Lessons from The Big Guys

Its been a crazy year with lots of pitches. I am finally seeing some results from my hard work. I have pitched my way all over Hollywood - meeting with some of the best and brightest Executives in town. We pitched last week in NYC at A&E and TruTv and LA for NBC. Now, its back to LA and set for another two big meetings today and tomorrow.

One great lesson that I learned this past month. I've created lots of shows over the past two years and learned a lot from the Talent. When creating a show around a talent you MUST make sure you do one thing with your Shop and Pitch Agreement...make sure that you have your talent sign an agreement that is longer than three months with a clause that will cover you when you are in the middle of pitching!

See the problem with Reality TV is you are dealing with newly found talent and they don't necessarily know our industry. They might think they know. They don't realize that any pitch takes time to move up the ranks and get a green light to start production. There are so many roadblocks, that you could never imagine. Russell Simmons has a great story about this very subject. I have blogged about him in past blogs. He states in his book "Do You!" how long he fought for MTV to take a chance with "Runs House," which did end up on MTV. BUT they told him NO over and over again - and he fought hard for his project and he believed in it 100%. He worked hard to get the end result - a show on the AIR!

What I got was "something should have happened by now." Mind you we pitched two weeks ago. Sometimes people are their own worst enemies. This business is all about who you know, who likes you and is your stuff good and LUCK! Glenn Larson, who had like nine series on the air at once once told me that there are so many factors that go into getting a show on the air. (From IMDB: Glen A. Larson is the man behind some of the world's best known primetime shows. His highly successful productions (successful both financially and popularly, less often critically!) include "Knight Rider" (1982), "The Fall Guy" (1981), "Battlestar Galactica"(1978), and "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century", "Knight Rider" (1982) and "Magnum, P.I." (1980). His venture "One West Waikiki".) He said "There are lots of office politics and you have to have LUCK on your side! It isn't just one factor like a good show that will get it on the air." So, for anyone who thinks that they will land a show with one pitch is crazy. You have to pound the pavement and you are going to get a lot of Passes or No's before you get a YES. And look - you can even get a YES and then someone up above changes their mind and says NO! You could even have a check in your hand - and shows in the can - and they still cancel it!

Everything takes time. Nothing happens over night in Hollywood. Patience is your friend. Having good Producers pitching you is also key. And Producers who know everyone in town is even better!

Patience

I have felt like I have been in a kiddie pool walking back and forth in the same pool this summer waiting...waiting...waiting. I have been very patient for the universe to deliver to me what I have worked so hard for, what I enjoy doing. I didn't always have the best patience. I had to learn how to have patience. Its taken me many years to master...what am I saying, I am still learning patience.

I know that I have great ideas, people tell me they like them and they like me. I have sat in pitch meetings before 2008 where people flat out said they were not interested, they were passing, needs more developing - blah blah. You know the Hollywood drill "that's been pitched around town." In 2008, I have had a few passes but more "Boardwalks" than "Oriental Avenues " if you know what I mean. I have given my sole focus to coming up with ideas and pitching them. I am totally risking it all here. But I can feel "Park Place," in September. The good news I have been patiently waiting for. I mean I am prepared either way. You have to be when you take a risk.

Exactly why I know that the universe is going to deliver good news. I feel 98.6% confident that one or a few of my concepts will sell. I have managed to put together the dream team to help me get to that place. My manager has been especially supportive and has gotten me in the door with my great ideas to just about everyone important all over town. I sold myself at a meeting I set up myself. I pitched something that they had that was the exact same concept - exact same name even...they asked "What else do you have," and then said "We want to package it." I casually pitched the other idea which was Devils Workshop. I did what Sandi Pepe told me to do.

Sandi Pepe, who was my agent at Gersh for a blink of a moment when the project was in its very early stages - when it was called Lady Mechanics. (the concept has completely changed since that one meeting) In the short time that she was in my life she taught me something very valuable. Paint the picture of what you are pitching, paint is so the other guy can REALLY see your vision just by your words. Be excited! If you are not excited they are not excited. They hear a million pitches. Sandi, she is a smart woman and Hollywood needs more women like her! Too bad she fell off my radar when Gersh reality division sort of pummeled. I got a note giving me her personal cell and that is when I knew there was something happening at Gersh. I don't need an agent right now anyway. She taught me about visioning and painting that vision for other people - especially the suits.

How are you going to make your concept stand out from everyone else's? There are probably three concepts EXACTLY like yours out there already and they've been pitched! Let me tell you one thing I learned...you are not going to be sitting in a room with top suits in Hollywood if your idea isn't good. I've sat in the rooms with top suits and they loved our concept. Some networks may have passed but there is a reason for everything. The feedback was good, not bad.

Anyway, I am on a rant right now about the universe giving me everything I need. It has. I mean at the beginning of the year I thought about last year and how I tripled my income and how I really need to TRUMP that one. How the heck is that going to happen. And then right when I knew what the answer was and why was I ever questioning how that was going to happen...I got a check. That check signaled to me that the universe is providing me what I need, stop worrying and start being patient. So, very patiently I type this blog - visioning my sale, visioning me walking in to the bank and depositing a rather large sum of money into my account(trumping last year) and going home and happily kissing my boyfriend in our home - while I jump up and down and cry out I did it "BUG!"