Screenwriting : Breakthrough! by Baljinder Singh Gill

No, I haven't sold or optioned one of my scripts. However, after 7 years of learning my craft I've finally got somewhere. So if your comfortable and sitting by your fire with a cup of coffee or tea or whatever beverage you indulge in, I'll begin... Just over a month ago I pitched a couple of projects via the happy writers online pitch sessions which Joey heads. Keep a note of this name; Joey. He pops up regularly in this tale. The pitches were in written form and behold one of the scripts was requested. The company in question is a very well known agency and indeed from my point of view it's an agency that I would love to be represented by as it has a solid reputation of keeping a small client list as compared to other agencies and they really work with their talent to help and nurture their career to being a success. A couple of weeks later I got some feedback off Joey. I was surprised that they got back to me so quickly as usually it can take anything up to a couple of months. Anyhow, they liked the script but were passing on it. Boo hoo! However, they liked my writing and voice and Joey managed to persuade them to have a meeting with me. A date and time was agreed for the Skype meeting which was approx. 2 weeks away. During that time I didn't sleep well, was nervous, but not the sh** your pants type nervous but excitedly nervous. I finally had an opportunity to sell myself to the industry. The day before the meeting, Joey prepped me via Skype and he really put my mind at ease. In short it was going to be a conversation and what was just as important as talking about my writing would be to develop a friendship. The agent had to feel comfortable with me and I fully understood this. He had to feel that not only could we work together but that if he put in a room with a load of other creative executives I could develop relationships with them. We keep on hearing that it's a peoples industry and here was the proof. On the day of the meeting I decided to just be myself. I wasn't going to be a robot. No. I've always been good with people having worked in customer facing roles all my life so why change? I didn't rehearse anything, didn't go over all my scripts trying to memorise stuff. I was just going to be me. The Skype call came. I was polite and thanked the agent for taking time out to speak to me, it was Sunday after all! Having got the pleasantries out of the way he moved onto my script and I was overjoyed to hear how much he loved it. It didn't really appear to me that he actually passed on the project. The agent represented a hole host of acting talent, and he felt my characters were very cast able, especially the protagonist and the other two main characters. Take note here folks. Write characters that A list talent will fight over to play. Can you see Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Emily Blunt etc wanting to play your characters? He was very complimentary about my writing saying it was better than 98% of the stuff flying around! What a confidence boost this was for me. We discussed the script in a little more detail and we both felt that the project had franchise potential. He then asked what other stuff I'd written. Take note again folks. I've subscribed to a few webinars and labs on Stage 32, and I recall this point being raised. You better have other scripts that are MARKET ready. Yes I had written 8 scripts in total but we only briefly talked about 4 of them, as they were the only ones that were ready to go. Yes I had written more but I didn't mention them. As much as it pained me I knew they had little or no chance of being made and were part of my journey to get me to where I was in this meeting. I think he liked a few of the other scripts we talked about and was particularly interested in a TV pilot I had. Take another note here. Have at least one TV pilot in your portfolio. I could see the meeting was coming to an end I didn't want it finishing with me just rattling on and I popped my only question to him with regards to me living in England. Was I at a disadvantage because I wasn't based in L.A? An unequivocal no was the answer. He had clients as far as field as Sweden. Great. The meeting ended and he said he'd get back to Joey with feedback. In total it lasted 21 mins. That night I couldn't sleep, as you can imagine. What did he think about me? Did I talk too much? Did my big black beard put him off? Did I big time mess it up? Yesterday ( 4 days after the meeting), Joey emailed me saying that the agent wanted to read my TV pilot and that the meeting went well. Phew! I hope by sharing this experience it can help my fellow screenwriters. If you've got any questions just post them here or message me and I'll get back to you with my limited wisdom. Oh, and this opportunity only came about because Joey set the meeting up off his own back and subsequently followed it up. All above and beyond the call of duty. Cheers Joey, nuff respect!