FACE TIME

So now I better start preparing for my Pitch meeting tomorrow.

I have a shockingly bad memory, and right now I can't even remember the names of the main characters in two of the projects I'll be pitching. Saying 'And then ...ummmm...thingy does this' does not go down well.

I've got three to Pitch. Maybe four if an idea fermenting away comes to fruition by tomorrow.

It is difficult to keep up the same level of enthusiasm over three or four pitches. But I prefer to go in well armed. If you go in with only one or two the chances are you won't get past the first sentence on each before you hear either '' Can I stop you there, we're not looking for that type of project' or 'We already have something similar in development'

It then becomes a very quick meeting.

I did mean to concentrate on the fermenting idea today but I got a call for an urgent few pages on an episode of something I wrote a couple of months ago. They are about to shoot it and decided it was running short. I'm more in a writing than thinking mood today so I latched onto it. God I'm a lazy sod. That may well come back to bite me in the arse when my three existing pitches are shot down in flames.

One is actually a project which was optioned last year. The option expires this month and they aren't going to do anything with it so it is fair game. But I haven't looked at it since and need to get some face time with it.

The other two are a high concept cop show and a horror. Tough sells at the best of times. But hey, isn't everything. You begin to feel like the hapless screenwriter in Sunset Boulevard 'Everything I write is either too original or not original enough'

But that's the job. You have to go in there believing these projects are fantastic even if you are straight from another meeting where they were greeted like a visit from the pox doctor.

A lot of projects on TV now were kicked out the door in several places before they found a home. Some have been doing the rounds for years.

It only takes one yes.