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.

• Monday: 7-10 PM Editing The directors and cinematographers in the first year are broken up into three separate editing sections. This is to create variety, but also for the simple fact that it takes much longer to watch cuts of 6-10 minute films and critique them than it did for our two minute films in the fall. I am staying with three people from my winter production group and two new people that I haven’t worked with will be joining me.
• Tuesday: 10AM – 1PM Sound Editing. I believe we will be learning to use Protools in this class, as well as editing the sound for our six-minute films. UCLA has rooms available for ADR work, which some of us will no doubt be doing. I shot on location, and heard more than a few airplanes during production, hopefully I won’t have to do too much of this.
• 2:30 – 4:30 PM Symposium. This is our ongoing class with all 21 410 students. It is much shorter this quarter, and I imagine it will answer any questions we have that may arise.
• 6 – 9 PM Final Cut This is a class to teach us about Final Cut Pro, which we will be editing our films on. The flatbeds
• Wednesday: 10AM – 12:50 PM Television Directing

And those are our assigned classes. Aside from editing our films, We can choose to take electives (one is recommended).

The big class I am going for is the 434. 434 is the bread and butter class of the very successful UCLA Screenwriting program. In a 434 class you write a feature length screenplay over the course of a quarter. I have been excited to take one since arriving at UCLA last fall. The process involves pitching a number of different professors of different sections. I will have to remember my own advice on pitching while preparing my two pitches tonight. The teachers are looking for anywhere from one pitchable idea, to two extended loglines, to two three minute pitches. This is my first pitch session since our one in the fall, so I’m excited. Wish me luck!