Pitching the Studio’s Idea

Last week’s focus was on how you pitch your ideas to a studio and the previous week we discussed some strategies for pitching yourself in a meeting. Today let’s look at pitching the “studio’s” idea.

What do I mean by that? The studios—and larger production companies—are in the business of finding ideas they think will work for film. Remember that scene in The Player [1992] where the bigwigs at the studio are sitting at the conference table passing around a newspaper and latching on to stories that could be ideas for films? It’s done tongue-in-cheek in the film but it’s not that far from reality. The reality is nobody knows where the next big idea is coming from so while they’re happy to have you come in with your ideas, they’ve also got people on staff who look everywhere—newspaper articles, novels, plays, video games, etc.—to try and discover the next big idea.

The advantage for the studio of having a video game or a novel as the basis for a movie? Someone else has already made a success out of that idea—it has a track record. So the studio or production company is taking less of a risk on an idea/story that has already caught the public’s attention and proven it’s of interest.

So let’s say the studio calls your agent wanting to meet with you on a new book that’s come out—a novel that’s a triangle love story where one of the triangle dies. That means they know your work and think you might be the right writer for this particular book. Now, don’t think you’re the ONLY writer they’re talking to—generally they contact 3-5 writers.

As one of the writers coming in to “talk” about the book, in reality you’re coming in to pitch your “take” on the book. In effect, you’re saying “if you pay me 6 figures, here’s the movie I’ll write for you.” Unless you’re a million-dollar screenwriter with lots of hits to your name, they’re not going to just hand you the money and the book and say go to it. They want to know, if they choose you, what kind of movie would you write for them?

Knowing that should tell you what you need to do in this pitch—you need to pretty much lay out the whole movie for them. Again, in 10-15 minutes tops, you need to lay out the first act, second act and third act. You need to make the movie that’s in your head come alive for them as you talk about it. You need to bring all your passion to show how you could change this 500-page book into a 100-page screenplay.

As you prepare for the meeting on the book, you need to streamline the book, cut characters, add characters, focus on what’s particularly cinematic in the book—there are a ton of choices you need to make. There’s no doubt in my mind that pitching to adapt a studio’s property is much more difficult than pitching your own, original story.

Pitching is a minefield—or let’s invent a new word, a mindfield. Because it’s going to take every bit of brainpower, courage and savvy you have to put together a pitch that can get you the job.

But hey? You’re full of good ideas and you know you can write—so do your homework and you’ll be able to head into that pitch meeting and give it your absolute best shot. You may have to do a lot of pitching before you make a sale, but that’s the biz you’ve chosen. Don’t get discouraged; have fun with it, be upbeat about the process as you park your car in the studio lot and lead to the executive’s office. Just do your best and maybe the stars will align!

Copyright © Diane Lake

27May18

Email Diane a question to Diane@DianeLake.com