Shortly after I wrote my last post on pitching a story, I stumbled upon this great article on Blake Snyder’s Save The Cat blog, called “The Most Common Pitch Meeting Mistake“.
Pitch consultant Stephanie Palmer writes that you should not tell the decision-makers in a pitch meeting how they should feel about your story. And I totally agree. Saying something like ““Everyone is going to want to see this”, or “This is the best thing you’ll read this year” makes you look arrogant and annoys the people in the room.
I want to add that I often read sentences like these in written form in pitch papers. I am sure that the writers mean well – they want to get across that they have done their homework and know how to position their project in the market. But it always comes across in a wrong and sometimes even embarrassing way. So please avoid this. Thank you.
P.S.: I also checked out Stephanie Palmers website Good In A Room, which is a really great resource about pitching in the film industry. For example her post structuring a pitch meeting – really good advice.