Film Courage: On average how far into a pitch would you know it was a pass?
Writer/Instructor and Script Consultant Shannan E. Johnson (The Professional Pen): For me I can
probably I can know like right off the bat. I’m not saying that is everybody else's skill
set but I know story well enough to know that a screenwriter doesn't know their story very well.
But with that being said it also depends on how you got the pitch because if I'm doing this as
a favor to someone, I'm going to listen to the entire thing and I'm also possibly going to now
engage with you after the pitch etc., etc., even if I know we're never going to buy this
or it might be the opposite because I know how you got here I know we're going to buy it so no matter
what you say what I mean so I don't really even have to take in all the information but from the
script consultant side of it's easy to tell when someone doesn't know their story but sometimes
people don't know how to pitch and it's not that they don't know their story and so this is where
I would say the executive kind of has to put on a script consultant hat if they care if they want to
bother to do this so that they can figure out is it that you don't know how to pitch or you don't
know your story or you just don't really have a story by asking the kind of questions to get
the kind of answers so these days I I've been in a couple of pitches lately and they've been more
conversational which I think is really helpful for the writer because writers can be introverted and
they don't want to have to come in here and present and they might have something really
great to say but it's just not coming out the way that they expect it to expect it to come out but
to go back to the example about zombies if we're not taking zombies now in the first few words out
of your mouth are zombies then I know we're done now you have the hour so I'm going to let you talk
but I'm not we're not going to buy this I think if I'm confused throughout your pitch I now have to
ask myself if I'm willing to do the work of not being confused because it's going to be my job
to go in the Next Room to pitch it to the rest of the company what I mean if I'm this confused about
what you're giving to me then I can't possibly be that interested in it and for the most part
executives are looking for what fits for their brand and their mandate etc. but they're also
looking for what excites them because they're listening to pictures all the time the reading
screenplays all the time so they're looking for something that excites them so if they're
listening and whatever it is you're pitching doesn't excite them then they probably already
know we're not going to do this or because they've been listening so many pitches and because they've
been reading so many screenplays they already know they have five of those already in development so
they're not going to buy this one because they already have that in development so there are a
lot of things that can play into why someone would pass on something but I think most executives know
pretty quickly that this is probably something they're going to pass on even if they do have to
do the rest of the pomp and circumstance well you said it could be A) they don't know how to pitch
and it could be also B) they don't have a story how many times did someone come in and they really
didn't have a story lots of times lots of times now with that being said that's without my script
consultant hat on to then ask them the questions that are necessary so I can pull it out of them
because if you are a professional writer I would like to assume I don't have to do that that you
would be able to come in and find ask for a log line you can tell me clearly in two sentences
what your screenplay is about but not everyone can do that and so if you've been talking at me
for 45 minutes and then on the end of it I can't give you a log line back you don't have a story
maybe you've got a great idea what I mean and your great idea was zombies but what are the
zombies doing who are we rooting for the zombies or is there a police officer who is looking for
his family and dealing with zombies while he's doing that because he's trying to get back to his
wife that's what the story is but if you spend all your time talking to me only about zombies and how
cool they are and how fast they run and what they can and cannot do but you never told me about the
heart you never told me about what I'm physically going to be watching what what goals or problems
they're trying to solve then I'm going to say to myself there's no story here and maybe there is
and you just forgot to tell me because you got so excited about zombies and talked about it for 45
minutes and so that's what I mean by well then you just don't know how to pitch you haven't learned
that skill and it's a skill set so it's not easy to learn and again it's not something that people
are out there teaching what I'm saying so usually it's trial and error and this is again why having
a script consultant since I exist now but having a manager or an agent and people who
you can practice with people who should know that executive well enough to know when you go in this
room this is what you want to do like that's kind of a a I'm not going to say it's their purpose but
hey if they have sent people in this room to pitch for this person before they should be able to
give you some pointers on what you should do when you're in that room so I think it could be either
of the above but a lot of times when I've done like more more so pitch contests if I've been like
a judge in a pitch contest or something like that it's happened also when I was a network executive
but more so when I'm at a like a pitch contest or something like that and the amount of people who
come up in pitch and never get to their story they never get there or I can tell they don't
know what it is like they got a great idea what I mean but they just haven't quite connected all of
the dots so that there's an actual story and some people are great presenters I've seen many people
that they're amazing at presenting something maybe not executing it and then vice versa and and those
executors just freeze up and and oftentimes aren't given a chance but I just saying most people don't
know how to fish yeah and that's what makes it unfair because you could have a great story but if
you don't know how to present it then the people don't know what they're buying and then now it
got passed on or maybe you're a great presenter and you came in and you did something that got me
excited and now I like you and now I want to work with you and then I get the screenplay and I go
hahaha what is this so it sucks in that way that you don't know which thing you're getting which
is why I say with my script consultant hat on I know what questions to ask so that I can
understand if they know what their story is what I mean and from there I can then decide okay they
actually know what they're doing or they don't know what they're doing they got a great idea
now do I want to sign up for them not knowing what they're doing because if I'm an executive that's
more work on me it's more work on me if I sign up for this knowing you don't know what you're doing
but I really like your idea which is why sometimes you'll then be given your check as a screenwriter
sent on your way and then we'll bring in a more experienced writer to take it to where it needs
to go because we can tell that you didn't know what you what you were doing or you wouldn't be
able to take it where it needs to go I believe it was a Ozark and I can't think of his name
now but the creator was someone who had worked in features forever but he knew he didn't know TV so
he didn't expect to go in and then run the show he knew we need to bring someone in here who can
do TV who knows series and that's not me and so a lot of times we'll take it personally as writers
because we're sensitive we'll take it personally and we'll think it's it's me woe is me blah blah
blah but it's like you have to know what your skill sets are you have to know that this is a
collaborative process and you have to know there's a there are millions of dollars being spent it's
okay if someone comes in and grabs the baton from you to take it to the next place it's okay
how does a writer with no connections build a relationship with a studio executive there used
to be like no way for you to do that the good thing is social media exists now if people are
on social media I always tell people Twitter is probably the best place for you to be a lot
of people who are on Twitter are on there because they want to be open especially since the pandemic
people are on there they're reading stuff they're talking back to you what I mean I have a client
who was staffed from Twitter so Twitter is a great place to just kind of build community
you don't want to go on there and immediately respond to someone and say hey I'm a writer I
have a screenplay come read it it's not that it's literally relationship building follow the people
that you're interested in following and respond like a human being who's just on Twitter if they
say something about their dog respond about your dog if they're saying something about their kids
respond about your experience if they then start talking about their show now hopefully you're
watching that show and that's why you're following them in the first place you can start saying some
stuff about the show and things that you like in the blah blah blah and then one day they'll say
hey I'm going to read some screenplays today send them and now because you've been interacting as a
human being before then they're going oh this person because you're on social media we tend
to think we know each other because we've been on there kind of interacting as our handles and
they'll go oh this person is sending their script I'll read it doesn't mean it'll turn
into anything but maybe it will outside of that there are a lot of different organizations now
who give you opportunities to meet with people some of them are are paid they have fees so you
just have to kind of look and look into that to see if that's something you want to budget
but there are different companies that give you an opportunity to do quick little meetings quick
little general meetings like I said or pitch Fest where you get to kind of be in front of people
I don't know if executives are attending film festivals like they used to except for the big
huge ones they're all at Sundance you can go to Sundance go to Sundance because now you can
just kind of hang out and see who you can meet again this is not walking around shoving your
screenplay into people's faces they don't get much time off and they're not even off while they're
at Sundance because they have to go to the stuff what I mean they have to see what's happening they
might even have other meetings they have to be on while they're there so the few moments where they
are sitting around having a beer that's what they want to be doing so just be a human being and just
get to know them they know why you're there they know that you want to be a filmmaker of some sort
it'll probably come up in conversation and then after you see that oh we're actually connecting
on all of these other things there might be an opportunity for that person to give you their card
or for you to say hey I would love to send some stuff your way if you're open to it and if they
say they're open that's your chance get the card and email the stuff what I mean but other than
that it's the same thing when it comes to agents and managers you just kind of have to get out
there and advocate for yourself and do your own thing and when it's time they'll come they'll find
you what I mean but at least nowadays social media exists in a way where you can interact with people
again you're not shoving your work in front of their faces but you're interacting with them
so that you can get to know them as a person as much as you can on social media and then
see if you can build a relationship from there so that when you are ready to pitch something
you're already to show them something then it's not a cold email anymore or it's not a cold ask
anymore it's a little bit warmer and and I like what you said about card I mean I was wondering
do we even still have cards anymore but yeah it sounds like it's still a useful tool yeah and
then and it's also more subtle than why don't you look me up and and one thing too having
a website like you have a website that's fully fleshed out there's things you can find bio this
that sometimes I see people it's something's under construction yeah it's it's coming soon and then
it never comes so yeah it's just having that there yeah I think it's I think it's really odd that La
is still a card place when I came back in 2018 I was like I'm not making cards it's 2018 we'll be
able to find each other in some way and then I would go to all of these networking events and
everyone had cards and I was like people are still collecting cards but yeah it it happens
when you get your studio executive job or your network executive job and you go through your
whole onboarding process they're going to give you cards and people are walking around handing
them out like that's that's what they do they're not going to tell you to look them up they don't
want you to randomly contact them in some other way this is the way they want you to contact them
and and you will and that's how you can continue on with the relationship or at
least send them the thing that they ask you to send them to see where it's going to go.