Throwing Out the First Pitch

Alright, if you recall from many months ago, The Sensitivity Program, the script John and I wrote, won Best Sci-Fi Screenplay at the Austin Film Festival.

And now-- finally-- we are doing something about it. We're traveling down to Southern California to take a few pitch meetings.

After the AFF win, we have had many inquiries to read the script after the win. It turned out to be rather easy to get those still interested in our writing to take a meeting. We asked three development people who had read it to meet us and all three said yes.

And bear in mind, two of these people actually passed on the script. Initially I though we had waited too long to make a splash down there, but in retrospect the time between October and now was quite beneficial-- It was spent developing an impressive amount of pitches for new scripts. We have a total of nine: The original Sensitivity Program (in yet another rewrite) and eight outlines in a surprising number of genres-- thriller, true crime, black comedy, horror and a few more sci-fi offerings.

From what I read about how a writer is supposed to do a pitch meeting right, the number one thing to remember is not to be too needy. The studio guys are there to see what you have to offer. Be relaxed, friendly and open to new ideas. I think we both had that mode nailed down solidly. We have a unique advantage as a writing team: our process was to pitch new ideas to each other-- and the feedback could be merciless, believe me. We're toughened and ready. Another advantage is "tag-team" delivery: If John freezes, I can sweep in, and vice versa.

First meeting: Thursday morning, two hours after I arrive at LAX. I'll let you all know how it went. This is a show-biz blog,after all, and for the first time in a long time one of us gets a chance to peek under the hood and see how the thing runs.