Larry Wilson: … A Twitter question?
Film Courage: Yes…we had a question come in on Twitter two days ago. We will leave the person’s name off in case they don’t want us to say it but they are probably okay with it.
They asked “I’d like to know how one secures a pitch meeting with executives or production companies as a first time screenwriter?” And then they follow it up with “I mean, does one just make a call and set a date and time. Do you go in with a treatment or…” (And then there is more of it).
Larry Wilson: Okay…I’m thinking…that’s quite a question. How do you secure a meeting? You write a screenplay, you write a really, really good screenplay and the metaphysics of getting a meeting after that are so elusive. Sorry and it’s a very sincere question and it gets asked to me all of the time. So I’m going to dance around it a little bit, but again not seriously but sincerely.
There was a time when I was teaching and here is something about me as a teacher. I am a screenwriting teacher who is not a failed screenwriter. I’m actually a successful screenwriter who teaches at the same time. Oh God…that was cheap! I apologize [laughs]. But I stopped teaching at one point because I really had an ethical dilemma. Because I though the real reason people were taking my classes is to say to me “How do you get movie made? You’ve gotten movies made. You’ve gotten through the door. How do I get through the door?” And I could have been teaching anything. I could have been teaching story analysis, screenplay structure, dialogue, anything. I though the real reason people were there was to ask me (Larry Wilson) how do I get a pitch meeting? How do I get a movie made? How do I get through the door? And I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know what to say and I thought I was part of this false hope machine. And I didn’t like it. And I didn’t like how it made me feel. And I stopped teaching…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
Ins and Outs Of A Screenwriting Career In Hollywood
Larry Wilson [FULL INTERVIEW]
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