The Pitch – John Reeves and Jan Sardi

John Reeves is a TV writer. He has done shows like Holly’s Heroes, Saddle Club and the Flying Doctors.

Jan Sadi has written a number of movie screenplays. He won Oscars for Shine, wrote The Notebook and is currently working on Mao’s Last Dancer.

I went to the Victorian Writers’ Centre evening: The Pitch – writing for screen and TV. A Writers’ Centre employee asked Jan and John to explain how to pitch an idea to a producer or TV studio. It went for over an hour, so I don’t want to put it all in here. But I got a lot of excellent information and thought it was worth sharing some of the more useful points. So here ‘tis:

• If you want to write good scripts, you have to watch good scripts. Immerse yourself in films. And to get a feel for screenplays, download scripts from major movies from the ‘Net. They’re everywhere.
• Start editing film. Editing film gives you a good idea of how a film/script works.
• Start writing scripts. A completed script or scripts demonstrates that you want to do it, that you can string two words together and that you have the wit to learn the craft.