“When I was an executive at MGM, I was dying for that next person to come in the door and have a piece of material that I could use or purchase. Finding a quality piece is actually really hard.”
Stephanie Palmer
The past couple of days I’ve been involved in various meetings, emails, and phone calls regarding a video project featuring three former NFL players. Ever since reading Stephanie Palmer’s book Good in a Room back in 2008, there hasn’t been a meeting I’ve attended where I haven’t been aware of her basic principles. What I like about Stephanie’s work is the cohesiveness of her message– “How to sell yourself (and your ideas) and win over any audience.” You won’t be 100% successful, but that’s a good goal.
As the former Director of Creative Affairs for MGM Stephanie not only has film development and production experience, but she’s been featured on The Today Show, NPR, the Los Angles Times, Script Magazine and spoken at Google’s San Francisco office. Earlier this year she started a blog on her website. Here are a few links that I hope you find helpful:
5 Ways To Pitch Like Ron Howard
What David Simon’s Pitch for “The Wire” Can Teach US About How to Sell An Original Idea
How Screenwriter Evan Daugherty Scored a $3.2M Payday for “Snow White and the Huntsman”
The Original Pitch for “The Break Up”
On the Good in a Room website you can also sign up for the free course 7 Days To Create A Better Pitch For Your Screenplay. Here’s an example of the course from Day 5 on writing a one-sentence pitch.
“I recommend using the following formula with five elements:
‘My story is a (genre) called (title) about (hero) who wants (goal) despite (obstacle).’
This may seem limiting, but by using these five elements in this order, when you begin testing your pitch, you’ll be able to identify which of the five elements people like or don’t like.”
Stephanie Palmer
Check out her book, blog & website if you’d like to improve being “good in a room.”
Related posts:
Learning to Be Good in a Room (part 1) — An interview I did with Stephanie back in ’08 when her book first came out.
Learning to Be Good in a Room (Part 2)
The Inside Pitch (Insights from WME Story Editor Christopher Lockhart)
Screenwriter/Salesman Pete Jones (A great example of being good in a room)
Scott, thank you for this informative post about Stephanie Palmer and her work.
Scott. Just finished watching Stephanie Palmer’s Google presentation. Thank-you so much. Very timely, relevant and uniquely explained information.
Reblogged this on mypenandme and commented:
Excellent video by Stephanie Palmer.
Reblogged this on velvetmedia and commented:
Interesting ideas from Stephanie Palmer
Thanks, that’s really useful x