Hey Gang!

I'm off to a new venue for pitching tomorrow.
It's an experimental college run by Gary Shushett.
Students from all over the world attend his classes.

http://www.sherwoodoakscollege.com/

Gary's been around the industry for decades.
His brother, Ronald, is the writer/producer of Alien, Total Recall & Minority Report.
The institution has unprecedented studio access.

After I took Gary's class at InkTip, he invited me to attend the college.
He felt I would be a good candidate to put in the room with feature producers.
I found the website quite impressive, so I signed on for their next event.

http://www.sherwoodoakscollege.com/?p=70

I'll be in the room with producers whom can green light a project.
Several of them have produced family movies.
So, they're getting a full dose of my purple slime zombie pitch, wish me luck!

Regards,
E.D.

Wow, sounds great, Brett!  Knock 'em dead, Kid...knock 'em dead!

Hey guys!

Back from the bowels of Hollywood.
It was the hottest day of the year to date.

Sherwood Oaks is a mainline adrenaline rush for film industry junkies.
There were 14 participants broken up into two groups of seven.
Each group got a producer for one hour.
Each participant got a total of seven minutes for pitching and feedback.

At my pitching table to my right, was a 2002 Nicholls Fellowship winner.
On my left was a producer of the 2012 Jeremy Irons film, "The Treehouse". *gulp*

This event is about getting honest pitch feedback from successful producers.
Starting dialogue in the hopes of cultivating relationships is the frosting on the cake.
They might invite you to send a one page or logline to them, if they really like you.

According to their videographer, no producer has ever asked for a script on the day.
I pitched seven producers yesterday. I got four script requests.

Two more gave me an open door policy to send loglines and synops to anytime.
And number seven offered me a coverage "tryout" for one of his development scripts.
He works with new writers to develop his ideas into marketable scripts.
He currently has a three picture deal with screenwriter, Allan Loeb.
Loeb's recent credits include: Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps &  Just Go With It.
He also wrote "Rock of Ages", the Tom Cruise extravaganza set for release in 2012.

I highly recommend you check out Sherwood Oaks website.
It is truly a hidden gem that can supercharge any amateur's hopes.

E.D.

Brett,

As I said before, very impressive.

Thanks for the report!

Gary

Hey guys!

Thought I'd revisit this thread in lieu of tomorrow's event.
It's a similar format, minus the table pitching this outing.

Here's the skinny...
http://www.sherwoodoakscollege.com/?p=70

I'm more interested in the production companies.
In fact, one of the execs there I know really likes Zombie Playground.
It will be nice to reconnect with her again and kabbitz.

There are some A-list companies attending that I haven't pitched yet.
Pitching the agents and managers are gravy to me, right now.
And of course, very few of them even know about, Clone Wife.
That story was fresh drafted from scratch. Once it's vetted, I'll post it next week.

I wanted to address something from the event I went to two months ago...

And number seven offered me a coverage "tryout" for one of his development scripts.
He works with new writers to develop his ideas into marketable scripts.
He currently has a three picture deal with screenwriter, Allan Loeb.
Loeb's recent credits include: Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps &  Just Go With It.
He also wrote "Rock of Ages", the Tom Cruise musical set for release in 2012.


Number sever worked out very well, for me.
I now have official ties to a CAA repped production company.
This helps get me into industry insider sites and boards.
It's not about the sale of my material. At all, actually, And I like it.
For me, it's about working with people who live and breathe this stuff every day.
And while I learn, I get to contribute to their slate of properties.
And in turn, get to wear other "hats" that are industry related.
And that allows me to have many "irons" in the proverbial fire.
So, Mr. OnTheVergitis passes me right by, I'm too busy to worry!

I got put under the gun early this week on a project.
I had one hour to complete an assignment to improve a pitch going to CAA.
And I loved the pressure! And, in the process, met another feature producer.
That guy loved my recommendations, and I really dug a movie he produced.
We haven't met, but he knows my name from the documents.
You can bet I'll remember his name, and now we have something to talk about.
Because one day, we'll chat and that "common ground" is supreme currency.

All for $195 and one afternoon of my time.
I feel like I've learned so much in the last two months.
And it all started with attending a Sherwood Oaks event.

Regards,
E.D.

Sounds good, Brett!  Looks like you're rocking the house. Hope it comes together for you, man.  I really do!

Sounds like you're dong great Brett!

I was doing similar things 2 years ago, but find myself having nothing ready to "show" when insiders actually asked to read my stuff. Very embarrassing and I still hate myself for it. I blew my chances...now I'm no longer interested.  

Quoted from Grandma Bear Sounds like you're dong great Brett! I was doing similar things 2 years ago, but find myself having nothing ready to "show" when insiders actually asked to read my stuff. Very embarrassing and I still hate myself for it. I blew my chances...now I'm no longer interested.

Pia,

I agree, you need to be able to answer that dreaded question...
"What else you got?"
"They" don't always tell you to be ready with a good answer.

Why aren't you interested any longer?
Got bit by the production bug and like doing it yourself now?

E.D.

I should update this thread after last week's event.

I was pretty nervous taking out Clone Wife to this crowd.
The folks attending Sherwood Oaks are not assistants or secretaries.
These are the actual producers, managers and development people.

In a nutshell, it was fairly epic.

I had a 40% higher success rate than Zombie Playground.
And when I say success, I mean, the company requested the script.
A script request is pretty much the ultimate when "cold pitching" a company.

The only folks not excited about the script were the twenty something crowd.
About 70% of the 30+ crowd asked for the script.
One woman stopped me 30 seconds in and said, "I have to read this script."

There was a late add to the producer list that was gold for me.
I got to pitch the producers of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind".
He immediately picked up on the impetus it had on Clone Wife, got very excited.
And saw how Clone Wife has elements of a reverse engineered spin on that idea.
Then we spent the rest of the time geeking out over Eternal Sunshine.

Naturally, I rode that wave of goodwill, so my pitch got even better.
It's a confidence game of volleys, I have to generate interest with strangers.

Speaking of pitching, I was thinking about a thread dedicated to that.
"The Anatomy of a Pitch", or something like that.
If SS members would be interested, I could shepherd that.
Share how I construct my pitches for ZP and CW.
Though I honestly don't know how many of us are pitching our material.
If anyone's interested, give a shout!
Maybe I should start an inquiry thread anyway.

Zombie Playground got heat from a movie/video game company.
This connection could lead to more video game writing work as well.

Anyway, I send out all my script requests Monday, but one.
The last one was a bit of an odd request.
A well known manager asked me to record the script and send it to his house.
Apparently, he liked it enough to by-pass his own story department.
It gets even better...
The manager got a director attached to the next project for my "ultimate Travis".
So, I impressed someone with one degree of separation from my dream cast!
I'm recording the script and getting in the mail, post haste.

People come from all over the world to attend Sherwood Oaks events.
The access is unprecedented, hopefully something shakes out.
There's no better gauge of your preparedness than these events.
And the fact that these execs offer honest feedback on your pitches is pure gold.

Regards,
E.D.

Congrats Brett

I'll be interested in that pitch inquiry since I would like learn and practice pitching my feature once it's completed. However, I believe they have something along those lines "Pitching to Babz". Not sure though.

Gabe

Quoted from Mr.Ripley Congrats Brett I'll be interested in that pitch inquiry since I would like learn and practice pitching my feature once it's completed. However, I believe they have something along those lines "Pitching to Babz". Not sure though. Gabe

Hey Gabe,

I was thinking of a thread where I'd break down how I construct my pitches.
If something like that would benefit SS members, I could be game.

But I'm certainly no one of consequence to hear pitches in a producer capacity.
That would definitely fall into Miss Babz's prevue!

E.D.

That sounds like a good thread. SS members can do participate. For instance, i can pitch and explain why I pitched it a certain way. The more practice, the better.

Good deal, Brett - I enjoy reading your posts because it's refreshing to see somebody attack this like they really want it. Best of luck to you -

AJR

Quoted from ajr Good deal, Brett - I enjoy reading your posts because it's refreshing to see somebody attack this like they really want it. Best of luck to you -

Are you serious? C'mon, everyone knows Brett is a layabout who sits on the couch waiting for his ship to come in instead of swimming out to get it!! Just like you!  

Quoted from Grandma Bear Are you serious? C'mon, everyone knows Brett is a layabout who sits on the couch waiting for his ship to come in instead of swimming out to get it!! Just like you!

LOL! That's me, alright.
In my boxers on the couch eating Cheetos waiting for my seven figure spec deal!

E.D.