How to Pitch a Script to a Producer

Everybody wants to be in show business. It is the select few who have the combination of great luck and hard-nosed determination that make it. One of the most challenging things to do is to pitch your script or idea to a producer and get them interested. Once you've mastered this, you are on your way to having a project you have created actualized.

Things You'll Need

• Yourself

Instructions

How to Pitch a Script to a Producer

1. Reread your own script. Perhaps this sounds a little silly, but if you are at the point in the scriptwriting/selling process where you are meeting with producers, odds are you wrote the script at least several months ago, if not longer. You must revisit the material again before you present it to a producer. You are the only person who is trying to get it sold and made. You are your own sales team. You must know the product inside and out. Once you reread your script you may start to notice things about it that you had either forgotten about or didn't realize were there to begin with. Themes that come to the surface that are apparant only now with some time and space between you and the writing process. This will also help you better appreciate the piece that you are trying to sell.

2. Plan your attack. Before you even make the appointment to meet with the producer, plan out everything. From the phone call to make the appointment to the appointment itself to how you present yourself physically. Everything counts. You are selling not just the script, but also yourself. Be a good business person. Just because this is show biz doesn't mean that a producer runs an office any less efficiently than an investment banker. If you have representation (i.e. an agent, a manager, a rep), have them make the appointment for you. If you are calling a producer you know, call them at a time that you know they won't be busy and you won't be interrupting something important. If you are cold calling, be sure to ask right up front "is this a good time, or would you like me to call back?" They will let you know. And don't assume they are blowing you off, either. Ideas and scripts come from everywhere, and all good producers know that. They want to know if you have an idea they can make money on.

3. Practice your pitch. The true test of a good screenplay isn't getting someone to read the entire 90-120 pages and give you feedback. It's all in the pitch. If you can sit down a friend of yours and pitch them the story of your screenplay in five minutes or less, and have them completely engrossed in the STORY of your screenplay for those five minutes, you are on the right track. "But my story is so complex and involved," I can hear you saying. "Five minutes wouldn't do it justice." If your story is too confusing to be told in five minutes, what makes you think that lengthening that same confusing story to ninety minutes is going to fix any problems? It won't. It will only make them worse. This is not a story that is ready to be pitched. The producer you pitch it to will consider his time wasted, and you may have ruined a valuable connection. Practice your five-minute pitch with three or four friends and listen to what they have to say. These will be the most important five minutes when you are in the room with the producer. Be excited to tell the story! Be proud of it. after all, it's your baby.

4. Follow up, but not too much or too often. Producers, even small-time ones, are busy people. They want to hear from you, but don't be a gnat in their ear. Rest assured that you aren't the only writer that is waiting to hear back from them. Give them a week and a half to 14 days to follow up with them. After that, drop them a line via email or call them during a slower time once every ten to fourteen days to remind them you're still around. If they don't want to hear from you, again, they will definitely let you know. Keep pitching to other producers and don't be shy about letting them know who else you're waiting to hear from. This is often times what gets a bidding war going for scripts. And what a wonderful problem that would be to have.