Pitching - Your Own Personal Art Form

With all of the meetings that I have had - I know pitching is an art form. Well...in some ways its been my very own personal art form. I say this because I have such a creative mind and things are always popping into my head in regard to show ideas.

I started pitching at a really young age. I can remember going to the bus stop in second grade and listening to Katie Lanigan's stories from the previous night's TV watching. They were the most wonderful stories about Charlies Angels, Fantasy Island and the Love Boat. Katie told every detail as if it was the most exciting thing she ever saw. She remembered every juicy morsel, even what they wore, said and what the major plot of each show was.

You see my parents let us watch the nightly news, but anything after 8 p.m. was off limits. Big drag for me as a kid. Move over "Brady Bunch" Katie was my own entertainment reporter! It was a love/hate relationship; me loving to hear Katie's stories and me hating the fact that I couldn't join in on the conversation. Instead, I went to school, and embellished her stories about her TV time into my own stories, like I had watched every episode described at the bus stop that day. If I look at it clearly, this was the start of my pitching - in second grade mind you!

It really didn't materialize into anything until 2004, when I had a great writing partner. We thought that with the crap reality that was on TV, we could come up with great shows! And we did. I remember our first pitch out, we got a development deal for an idea. While that show didn't ultimately get a green light, I learned a ton about the process of developing a reality show for television. It's given me part of the foundation for where I am today.

I have found that I can think of an idea very easily. Lots of ideas. But its like playing the Roulette wheel with Networks and production companies. I found that my art form has been enriched and perfected by many factors in my life. I know now you have to work and color the room... paint that picture so that they can see it inside, like I did in second grade. The fact is that you have so little time to do so!

I am thanking Katie for what I learned in second grade. We still talk once a week and she still remembers every detail about our childhood and about all of the shows she watched and retold to me. Thanks Katie!

Success in Sight

For the last week I have been thinking about success. There are lots of successful people in our world. A few of mine; Oprah, Ben Silverman, Mark Burnett, Cathie Black, Eli Davidson, Ariana Huffington, Tom Brokaw, Warren Buffett. In the book 'Basic Black,' by Cathie Black she states that "no one can define success and personal satisfaction for you, except you."

I got into a funk the last two days, I think because options and decisions are taking a long time. I started to get frustrated thinking about how long it takes and how much patience and time it takes to actually pitch, develop and sell a concept. For two days, I had to tell myself that the frustration will pass, the frustration will pass. For a milla second, I did think about what would I do if I did take on another career?! Dear lord that thought passed too, because honestly I couldn't think of too many other things that I want to do - I love producing and creating television way too much.

It all started in second grade. At my house in Massachusetts we couldn't watch television after the nightly news ended. So, this meant going to the bus stop the next day and listening to Katie (my friend for almost 32 years - since Kindergarten) tell recaps about tv at her house the night before. I was tormented with tales of the Love Boat, Charlies Angeles and Fantasy Island. In a good way.

Some days I would listen intently and savor every morsel of what happened the night before aboard the beautiful ship traveling to tropical or mysterious country, with vacationers aboard the "Love Boat" where Gopher, Dr. Adam, Isaac, Julie and Captain Stubing tried their best to please vacationers and sometimes help them fall in love.

Other days she dripped small sexy details about my favorite characters on Charlies Angels. Three beautiful ladies Jill, Sabrina and Kelly who went undercover to solve crimes. God I loved hearing about them. Kelly Garrett was my favorite (Jaclyn Smith). I had all of the collector cards. In fact in second grade I remember Katie and I laid them all out (they had a puzzle on the back) and they blew away and Rusty Bent (the bad ass in our grade) started to collect them and threatened to keep them. I cried and told him they weren't mine, and eventually he gave them back.

The moral of my rant about not being able to watch tv as a kid...I went in to school and retold Katie's stories just as they were my own, as I if I had watched them. In fact I hadn't - but nobody knew that I hadn't. And in second grade my love for television stories and shows was born.

So two days ago, that thought of frustration came and went. Things take time. And I define my own success. People can comment or have an opinion about anyone and their success, but we as individuals are the ones who define our own success. It also takes direction, purpose, vision and action. I am living my best life, doing what I love and I define my success. I am confident in my abilities and that I am a talented successful producer. God, I love television. Now somebody BUY a show - not just an option - a Flat out BUY... :) He he.

On a side note...I need a new creative partner...got any ideas you want to collaborate on?

The Art of the TV Pitch LA Style

The art of the pitch LA Style includes a trip to St. John...
A little about my trip and then some about my pitches for this week...

Getting to the island of St. John was longer than going overseas! Our 24 hour journey to the island included sitting on a cramped Spirit Airlines flight for 9 hours (possibly the worst airline) and ended with the St. Thomas ferry dropping us off in St. John. Boy what a ride! And what an amazing island. (The local islanders are not the nicest people - or educated.) We jetted up the hill in our jeep that we rented (everyone on the island drives jeeps) up to our villa "Solaris." What a fine villa. We visited a different beach every day and each one was a pristine beach, with fine white sand and beautiful snorkeling! ...more later.

As for the pitches. We had two set up for my Christopher Titus project this week. One over at Fox with Mike Darnell and the other at CBS with Ghen Maynard. Well, in this town nothing is ever on time or on schedule. For the second time in a row Darnell rescheduled...the CBS also was rescheduled due to Titus. I also had another pitch set up over at A. Smith & Co. which my manager rescheduled due to the Darnell meeting being switched to next week.

I've been working on my own projects since December and am very very close to a huge sale with the Titus project. I've got three other ones that two production companies are interested in, and one that I am still coming up with the one sheet for.

What I love to do is come up with six shows, all just loglines with a premise in my mind. Then I go into the pitches with my loglines. I have found that Development people love this method. They can't stand to sit there and listen to one show for a whole hour that they really have no interest in. You can usually tell within a minute whether they are really interested or not. At the end of my pitches I reassess the ones that didn't have interest and the ones that did. Then when I go to the next pitch I only discuss the ones that are "trendy."