The Art of the Soft Pitch
Breaking In and Staying In #6 - Getting the Right People In Your Corner Before You Pitch

If you want to read all of the posts in the Breaking In (and Staying In) series, check out the Breaking In page in the archives. You can also find all of my posts from Screenwriter Support, Exercises, and everything else. It doesn’t have to just live in your email!
Last week was a deep dive into Personal Recommendations. We covered a lot. Maybe I should have broken them into pieces a bit more, but here we are. What can I say? I got excited.
But if you’ve been following along each week, you’ve seen how all of these pieces build off of each other.
The key takeaway from last week that I want you to think about going into today’s reading is how important it is to get people invested in YOU rather than any one specific project of yours.
Hard pitching projects to strangers is an express ticket to the trash can. Ideas don’t build careers, the execution of ideas does.
With that in mind, I want to get into my favorite way to tee up a larger pitch after you’ve started to make some relationships with people.
They saw/read/listened to/VR-experienced/smelled? your calling card and are now interested in what you have to say as an artist and writer. Maybe you followed that up with a script that they were excited to read. Good for you!
Or maybe they are the kind of person you want to share a larger project with - something you’ve been developing that could use their help. You need to pitch something to them.
This is our transition over to the final step of the Wheel of Pain…
Step 4: The Pitch
Yes, it’s the final step, but this isn’t the final post. This is our transition step from 3 to 4, not the pitch itself.
Today is a play-by-play of one of my favorite tools/tips to share:
The Soft Pitch
What is a soft pitch? Think of it as the hook that gets someone interested in hearing the full (hard) pitch, because we have to get to the hard pitch at some point, right? That’s where you sell the project. That’s where they say a definitive yes or no,. That’s what we’ve been building to.
Where the Hard Pitch is fairly detailed and lays out the what/why/how of your project in a clear way, the Soft Pitch is focused on just the What and the Why.
A Hard Pitch is when you sit down in front of an executive and present your full film or TV series, maybe showing slides and pictures. Talk about tone and episodes and seasons and act twos and big twists and resolutions - you know, laying it all out there.
A Soft Pitch is a tease - the premise and just a little bit more of what that looks like and why it’s interesting/fun/dramatic to watch.
The goal isn’t to get them to say “I want to buy this because I know it’s fully developed and well thought out” but to say “That’s a really interesting start of something. I’d like to hear more!”
You could call it the Elevator Pitch, but to me that always felt like it meant a logline delivered in person. Maybe it’s just an outdated term or an outdated concept of how ideas are shared, but the way things work now, there are many steps to take before you get a chance to be in person.
Here’s how I like to get there with a Soft Pitch:
Make initial contact
Have the “general meeting”
Follow up and ask if you can send something for them to read
If they say yes, send a One Sheet/Teaser Pages - NOT a full bible/treatment/pitch (I’ve included some examples of my own one-sheets below)
If they like the One Sheet, set a meeting for the full pitch
Let’s break those down a bit more:
Make Initial Contact
This is what we covered last week, so I won’t go into detail.
If and when someone connects you to someone else (their boss, their friend, their mentor, their agent, their contact) with a recommendation, just focus on establishing the foundation of a casual and genuine relationship. This email is NEVER the time to pitch a project.
This email/DM/text thread/whatever is concise, and clear, and the focus is on finding out if this person would like to meet up and talk shop sometime to see if there’s a way to work on something together in the future. You aren’t trying to get a paycheck, you are trying to set a “general meeting.”
Have the General Meeting
The General Meeting: Zoom or in person - casual 30 to 60mins.
This isn’t a pitch meeting, it’s a general meeting. No specific project on the agenda - just meeting… in general.
Your goal is to get to know them, and their goal is to get to know you. That’s it.
Ask what this person enjoys making, what their dream project is, what they’re excited about. (Be interested in THEM, not just yourself).
Be ready to share what YOUR dream project is, where you see yourself in 5-10 years, and what you’re excited about working on right now.
If you have a project that aligns with what they say is their passion/dream/company mandate - mention the logline, but don’t hard pitch.
This meeting is about testing the waters, and it’s also a time to show them your genuine self. You are more important than any one project to these companies because you have a long and storied career ahead that they hope to be a part of many many times, not just once. Focus on why you love the work you love, and ask them why they love theirs.
Note: Sometimes they don’t love their work and the meeting is stale and boring. That’s okay. You won’t have enough time to work with everyone you meet. Most general meetings don’t lead to much, but the best ones create lasting friendships and working relationships for years to come.
Follow up and ask if you can send something for them to read
After your meeting, send a follow-up email to thank them for their time, and...
If you mentioned a project in the meeting, ask if it’s okay to send a ONE SHEET. Always ask before sending anything - don’t just send one unless they say yes.
Why? Because we want to give them lots of opportunities to say yes, and few to say no. It’s an easier “yes” to get because the stakes are lower. They are saying yes to reading something, not saying yes or no to making/buying/investing in that something. Just a read. They’ll usually say yes.
If you didn’t mention a project in the meeting, reach out when you have one that aligns with what they want to make. Ask if you can send them a logline, then if they like it, ask if you can send a One Sheet.
This is the “soft” part of the Soft Pitch… just adding a couple of polite asks before sending them homework.
Be respectful of their time and attention rather than assuming that they owe you their time to read something you send. ASK if they have the time to check it out. They will want to say yes, and if the answer really is no, then you’ve saved yourself some energy because they weren’t going to read it anyway.
If they say yes, send a One Sheet/Teaser Pages - NOT a full bible/treatment/pitch
What’s a One Sheet or Teaser Pages?
I’ve included some examples of a few I’ve put together in the past (they will be at the bottom of the page for paying subscribers to read).
Essentially the way I look at a One Sheet is not about page length, but about what information you are choosing to share in order to hook their interest.
In my opinion, these are the most powerful tool you can arm yourself with (if you aren’t already incredibly successful) because they can be shared widely by agents, producers, and up the ladder by executives without you having to take point, and the goal is to bring the right people back to you to hear more.
We used a one-sheet on a current (TBA) feature project that has already opened doors to pitch to some of my favorite directors and even landed on Steven Spielberg’s desk at Amblin. He said no. But hey, that’s a no from Steven Spielberg himself. Some of the greatest writers in the industry have been turned down by him, and now I can consider myself a peer in rejection. That’s radical optimism at work, friends.
If you’ve taken my pitch class, you know I’m big on Less is More. Say less, but what you say should evoke MORE. We want to light a fire in the reader’s mind when they read this one page, so they understand what this idea is and why it has legs. Don’t worry about how it all works, that comes later.
Each project’s One Sheet will look a bit different.
Our one sheet for a family sitcom called MAKING IT WORK is literally one page because the premise and characters are clear enough to understand what kind of show this is without much more detail. It’s character-driven and all builds off of a clear premise.
Our one sheet for an adult animated comedy about the societal pressures of being an overweight teenager (FAT KIDS) needs a bit more detail to express what that actually looks like episode to episode and character to character, so it’s actually four pages. Still efficient and to the point, but we cover a bit more ground to hook people enough to hear more.
Our one sheet for a dark comedy take on CAPTAIN PLANET is two pages. The premise is clear, but we needed a bit more time and space to clarify the tone.
Each one will be a bit different depending on what you’re trying to get across, so try it a few ways and get some notes. Pick the one that gets people excited, even if they have tons of questions.
Questions are good. Questions mean they are engaged and want to hear more… like the full pitch.
If they like the One Sheet, set the pitch
They liked the one sheet - that means this concept (and the very light idea of how you would execute things) is something they could see themselves making/buying/collaborating on.
Stop right here a second, because it’s worth recognizing that at this moment that when they like the one sheet and want to hear more… you have already received the hardest “yes” there is to get. Your foot is in the door. They like you enough to want to hear how you would make this project, they like the idea enough to want to hear the full pitch. They WANT to say yes to the full pitch. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t ask to hear it. This pitch is now yours to lose.
Okay, that sounds harsh. But think about it from the other side. They’ve already said yes, so long as you can show them you have a steady hand in the execution of the idea.
That’s where the full pitch comes in. The Hard Pitch. The pitch where a yes or no is final and you don’t get any more shots.
We’ll talk more about that next week.
For those of you who support the newsletter with a monthly or yearly paid subscription (thank you!) I’ve attached the examples of one-sheets I mentioned at the very bottom.
Have some thoughts to add about Soft Pitching? Join the Discord or leave a comment below and let’s talk!
Next week:
Let’s talk about the major headlines of pitching and a few tips to keep in mind as you build out your full pitch.
And big thanks to Josh Blake for making an illustration for this series! You can see his work at Gallery 1988 and on his website www.joshsethblake.com
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