Blowing Away Clouds Of Doubt

Aeons ago, before the fires, I wrote this post about pitching my screenplay. That was an exciting afternoon.

Not nearly as exciting as this one turned out to be.

I should begin by saying that I spent that week and a half working on what I thought would be a very good pitch. I read a book on selling your story in a minute. I wrote and rewrote my pitch, refining it until everyone I gave it to (read as: "subjected to it") responded with an honest, "Wow, I'd love to see that movie."

And then I got to the Screenwriting Expo and took a seminar on pitches. Round out my education, I thought. Oh, no...the seminar contradicted everything in the book.

Shit.

Okay, I'll take another seminar on pitching. Same thing.

Another seminar, another writer who disagrees with the book I read.

It turns out that sixty seconds is too long a pitch.

So last night, I sat down and rewrote my pitch from scratch, and by the time I went to bed, I still hadn't gotten it to the point of wow-I-would-love-to-see-that-movie. It didn't pop.

At 4 am, I woke up with the solution: There's a tragedy in the story... That's my pop.

So, here's how it goes:

Everything In Between is a multi-plot drama about how we all experience love the same way. When the lives of four very different couples cross at a gay wedding, they must face a tragedy that will ultimately change each of them -- for the better.

Spoken aloud, slowly and clearly, it takes about 20 seconds.

"I get it! It's Crash, with love! I love it!" said one agency executive. Exactly. I'm going to send her a thank you note.

A drama is a hard sell. Look at the list of movies at your local theater... It's late in the year, so the awards season has begun, but that is the only explanation for movies like Michael Clayton and Things We Lost In The Fire. What's an easy sell? Horror. R-rated comedies. Male-driven romcoms. Seriously, Saw VI is actually being written. I'm absolutely certain that I don't want to know what body parts you can cut off after the fifth vivisected appendage. I mean, really, once you've cut off all four limbs, how much thrill can be left? Here's an idea for the tagline for Saw V: "You're going to need help for this one."

I am not going to say what responses I got or from whom; I'll just say that I did better than I hoped.

Apparently, I've got game.