The Hollywood Pitching Bible, page 1
What industry professionals are saying about "The Hollywood Pitching Bible":
“ ‘Bible’ is the right word. This is the Truth about pitching. Just do what it says.”
- Gary Goldman (Writer/Producer, "Total Recall," "Minority Report")
"Most writers find the pitching process to be quite nerve-wracking, and this long-overdo book will offer them great comfort and encouragement. Douglas Eboch and Ken Aguado break down every aspect of a pitch, from the development of an idea to the challenge of confidently facing a room full of stone-faced executives. Moreover, they stress the importance of making a real personal connection to your material. If you have an urgent need to tell a particular story, there isn't a buyer in the world who won't want to hear it."
-Ken Kwapis (Director of “He’s Just Not That Into You,”
“Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants,” and “Big Miracle”)
The Hollywood Pitching Bible
A Practical Guide to Pitching Movies and Television
By
Douglas Eboch & Ken Aguado
Copyright 2013 by Douglas Eboch & Ken Aguado.
All rights reserved.
Published by ScreenMaster Books at Smashwords
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the authors.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. The authors shall not be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
This book is available in print at most online retailers.”
ISBN-13:9781301156214
Cover photos by Scott Peat
For more information or permissions, please contact:
ScreenMaster Books
5737 Kanan Road, Suite 114
Agoura Hills, CA 91301
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
WHAT IS PITCHING
WHY WE PITCH
THE PITCH EXPERIENCE
Choosing Material to Pitch
The Value of an Idea
Picking your subject matter
additional considerations for television
Constructing Your Pitch
Elements of a Pitch
What about television
Let’s create a pitch
Pitching style and presentation
How a meeting works
How to behave in a meeting
Props AND leave-behinds
Conclusion
Industry Slang
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Introduction
Welcome to pitching. If you are reading this book, we will assume that you are interested in working as a professional in the film and television business. Nobody pitches as a hobby. Maybe you’ve tried pitching and were disappointed with the result, or maybe you find it to be a mysterious and impenetrable process. Maybe both.
The one thing we know for sure is that anyone who plans to work in the Hollywood creative community will benefit from learning to pitch; eventually, you will have to convince other people that your ideas have merit. And that’s where this book comes in.
You’ll notice the title of this book is not “How to Get Rich in Hollywood” or “Pitching for Dollars” or anything like that. We’ve seen those kinds of books and maybe you have too. Is this because we don’t want to you to make a good living in Hollywood? Of course not. In fact, we will venture a guess that many of you are reading this book because you’ve already read some of those other books and found them lacking. That’s where this book will be different. We have over four decades of combined experience, not just selling pitches but also buying pitches. We’ve been on both sides of the “desk.” Perhaps more importantly, we’ve had many years of experience teaching the art of pitching. In fact, this book originated from our experiences teaching the subject and seeing our students struggle with the numerous complexities of pitching. We think this gives us unique insights and qualifications to present the pitching process from the broadest perspective, based on sound aesthetic principles and rooted in the customs of Hollywood. This book will be more than just a list of tricks or a collection of anecdotes. We will impart some real-world, practical know-how about pitching that we’ve learned over the decades.
Why does this matter? A few reasons. First of all, we probably have a different perspective about the nature and value of learning to pitch from what you might think or have read in other books. We see pitching as an essential skill required for a long-term career in the entertainment business and not a get-rich-quick lottery ticket. Also, we believe it’s unlikely any one book could ever cover every single pitching scenario in the world of film and television. Think about the variety of projects that get pitched in Hollywood: feature films, TV movies, mini-series, one-hour series dramas, half-hour single camera comedies, half-hour situation comedies, reality shows, game shows, competition shows, internet programming, documentary programming and more. Now think about all the kinds of material writers pitch: original stories, adaptations, remakes, reboots, rewrites and more. Is it possible one book could give you a formula that would apply in all of these scenarios? Unlikely. Instead, we will teach you the fundamental skills of pitching so that you can adapt to whatever situation you might encounter.
Let us summarize our approach to this book and who will get the most from it.
First of all, this is not a book about screenwriting. We will assume that you already have several scripts or teleplays under your belt and have some experience with the nuts and bolts of creating a fully realized narrative. Maybe you’ve even sold or optioned one or more of your scripts. We also assume you live in Southern California or New York or plan to move to one of these places at some point. This is where 99% of all pitching takes place. Lastly, we assume you want to take that next step in your career and that you have some appreciation of the significant differences between a script and a pitch. If not, you will soon learn they are very different things.
For the sake of focus and clarity, we will mostly use the pitching of movies as our recurring example. At all steps we will justify and give a logical framework for the advice we give you. The more you understand the basis for our advice, the more likely you will be able to adapt to the specific situations you will encounter. After you’ve read this book, the entire process will seem less intimidating and mysterious to you. And maybe, if we are lucky, you will come to understand how learning to pitch can make you a better storyteller. And that’s truly our hope.
-Doug & Ken
Back to Table of Contents
What is pitching
Pitching in the entertainment industry is the process by which artistic ideas and points-of-view are conveyed verbally (and occasionally visually) from one person to another. In most cases the content of the pitch is a concise summary of a film or television project. Typically, the intention of the person doing the pitching is to get paid to write or rewrite a screenplay, a teleplay or adapt something from another medium (such as a book) into one of these things.
Usually the person doing the pitching is a screenwriter, but it can also be a director or producer. For the purposes of this book we will mostly assume it’s a writer doing the pitching, but the techniques for directors and producers are much the same.
Sometimes the person on the receiving end of the pitch is a “buyer.” After all, the term pitching is derived from the phrase “sales pitch.” Film and television production executives are good examples of buyers.
However, pitching is often (perhaps most often) done to people who aren’t buyers, such as producers, agents, directors, stars and even other writers. Typically, these people are intermediaries in the development process, but the ultimate goal is almost always the same: to get the writer paid to write something or paid by selling something.
Novice screenwriters frequently think of pitching as the classic scenario where a screenwriter has an original idea for a film or television project, meets with a studio or television executive and summarizes the project they want to write, hoping that executive will agree to buy the pitch and commission the writing of a script. But this is a very narrow view of pitching and in fact it may be many years before a working screenwriter finds him or herself in this classic scenario. Here are some other common pitching scenarios:
The writer is trying to convince someone to read a screenplay they’ve already written. This might occur during a casual conversation at a party or industry event, over the phone with a prospective agent, during a general introductory meeting with a producer, or at a pitch-fest type of event.
The writer (or a producer) wants to interest a financier, producer, director or star in an independent film project.
The writer is attempting to land an assignment to adapt a novel, a comic book, a play or some other source material into a film or television show. Or the writer is trying to get a job rewriting an existing script. In these examples, the writer is pitching their “take” on the underlying material.
The writer is proposing a potential episode of a television show to the show-runner either because the writer is on staff or (much more rarely) to land a freelance assignment.
The writer is presenting potential “spec” ideas to their agent or writing partner. In this case, the initial goal is not to get paid, but rather to convince one of these business associates to invest their time and energy in the idea.
As you can see, pitching encompasses a variety of scenarios and purposes. Each can require a different approach with respect to the buyer or listener. By the way, in this book we will use the term “buyer” and “listener” interchangeably when referring to the person on the receiving end of a pitch, but in most cases the listener will not be a buyer.
Working in the entertainment industry means you will be immersing yourself in the world of competitive, creative ideas. Learning to pitch, and pitch well, is one of the best things you can do so that you enter the industry with the ammunition you will need to succeed. We want to teach you as many techniques as possible to help you handle all the exciting opportunities that come your way.
Back to Table of Contents
WHY WE PITCH
Most people decide to pitch because, in theory, it takes less time and effort - less of a commitment - to pitch than it would to write a screenplay. And frequently this is true. Certainly for many well-established writers this is true – but maybe only by a degree. Often, pitching is not as big a time saver as you might think, and when you factor in the time it takes to construct a pitch and then all the time it takes to pitch to the multitude of potential buyers, and then up the food-chain within a company, the timesaving calculus can seem like a frustrating toss-up. You will see why this is true later in the book, but for now let us all accept that the decision to pitch may not be a decision at all, but rather an unavoidable task that creative people in the entertainment industry will be required to do at one time or another.
Back to Table of Contents
THE PITCH EXPERIENCE
We recognize that for some of our readers the mere thought of pitching seems like a very unnatural pursuit. While a small percentage of writers are natural-born raconteurs, the vast majority of them are not. For this latter majority, being the center of attention in a room populated with one or more powerful people in the entertainment industry induces a reaction that can range from mild anxiety to outright terror. We’ve seen it all, from tiny hand tremors to full-blown panic attacks. Perhaps it’s just human nature. Perhaps it has to do with the innate temperament of people who gravitate to the work and lifestyle of being a writer. Whatever the reason, you should know that you are in good company and that some of the most successful writers in the entertainment industry struggle with pitching on a daily basis. Pitching is not easy.
The good news is that we know from years of teaching experience that pitching can be learned. With practice almost anyone can improve. And beyond the possible financial incentive of earning a living from doing what you love to do, mastering the art of pitching has the same rewards as any job well done. Nothing succeeds like success. So let’s get started.
Back to Table of Contents
Choosing Material to Pitch
If you’re planning to develop an original pitch, choosing the right subject matter is one of the most important decisions you can make. This is also true if you’re planning to write an original screenplay or teleplay – even more so given the additional time and effort these things may take to execute. And while this book focuses on pitching, some of the same considerations apply to the creation of both an original pitch and an original screenplay. Especially when you consider that you will probably end up having to pitch your completed screenplay at some point. So choose carefully.
Not every idea can be pitched easily or effectively. Consider that a typical pitch may last anywhere from 30 seconds to 20 minutes. Can every idea for a film or television project be pitched in 30 seconds? Of course not, and if you come to terms with this fact, you will save yourself a lot of time and effort.
Not every idea that pops into your head at two in the morning will be a flash of brilliance. There is a famous anecdote about the writer who believes that great movie ideas come to him in the middle of the night, in his dreams. But when he wakes up he can never recall the details of the brilliant idea - the haze of sleep having wiped the memory clean. So the writer decides he will leave a pad of paper and a pen on the nightstand and write down the idea when it comes to him. In the morning there will be a record of the brilliant idea.
One night, the writer awakens at two in the morning with a brilliant story idea. He quickly writes it down and goes back to sleep.
The next morning the writer awakens, as usual. He eats breakfast and when he’s brushing his teeth he remembers he had a dream. The writer races to the nightstand, and there on the pad of paper is written the words “Boy meets Girl.”
The point of the story is that not every idea you have will be a pearl and even if it is a pearl, not every pearl is a pitch. Often ideas do not sell as a pitch not because the pitch is poorly done, but rather because the idea being pitched is flawed in some way.
In fact the irony of learning to pitch is that the more you improve, the more apparent the flaws will become in the story you are pitching. If you think about it this makes perfect sense. The less the listener has to struggle to understand your presentation the more likely they will be able to focus on the content of what you are saying. The flip side of this irony is that it also contains within it an opportunity to become a better storyteller and even a better writer. As you will see, this is a core principle of this book.
Before we get to some tips for picking the right subject matter, it’s important to point out that frequently the choice of what to pitch will not be a choice at all. For example, when pitching a rewrite or an adaptation the writer typically plays no role in choosing the subject matter. As we said in the introduction, the intention of this book is for the reader to understand pitching from the broadest perspective, and in this case it means there may not always be a whole lot of artistic freedom in what you end up deciding to pitch. Later in this book we will deal with the special challenges of pitching assigned material.
Sooner or later most working writers will have to grapple with this fact of life: Unless you are independently wealthy, what you decide to pitch will have to be driven by forces in the marketplace and, on a more basic level, the human need for food and shelter. Put another way, getting paid to write can be less about originality or inspiration and more about hard work. Put yet another way, success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. At least that was how Thomas Edison saw it, and he was a pretty successful guy. We have no idea what kind of screenwriter Edison would have been and we can debate the relative percentages in his equation, but the point is this: get used to the idea that what you will pitch and write may not always be determined solely by your personal artistic passions.
Sure, there are plenty of situations where a writer has some offbeat or esoteric original story burning inside him or her, a story they just have to tell, damn the skeptics! And while we would never diminish the value of personal artistic expression, and have seen it bear fruit on occasion, most working writers will tell you this is not the kind of writing that routinely pays the bills over the course of a career. You go where the jobs are. Spend months or years of your life developing your “art-house” passion project only to hear comments like, “I don't understand it” or “ It doesn't seem commercial” or “That’s not the sort of film we make” and you will probably adjust your perspective.
Once again, we are not dismissing the value of passion in a writer’s career. Often, it’s the passion for a story that can be the way a writer will establish their personal “voice” – a unique perspective or sensibility. With a spec script this personal voice can be especially valuable. Even if the spec doesn’t sell, it may be the script that helps a writer stand out in a crowded field.
