pitchfest?

Cattle call. The odds are very small that you can get interest from an agent or producer in five minutes. There are better ways to spend your money to get a query letter out to these people. Don't get me wrong, I know some people who got requests from it and other pitch fests but the odds are stacked up against you.

PS. I took the link off your post for the pitchfest. You wouldn't want peope thinking your advertising for them, otherwise I would have to move your thread to announcements and events.

Funny you should mention pitching - I just got a note in my Inbox about a local "Pitching workshop" in a couple of weeks.

However, unlike those nasty 'cattle calls' that the USA is prone too, this doesn't promise anything but the chance for writers to 'practise and hone' their pitching skills.

And the cost? Totally free. Compare that to PitchFest's $350 entry fee.

Living in Australia has advantages.

Mac.

PitchFests

True pitchfests are cattle calls - (think speed dating) True your chances are slim - but the fact is that every producer and agent that I know who attends them is seriously seeking good scripts and wants to give access to new talent.

The thing about a pitchfest - that is missing from queries - is that the producers/agents get a chance to actually meet you - and this is very important. Pitching is as much about YOU as it is about your script - maybe moreso.

My agent has set-up pitch meetings for me with producers who he knows would not be right for a particular spec that I'm shopping - solely to give me the opportunity to meet them in person so they can see what I'm about - the development process requires a certain amount of face-to-face time and producers like to work with people that they like.

And I can say from experience that there's alot of truth to this because I recently got a writer for hire gig writing a project that is in a genre I have never written before - on paper I was not the obvious candidate - but the producer liked me and my ideas for his project.

Not to be disrespectful Joe - but the suggestion that you can't get interest from a an agent or producer in five minutes is the antithesis of the reality of Hollywood - if you can't get someone interested in reading your script in five minutes - then you can't get them interested period. Ideally you should be able to get someone to want to read your script off a logline - that's like 25 words (less than 30 seconds).

As for the idea of a pitching workshop - I highly recommned it whether it's free or not. Your logline and your ability to pitch are your two most important marketing tools - you will need these tools even after your represented and produced.

I am not suggesting that everyone should attend a pitchfest - but it is probably one of the best uses of your marketing dollars. And as for mediabistro they are an established, highly respected organization in the publishing world in NY and are devoting a lot of time and energy to establishing themselves in Hollywood as well.