So, I'm going to come out and say it: I've had a really crappy string of luck with my pitches the past couple of months. (I'm being kind here.) And I'd be lying if I said I haven't been incredibly frustrated. In fact, I went 0-for-5 last week, including for the Comedy Pitchfest, which was a golden opportunity for me to sell my sitcom. (Insert loud fart noise) But that's OK, because one of the reps who passed on my pitch gave me notes worthy of being considered paid feedback. I'm considering these notes as an enlightenment. I don't know if it would be appropriate to name this person, or agency, so I'll hold off on that. After banging my heads for MONTHS on what I'm missing or what I can tweak in my pitch and/or pilot script (I welcome all the help I can get - I'm new at this and I have no ego to protect here), this person became an instant guru for me. She critiqued my logline - it isn't working. And she was right. She had me question my protagonists motives. Why did he quit his high-paying job? Why do we care? Why are we going to continue to care? And she was spot on that I was clearly missing something much stronger there. She called me out on why the legs for the series was shaky, at best. And she was right. She said the background of the show (a pet store) was perfect fodder for more plot/story lines. And she's right! The bottom line is that after more than a year of working on my script and tweaking my pitches, I really felt like I had hit a wall. Now, my mind is percolating all sorts of new ideas and even some funny ones (my comedy writing has taken a beating along with my confidence and motivation, lately). So much so that the underlying hook of my story is going to change - it HAS to, in order to survive. Joey and the Stage32 crew know the person I'm referring to and I really hope they have her back in the future, because she's a godsend. I'm sure I wasn't the only one to get such amazing feedback. To be frank, I've had a few passes with feedback that was not very helpful. This made up for all of that and more. And it was someone that came along at the right time for me, because she gave me a kick in the ass that I desperately needed. She hit on a lot of feedback I had received before, but in a way that made me say "Ah ha!! I finally get it!!" She didn't tell me my idea or pitch was sh*t (in fact, she seemed to really like the idea) or that I was a crappy writer and should go sell insurance (no offense to insurance salespeople). But she guided me to a place where my project can be a hell of a lot better. I'm so grateful for that. When I am on stage accepting an Emmy some day, I'll be sure to thank her. :) (Side note: I've only done written pitches to this point for a number of reasons, and that has to change. I'm being asked so many questions in my PASS feedback that could be easily asked and answered in a Skype pitch. The written pitch also can't convey the enthusiasm and passion I have for this project, and I realize how much that's hurting me now.)
Success Stories: SEP'16 A different twist on success, if you will - I got a PASS and loved it
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This is a fantastic success story: "notes worthy of being considered paid feedback" is the perfect way to glass half-full your PASS. I'm really happy to see you are taking this as a way to fix instead of quit. I have a quote on my wall that says "Walt Disney got fired from a local newspaper for not being creative enough" I have never known if this is true or embellished folklore but the sentiment is real enough. Just keep righting, just keep wrighting, just keep writing, until it's right. :-)
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wow, Devin. Thanks for laying it out there. I sympathize with everything you're saying so much! Getting good notes is so great....it shows the reader truly liked your idea and your writing style, because they're willing to take the time to give you detailed notes. Personally, I'd be willing to do more st32 pitches if there was some kind of guarantee we'd get notes. Don't get me wrong, pitching for $45 ($60 Canadian) is a great deal, and if it's a pass they'll give you at least a little feed-back on the quality of your pitch. I figured the little wee box they fill out and send to you has a twitter-like word limit, but if this exec gave you pages of feed-back, then that is AWESOME. The only problem with st32 pitching that I've encountered is, IF your script is requested, then perhaps you NEVER hear back from them...and you're left wondering if your dream is just hibernating, lost on a desk, or they hated it, or they're busy shopping it around and you don't even know that, or what? That kinda hurts. Whatever, that's the industry; gotta believe in yourself and move on, right? So, comparatively, for $45 ($60 Can) you can be entered in a competition that guarantees you at least a page of notes, sometimes from 2 different readers. Competitions vs. St32.....I'm still not sure which is the most likely pathway to get discovered, but I know I love the energy of St32 more than anything else. It keeps me believing in myself. Anyway, the moral of the story is now you have to change your story based on those notes. This is a skill set that's VITAL to a sustained success in the industry, but as far as I know there are NO COURSES on how to do it! I'm personally really struggling. You have to kill your babies, you have to write even though the original spark is so far in the past it's hard to recapture, you have to re-start the whole project from the now, 2015, and envision the market when it will likely 'come out', say in 2019. You have to somehow keep track of the myriad different incarnations your spec is undergoing, know where to find that special scene you wrote last fall but then omitted, but now you think it's awesome. You're lucky you just have the one project to re-write. I'm hoping to go through this process with all 8 of mine, hopefully before Christmas! The re-write process is so different than the zen of original creation. If anyone knows of ways to make it more fun, please let Devin and I know!
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I know where you coming from Devin, I'm also a comedy writer... marketing my 30 min sitcom, and about to produce as a web series, and she's absolutely correct. The hardest thing to figure out is what stance to take in the overlying theme of the show that will sustain it in long run. Not plot, character conflict is essential - but what's the one everyday occurance that all plots can be generated from - the workplace. The "petshop". Good luck man. I agree, I received some feedback like that, that change the way I approach pitching now.
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Good for you Devin!
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Way to keep going and taking the advice. When you are ready to do this and you are in need of actors, please keep me in mind. Best of luck to you!
Thank you, thank you Devin so much for sharing your journey and frustration and how you've grown through it. I feel like I'm very much in the same boat and I needed to hear that.
On-wards and upwards Devin, sounds like you've got a new lease of life with the script writing