4 ms·

Pitch meetings for TV/movie scripts often have writers making up stories on the spot. Then if they get the green light, what they're really thinking is, "Holy

• jonnathanson 15y ago
  Only difference is that pitch meetings for TV shows usually have a known commodity attached to the pitch -- someone whose very presence is meant to reduce at least one of the five hundred thousand risk variables associated with a TV pitch. If that known commodity is an established writer -- let's say Larry David, or Aaron Sorkin, or whoever -- then the execs can reasonably assume that he'll be able to write whatever he's just sold. Rarely, if ever, does someone without a track record even get a network pitch meeting. And even then, he'll get it only if some big name or piece of IP is associated with him. The strength of the concept matters relatively little compared to what name or "brand" is attached. All this is for good reason, obviously. It would make little economic sense for networks to drop millions of dollars on ideas alone. For that kind of money, they could hire legions of fresh college grads to sit in a room all day, eat ramen, and generate concepts for someone else to write. As it is in the tech world, execution is everything in the creative business. There are a striking number of parellels in both industries, actually. (Full disclosure: have worked in both industries).
  • mikecane 15y ago
    There are also pitch meetings to production companies, where writers are hired to do TV episodes. Unknowns sometimes get their breaks there. Harlan Ellison did. Tracy Torme did. Still happens today. I went too wide, mentioning movies, I guess.