Pitching at the Screenwriting Expo

[lordmanji]

Is it worth it? 25 dollars for 5 minutes and i dont think you can choose who you pitch to.

From the website:
The 2007 Screenwriting Expo Pitch Meeting tickets will only be sold to attendees who have registered for The 2007 Screenwriting Expo by October 1st. Each ticket (to pitch for 5 minutes to one development executive/production company) will be sold for $25. You may also purchase 5 tickets for $100 (a savings of $25). No refunds will be given for unused pitch tickets.

only reason i was semi interested was i thought you get to pitch alot for an hour rotating every five minutes but thats not the case.

[meemee2000]

Bump cause I want to know the answer too! :o

[tha son]

My opinion? No, it's not worth it. Then again I'm stingy with my money. But look at your chances at this. You get one pitch with a random prodco. Who knows if your pitching your great drama to a guy who only deals with rom coms.

Then there's the fact that you only get one pitch. I can see going to one with a whole bunch of people, where for 25 bucks you can not only pitch, but practice the art of pitching with all these chances.

Expo's in and of themseleves aren't really that great in the first place from what I hear. I think I've heard of one or two people getting optioned at them. Anyways that's my two cents, do as you may with them.

[visvivalaw]

There's a lot of reasons you can list as arguments against doing it, but I still recommend it. The one thing you can accomplish is to make a connection with someone who either is or will be in a position to do something for you.

I went last year and got six requests for my script, none of which amounted to anything. BUT I got to know some people who became contacts and THAT lead to some cool stuff.

[tha son]

There's a lot of reasons you can list as arguments against doing it, but I still recommend it. The one thing you can accomplish is to make a connection with someone who either is or will be in a position to do something for you.

I went last year and got six requests for my script, none of which amounted to anything. BUT I got to know some people who became contacts and THAT lead to some cool stuff.

I see what your saying. But they're saying they get to talk to ONE person. That's one shot to make a contact, and one script request.

[briking]

I thought you got to pick the prodco and pay $25 per 5 minutes, so you could pick 4-5 for $100 and tailor it to your stuff, no???

That's what I understand from what I've read as well. Pitch registration happens in the order that you registered for the Expo. That gives priority to pick the prodcos that you want. Unless I'm not understanding the process correctly.

[MrHale]

I pitched there two years ago to 5 prodco.s - 3 took my info (which means absolutely nothing) and the the fourth (from the Donners co.) gave me her email address. I emailed, she sent me release form and asked for the script.

Right around then I got signed by a manager and went a different route. He gave me some interesting info - that as far as the studios go, once they realize that you have no represantation, they don't take you as seriously. And it's really hard to break that impression later.

So if you are going to spend money pitching, it may make more sense to pick management companies and agencies to pitch to rather than studios or prodco.s.

[Charli]

If you have never pitched before and you want the opportunity to pitch to someone in the industry, the money to even just 'practice' the pitch, stand before a produc exec, it's really the experience. I say try it and see how you do.

[meemee2000]

Okay! I'm convinced. I'm doing it!

It is my understanding that once the Expo folks send an email saying we can register for the pitch tournament/festival? then we can also pick the companies we want to pick to. I wish they would give us the names of the companies ahead of time so I can have my wish list and 2nd/3rd/4th choice lists ready... :cool:

[rhubarb]

I got an email today asking for people to attend as pitchees. It says that ideally they'd like to have VPs, CEs, or story editors, but they'll take assistants if needed.

[RichMike]

wrterly, if you want to take classes for $5 with pro / working / produced writers...then the Expo is for you.

having spent time "in town", unless you're working for a pro writer, not sure where you can get a 1.5 hour seminar or lecture for $5. so, from that side, it benefits in-towners or out-of-towners who want to study the craft of screenwriting.

as for the pitching, i seperate that from the learning / craft angle.

i believe most of the pitching promise is 90% bullsh*t run by assistants. i've pitched before and i think it's embarassing that the Expo still promotes this. there are definitely some top producers who show up and listen, but otherwise, it's been a wasteland of hot air, empty promises, or when you look closely, hung-over assistants making a couple extra bucks to act like they're important and listening to your pitch.

put it this way; it the Expo had a page of success stories from the pitchfest there would be some good moments...but they would need an entire website for the list of legit complaints about insincere prodco's with no intentions of looking for material.

oh, and the Guest Speakers are also worth the money -- now, this might be something that beenfits out-of-towners more so; but still nice to line them all up over the course of a couple days.

hope that helps.

[RichMike]

yeah, i'd say an MFA is about gettin da learnin on!

tell me about it?

[briking]

They've listed the prodco's and agencies available to pitch to on their website if anyone is interested. They are suppose to send emails on the 15th where you can register for pitches.

[meemee2000]

Has anyone received their email from expo letting them sign up for the pitching sessions? I know they send them in order of folks registering for the expo.

:o

[briking]

Nothing yet for me and I registered back in May. Then again it's only around 8am on the west coast.

[meemee2000]

Good morning, briking! You registered in May and haven't heard anything? Crap! I didn't register until September. I guess I'll hear something by midnight if I'm lucky! :oP

[briking]

As soon as I receive anything, I'll post.

In the meantime, here's a link to the companies they say are going to be there:

http://www.creativescreenwriting.com/expo/pitch/pitch_companies.cfm#1012

[briking]

I just received my pitch email.

[meemee2000]

Thanks, briking! I'll keep a look out!

[briking]

The site continues to crash, I haven't been able to register for anything yet. I'm beginning to wonder if it's worth it.

It looks like they've removed the pitch registration website. I have one in my shopping cart but the page won't open back up to register for anymore. It has been running extremely slow every since I accessed it.

[meemee2000]

I was afraid site crashing issues would happen. Thanks for the update! Still haven't received my email. Most likely, they won't send it until that issue is corrected... :(

[briking]

They just emailed an update:

The server for the pitch tickets is temporarily down. We hope that have this problem resolved in the next few minutes.

PLEASE DO NOT CALL - WE ARE AWARE OF THE SITUATION AND ARE DOING OUR BEST TO FIX IT.

You are the only group to have been notified, so you will NOT lose any pitch tickets or your spot in line.

Keep checking back, and above all THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE...

Sincerely,
Expo Staff

[Geoff Alexander]

[QUOTE=MichaelZoe;393559]wrterly, if you want to take classes for $5 with pro / working / produced writers...then the Expo is for you.

having spent time "in town", unless you're working for a pro writer, not sure where you can get a 1.5 hour seminar or lecture for $5. so, from that side, it benefits in-towners or out-of-towners who want to study the craft of screenwriting.

as for the pitching, i seperate that from the learning / craft angle.

i believe most of the pitching promise is 90% bullsh*t run by assistants. i've pitched before and i think it's embarassing that the Expo still promotes this. there are definitely some top producers who show up and listen, but otherwise, it's been a wasteland of hot air, empty promises, or when you look closely, hung-over assistants making a couple extra bucks to act like they're important and listening to your pitch.<<

You're certainly right that the majority of folks are low level CE or assistants. As you go up the ladder of importance vis-a-vis company, you will go down the ladder of importance vis-a-vis pitchee. It stands to reason.

But, I think that writing off these assistants or low level CEs is really foolish. You have to take the long view with your career and that demands that you make contacts now which will pay off in the future. 12 months from now a lot of these folks will move up the ladder and by then, you could have a some valuable relationships.

I just sold an action picture written by someone I met at the Expo two years ago. I read his work as he grew as a writer and when the time was right, we go into business together. Execs that I met two years ago are now doing very well and have moved up nicely, some of them are running development for companies with liquid equity literally in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

I always contend that you need to take the long view for your career--the right question isn't always "who can make a deal for me tomorrow" but it's sometimes, who do I want to work with? Who gets me as a writer? Who has the smarts and the drive today?

You can do some good networking at the expo that can put you in front of those people.

And, btw, if you have a solid concept, you will get many reads. No question.

See you there. I'll be the hungover guy.;)

[meemee2000]

Pitch sales have been suspended. Suxs rocks! :mad: You'd think after all these years, they would have had this thing finally figured out. Here's the email I received:

Pitch Tickets NOT On Sale Today
Hello,

Due to an unexpected server malfunction, we are suspending the sales of all pitch tickets for today (Monday, October 15th).

Please note that when sales resume - we will honor the same que order we were using today. You will have the exact same place in line to purchase tickets at the event.

We sincerely apologize for this unforseen problem and are working hard to fix it.

We will immediately notify you once tickets go back on sale, which will hopefully be sometime in the next 24-48 hours.

Only a few individuals were able to purchase tickets before the server crashed, so almost ALL of the A-list companies are still available and will remain so until new ticket buying occurs.

....

Again, we thank you for your patience and your continued support of the Expo!

[Geoff Alexander]

[QUOTE=writerly;396824]SBS, I think you posted that post before, no??<


Nope. It probably sounds like something I've said in the past, you know, taking the long view, meeting people now who you can work with later, me having a hangover. I'm nothing if not consistent.

[briking]

It was acting crazy the whole time but I was actually able to get 3 pitch tickets. Good luck to everyone that tries from here on out. It took me about 1 1/2 hours because the site kept crashing. Hopefully they fix whatever the problem is.

[meemee2000]

Glad you were able to get your tickets, briking. I'm still waiting for my email... :(

[briking]

Glad you were able to get your tickets, briking. I'm still waiting for my email... :(

Sorry to hear that. Hopefully they get the site back up and running and without error. Good luck!

[meemee2000]

Still waiting.... I'm getting a little tired of sticking near my computer so I can check my email every half hour! :mad:

If anyone who registered for the expo after June gets an email to sign up for pitching sessions, please let me know...

[briking]

That's crazy, I can't believe you're still waiting! I guess I was lucky to have gotten through. I'll check the link in the email I got and see if the site is active.

UPDATE: Yeah, the link still works for me. I could get more pitches if I wanted to. I would think the email would arrive for you pretty soon. Good luck.

[mallorymay]

Still waiting.

[mallorymay]

Briking: When did you register for the Expo? Since they send that email in the order in which we registered, I'm just wondering if you registered a lot earlier than I did or not? I registered Sept. 18.

[meemee2000]

Mallorymay, briking was one of the smart ones who registered in May. I didn't register until September like you. I'm also still waiting.

Briking, how much time did you allow between pitches? I've read that we should leave at least 15 mintues between them.

[meemee2000]

Update: I just called the expo folks. The system is down again. They hope to get it back up tomorrow. Oh yeah - they've only gone through June so far. Ugh! :eek:

[briking]

Mallorymay, briking was one of the smart ones who registered in May. I didn't register until September like you. I'm also still waiting.

Briking, how much time did you allow between pitches? I've read that we should leave at least 15 mintues between them.

Yeah, I registered in late May.

I selected 3 pitches and I actually allowed about an hour in between each one of them. That's crazy that they are having this many issues with the pitch website. They need to get it fixed as time is running out before the expo.

[meemee2000]

Yippee! I finally got to order my pitch tickets. I got all my first picks except for 2.

[briking]

That's good to hear! Good luck!

[meemee2000]

Thanks, briking! Now I'm really looking forward to the expo. Only 3 days away! :D

[meemee2000]

Back from the Expo! How did everyone do on their pitching?

I didn't do too bad. I did 5 pitches. Two wouldn't have been interested even if I were pitching Casablanca. Two actually asked to read my scripts. And one was interested but said her company wasn't looking for cutsie romantic comedies right now - R rated Wedding Crasher types are the thing now. Overall, not too bad!

What about you?

[briking]

3 pitches and only one of them was interested. Not too bad for my first attempt I think.

One of them that wasn't interested, wasn't even at the table when I entered the room. He was in the bathroom. Half of my time was spent sitting by myself while he was taking a leak.

[meemee2000]

...One of them that wasn't interested, wasn't even at the table when I entered the room. He was in the bathroom. Half of my time was spent sitting by myself while he was taking a leak.

Wow! He should have offered to read your script just for that alone! :eek:

[MrHale]

3 pitches and only one of them was interested. Not too bad for my first attempt I think.

One of them that wasn't interested, wasn't even at the table when I entered the room. He was in the bathroom. Half of my time was spent sitting by myself while he was taking a leak.


Yeah, I had an a-hole like that when I pitched two years ago. Shows up late and then completely misses the point of my pitch. I'm pitching a horror thriller and when I finish, he looks at the ceiling pondering out loud, "that might have some romantic comedy potential.." and then pretends to write something down. HUH? - he didn't hear a word I said, just drank his coffee, going thru the motions. It actually made me feel cheap to be talking to him. And pissed off.

Fortunately, my other pitches went well, so I can't hold it against the expo. But I guess I should have complained. But when you're a newbie, as I was that year, you don't want to rock the boat and be 'that guy'.

[ReoA]

I had great experiences at three pitch events. But my last was far less than worthwhile (not Expo). Several were rude jerks. One argued the opening scene in my action-thriller, in which the Pope's killed by a suicide bomber, was "way over the top" and "could never possibly happen". He had been to the Vatican once and "knew" it couldn't happen. He was yelling so loudly all the other reps stopped and looked over. However, it could happen. My daughter in law's father was artist in residence at the Vatican for a few years and I spoke with him about security there. Two friends had private audiences with the Pope and knew what they had gone through. And I have close friends who are high level security experts and anti-terrorist specialists. So he was full of baloney.

I had 3 scripts ready to pitch at the same event - two action-thrillers and an action-drama. One producer's rep didn't show and they sent me to another, who I knew nothing about. I told him what I had to pitch and asked what he'd like to hear. He said "I like action-thrillers." So I pitch my action-thriller. When the bell sounds ending the session, I asked "Can I send you a copy?" He says "Well, the company's not interested in action-thrillers. We just do tv dramas - but I personally like action-thrillers".