{"id":13078,"date":"2008-07-26T16:41:46","date_gmt":"2008-07-26T15:41:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/\/?p=292"},"modified":"2008-07-26T16:41:46","modified_gmt":"2008-07-26T15:41:46","slug":"third-cocktail-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/third-cocktail-question\/","title":{"rendered":"Third Cocktail Question"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-296 lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 150px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 150\/150;margin: 5px;\" title=\"cocktail-party ETBScreenwriting\" data-src=\"http:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/cocktail-party-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"cocktail-party ETBScreenwriting\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-296\" style=\"margin: 5px;\" title=\"cocktail-party ETBScreenwriting\" src=\"http:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/cocktail-party-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"cocktail-party ETBScreenwriting\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/noscript>Finishing up with the third cocktail question: &#8220;Would you like to hear a great idea for a movie?&#8221;\u00a0 For some reason, when people know you are a screenwriter they feel compelled to tell you their story or ask your opinion on their idea.<\/p>\n<p>As you are listening, realize you are sitting in the place of a beleaguered studio executive.\u00a0 What can you learn from this experience?<\/p>\n<p>Always listen to the idea carefully because it&#8217;s a great opportunity to learn two of the most valuable lessons about pitching.\u00a0 Pretend you listen to screenplay ideas for a living.<\/p>\n<p>First, notice the person isn&#8217;t nervous.\u00a0 They are simply sharing something that they are interested in and feel\u00a0 passionate about.\u00a0 They are hoping you will like the idea but the fun is in just communicating the it.\u00a0 That is the greatest lesson of pitching.\u00a0 Don&#8217;t go into a pitch meeting with the expectation or desire to sell the pitch.\u00a0 Just enjoy sharing your story.\u00a0 That goes a long way in eliminating nervousness.\u00a0 Have fun.\u00a0 Make it fascinating cocktail conversation.<\/p>\n<p>Second, keep it short and punchy.\u00a0 You want a strong opening, a series of interesting complications and a satisfying payoff.\u00a0 That&#8217;s it.\u00a0 Any more than ten to fifteen minutes is overkill.\u00a0 Einstein once said&#8221;\u00a0 &#8220;If you can&#8217;t explain it briefly and simply, you don&#8217;t understand it well enough.&#8221;\u00a0 And he was talking about physics!\u00a0 The best thing you can get anyone to say in a meeting is: &#8220;Tell me more.&#8221;\u00a0 Then you have permission and the interest and attention to elaborate.\u00a0 You don&#8217;t want someone looking at the watch and thinking:\u00a0 &#8220;Get to the point already.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Isn&#8217;t that what anyone wants in a cocktail conversation:\u00a0 A fun story that is mercifully short.\u00a0 Get in. Get out.\u00a0 Leave them wanting more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Finishing up with the third cocktail question: &#8220;Would you like to hear a great idea for a movie?&#8221;\u00a0 For some reason, when people know you are a screenwriter they feel compelled to tell you their story or ask your opinion on their idea. As you are listening, realize you are sitting in the place of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,78],"tags":[27,28,30,32,33,37,39,40,451,41,70,71],"class_list":["post-13078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-random-thoughts-pop-culture-political-movie-television-blog","category-writing-tips-tricks-advice-help-script-screenplay-screenwriting-blog","tag-emotional-toolbox","tag-etb","tag-film","tag-laurie-hutzler","tag-movies","tag-screenwriting","tag-scripts","tag-scriptwriting","tag-stupid-questions","tag-tv","tag-writing-advice","tag-writing-tips"],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",960,720,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-300x225.jpg",300,225,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-768x576.jpg",768,576,true],"large":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",960,720,false],"ttshowcase_normal":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",125,94,false],"ttshowcase_small":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",75,56,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",960,720,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",960,720,false],"Image Size 500x500":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",500,375,false],"woocommerce_thumbnail":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-300x400.jpg",300,400,true],"woocommerce_single":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-600x450.jpg",600,450,true],"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-100x100.jpg",100,100,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Laurie Hutzler","author_link":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/author\/admin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Finishing up with the third cocktail question: &#8220;Would you like to hear a great idea for a movie?&#8221;\u00a0 For some reason, when people know you are a screenwriter they feel compelled to tell you their story or ask your opinion on their idea. As you are listening, realize you are sitting in the place of&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13078"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}