Happy Friday and welcome back to the R&D Report!So far the studio has set up five pitches for the new series, starting the second week of October and going to the first week of November. I’ll start memorizing about ten days before and I’ll do a practice pitch with the studio and the producers a couple of days before the first one to work out any last little issues. I'm psyched we're finally taking this show on the road.After a quiet summer there is finally some movement on my feature spec. We’re sending it out to a few additional producers in the hopes of creating a package we can take to a studio. I was excited about all of the names on the list, so fingers crossed. A couple of months ago I told you about a pitch I had at a studio for a modern spin on a public domain character. At the time I got a great response and it sounded like I made it up one rung of the ladder. Well, I finally heard back and I got kicked off the ladder. The person on the next rung passed without hearing the pitch. Tough break, but maybe there’s some life for this character down the line. I’m not ready to give up!I had a meeting a couple of weeks ago with a studio exec who used the word “combustible” when talking about the kinds of ideas they were looking for. I like that word so much more than the “undeniable” buzz word that we’ve been hearing lately. "Undeniable" is ambiguous. It’s not actionable. But combustible… combustible is about having materials that easily catch fire. A high concept. A role (or roles) that great actors would kill to play. A star that moves the needle. Stellar execution. Timely themes. A fresh take on a familiar idea. The more of those materials you collect for your project the better chance you have of catching fire. This past week I had two general meetings. The first was with a company I’ve met with a few times now. Since I was so familiar with their work, I spent a little time the day before combing through my notes and notebooks, looking for brief sketches of ideas in the center of my strike zone that fit their mandate. I picked one and wrote down a very brief paragraph with the most compelling, easily pitch-able elements. My combustible elements were a high concept and timely themes. There was a familiar, beloved comp, in the vein of (but not) “DIE HARD in a…” The opportunity came up to talk about it and we ended the meeting with an invitation to come back and pitch the whole thing when it’s fleshed out.I did the same thing with the second company. I pulled out two new ideas I’ve been thinking about for a while and polished up a short thumbnail sketch for each. I soft pitched the first one and we talked about it for a minute or so then moved on. I could tell it wasn’t working. I switched to the second idea and we ended up having a great creative conversation about it. It had A) a high concept and B) timely themes. It was observably more combustible than the first idea and I came away with an enthusiastic invitation to bring that one back, too. After both meetings were over I started a new note on my laptop/phone where I’ll keep a running list of these very short soft pitches. In the past I’ve gotten hung up on talking about the projects where I have full pitches ready to go or scripts that have already been written. Nine years in I’m still figuring out how to optimize and make the best use of these general meetings beyond the basic goal of making a personal connection. In the middle of all this I listened to the latest episode of my friend Ben Blacker’s Writer’s Panel podcast. Early on, a couple of the guests talked about their shows and how they pitched them. Will Graham talked about going to Sony to pitch a series based on the classic movie A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN. He had the combustible elements of A) valuable IP in a beloved movie title and B) timely themes, digging deep into the queer subtext of the original movie and telling the story they couldn’t (or wouldn’t) tell back then. My friend Melissa London Hilfers talked about her great new show, MONARCH. She knew Fox was looking to do a show set in the world of country music. Melissa comes from a musical family but she’s also obsessed with dynasties. Her flash of genius was, “What if we tell the story of the Romanovs but set in Austin, in the world of modern country music?” Then she created a character at the core of this story, a woman in her forties who was finally getting her big break, only to find that it might be too late. Combustible elements, A) a high concept, B) A character any number of great actors would want to sink their teeth into. The more I make that shift in my mindset the more helpful it is. From now on, when I hear “undeniable” I’m going to think "combustible" instead.
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Forget Undeniable, Think "Combustible" / The…
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Happy Friday and welcome back to the R&D Report!So far the studio has set up five pitches for the new series, starting the second week of October and going to the first week of November. I’ll start memorizing about ten days before and I’ll do a practice pitch with the studio and the producers a couple of days before the first one to work out any last little issues. I'm psyched we're finally taking this show on the road.After a quiet summer there is finally some movement on my feature spec. We’re sending it out to a few additional producers in the hopes of creating a package we can take to a studio. I was excited about all of the names on the list, so fingers crossed. A couple of months ago I told you about a pitch I had at a studio for a modern spin on a public domain character. At the time I got a great response and it sounded like I made it up one rung of the ladder. Well, I finally heard back and I got kicked off the ladder. The person on the next rung passed without hearing the pitch. Tough break, but maybe there’s some life for this character down the line. I’m not ready to give up!I had a meeting a couple of weeks ago with a studio exec who used the word “combustible” when talking about the kinds of ideas they were looking for. I like that word so much more than the “undeniable” buzz word that we’ve been hearing lately. "Undeniable" is ambiguous. It’s not actionable. But combustible… combustible is about having materials that easily catch fire. A high concept. A role (or roles) that great actors would kill to play. A star that moves the needle. Stellar execution. Timely themes. A fresh take on a familiar idea. The more of those materials you collect for your project the better chance you have of catching fire. This past week I had two general meetings. The first was with a company I’ve met with a few times now. Since I was so familiar with their work, I spent a little time the day before combing through my notes and notebooks, looking for brief sketches of ideas in the center of my strike zone that fit their mandate. I picked one and wrote down a very brief paragraph with the most compelling, easily pitch-able elements. My combustible elements were a high concept and timely themes. There was a familiar, beloved comp, in the vein of (but not) “DIE HARD in a…” The opportunity came up to talk about it and we ended the meeting with an invitation to come back and pitch the whole thing when it’s fleshed out.I did the same thing with the second company. I pulled out two new ideas I’ve been thinking about for a while and polished up a short thumbnail sketch for each. I soft pitched the first one and we talked about it for a minute or so then moved on. I could tell it wasn’t working. I switched to the second idea and we ended up having a great creative conversation about it. It had A) a high concept and B) timely themes. It was observably more combustible than the first idea and I came away with an enthusiastic invitation to bring that one back, too. After both meetings were over I started a new note on my laptop/phone where I’ll keep a running list of these very short soft pitches. In the past I’ve gotten hung up on talking about the projects where I have full pitches ready to go or scripts that have already been written. Nine years in I’m still figuring out how to optimize and make the best use of these general meetings beyond the basic goal of making a personal connection. In the middle of all this I listened to the latest episode of my friend Ben Blacker’s Writer’s Panel podcast. Early on, a couple of the guests talked about their shows and how they pitched them. Will Graham talked about going to Sony to pitch a series based on the classic movie A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN. He had the combustible elements of A) valuable IP in a beloved movie title and B) timely themes, digging deep into the queer subtext of the original movie and telling the story they couldn’t (or wouldn’t) tell back then. My friend Melissa London Hilfers talked about her great new show, MONARCH. She knew Fox was looking to do a show set in the world of country music. Melissa comes from a musical family but she’s also obsessed with dynasties. Her flash of genius was, “What if we tell the story of the Romanovs but set in Austin, in the world of modern country music?” Then she created a character at the core of this story, a woman in her forties who was finally getting her big break, only to find that it might be too late. Combustible elements, A) a high concept, B) A character any number of great actors would want to sink their teeth into. The more I make that shift in my mindset the more helpful it is. From now on, when I hear “undeniable” I’m going to think "combustible" instead.