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Lesson 9
Reply to post your assignment.
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6 Replies
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Margaret Doner :PHONE PITCH:
what i learned: it helped me to feel more confident to pitch on a phone and know what to expect.
Hi, my name is Margaret Doner and I am an optioned screenwriter. I have a supernatural-romance feature film screenplay, entitled Down to Heaven, and I would like to pitch it to you? Would that be okay?
Down to Heaven is the story of Annabelle, a guardian angel who struggles with the detachment her role demands and finds herself falling in love with her charge, Charlie. When his bride dies moments before the wedding, she hops into her body and takes her place. The bride’s ghost is desperate to evict Annabelle from her body, and enlists the help of the demonic realm to accomplish her task.
Could I send you a copy of the screenplay?
Budget range: Mid-budget.
In the roles: Perfect for actors such as Lily Collins or Josh Whitehouse
Number of pages: 107
Who else has seen this: No one
Why us: You expressed an interest in looking at romance feature films
Movie ends: An angel finds heaven by coming down to earth, and an earthbound man finds heaven by marrying an angel.
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Vincent Saia
Phone Pitch
I have learned to overcome my reluctance to pitch over the phone
1. -I have researched the subject matter for many years and have interviewed some of the people depicted in the script
-Black Sheep Squadron
-Very similar subject matter to TOP GUN MAVERICK
-The most popular of stories: The hero’s journey.
-It’s the beginning of World War II. Germany is ravaging Europe and Japan is ravaging China and the South Pacific. America desperately needs heroes to turn the tide and an unlikely one emerges. This is the inspiring true story of Pappy Boyington: Rebel, alcoholic, failed husband, failed Marine who, after a tumultuous tour with the Flying Tigers where, among other things, he had an affair with the executive officer’s wife, fights his way back into the Marine Corps and through sheer will power overcomes his personal demons, forms his own squadron from mostly young untested pilots from the replacement pool which goes on to become the best in the Pacific earning Boyington the respect of his fellow marines and in particular his squadron. Just as he is about to be sent home to accolades, however, he his shot down and must test his mettle against the brutality of a Japanese POW camp.
3. Budget range: $30-60,000,000
Who do I see in it: George Clooney, Ryan Reynolds, John Franco.
Why do you think it fits our company: Your company has produced similar subject matter.
How does the movie end? Boyington is libarated from the camp with the other prisoners and when he arrives in San Francisco his Black Sheep are at the harbor waiting for him. Upon seeing him they proceed to hoist him onto their shoulders in triumph.
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Stephanie O’Leary’s Phone Pitch for TUSK
WHAT I LEARNED from this lesson: Research producers before calling on IMDBPro.com. Don’t waste their time and yours by pitching to someone who doesn’t make the kind of film you’re pitching. As with Lesson 8, craft a short, concise pitch and lead with your strongest script asset (Credibility, Hook, Title or High Concept.)
REQUEST TO PITCH:
“Hi, my name is Stephanie O’Leary. I was wondering if I could run a quick pitch by you?”
“It’s a cosmic horror script called TUSK. It’s about a female astronaut who cannot die, having been cultivated and transformed into a commercial crop after being abducted by aliens for intergalactic commerce.”
(I stop and wait to see if there’s interest. If so, the following questions could be asked:)
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
– “The budget range could run mid to high, depending on the actors, special effects, and miniature costs.”
– “I see an Elle Fanning type for my protagonist, a young Mads Mikkelson (possibly Joe Alwyn) as a male lead, and Tilda Swinton as the creature that tends to Brie (the protagonist) after her abduction.”
“The script comes in at 124 pages. At this time, only in-house staff at Voyage Media and the producer I’ve been working with have seen the material.”
“A24’s films tend to explore the darkness within ourselves, resulting in a Day of Reckoning with those demons that plague our lives. TUSK also asks profound questions: Are we protected by Faith or is our Fate predetermined? Is there a price for exercising our Free Will? Psychological horror is A24’s forte, and TUSK mines similar dark territory.
The Movie ends with three big reveals:
– Our heroine is transformed, trapped, and doomed to live on, despite wanting to die.
– The reveal of Space Commerce and an entirely unknown part of space run by pampered alien elites, and
– the young man’s true identity opens the door for a sequel.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by Stephanie O'Leary.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by
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MOTHER LOVE, Elizabeth Cochrell Phone Pitch
What I learned is how worthwhile my IMBD Pro membership is when I found Romulus Entertainment. It’s the perfect production company for my script and now I have a little more confidence towards my scriptwriting success.
1. The strategy I will use is the subject matter expertise angle.
2. “Hi my name is Elizabeth Cochrell and I’m a former Penthouse Centerfold, stripper, professional boxer and wonder if I can run a quick pitch by you?”
“It’s a family drama called Mother Love about a stripper MMA fighter who goes through changes when her depressed teen daughter escapes from rich and twisted stepparents to be with her.”
3. The budget range is from 1 to 30 million and I see Jennifer Lawrence as the lead with Raegan Revord as her daughter, Peter Gallagher as the philandering stepfather and Lisa Rinna the malicious stepmother.
The script is 98 pages of the stripper MMA fighter and her teen daughter trying to grow into a new and better life as the stepparents run their wicked interference.
I feel that Mother Love is a fit for Romulus Entertainment because like all of your productions, not only does it entertain but it leaves the audience with hope for transforming wounds in an entertaining emotional rollercoaster ride to a satisfying ending.
In a salute to the MeToo movement, Mother Love exposes child abuse, the complexities of family life, inspires with the benefits and challenges of the fighting sports and teaches the healing benefits of dog ownership.
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H. Vince’s Phone Pitch
Power Players – 2023
Lesson 9: Phone Pitches Without Pain
What I learned from doing this assignment is…
Preparing a phone pitch that will get my script requested.
1. Tell us which of the four strategies you are going to use to open your pitch:
Lead with credibility.
I am a woman with a business degree that has worked in the business world for decades. I got paid by an author to do dictation for her book when I was in college. I also used to write entertainment columns for an online publication. I am interested in presenting script that will be profitable for everyone involved.
2. Give us your script for phone call pitches, like I did above.
Hi, I’m H. Vince and I’m wondering if I could run a quick pitch (OR logline or concept) by you?
The genre is Drama/Thriller. The title is Mental. It answers the question: What happens when Allie’s boss dangled that final payoff carrot so much it leads her further down the mental rabbit hole?
3. Give us a one or two sentence answer to the questions a producer may ask:
What’s the budget range? I’d say low to mid budget depending on what actors you want to use.
Who do you see in the main roles? This is a great opportunity for up-and-coming actors just how Julia Garner took a relatable role in The Assistant in 2019. One of the women from Orange is The New Black could really be a possibility. One role like this could really give a female actress a boost in the industry just like when Bryce Dallas Howard did that memorable Black Mirror role in the Nosedive episode. Or Anne Hathaway in The Devil Wears Prada.
How many pages is the script? 90 pages
Who else has seen this? Screenwriting peers, family members and the U.S. Copyright Office
Why do you think this fits our company? I saw that you produced the movie <example: American Psycho> and I love that film. I wanted to see if your company would be interested in representing a movie where a woman goes mad due to her overpowering and mentally abusive boss.
How does the movie end? Well, there’s a conflict between Allie, Pat (the boss) and a Principal who is supposed to buy the business off of Pat. Pat tells Allie she is delusional and calls her out that she pretends she is a mother like she always wanted to be. He hears her talking on the phone to her “daughter” during her lunches. Allie wins the small victory of working at home and when she is on the way home driving in her car, listening to a celebratory freedom song, she pops a cap off a soda, it flies back and hits her in the eye and she causes a major traffic accident.
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Ed’s Phone Pitch
WHAT I LEARNED FROM THIS LESSON-How to make a short and effective phone pitch.
(Great title and high concept)
I’m Ed Etzkorn. I’ve written a full-length (90 minute) horror script called “Home with a Past.”
It concerns a black teenage girl who must confront a hostile entity that claims her family’s new home as its own, at the same time that she relives the last moments of dying children she never met.
Credibility—I’ve published three novels. This screenplay and a second screenplay won finalist to quarter-finalist positions in contests. As a doctor, I’ve witnessed the deaths of many people, and studied reports of patients who had near-death experiences. Plus I lived several years in a haunted house. (Yes, really!)
Answers to questions:
1) Budget range – low (3 to 4 million).
2) Three main actors are teenagers, and I would anticipate these roles being filled by unknown actors. Of a number of adult roles, it needs two septuaginarians to play a quirky elderly couple—I think these would be excellent roles for well-known actors who are now semi-retired.
3) At end—The Entity at last communicates in an intelligible way, but only after it has trapped Azuri inside her own burning home. Using the skills she’s learned from coping with dying children, Azuri helps the Entity accept its inevitable death, and as its last act on earth it delivers her to safety as her home burns to the ground.
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