After an exciting first week that culminated with a sit-down talk with writer/producer Ali Waller and a trip to the Warner Bros. Studios, week two began with tons of new knowledge to apply to our burgeoning project pitches. By Monday, everyone had locked down the stories they wanted to tell, and now we needed to learn how to package them in an effort to sell them to producers or studio heads. We looked at the pitch deck used by the Duffer Brothers back when Stranger Things was nothing more than a few slides in a presentation. We also looked at the show bible for New Girl and learned that we aren’t just presenting the best version of our ideas, but we also must learn to present the best of ourselves. Fortunately, we were able to get a little help through all this from actor/composer/writer Michael Cassady as he visited to tell us about how he started in LA and his new kids’ show and sci-fi epic he’s developing at different production companies.

— Entertainment & the Media seminar 2019