Customer Reviews

Pitching Hollywood: How to Sell Your TV and Movie Ideas

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book has a lot of information on concepts and treatments. It does not go into the details of the technique of a pitch. It is very encouraging, but with reagrds to the actual pitch they wrote,"the energy of a pitch can't be written" or something to that effect. I would have appreciated an outline or something. They provide general info like be on time, make it brief, etc... Wow, insightful!

Although the auther gives some good insight on what your show should or should not be, he completely misinformes you in reference to "sending out your material everywhere!" I contacted quite a few production companies AND agencies and they all don't accept non-solicited material due to legal reasons. What the author SHOULD have done is tell you how you're supposed to network with agents so that you can find one to represent you at the studios. I'm incredibly dissapointed, but not discouraged.

I've worked in the entertainment industry for many years and still panic each time I go into a pitch meeting! Staying calm, organizing my thoughts, conveying my excitement about the project, etc... is difficult when combating nerves. This book breaks down the pitch process into manageable stages: finding an idea, writing a well-structured treatment, making phone calls to the right people, booking meetings, pitching the idea, and even negotiating payment and/or credit. Great investment for ten bucks!

An easy (and entertaining!) read. This book explains step-by-step how to contact production companies and studios, make appointments, and sell TV and movie ideas. I don't live in LA or New York. It's encouraging to know that I don't have to.

Valuable, straightforward information. Sure wish I had a book like this back in film school!!

VERY INFORMATIVE BOOK, GREAT FOR THE BEGINNER. REALLY VALUED THE INFORMATION CONTAINED INSIDE. I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO ANYONE WHO ASPIRES TO START WRITING AND SUBMITTING SCRIPTS AND TREATMENTS TO HOLLYWOOD. THIS BOOK WILL TEACH YOU FORMATTING TECHNIQUES THAT YOU WILL NEED TO SUBMIT A PROPER TREATMENT TO HOLLYWOOD.

This is a fun, easy to read book. Makes you feel like you've got an actual shot at a successful pitch. Really useful, practical guide. Gives you all the information of a good how-to textbook without reading like one.

If you are a fireman, truck driver or stock broker, this book might be useful. For anyone who knows anything about film or tv, this is pretty elementary stuff. Big type, lots of blank space on the pages, and filled with useless witty banter between the 2 "authors", I was very disappointed. There is a basic breakdown of what a pitch is but little concrete information is given about the process or strategies involved in making a successful pitch. The excuse is that you cannot capture the essence of a pitch in words. If this is true, why write a book? A large portion of the book is dedicated to plot summaries of popular films and TV shows. While some of this is useful, in order to illustrate the format of a treatment (a written precursor to the pitch), it feels as if this was done to get the book to a publishable length. In its current state, the information info in this book would best be served by a magazine article.

Seriously-- Excellent book. Very helpful. Funny. Easy to read. Lots of bullet points. This one will stay on my desk, right next to my computer.

I hate reading and I'm not even in "the industry," but I really liked this book. A friend forced me to read it, and I couldn't put it down. My head has always been full of a thousand ideas and plots; it just never occured to me that I could actually do anything with them--until now. Now, I have no excuse.