[Watch the video interview on YouTube here]
Film Courage: In your new book Screenwriter’s Advice [link to Amazon for the book] you have a section where Marsha Greene talked about being nervous before pitches. I believe she quotes a poem (haiku) and she says:
“Stop asking if I’m good enough, ask only if I’m showing up with love. I can’t control what’s happening outside of me.”
I thought that was so brilliant when she talks about the fear of pitching. Can we touch on this?
Andrew Zinnes, Author/Senior Teaching Fellow/Script Doctor: Sure, I mean oftentimes writers are introverted people. I think it’s a pretty common trope. I think it’s true not all of them but many are. Getting up and trying to sell to people and to be able to condense your story down into something 5-10 minutes long in order to try and get others to buy or be interested in or wanting to come on board is daunting I think to people.
You spent all this time making something and then you go out and present it and after 10 minutes they could just go “thbbbt” and it’s done. That can be disheartening.
I think the performance anxiety and everything that’s riding on everything that writers build up that they feel everything’s riding on…(Watch the video interview on YouTube here).
About:
Andrew Zinnes is Senior Teaching Fellow at the University of Portsmouth, UK. He has worked in development at Paramount Pictures and at USA Networks. He left to become a script analyst, and worked for Morgan Creek Productions, Artisan and several script analyst companies. Using his documentary filmmaking experience, Andrew was the perfect co-author for The Documentary Film Makers Handbook. He has taught documentary at the NY Film Academy and has lectured on filmmaking at schools and colleges around the US. He is a founding partner of the film company Crazee Pictures.
CONNECT WITH ANDREW ZINNES
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