A pitch is somewhere between a joke and a campfire story.

We recently had two pitching experts come in to speak to our class. They gave sage and candid advice about pitching screenplays. I also had the opportunity to get a pitch critiqued by them for my upcoming screenplay.

I bombed and it was an invaluable experience. One thing that I have come to realize is that many people make a good living on what don’t seem like real jobs to an outsider. Pitching and writing coverage of screenplays are the two I have been investigating recently.

Pitching is a craft and a profession that some people make a lot of money doing. For many of them it took years of practice and hard work. The two people who came in to speak to us spent their twenties writing; they didn’t go out, they didn’t party, they wrote. It took them seven years to sell their first feature. Here are some loglines of recently sold pitches (via Done Deal Pro):

Untitled Sascha Baren Cohen Project – 04/25/10 – Paramount Pictures – Revolves around a goat herder and a deposed foreign dictator who gets lost in the United States.

Untitled Parkour Project – 04/26/10 – New Line Cinema – Centers on the extreme sport of Parkour, the free-jumping sport in which people run and jump from rooftops.

My Ex Boyfriend Wrote a Book About Me – Paramount Pictures – A girl finds out that her ex-boyfriend has written a book about her. (pretty straightforward).

Most of the pitches that sold recently are pitched by very established writers, actors and directors. This doesn’t mean that we fledgling writers and directors don’t have to know how to pitch. It’s vitally important for us to know how to tell our stories in a brief, engaging, and compelling way.

First we were given some basic philosophy on life as a writer/pitcher:

• Building a career is a marathon, not a sprint. It takes time, effort and failure to learn how to do these things well.
• You need very thick skin and very low expectations to keep yourself motivated.
• Never take anything personally, you really never know what’s going on with the person at the other end of the table.
• Be careful who you’re nice to on the way up, you never know who you’re going to meet on your way down.
• The people who skyrocket to success often burn out just as quickly. The writer of My Girl, who went from unknown writer with a spec to a completed film in six months, was cited as an example of this.
• You have to be idea machines, constantly coming up with new material. Don’t be the guy who’s shopping around the same script for 20 years.
• If you don’t do the work, someone else always will. There are always 100,000 other people writing that spec that you’re not.

Preparation

1. Have multiple ideas. Don’t walk into a room with just one idea. If it’s shot down, you have nothing and its awkward.
2. Have ideas in the same genre. People in Hollywood want to put you in a box; she’s the one who writes romantic comedies. It’s ok to stray a little, say into straight comedy or even dramedy, but if you come in with two comedies and a sci-fi movie eyebrows will be raised.
3. Know what’s out there, what’s being sold, and who’s buying. Do your homework. Sites like Deadline, Variety, Screen Daily, Hitfix, Vulture, and Done Deal Pro are excellent resources for seeing who’s buying what ideas for how much money at any given moment.
4. Do your homework about who you’re meeting with, what they like, what they’ve bought etc.

Your Idea

Start with a two-sentence version of your screenplay. Then for the longer version be very aware of your beats:

1. Introduction of Protagonist and Problem, Desire, Flaw and Obstacles
2. Midpoint of Act 1
3. End of Act 1
4. Keeping the story alive 1/4 of the way through Act 2
5. Mid Point of Act 2 (Big Twist)
6. Keeping the story alive in the second half of act 2
7. End of Act 2 (New Twist)
8. Cliffhanger (all is lost, darkest moment)
9. Climax and resolution.

These beats must be crystal clear in your story and in your pitch. Practice, practice, practice. In front of a mirror, with friends. Get their honest feedback and adjust for the notes they give you. If it’s a comedy, it should be really funny, if it’s a thriller, it should be thrilling. Bring a lot of emotion to the pitch and keep eye contact with the person you’re pitching to. If people aren’t reacting the way you want them to, something needs to change.

The Pitch

When you walk in the room, make small talk until you know when the time has come to give your pitch. Make the material personal to you; explain (or fabricate) your personal involvement with the story. It makes it more compelling and also makes a strong case for why you should write it.

Then ask them what they’re looking for,

Give them a logline, then ask if they’re interested. If they’re not, give them something else. If they are, make sure you include the following information in your pitch:

• How long the pitch is going to be. A standard length for a “Stanford” pitch is 15-20 Minutes
• What the Genre is.
• What successful films it’s comparable to.
• Open with a visual.
• When you describe a main character, give an age, an actor you can picture playing them, and a pithy bit of description (i.e. “he’s the kind of guy who…”
• Go through your nine beats.
• Let your listener know where you are; “this is the end of the first act” etc.

Other important suggestions:

• Plot does not sell scripts, character does.
• Maintain a balance between summary and dramatization.
• Be energetic, have coffee before the meeting if you need to.
• Be clear about character arcs. One anecdote was related about pitching for Scooby Doo; one of the first questions the executive asked was “What’s Scooby’s arc?”
• Give them “trailer moments,” moments that are juicy enough to put in the trailer.
• Give them “sound bytes,” concise encapsulating phrases that can be easily repeated to other people. (i.e. it’s a coming of age story for women in their 40s)
• Have a backup list of actors if the people in the room don’t like your first choice. Picture Clint Eastwood, ok, picture George Clooney etc.
• Have a cheat sheet with 10 loglines for ideas you can use if you need to.
• Tell them what you’re going to do, do it, and then tell them what you’ve done. “I’m going to give you a logline.” “I’m going to give you a ten-minute pitch.”
• Tell the character’s ages.
• Be prepared for the worst interruptions (Blackberrys are just the beginning), don’t let them throw you.
• Introduce only the characters who move the plot forward.
• If you have a lot of characters, bring in a bulletin board with photos of actors you would temp cast for the roles. Then the person you’re pitching to can see who you’re talking about, and you have a means of indicating to them who’s doing what.
• What is your character’s Achilles heel?

This seems more complicated than it is. It’s important to be confident and relaxed and show your enthusiasm for your project. This is a job though; some people, though few, can make a living at it.

Pitching is an important skill even if you write small art-house character dramas. You still have to transfer your enthusiasm to the person listening to you, who may finance you, act in your film, be your director of photography or even your costume designer. Conveying passion to other people is a very important skill to have.

Two minutes is not a lot of time to tell a story, so it had better be damned clear. The elements of story that the wonderful Becky Smith laid out for us yesterday are as follows:

• Genre – is it a comedy, tragedy, horror? This helps the listener understand the tone of your piece.
• Set up/Place – This seems more straightforward than it is. Can you describe the setting in a few words? I.e. it’s in the backyard of a wealthy suburban household.
• Character – This is your main character, and in a two minute short film you have one. One character who experiences the story, and whose POV (point of view) the audience shares. This is the person who wants (external goal) or needs (internal goal) something. An example. In Speed, Keanu Reeves wants to get the hell off the bus and get the bad guy. In Pretty Woman Richard Gere’s character needs to understand that Julia Roberts is the right woman for him. If these examples sound cliché and hollywood, it’s because they are. They’re good to study though because they’re simple, as all filmmakers should be. Better to start with basic stories than “Last Year at Marienbad.”
• Conflict -  this takes place in the form of obstacles to the character achieving his goal, which had better be clear to the audience. There are four types of conflict in this fair world of ours:

1. vs himself (internal)
2. vs another individual (personal)
3. vs society (social)
4. vs nature (physical)

• an easier way to think about these four types of conflicts is thus; all conflict that isn’t internal, i.e. insecurity, are external, i.e. a bomb on the bus you’re on. (sorry I think speed is funny)
• Action, the character acts in order to achieve his clear goals, this leads to a
• Climax, after which there is a
• Resolution.

Do not lie to yourselves when you are looking at whether your story has these things. Intuition is essential when writing, and it will usually tell you when you’re lying to yourself.Now that I have explained my terms, here is some useful advice on pitching.

• Keep it short.
• Never use the past tense. This is backstory that you will not get on the screen.
• Have a clear protagonist and point of view. I know you want to tell the story from three different perspectives, but the audience doesn’t, and that’s who you’re making the film for.
• Shooting yourself in the ass before you even pitch. I.e. saying “I don’t think you’ll like this,” or “I don’t think this is very good.” If you don’t think it’s good, I sure as hell won’t. Be confident. Love your work.

Show Don’t Tell

In her excellent book Good in A Room Stephanie Palmer discusses the important of showing instead of telling. She writes

“Show don’t tell” is one of the most common comments movie executives give to screenwriters. It means that the writer is using too much exposition instead of conveying the information through action. While most writers find it easier to explain what’s happening in a scene, explanations aren’t visual. They aren’t as engaging or satisfying to the audience.

The problem is telling is so easy and showing is so hard. This is why our soap operas, other TV shows, and movies are often filled with expositional lines of dialogue.

Stephanie also has some wonderful advice on ways people blow pitches right off the bat, which I hope she will forgive me for quoting so extensively.

• Giving your own opinion of your work. If you say, “I’ve got a really great idea for you,” the buyer’s thinking. “Who thinks your idea is great? You? Amazing. You love your own idea. I’m floored”

This can be positive or negative. Today I saw mostly negative introductions. Let the story decide.

• Using a weak opening move. “This is a story, based on my life, that covers loss, sadness, anger and isolation.” Okay, grat. But what’s the idea? Whom is it for? What’s the hook? If you can’t start your pitch with a great first sentence, the buyer isn’t listening to the second sentence.

This is Stephanie’s example of a good pitch, with her footnotes and then I have to go to bed:

“The Last All-Nighter (1) is a thriller (2) about two teen rivals (3) who join forces to solve a murder. It’s the last week of August, and during the annual Camp Appaloosa treasure hunt, Joe (the brainy athlete) and Aaron (the rugged outdoorsman) discover the dead body of the camp director where the treasure should be. (4)

1. Relevant detail: title.

2. Relevant detail: genre.

3. Relevant Detail: heroes.

4. Relevant details: the hook.

We pitched our whole two-minute stories, which is admittedly different. I guess the three things that I find most important in writing are

• clarity
• simplicity
• and specificity.

I am reminded of my favorite quote from Robert Bresson:

A small subject can provide the pretext for many profound combinations. Avoid subjects that are too vast or too remote, in which nothing warns you if they are going astray. Or else take from them only what can be mingled with your life and belongs to your experience.