Film Courage: What makes a terrible pitch?
Kelly Edwards, Staff Writer, Author, Producer: Probably not enough preparation, not knowing your character or your world. There are staples to every pitch, everybody needs to know why you’re the one to write the show. You need to know your character really well. You need to know what and how they operate within the world, what the conflict is, what’s the ensemble around them and if you can’t articulate that, it can be a mess. But I don’t think anybody ever walks into a pitch thinking it’s going to be a terrible pitch. They don’t want to make a terrible pitch, that happens by accident. But when you’re passionate about a show, showing that passion goes a long way. That can really remedy a lot of ills even if you aren’t great at articulating them in the way that you think is the smoothest way to do it. I think sometimes just your enthusiasm for the material and knowing that material and knowing what you want to say can make all the difference. I know it’s a terrifying thing to go in there and want to tell a story really well and not wanting to screw up and because you don’t want to screw up, you end up screwing up. You have to remember that people have heard a lot of these things, they’ve heard a thousand of these pitches and you’re not bringing anything new. It’s very rare that you’re bringing in something that’s so wholly different but what you are bringing is…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
SEE THE BOOK ON AMAZON – The Executive Chair: A Writer’s Guide to TV Series Development by Kelly Edwards
BIO:
As HBO and WarnerMedia’s SVP of Talent Development for seven years, Kelly Edwards oversaw all of the emerging artists programs for HBO, HBOMax, and Turner, both domestic and abroad. Edwards’s career spans both television and film, having served as a key corporate diversity executive at Comcast/NBCUniversal and a creative executive for both film director Garry Marshall and producer Laura Ziskin. After moving to television, she spent six years as a senior executive at Fox, where she developed Living Single, Clueless, and The Wild Thornberrys. As SVP of Comedy Development at UPN, she developed Girlfriends, The Parkers, and Malcolm in the Middle. Edwards also produced the movie of the week A Christmas Detour for Hallmark, and the one-hour drama series Sex, Love, and Secrets. She holds a BA in Theater from Vassar and an MFA in Screenwriting from Emerson. Edwards has served on the Annenberg Inclusion Board, the UNCF Leadership Council, the ATAS Diversity committee, as a Trustee for NALIP, and is a 2019 Sundance Episodic Lab fellow. Kelly’s book The Executive Chair: A Writer’s Guide to TV Series Development is now available (via Michael Wiese Productions).
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