If someone comes onto 'Dragons' Den' and annoys me, I'm going to tell them exactly what I think.
I was a 'Warcraft' player myself, and when I pitched my take on the film, they said right away, 'That is a player. That is the game.' So I've had their support from the very beginning.
The minute you start the process of deciding to make a film and you're communicating that vision to anyone, you're in the process of selling. If you don't understand that, you're not in show business. You're just not.
I say to my pupils, 'You can pitch me any thing you've got, but tell me why you're the only person who can write it in the world. Keep digging.'
Eventually, the state's funding covered only the stages leading to presenting a film project to potential funding bodies. It was enough to produce a script, indicate casting and put together a budget to present it all, but nothing beyond that.
As a producer, it's your job to bang on the table and convince studio heads why great movies should be made.
Trying to get somebody to read your script and you're a musician? That's the last person whose script you're gonna read!
When I was in drama development, you hear anywhere between 500 to 600 pitches a season, and you do feel like you hit the wall. But I will never say, 'No, I won't hear that.'
When you're pitching movies, sometimes you know what the idea is, but you fully don't know the dimensions of it.
Netflix is looking for interesting ideas from interesting creators. They really want to help me make the show I want to make.
You can't necessarily tell when watching at home, but those pitches are usually an hour long each, and many are emotional, hilarious, and inspiring.
What the entrepreneur gets on 'Dragons' Den' is direct access to people with masses of experience who can actually make quick decisions.
It's scary being in a room with producers and saying, 'Here's my idea,' when I'm scared to get shot down.
The green-light meeting, when I first started at Paramount, would consist of maybe three or four of us in a room. Perhaps two or three of us would have read the script under discussion.
I've tried to pitch 'Borgen - the Musical,' but they just won't listen to me!
The first challenge that every writer or creator of material faces is getting through the crowd so that the person you're trying to sell it to hears the pitch and is able to respond to it.
Basicly what I had to do was do a 7 minute board and pitch it to a room of big wigs from the network and based on that they determined if I would get a short or not.
If I'm an entrepreneur and I have an idea, and I don't have the development talent around me but I need to find a developer, I would do my selection just like I would with hiring an employee.
Nowadays, to get a movie greenlit, you have to make an incredible effort.
You sell a screenplay like you sell a car. If someone drives it off a cliff, that's it.
I've an idea for doing a Situation Comedy myself but its always difficult to get people to listen to you because they like to put their own ideas forward.
When you're facing an investor or the institutions or a distributor, it's you yourself with your own ideas and your own project.
If you're pitching to investors for the first time and expecting them to be so blown away by how thoroughly amazing your pitch is that they write a check on the spot - well, prepare to be disappointed.
I can help you shape your sitcom, I can help you think about what could make your sketch show better, but it won't help you get you a commission.
From pitch perspective, the more you wear your idea, the more it fits you and your comfortable with it, the easier it is for somebody like me to say tell me more.
