Lesson 3

[Jack Young]

What I learned today is that pitching producers or managers takes some thought and planning to make sure our goals align with their goals.

Jack Young’s Producer/Manager:

How will you present yourself and your project to the producer?

Clearly, the project I’m pitching needs to be in align with the type of projects (films) they have been producing. Since the projects I’m working and pitching are scifi TV shows for streaming, I would pitch producers who are developing or producing these.

How will you present yourself and your project to the manager?

So, I already have a manager (Hakim Mulraine, NY) and have had him for a few years. I sold him on one project that almost went into production and had some A-list actors involved. Unfortunately, there was disagreements on the director and it soon fell apart. My manager did get me a paid gig doing a rewrite of a book adaptation. The project is still looking for funding. With many of his clients (he represents actor, musicians, writers, etc) being African American, he’s constantly looking for diverse screenplays. The project that he was promoting for me (“For The Girls”) was a dramedy with a black female lead. I am currently in the process of pitching some of my current projects but haven’t got any movement. We’ve discussed me getting an agent to help promote many of the screenplays that I have written.

[Eric Humble]

Eric Humble Producer/Manager

What I learned today is: that meetings with Producers and Managers require a different focus for the pitch. For my producer meeting below, I decided to start with the high concept and title, then follow up with a brief summary of the main characters, including a sentence about the lead character’s transformational journey and impossible mission. I omitted most of the details, but I hope this conveys some of the actor attractors that can make the project marketable to bankable actors.

For the manager meeting, I focused on the high concept and title for this project and the genres I want to focus on/contests I have placed in. My intention is to convey that I have some credibility and that I’m open to paid writing assignments.

1. How will you present yourself and your project to the producer?

Hi, I’m Eric Humble and I have a 1-hour thriller series called BLOOD APOTHECARY about a pharmaceutical chemist who uncovers a secret society that has suppressed cures for disease for centuries in order to shape human history.

The target audience is men over 25 with a secondary audience of women over 25.

The lead characters are:

A brilliant chemist who has discovered a cure for cancer that his company won’t let him create, just as his own wife develops inoperable cancer. He changes from company man to warrior as he attempts to infiltrate the Conclave – a powerful, global secret society dedicated to hunting down a race of immortals whose DNA has held the cures for virtually all disease over the centuries.

A homeless con artist, who is secretly an immortal whose DNA can cure cancer… and who is on a mission to unmask the leaders of the Conclave and kill them to avenge her mother, another immortal who was murdered when she was a child.

The CEO of the most powerful Big Pharma corporation in the world, whose daughter is dying of a genetic disease and who is plotting to usurp the throne of the Conclave in order to learn if its secret archives hold a cure for her.

BIO: I’ve worked with healthcare providers and, as a writer, have placed in several screenwriting contests.

2. How will you present yourself and your project to the manager?

Hi, I’m Eric Humble and I have a 1-hour thriller series called BLOOD APOTHECARY about a pharmaceutical chemist who uncovers a secret society that has suppressed cures for disease for centuries in order to shape human history.

My screenplays have placed in several contests including PAGE and the Screencraft Horror Screenplay competition. My focus is on thriller and horror screenplays and TV series. I’m open to paid writing assignments.