LOGLINES

Do you know your loglines? Could you pitch your work right now if you were asked to? Well you should be able to.

"I'm not very good at pitching," is not an excuse. It's one I've tried to use in the past, but I now realise it was just laziness because I didn't want to have to memorise all those loglines for my many projects. Yet that is exactly what I must do and have done recently. I never know when I might get the chance to pitch my loglines, so knowing them off by heart makes it easier to drop them into conversations when I do.

I've stuck to my most recent projects and tried to get a good mix of genres so I will always have something to pitch whatever the producer or director is interested in. If they suddenly tell me they are interested in sitcoms and all I have to pitch is crime dramas, it's going to be a very short, uncomfortable and potentially embarrassing conversation.

Look at it this way; if I'm not interested enough to learn the loglines of my projects why would anyone else be interested in hearing them? Producers, directors and agents don't want to listen to a babbling fool, they want to listen to someone who is passionate about their work and can communicate the essentials of the story in a relaxed and confident manner. To achieve this I've had to practice, practice and practice over the last few weeks until the point where I now believe I am confident enough to pitch my loglines to anyone at anytime.

A good tip is to get used to pitching your loglines to your partner and friends, anytime you can. They should be able to give you valuable, constructive feedback you can trust and you can use this to hone those loglines further. The more you practice the better you get. I've been pitching mine to my wife in bed at night, although I'm not exactly sure, "F*@K OFF AND GO TO SLEEP," could actually be classed as 'constructive feedback'.

Good luck with pitching your loglines.