I’ve been lucky—well, not lucky, but it’s happened—to be on both sides of “pitching”: the guy sending emails out to get attention and help (for my scripts and films), and the guy receiving emails from aspiring composers, writers, directors, actors.
They sort of both suck.
It’s a larger topic I’ll have to address another time.
The important thing I’ve learned is not to take it personally when somebody blows me off.
When you receive these inquiries, the first thing you realize is you really can’t help anybody unless they are the exact right person with the exact right product/service for your exact need at the exact moment.
Needless to say, this is rare.
So most of the time, you spend a minute (or I do, anyway) to check out somebody’s reel, or story pitch, or headshot, or demo track.
Usually, they seem like perfectly nice people with some measure of craft, but because they don’t fill a need for me, it’s easy to say, “Hey, thanks, I checked it out, nice work, I’ll keep you in mind.”
Which is a blow-off but also the truth. I can’t invent a movie just to hire a stranger pitching me their composing service.
Hearing from somebody with real talent or a real credential is exceedingly rare. It does happen, and I’ve occasionally forwarded their info to people I thought could help.
So I pretty much backed off sending out these inquiries myself, knowing that most people won’t bother even to respond.
As I said, it’s a larger topic.
The big takeaway is that networking is absolutely essential...but it only works if you truly have actionable material.
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