VirtualPitchFest during the "break"?

Collapse

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • VirtualPitchFest during the "break"?

    Hi all!

    Just curious what your thoughts are on sending out VirtualPitchFest requests during these next two weeks.

    I know many places "check out" or are on vacation between Thanksgiving and New Years so would it be better to wait till after the holidays or it's still a good time... especially given that they "have to" respond within 5 days.

    Even though it's a guaranteed response my other worry is because of the very fact that it's the end of the year they might be more apt just to click "no thanks".

    Any thoughts?

    Thanks in advance everyone!

  • #2
    Re: VirtualPitchFest during the "break"?

    Probably a good time. People tend to be optimistic about how much they can read over the holidays.
    Just my 2 cents, your mileage may vary.

    -Steve Trautmann
    3rd & Fairfax: The WGAW Podcast

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: VirtualPitchFest during the "break"?

      I hit a sweet spot in the two weeks before thanksgiving (up to the wed before), and have heard its best to get that stuff in before Dec 1st. Go for it

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: VirtualPitchFest during the "break"?

        I did it. So far, no problem. Anyone know how many "YES" replies get you on the free pitch list there?

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: VirtualPitchFest during the "break"?

          This is my first post as I wanted to put my 2 cents on the service because having scrolled through posts about this service I never found anyone that really touched on a problem I found with it. My initial feeling in utilizing the service is that it puts me, who lives several thousand miles from LA, with the ability to pitch to specific people in the industry rather then a general company email address. The service claims responses in 5 business days so last month I decided to go big with a 25 pitch package - I wasn't playing around...

          What I found was a sizable portion of the 25 people I pitched didn't respond at all. Nothing. Likely they never opened the email. That surprised me. Whether my pitch was incredible or poorly written I'm supposed to get a "not for me" or "yes, send it." Some of the places that didn't respond in anyway were why I signed up. Now the people at VirtualPitch are nice and they allowed me to re-pitch to a new batch of people in the amount of pitches I was owed. So I went back to the drawing board and 5 days later still a handful of companies did not respond at all. So I then looked at more companies to re-pitch to when that time was up... The problem is I was getting away from those had attracted me to pay for the service in the first place. It's like I was just doing to it have "someone" - "anyone" respond which isn't the best idea when you are targeting specific genre places which there are only so many of them.

          From my experience in sending out the pitches a few times at this point, the first day or two is the most responses and then it tapers off dramatically to maybe 1 here and there. I suspect the companies that do not respond simply ignore it when it comes in their "in" box and never get around to opening it. After 4 days you can be pretty sure you aren't going to hear from them.

          Here are other insights and again it's not the service's fault if the people do not respond.
          1) Have a kick-ass log line. I found in some of the responses back that people did not read the synopsis. They stopped at the log line which is normal, but in their response they were saying stuff counter to what was said in the synopsis which had they read it...
          2) A funny tidbit is many of the more powerful companies gave me a response and the secondary/B-list places, even C-list, were more often the ones who did not respond at all to the pitch and in response I mean answer it in some form which they signed up to do. Is it because those type of places get more pitches in their "in" box because we assume they need the material? It's like the super good looking person in a bar who doesn't get approached but rather the lesser good looking person gets asked out a lot kind of thing maybe.
          3) Ditch the examples the site uses for the query letter model. I used the query examples which were fine but even when I got a response it was a general response provided by the service on their end. Neither of us were personal so I guess they acted accordingly to my query. When I had to go back and re-pitch to other companies I decided to change tactics because I wasn't getting any feedback at all. Instead, I did more personalized queries where I mentioned the company's films and such. This change enabled me to get personalized comments back. Some were extremely cool and even helpful. One of course was odd in that they seemed to be commenting on someone else's pitch because it made no sense. Using the model query or not is not VirtualPitchfest's problem. It's a guideline. A good one, but in my own experience it wasn't til' I went off and did my own thing that I got comments and made a connection.
          4) Lastly... when I pitched - I pitched to a mixed bag of agents/managers and prod cos. Actually 75% of my pitches were directed to agents/managers. The majority who didn't respond in anyway to the pitches were agents/managers. I got my traction in pitching to production companies. I thought incorrectly that it would be easier to get an agent/manager to read the script. Overwhelmingly the response was underwhelming when I went this route and again when given re-pitches owed I went away from that and got a little more success (still a continued trend of some nonresponses).

          Hope this helps. I lean toward not recommending the service however could it put you in touch with someone? Yes. I did get 2 requests for reads which the outcome remains to be seen. There was no way I would have been able to approach the 2 people in any other capacity. BUT expect at times to not get any response from people in which attracted you to the service. This is just my experience. My 2 cents.
          Last edited by purplenurple; 02-29-2016, 07:25 AM. Reason: grammer

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: VirtualPitchFest during the "break"?

            Purple, your experience is not consistent with mine at all.

            Granted, I've only pitched producers -- not agents or managers -- but I've always gotten a response within 5 days except for one instance, and in that case VPF contacted me first with a replacement pitch when they noticed my pitch had not gotten a response in the allotted time.

            My read requests average about 20%, which I consider good. I have established relationships and open invitations to submit more projects to companies that would never have responded to regular queries.

            You might want to road test your logline and pitch here to see why you're not getting responses.

            Good luck!

            Late Night Writer

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: VirtualPitchFest during the "break"?

              I'll definitely consider what you're saying Latenight and my log line may indeed need tweaking but my rate of response changed drastically when I only did production companies. When I say response I mean answering "not for us" or "send it" to the pitch which what you are paying for. Had I had done all production companies from the beginning I think I would have had maybe one nonresponse. It was when I did mostly agents/managers when I had the issue. Perhaps they were so disgusted by my log line that they simply deleted the pitch and wiped away their obligation to press a button saying they did not want it... JK. I think, and this maybe me, that they get a lot of email and things get lost in the shuffle one way or another. I just never heard anyone mention what I faced. Usually the info on the forum in terms of the service falls in 2 categories...
              1) It's good. I made connections or got an option (in this case people never mention the sum because it's likely less then 100 dollars).
              2) Do not waste your money. Look up stuff on IMDB-Pro is the way to go.

              I'm offering a different slant from my experience. In navigating getting a script read I tend to have different experiences both good and bad and mostly neutral then I find on the board.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: VirtualPitchFest during the "break"?

                Being that production companies are the places that actually make things, I'd think they're more apt to see the value in a good concept.

                This may open a can of worms, but... not many people come to Hollywood with the intent of becoming a manager. So, lots of people who are managers probably tried something else first, and failed.

                And as far as I'm aware, most of the "producers/agents/managers" on Virtual Pitchfest are in fact assistants anyway.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: VirtualPitchFest during the "break"?

                  Originally posted by juunit View Post
                  Being that production companies are the places that actually make things, I'd think they're more apt to see the value in a good concept.

                  This may open a can of worms, but... not many people come to Hollywood with the intent of becoming a manager. So, lots of people who are managers probably tried something else first, and failed.

                  And as far as I'm aware, most of the "producers/agents/managers" on Virtual Pitchfest are in fact assistants anyway.
                  These 'pitch whatevers' have always struck me as odd. You hear stories [online] of how writers 'got through to so and so.' I'm left scratching my head.

                  I've known a handful [5? maybe more] agents at CAA for over a decade. Not baby agents. Mid-to-upper. Not a single one of them ever [EVER, EVER, EVER] looks at queries from anyone. Not once, not ever. On occasion they had slipped through the SPAM filter, but were then promptly deleted without opening nor reading the title. Except for a few times where one agent let me read a few queries for my own edification, I was curious, and they were [mostly] horrendous. Far too much info in most. Clumsy loglines.

                  Perhaps people do get through, although I've never witnessed it with the agents I'm tight with.

                  So, yes, who are these individuals these pitchfests are putting people in touch with? In the past I've specifically asked these agents "you ever heard of ___, ___, or ____ [pitch-fest etc]. Their response was an unequivocal "Never."


                  Thus, I would not be surprised if they target assistants. If your experience is different [there's always those few people who swear it worked for them] cool.

                  Addendum: reason those particular agents have never heard of the various pitchfest and such [they've heard of say, Nicholl] is because if you're 8-10-12 years into being an agent, it's been ages since you've had to concern yourself with them. If they [pitchfest/contest] weren't around back [10+ years ago] when the agent was an assistant/mail-room, they've likely never heard of it.
                  Last edited by surftatboy; 03-02-2016, 09:06 AM. Reason: Addendum: reason
                  DOPE CITY

                  Comment

                  Working...
                  X