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Help Pitching to Networks

HELP! I have completed a TV Pilot, which includes four episodes and I am about to send it out to get it copyrighted. I want to pitch it to some networks but I do not know exactly what to say. I do not want to sell my script or to give up any creative control. My daughter is an aspiring actress and I have created one of the main characters for her to play. I do not know any colleagues in the industry to show it to for feedback…any advice?
 
First, be prepared to sell your script or give up creative control.

Unless you have a track record within the industry - which I'm going to assume you don't, or you wouldn't be asking about this - whoever buys the show, if you are fortunate enough to sell it, will end up taking over creative decision-making. At the very minimum, they will give you notes on most things. At the max, they may take one aspect of the concept, pay you, dismiss you, and build a completely different show around people they already have under contract as actors who aren't your daughter.

If you don't have any colleagues in the industry to send it to, you may want to consider contacting an entertainment attorney with industry connections, or a production company with a track record of some kind. You may be able to get meetings at a network yourself, through conventional means (initial query letter, follow-up phone calls, eventual contact with someone at the network), but the odds of that are slim.

Many networks like to work with people they already know, which is why show runners are in high demand.

From the sound of your post, you have written four episodes, is that correct? Or have you produced the shows already? If you're in the writing phase, you need to have a show bible, something that explains the concept of the show, the main characters, and the arc of the first season, usually with a breakdown of 13 episodes or so.

This is just scratching the surface. But, the most important advice I can give, as someone who has sold a script to a decent-sized production company and who is currently pitching shows around L.A. - be prepared to loosen your hold on the creative end of things, at least, while you're becoming established. There are people who have worked in this town for decades and still don't get, or expect to have, full creative control over their projects.

Good luck!

gelder
 
Reply to Help Pitching to Networks

Hello gelder, thank you so much for your response.

There have been many people who have said the same thing as you have that I should be prepared to sell my script, or give up creative control. However, Sylvester Stallone and Tyler Perry did not have any experience in the industry and both did not give up creative control of their scripts and they both played the main character in their movies. As naïve as I may sound, I am having faith that I will not have to sell my scripts. I have also written two screenplays and a stage play but I do not know what to do next. I was going to do like Tyler Perry did, and go on tour with the stage play, but that takes a lot of funding. I want to focus on the TV Pilot right now.

I have written about four episodes that are ready to be copyrighted and I have about three other episodes that have to be rewritten, so that is a total of 7 episodes. Do you recommend that I have 13 episodes completed before I get the four episodes copyrighted? I was sending the script to the Library of Congress to be copyrighted. Should I register my script with the Writers Guild of America as well?

I was thinking about contacting an entertainment attorney. Should I wait until my scripts are copyrighted before I contact the entertainment attorney?

Again, thank you so much for responding, and for all your advice.

Good luck to you as well!

Stacey
 
Sylvester Stallone and Tyler Perry did not have any experience in the industry

Not true. Sly Stallone acted in several films and TV shows before "Rocky," so he had Hollywood contacts. Tyler Perry did theater for many years and built a following. Nobody just magically gets a deal without laying some kind of groundwork. And even if they did, how often do you really think such deals actually happen? Why is your marketing plan based on winning the lottery?

Has anything you've written been staged or produced in any form? Or has your writing perhaps won any contests or awards? If not, I'd say you're reaching too high for your first effort. You need some kind of validation to go big, because investors or producers don't go for unsure or untested projects; they want to know that there's a chance of success, and one person's word -- a person without a track record -- is an impossible sell.

I can answer "yes" to both of these questions, continue to pitch projects to major production entities, and have some excellent industry contacts to do so -- and I still feel that the odds are incredibly slim that anything I pitch will ever get made (plus, the pitch market sucks harder than ever right now). Even people who have far better connections than I do plus a moneymaking track record have a hell of a time selling anything, ever.

My impression is that you don't quite have a realistic grasp on how things are made in Tinseltown. Some needed research will serve you well; it might even give you some ideas on how to better proceed.

By the way, official copyright is overkill (plus, your work is copyrighted as soon as you add a copyright mark). WGA registration is enough.
 
Not true. Sly Stallone acted in several films and TV shows before "Rocky," so he had Hollywood contacts. Tyler Perry did theater for many years and built a following. Nobody just magically gets a deal without laying some kind of groundwork. And even if they did, how often do you really think such deals actually happen? Why is your marketing plan based on winning the lottery?

Has anything you've written been staged or produced in any form? Or has your writing perhaps won any contests or awards? If not, I'd say you're reaching too high for your first effort. You need some kind of validation to go big, because investors or producers don't go for unsure or untested projects; they want to know that there's a chance of success, and one person's word -- a person without a track record -- is an impossible sell.

I can answer "yes" to both of these questions, continue to pitch projects to major production entities, and have some excellent industry contacts to do so -- and I still feel that the odds are incredibly slim that anything I pitch will ever get made (plus, the pitch market sucks harder than ever right now). Even people who have far better connections than I do plus a moneymaking track record have a hell of a time selling anything, ever.

My impression is that you don't quite have a realistic grasp on how things are made in Tinseltown. Some needed research will serve you well; it might even give you some ideas on how to better proceed.

By the way, official copyright is overkill (plus, your work is copyrighted as soon as you add a copyright mark). WGA registration is enough.

No, nothing I have written has been staged or produced. I understand it is very rare that an unknown writer becomes a show runner and have full creative control. So, if I will write a bunch of scripts in specific genre (comedy, action, drama, and kids, a few specs, get with a management company to represent me, and they can send my work to producers of existing shows to try to get me on staff. Do you believe that once I am working as a writer and earning money, I could start going out with my own stuff?

Again, thank you for your response!

Stacey
 
Stacey, there's a reason that many of the people here make their own movies (which often means one person writes, produces, and directs), and that's because they get made! If you want creative control on your own terms, then this is the quickest way to get it.

New writers, in Hollywood, are completely powerless. So don't think like a writer; think like a writer/producer.

The best advice I can give you is to learn to produce your own projects. People who produce their own material make it happen. And though it's incredibly time-consuming, it's actually faster than pitching. This is because you're not waiting around for other people's approval. You can get it done on your own schedule. What's the difference between trying to get a studio to spend money on your script, and you asking investors for money to fund your project? The second option leaves you in control, yet strangely, it scares many people away; they'd rather work within a system that could care less about them. Go figure.

You are your own best champion for your work. And there's no better way to learn the business than by going out and doing it.
 
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