered gong to the live pitchfest in Burbank this weekend but it would have cost $2,000 to $2,500 to pitch almost at random and by chance. With Stage 32 Online Pitching, I was able to reserve times with specific people at companies looking for projects like mine. For less than $400.00, I entered the New Blood contest, reserved six pitch slots and took a pitch prep session with Joey Tuccio. Skype pitching is really amazing. The Stage 32 facilitators set up the call at your appointed time and pass you to the executive. Joey Tuccio's coaching was vital. You get eight minutes of pure focus and energy, as if being shot out of a cannon, to go through your whole movie in its most exciting and compelling summary in just a few minutes while supplying director's commentary and bringing out the essence and beauty of your characters. The executive, who hears pitches all the time, can easily lose interest in an unrefined pitch. You must observe yourself in action, notice the executive's small responses to your delivery and catch their attention before it slips away. Skype makes this possible. You only have a couple of seconds to lose the whole thing, but with experience you can learn to avoid such moments. And that's where Joey's coaching is really helpful. Another thing I didn't expect about pitching is how emotionally draining it is when it's over. If it went well, you feel like you worked out really hard. If it goes badly, you feel like you worked hard but couldn't coordinate, and you feel bad in many ways. With the Online Pitchfest, you get hours or days to absorb the experience, let your emotions settle, rest from the experience and understand how to modify your pitch. The better my pitch gets, the more wrung out and exhilarated I feel after the session. It's fantastic. But I need to rest and wind down. After one session, I had to grieve, I felt so bad. Imagine having a really bad pitch, then having to stand in line and wait for somebody completely outside your area to pitch to. You can't afford to skip any of this pitch time. It's just seven hours, I think, on one day. Way too little and way too much. Gearing up to pitch and winding down afterward takes some time. If I'd had to do all five of pitches in a single day, I doubt my performance would have improved each time and I doubt I would have gotten a script request. Online pitching allowed me to focus everything on a specific time, knowing I'd be talking to someone meaningful to my objectives. Having Joey and the other Stage 32 facilitators open the calls and be there to remind us of the time added another level of safety to the process and took the anxiety of cold pitching out of the game. I came to Stage 32 because a friend who's read all of my screenplays liked The Tale of Itchy so much he began telling his professional colleagues about it and one of them said we needed to find Joey Tuccio. She really knew what she was talking about. Joey and his group do an amazing job! Thanks, Joey, and Stage 32, for a great introduction to the screenwriting market!