Speaking of scriptwriting, the Great American PitchFest is coming up. I was wondering if any of you or your writing brethren have attended this and had either a positive or negative experience. It sounds like one of those grand frenzied writing affairs that could be helpful or otherwise completely shady. I have heard no independent feedback on it other than a dubious "Cattle call. The odds are very small that you can get interest from an agent or producer in five minutes. There are better ways to spend your money to get a query letter out to these people. Don't get me wrong, I know some people who got requests from it and other pitch fests but the odds are stacked up against you," from screenwriter Joe Calabrese.

Another reader says, on the other hand, "About the Great American Pitchfest, I have attended one of the Canadian events. I'm certainly attending the LA event. It's not a grand, frenzied writing affair. It's more like an educational, eye opening, networking event which includes opportunities to pitch material to the big guys. The odds are, that if you don't attend an event like this, you'll never know exactly what your chances are. Anyone with an idea ready to pitch, should attend a pitch fest."

I received some additional anonymous feedback on the fest:

True pitchfests are cattle calls - (think speed dating) True your chances are slim - but the fact is that every producer and agent that I know who attends them is seriously seeking good scripts and wants to give access to new talent.

The thing about a pitchfest - that is missing from queries - is that the producers/agents get a chance to actually meet you - and this is very important. Pitching is as much about YOU as it is about your script - maybe moreso.

My agent has set-up pitch meetings for me with producers who he knows would not be right for a particular spec that I'm shopping - solely to give me the opportunity to meet them in person so they can see what I'm about - the development process requires a certain amount of face-to-face time and producers like to work with people that they like.

And I can say from experience that there's alot of truth to this because I recently got a writer for hire gig writing a project that is in a genre I have never written before - on paper I was not the obvious candidate - but the producer liked me and my ideas for his project.

The suggestion that you can't get interest from a an agent or producer in five minutes is the antithesis of the reality of Hollywood - if you can't get someone interested in reading your script in five minutes - then you can't get them interested period. Ideally you should be able to get someone to want to read your script off a logline - that's like 25 words (less than 30 seconds).

As for the idea of a pitching workshop - I highly recommned it whether it's free or not. Your logline and your ability to pitch are your two most important marketing tools - you will need these tools even after your represented and produced.

I am not suggesting that everyone should attend a pitchfest - but it is probably one of the best uses of your marketing dollars. And as for mediabistro they are an established, highly respected organization in the publishing world in NY and are devoting a lot of time and energy to establishing themselves in Hollywood as well.

Other thoughts? Send them in.