Can you pitch your movie in two minutes?
Not just the concept but the story.
Occasionally you find yourself in this circumstance. This month, in fact, a group of Seattle screenwriters will get two minutes each to pitch to a group of producers, agents, and managers.
So what do you say?
One method suggested by Seattle screenwriter, Betty Ryan, is all about condensing the key beats of the BS2 into something you can say quickly, and still make sense.
Betty’s solution is the following:
1. Opening Image
2. Catalyst
3. Break into Two
4. Midpoint
5. All Is Lost
6. Break into Three
7. Final Image
When she showed me her truncated beat sheet, then demonstrated this pitching technique in our Beats Workshop two weekends ago, I was amazed. Cogent, totally fufilling, and smart, her method got the job done — and it also pointed up that the key points in any story are the biggest action beats, the ones that still show “transformation.”
Another Seattle alum, Dave Sharkey, had told me earlier about his success in a local Film Festival. Look for details in our News section. Dave and his fellow filmmakers had 48 hours to think up, write, shoot, and edit a short seven minute film. How did they do it?
They used the Save the Cat! software!
Yes, the software can lay out any script or short film and adjust those same beats to as short as a 5-page script and as long as a 250-page one. You just plug in the appropriate total page number and all 15 beats show up in just the right place. Dave found a brilliant way to fast pitch his script, lay it out, and shoot it!
And the best news of all is: Dave’s group won first prize!
Structure, structure, structure! We seek it and reconstruct it in our minds when we see a movie, hear a pitch, or lay out a story of any length.
And I am so pleased writers are coming up with their own ways to adapt the Cat! method to suit their needs. Hopefully, we will be working on a way to raise the page count on the software to over 250 pages, extending that to 300 or even 500 pages.
Why?
Because this past weekend, I learned that many of the novelists of the Romance Writers of America are using Cat! software too to lay out their novels. And 250 pages isn’t long enough.
We’re working on it!
Keep the suggestions and the success stories coming!
Our Cat! writers are the smartest, most engaged, most success-oriented out there and I am so proud of all the hard work and great breakthroughs you are reporting.
Keep at it…. and keep us posted!
Blake Snyder
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Dear Blake,
My name is Hope Tarr, I am a multi-published romance novelist, and I was one of the many writers who attended your “Save the Cat” workshop at the Romance Writers of America Conference in San Francisco last week. To sum up my impression in one beat–Wow! Or in three beats: W-O-W. :)
Like many novelists, the notion of adapting my work to a screenplay has crossed my mind not once but many times. Thanks to your workshop, I feel as though the question mark has disappeared from the equation. Now I don’t only feel that this is “maybe doable” but instead definitely feasible.
I am off to amazon.com to buy your book because the on-site bookstore at RWA was sold out. No surprise there. You were superb.
You’re going to find a way to raise the page count? I’m all over that.
Your workshop was fabulous. Definitely worth getting up for on Saturday morning. Thank you so much for coming to RWA!
Living in Ohio (not the entertainment capital of the world) I’ve yet to make a “live” pitch”. After reading both of your books, It was clear to me that my scripts aren’t ready to show off at this time. Once I’ve completed some much needed re-writes, I plan to hit LA with both barrels blazin’!
Wish me luck
I’m off to film school in 13 days. Hopefully graduating in four years on the road to becoming a director/screenwriter. I will definately pick up the ‘STC! Software’! I am so horrible at pitching movies. But I have confidence that Betty’s solution will be mine as well! =]
Thanks to Betty & Blake for everything!
Anybody else have any ideas on how to pitch a movie?
Miss you, Blake. Thanks for everything!