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I
was at the Austin Film Festival pitching a script to an agent at one of the top
agencies. The script I was pitching was
my baby, a screenplay I’d worked really hard on. I pitched it with energy and heart. I had a feeling I’d nailed it!
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And
then she spoke.
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I
still remember her words: “I’m sorry hon’, that’s a dink for me.” I think
she said “dink”. It might have been
“ding”. It didn’t matter. This was a genuine authority, a powerful
agent. And my story was a flop. And not just as executed. My whole idea was a flop!
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A
year later that screenplay won a Nicholl Fellowship.
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That
same woman ended up taking me out for breakfast, at the Peninsula in Beverly
Hills.
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I
ordered an egg white frittata.
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It
was tasty.
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Don’t
let anyone discourage you.
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Years
later, I had a meeting with an Oscar-winning producer to pitch for a job. The job was a paid writing assignment, to
adapt a popular children’s book into a feature film.
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My
challenge was to pitch my take on the adaptation to this producer, a whip
smart, highly accomplished woman. If she
liked what she heard, the plan was for both of us to take the pitch to an
independent financier the next day.
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I
really wanted to work with her. I had to
get this right.
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So
I asked around about the different ways to pitch this kind of project. I was given advice to make a series of
storyboards outlining my story. I jumped
on the advice and spent hours preparing a dozen illustrated storyboards.
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I
practiced my pitch over and over.
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And
in I went to this woman’s office.
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And
the first thing she said was: “No. No storyboards.”
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She
didn’t like them – too formal. I had to
wing it. I got through the pitch
anyway. And she liked it. Well, half of it.
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She
wanted me to redo the other half. Half a
storyline for a feature film! Over
night. So we could pitch the new version
the very next day! I’m not talking about
pitching a logline here. I’m talking
about a full-on twenty-minute synopsis.
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But
here’s the thing:
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Her
feedback made sense. It was
constructive. She had reasons for the
changes she wanted, and her reasoning was sound.
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So I
stayed up all night and revised half the treatment, and in the morning we
pitched the new story to the finance guy.
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In
the end, we didn’t get the financing.
But this producer was now on my side.
And we ended up taking that pitch to Sony, Universal, Fox and DreamWorks.
I got to meet a half dozen studio execs
in one day.
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If
I’d said no to this producer, if I’d said, you’re wrong, I’m right, I’m not
staying up all night, I never would have had that opportunity.
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Don’t
let the challenges discourage you.
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This
screenplay business, it’s harder than you think.
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But
you can do it.
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