Part 1 - The Screenwriting Panel

As I mentioned earlier, I sat in on a screenwriting panel last week at The Academy of Art College.

If you want to sell your screenplay to Hollywood, one way is to go before a screenwriting panel. Basically, you have two minutes to pitch your screenplay before two to four Hollywood types either coming from film studios or production companies.

It's basically a two minute sales pitch where you tell them enough to get them interested enough in your movie to give you their contact information. The screenwriting panel has the opportunity to ask you questions, but then your time is up and they boot you out.

Most screenwriting expos have them, and there will be an opportunity at the end of the January in the SF Bay Area to pitch your movie. The whole process reminded me of an audition, although not as intense. At least you're selling a product like a movie, and not yourself as actor to play a role.

In a screenwriting panel, you sit and it's almost conversational and you actually get to see the people. In some theatre auditions, it's just you alone on stage and your reviewers are sitting in the audience and you can't see them.

There's a line of people, you get about five minutes to pitch your movie, they yell next, and then you leave and the next person gets a turn. And some places are very strict about time. If you talk too much and you're not done, tough luck, you're history.

One of the guys on my panel went to LA two weeks where he paid $25 every time he pitched to a pane. He ended up getting 11 Hollywood types who said they would read his script.

Now it's not a guarantee of a sale, or you might not even get feedback so you can improve. The guy I mentioned heard within two days after sending his script out, that a couple people weren't interested. They didn't say why, just no thank you.

It's a brutal process, but going before a screenwriting panel is one of the few ways an amateur without an agent can sell a script to Hollywood.

And screenwriting is just like acting. Everyone wants to do it, and the competition is stiff. Everyone thinks they can act, and everyone thinks they can write a better movie than the ones they've seen.

I spoke to my brother this morning and he's Mr. Extremely Frugal, but in this situation I think he's going a bit too far. So my brother is flying to Florida to pick up a BMW that he's buying from a friend. Then he and another friend are driving the BMW cross country to LA, and shipping it to Hawaii.

I'm like, why go all the way to the other side of the country to buy a BMW and have it shipped across the ocean. Okay, I can understand maybe wanting to drive cross country in a car but then shipping the car home? Maybe the BMW is like some tricked out luxury car that he's buying for a totally insanely cheap price, but then what about shipping costs?

But I'm the big sister and like my life is any better so I say, "Great, have a fun drive!"

I still haven't gotten around to getting a christmas tree, but I bought everything else instead.

I bought a two foot poinsettia, it's more of a bush than a plant, for the living room. I also bought a tiny poinsettia for my bedroom. For the pinetree smell, I bought a christmas pine wreath. The wreath is sitting on my coffee table and gives off that nice pine scent.

I've also strewn christmas decorations on every available surface. I might not have a christmas tree, but I've got a ton of christmas decorations around the place right now.

I got up at 7 am this morning, turned on the TV and watched as Tom Brokaw announced that there was special news. For a moment my heart stopped thinking of 9/11, but instead he announced that Sadam Hussein was captured.

Is it really him? I thought the guy had three doubles, or was dead. Where the heck did he get $750K in US cash? And the most important question, what happens to him now?
War crimes tribunal? What about his two sons? What happened to them? Are his people going to try and rescue him, and we get a scene like in the movie "SWAT"?