| [BACK]
My POV
Brian A. Wilson
BOOK REVIEW:
The Perfect Pitch: How to Sell Yourself and Your Movie Idea to Hollywood
By Ken Rotcop as told to James K. Shea
What a fine compendium of the pitching process Messrs. Rotcop and Shea have put together.
At its best, this book does for the dynamics of pitching what "Elements of Style" does for rules of grammar and punctuation: Both books boil their respective subjects down to clear, concise, functional nuggets of information.
The emphasis here is on "functional." If you follow the concepts presented in "The Perfect Pitch," you can't go very far afield. A perfect pitch? Well, to my thinking, pitching is an art, and in all art (writing included), there is no perfection, but only the pursuit of excellence. That said, TPP will certainly move you toward excellence.
Chapters in the book include:
--What studio readers will ask about your story
--15 key points for wannabe writers
--Overcoming the fear of pitching
--Taking visuals to the pitch meeting
--Various pitching war stories from Rotcop, execs, agents and students
All of it is presented, presumably by writing partner Shea, in an engaging, upbeat, can-do manner. At 156 pages, it's a quick read filled with good information.
A couple of typos mar the presentation. At the beginning, Rotcop flexes his expertise by listing two pitching techniques that work for him. Here's the second one, as printed on page 3:
"The second thing I do before I start my pitch is try to find an j."
Say what?
Whatever Rotcop's second tenet is remains a mystery which will, one hopes, be cleared up in the next edition.
Rotcop unselfishly mentions other pitching sessions put on by other groups, including Sherwood Oaks Experimental College (one of my personal favorites). Unfortunately, the phone number is wrong. Sherwood Oaks' correct number is 323-851-1769.
And while it's not a typo, Rotcop's advice does derail a bit when he suggests mailing a script to yourself as a viable form of copyright protection. This old saw gets wildly hooted down by any entertainment lawyer I've ever encountered. To Rotcop's credit, he does provide the right solution: Register your script with the copyright office.
Those minor errors aside, this book does an excellent job of explaining and demystifying the pitching process, all while giving writers a super blueprint for creating successful pitching sessions.
For new writers, The Perfect Pitch should be invaluable. For old salts, I'd say still take a look-you may be surprised at what you learn.
Makes me itchin' to get pitchin'!
$16.95 cover price. Available from amazon.com, bookstores or at www.mwp.com
Check it out.
Keep writing.
BW
LA
|
