So before I get into an "overall" summary of how things went at the conference, I should catch you all up on what happened yesterday. Because my 'scheduled' pitch meetings were all within 90 minutes of each other, I was able to attend more workshops, and thus didn't have some of the down time I had compared to the previous days where I could take a couple minutes and update the blog.
8:30-10:00am - Ken Atchity's workshop on "Writing the Perfect Treatment." Ken is a bit of a "one-stop-shop" guy, as he manages and produces for both literary and film writers. He was (or is) also a professor, and he speaks with a ton of authority on the subject of treatments. His workshop was very informative.
I had to leave Ken's workshop early, though, to get to my first pitch session. 10:00am with Dave Alpert. Unfortunately when I got over to the pitch area I was informed that Mr. Alpert had packed his bags and left the hotel earlier that morning, leaving all his pitches high and dry! There was more of this type of behavior than you would think at the conference, but then again....that's Hollywood!
So I went to the front desk staff people and desparately searched for another agent/exec to replace Dave. I'd rather talk to almost anyone than get my $15 refunded. As luck would have it a producer named Sean Robbins (who I had been hearing impressive things about) was apparently available at 2:00pm. Remember that....we'll get back to it later.
My next two pitches were with:
11:15am - Navid McIlhargey, Silver Pictures. Navid was WAY cool. I'd had him in a couple workshops, and he's very, very laid back and down to earth. He was very candid about the fact that he handles BIG, BIG movies, and especially action movies. That's great, but I figured "Like Brothers" wasn't quite "huge" enough for him. Regardless, I knew he was a nice guy, so I figured we could shoot the breeze and see where it went. Irony of all ironies, Navid seemed fairly interested. Maybe he was just cutting me a break because he had heard a little about me from an old friend who works down in LA. (hat tip to Tiffany Hauck, editor with the TV show Boston Legal, and old elementary/high school friend of mine that I've recently reconnected with, for emailing Navid and telling him that I'd be at the conference and looking for him. That was very, very, very cool, Tiffany! You're right, Navid is a cool guy.)
Navid actually said I could submit my script to him and he would have one of his story editors read it and give me coverage (ie. notes). In the world of conferences like these...having a big time guy tell you something like this is pretty much the BEST you can get! Essentially, now it's all on the shoulders of the script itself, and that's the best you can ask for.
Navid was a very cool guy, so here's hoping his story editor thinks "Like Brothers" is good enough and we can work together to make this thing into a box office smash!
11:30am - Lainie Gallers, TNT Networks. Fresh off my meeting with Navid I turned right around and met with Lainie. She was a very sweet, very straight-forward lady who helped me understand a bit more about pitching a film to "cable" rather than Hollywood. Once I heard that TNT's budgets aren't usually more than $5-$10 million per film, I knew "Like Brothers" had no place there. (I mean, come on, I got exploding Seaplanes, guys rapelling from ferris wheels onto moving mono-rails, etc.)
So instead I went right into a loose pitch of "Inside." (As an aside, I still can't believe how much I was able to pitch that script! I hadn't even prepared to talk about it, but it got brought up at least four times!) Anyway, Lainie liked it, but not quite enough. She said it had a very solid foundation but she had two big edits for it. You can bet since I'm just beginning a complete re-write of that script anyways, that I'll include her edits and whenever it's ready I'll do whatever I can to get it back in front of her eyes.
By this time it's almost noon, and that's lunch. Ken Atchity was the lunchtime speaker and he really lifted everyone's spirits with an encouragement that all of us should consider ourselves as "legit" just by having come to this conference and been doing what we were doing. It was all warm and fuzzy.
After lunch the next workshop was scheduled from 1:15 - 2:30. I figured I'd attend, although I knew I'd have to leave early for my pitch with Sean Robbins at 2:00pm. What I didn't realize, as I hadn't paid attention to who was leading this workshop, was that the session was being given by SEAN ROBBINS!! Pretty hard to meet with a guy and pitch to him when he's in the middle of teaching a work shop! (Nice job to the front desk staff person that signed me up for that slot, btw!)
Anywho...as irony would have it...the workshop itself turned into a big pitch session. But first, a little about Sean.
Sean is a big time, I mean BIG TIME, guy. He's a VP of Production at Broken Road, and he's one of those guys you can't get a script to unless it's through a manager, agent, lawyer, etc. Sean made no bones about the fact that he never leaves a conference like this having requested a script. That's someone else's job. But he does come to hear what's being thrown around the industry, and to teach a few schlucks like us what life is really like in Hollywood. He's high intensity is only matched by his willingness to tell it like it is.
Sean immediately started the workshop by apologizing that he was not 100%. Said he'd been burning the candle at both ends, and we'd be getting about 25% of him, but that he'd give us the best 25% he could give. Then he proceeded to blow everyone in the room's sock off!!! He makes Red Bull and Mt. Dew look like decaffenated selzer water! He paced the aisles and rows of the 15 or so attendees, and grilled us all on how we pitched our stuff. We went one by one and as soon as we were done he'd yell "NO, WRONG" (in a loving, laughable, yet still painful honest type way). He taught us how to get succinct and deliver only what needed to be said. He also would ask the rest of the class who would go see that movie. That was sometimes the most painful part. But the truth hurts, right?!
I strategically waited 'til after about the 5th or 6th person pitched to mentally figure out how I could alter my pitch to give him what he was looking for, and then I volunteered to be butchered by him. Amazingly, I nailed it. He said so. Said I hit pretty much everything he needed to know. Unfortunately he asked who'd go see it and only a couple people raised their hands. He said the group "might not be a very 'action-friendly' crowd, but it's good to know how people react." The second unfortunate part is Sean must be friends with Andrew Trapani, (see So What's It Like To Pitch To Hollywood") who had come in later into the workshop and was sitting in the back. On about the 5th pitch Sean had started asking Andrew if he'd read it. So, even though I nailed my pitch to Sean, and I think even impressed him just a tiny, tiny bit, he said to Andrew, "Andrew, what do you think?" to which Andrew replied (nicely enough though) "Yay, I actually heard that pitch earlier, and although it's interesting, it still sounds a bit 'familiar' and a little too 'Commando' for me."
AAAUUUGH!! My movie's not "Commando" at all, but Andrew was my first pitch and I think the Army Ranger part of my movie came out a bit too strong. And here he is down playing me in front of a big-time player who I kinda, sorta, maybe think I might have impressed a bit by nailing my 30-second pitch! Oh well...what can you do?!
Next on the schedule was a workshop called"From Black to Red: How Studios Make Their Money," by Dory Benami. That class was cool, and informative, but too much about numbers and felt a little like a college accounting class. Compared to Sean's high energy, that one was hard to stay awake in!
So that was it! Workshops over, Conference over, Pitches over. Now what???
Well...for those of you keeping score at home....I directly pitched to NINE people (Ten if you count my mini-pitch to Sean), and of those people THREE directly requested a copy of "Like Brothers" to either read for themselves or be read by a story editor at their company. Beyond that ONE person took my pitch synopsis, to evaluate later, cause she liked my idea but wasn't sure the story had enough juice for her. Beyond that ONE person gave me the email address of his story editor and said to send over my logline (sort of a one-sentence summary of the movie idea). And beyond that ONE person took my card and said he'd email me cause he was interested in "Inside".
The yin and yang of it all is, while I feel like I accomplished a LOT at the conference and am thrilled out of my knickers that so many people want to see more of me or my work, I also feel a bit like I'm a guy who just took the first step on a million mile march! These guys are all so into what they do. They live it, eat it, breathe it, sleep it, etc., and here am I trying to eek out an hour here or an hour there to write more, let alone studying the industry, knowing the trends, learning how to become a better writer. That part was all just a bit overwhelming and a bit of a splash of cold water.
Heather and I spent a little time last night talking about the future and where we go from here. Obviously, as long as I still have a day job, the best I can do is pretty much keep it where it's been running the last few weeks, although I'll definitely dedicate every spare minute these next couple nights to making sure I follow up with the respective people from the conference. But how much more bandwidth I can dedicate beyond all that remains to be seen!
I guess part of me was praying there would be a way to gently transition away from Marketer by day and Scriptwriter by night. And by gentle transition I mean one of these guys saying "We love 'Like Brothers,' who should we make the million dollar check out to?"
Thanks again to all of you for your support, prayers, thoughts, and emails over the weekend though. The conference was FANTASTIC, and I'll thrilled I went. I will continue to keep you posted on any follow-up with the people who've requested more info from me! Let's keep hoping and praying for good, good things!
And to Jeremy's comment, I reply..."I'm the littlest among the little people, so there's no way I could ever forget anyone!"
