My Five Prep Tips After Landing Your Hollywood Pitch Meeting
Scheduled Your First Story Pitch In Hollywood? Here are a few tips
Got good news, you say? You’ve landed your first pitch meeting in the hallowed halls of the dream factory of Hollywood, have you now? Congratulations! This is an exciting time to be sure. Don’t forget to celebrate your impressive accomplishment. Savor the moment!
It’s exciting, but you haven’t sold your script just yet. It’s a time to buckle down and focus on something few aspiring writers or even practicing writers get to experience. A pitch meeting may be a bit more commonly obtained than an actual script deal, however, producers don’t dole them out to just anybody. And movie producers or a TV production teams expects you to bring your A game or better. They’re busy bees toiling away in the sticky honeycombs of Hollywood. They’re not going to waste their busy day on every wannabe scribe who buzzes along.
But don’t worry - you have the necessary talent to land the gig. You have to earn your place in a high profile Hollywood meeting. They wouldn’t have invited you to participate in a creative brainstorm session if you didn’t have what it takes. After penning episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and its spin-off, Deep Space Nine, I landed four pitch meetings with the show’s producers. Later, I met with creator and showrunner, Michael Piller, for his hit TV show, Stephen King’s The Dead Zone, for my fifth Hollywood creative meeting.
Pitching certainly isn’t rocket science, but it’s not perfectly elementary either. Just like anything in life it’s part logical science and part wispy artform. Let me share some of my advice with you to hopefully make it more of an easier and even productive process.
Know Your Customer
In many ways, writers are like salespeople. They have something they produce, a script, a book, etc, - their product - which they must sell to a production company, studio or network to make a sale. One of the most important sales techniques is to know well your customer and their specific needs.
What exactly are you writing for? A hit prime time crime TV show full of the tumultuous adventures of cops and baddies? How about selling to a hit sitcom? Friends and Seinfeld may be history for first run episodes, but there are plenty of new funny half hours about. Know your customer inside and out. It will not only impress them, but it could get you paid.
Creative Creation
It’s all about your creativity. It’s centered all on your original creation, right? But we all know that it’s not always so easy to create.
It may sound obvious or even a bit rudimentary, but watching your favorite films or TV shows can spur you on to that creative mode. I’ll do that and also fire up documentaries or even a reality show or two to get in the mood. One of my all time faves is Pawn Stars. Running on the History Channel for 12 years now, the program remains my go to cornucopia of creativity.
Rick Harrison, Corey and Chumlee invite scores of cool, strange or downright weird folk into their Las Vegas pawn shop to wheel and deal. I’m hooked for more than a few hours. Ancient history, pop culture and even toy collecting is joyously explored through real objects brought in by real people. I rarely fail to be moved or even inspired to create.
You’re a screenwriter. Your super power is creating from scratch. Your mission is to concoct dynamic ideas and morph them into scripts. Watching more of your love and passion will only help you out in the end.
Prepare
What to bring to the meeting? You’ll need notes. You’ll need an introduction. Hell, you’ll need to wear clothes. Don’t make the mistake which some make by going in naked and loudly proclaiming, “I have nothing to hide, good people! Take me now as I am in my glorious birthday suit!'“
No, we’re not going to go there.
The bottom line is we all prepare differently. Perhaps you’re an old school cheerleader and enjoy the legal pad or spiral notebook. Maybe you love to use your iPad or cell to jot down notes or use audio dictation for story outlines. Whatever. It’s your call, but remember that preparing professionally will go a long way when the pitch bell rings for you.
Practice Makes Near Perfection
Do you know what they say about 10,000 hours? You don’t? Well, here’s the info on that little skillful theory:
'Researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: 10,000 hours.’
I’m a juggler. Yes, I love playing with my big balls. I won’t win any awards nor can I juggle chainsaws, but hey, I’m working on it. My point is that even though I’m a confident juggler, I probably need a helluva lot more practice before I’d put on a show and sell tickets. Do I need 5,000 more hours to perfect my skills? 8,000 more? Who knows… I will practice more because I love it, and you should practice more for your needs.
Snag a bored family member or unsuspecting friend. My buddy, Tom, remains a great sounding board to practice my stuff on - endlessly. He listens intently and offers great feedback at my pitch conclusion. Don’t be afraid to just pitch to ANYONE - you’ll get better and better. Before you know it, those 10,000 hours will pass quicker than The Flash taking a firehose piss after a beer bloat.
Eat Well, Relax, Sleep Soundly
It’s all over - well, everything but the actual pitch meeting. I mean that now that you’ve done all the work before the big deal, now you must take care of yourself.
Do your best to eat well, relax and get plenty sleep. It seems a simple given and it is. But it’s something many neglect because it’s so basic and nearly forgettable. You want to be well rested and as healthy as you can be to withstand the walk through fire you’re going to go through. Yes, producers can be brutal and they’ll tell you just what they think of your stuff. They won’t be so kind in their descriptions, either. Honestly, they can be downright mean. Be the strongest in physical and mental health that you can be to weather it all.
Landing the pitch meeting is just the beginning - hopefully - of your process for writing for movies or television. It’s a means to an end, but if you strive to conquer it, or at least tame it, the process won’t be so nearly intimidating and just might land you one or several Hollywood writing assignments.