House Rules
YOU GET
ONE FIRST
IMPRESSION.
They decide in ten seconds. Everything after is you defending a verdict already reached.
Say it once. Mean it.
Certainty is quiet. If you have to raise your voice the idea is doing none of the work.
SET THETONEFROM P1.
Page one is not a warm-up. It is the film in miniature, before anyone has agreed to make it.
SHOW.DON’T TELL.
Describing a feeling is not causing one. Put them inside it or don’t bother.
EVERYPAGEISOFTHEFILMWORLD.
The document is not about the film. It is the first thing the film makes.
Scripts change.Concepts don’t.
Lines get rewritten on the day. The thought underneath survives every note, every round.
ONEIDEA CAN WIN A PITCH.
Not ten good ones. One that is impossible to unsee. The rest is padding you paid for.
If you’re boring, they’re bored.
Boredom is the only unforgivable note.
Write it so it sells
without you.*
*It gets read in a room you are not in. It has to argue its own case.
YOU GET
ONE LAST
IMPRESSION.
The last page is what they carry into the decision. Land it, or the first nine were decoration.