Pitch Meeting Lessons and Friday Night Lights

Yesterday, I spent all afternoon and into the evening finishing up what I hope is the last rewrite of Love Me. At about midnight, I clicked “send” and by about 12:15am, I was in bed, out cold.

Beth and I woke up at about 6:00am to my friend’s 16-month old screaming “Mama! Mama! Mama!” And then shuffling from bedroom to bedroom– more screaming, Clare telling him “Shhh, be quiet, they’re sleeping”. And eventually we wake up to a baby in our face mumbling incoherently the way that babies do. Thankfully I think kids are cool– even at 6 in the morning.

Today was our official first day of meetings. Four meetings to be exact. I was telling Beth, usually the meetings you’re most excited about are the ones that don’t turn out the way you played in your head. “We love it, we want to make it. Here’s 5 million bucks and complete creative freedom!” Not so much. But the ones you’re like, “Why does this person want to meet with me? I don’t get it.” are the meetings that can surprise you and turn into something real.

There are a few things I’ve learned over the years from going into “pitch” meetings, here they are in no particular order.

  • Relax. Or at least try.
  • Be yourself. Seriously, don’t be that weird, desperate person.
  • Be confident in your material. Know it backwards and forwards and love it.
  • Don’t feel like these are make-or-break meetings. Often the connections you make lead to something a little further down the road or even further, further down the road.
  • If there’s a connection, awesome, if not, it’s totally cool.
  • Don’t bank on anything happening, but forge relationships with people who can contribute along the way. It’s all about relationships.

So here’s how today went. I came away with a cool contact for a horror script I’m working on, met a woman who can help us navigate foreign distribution, one meeting canceled, one meeting gave me a serious reality check and someone who was super excited about our project MIGHT (emphasis on MIGHT) have access to partial funding.  But here’s the thing … I’ve learned not to get my hopes up on anything. Inevitably, it falls through. That’s just the way things go. And then you pull your knee socks back up and keep going. Always moving forward.

Tomorrow we have 6 meetings, maybe 7, I get to hang out with the lovely Audrey Ewell, co-director of the bad ass doc, Until the Light Takes Us, and I get to see and hang out with some Texas friends.

And speaking of Austin and Texas, a huge congrats to the Friday Night Lights cast and crew for picking up a few Emmy’s last night. Not enough in my humble opinion.

And with that, “Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.”