Afterthoughts...

 A few more thoughts about the Pitchfest trainwreck.

First, for them to change the meeting sign up times on such short notice (two hours before!) the day of the event is some inexcusable nonsense! I have a life (as I would assume most writers attending pitchfest do); I'm not sitting at my computer, checking my email, hitting refresh all day!

And, literally, that is the only way I would have seen the change in sign-ups and been able to jump on it and get the meetings I want. 

also, correction on my last blog. They sent the adjusted/modified sign-up times at 5:35pm Central time (so 3:35pm Pacific time). I got Central and Pacific times confused when I wrote that post. So, they didn't notify us five minutes after the fact (after sign-ups went live), but they did give us less than 2 hours notice. 

Still malarkey, if you ask me.

Here is something else:

This was part of our latest update (#4) from pitchfest:

"High-Transmission of Covid
Currently in Los Angeles there is a high transmission of Covid. We do have some attendees who are immune compromised so it would be most appreciated if you wear a mask while standing in the standby line. If you are feeling ill or test positive for Covid this week, please email us so we can move your attendance to 2025." 

Yeeeeeeesh!

I'm sorry, but if this is case, instead of creating a super-spreader event and holding the event live and in-person, how about just make it virtual!

That seems sensible in so many ways!

Not just in the interest of public safety and health, but for the ease and comfort of everyone involved.

If it were purely virtual (as it was in 2022), writers (those not L.A. natives) would be more likely to attend, as they wouldn't have to pay for a flight, a hotel, pick out nice clothes (which is apparently expected of writers pitching, but not of the VIPs hearing the pitches), etc. But it would also benefit execs because they wouldn't even have to leave their offices. They could just sit at their desks and new ideas and potential clients would just come to them, virtually, via their computer (which they would probably be staring at for hours on end anyway).

Really, a win-win if you ask me.

At any rate, I received the following email this morning from the designated pitchfest contact (I'll withhold even his first name so as not to come across as petty, vindictive or incriminating. 

"Hi Erik,

Sorry about that - I can look into what happened here... but ultimately -- yes you can roll the unused credits over.  Everyone had 14 credits this year... not 15.  But roll over is an option.  I'll have to look into answer re your other questions"

 

Note: I can't help but point out the passive aggressiveness contained within that ellipses.  

It's patronizing, while at the same time self-righteous and pretentious.

I then replied:

"Thank you for checking into this for me.

And everyone else may have 14 pitches, but I'm nearly 100% certain I have 15 (I believe one was left over from a previous pitchfest)."

 

He replied:

"Hi Erik...

No, I understand the confusion, but the 15 credits from a past year is a "full event pass" -- this year a full event pass is 14 credits.  So that is what you have."

 

Note: Again, the ellipses (this time after my name... weird) and the snippiness. 

I replied:

"Well, so be it.

Please find out & respond ASAP about what happened with the sign-up (and then I used an acronym, in which one word stands for a vulgarity)."

 

Note: Notice how my aggressive and snippiness came only as reaction to attitude I was being given?

 

Later, I received this email:

"Here's the mailchimp record of when you opened your emails... it looks like you didn't open the email that had the 5:30pm start time until later that evening"

 

Note: Notice how he is putting it all on me (and providing evidence) and making it seem as if this is my fault?

This is my rebuttal:

"First, all of this neither here nor there because what's done is done. And I don't mean to beleaguer you with these emails, I just want you (and whomever does the Pitchfest planning at FadeIn) to see from the perspective of a writer how frustrating this situation is.

I know when I opened that email and I'm not denying that I got to the information too late.

What I'm asking is: why was the time switched to an hour earlier the day of sign-up?

When it is communicated to writers nearly a month in advanced (July 6th) what the sign-up time is (and most of us have marked that date and time on our calendars and seared it on our brains), to then change the time (to a whole hour earlier... when, in a situation like this, seconds count, as we fight tooth and nail for meeting slots) on the day of with less than two hours notice (the notice was sent at 3:35pm to notify writers that the time for sign-ups was then changed to 5:30pm) seems a tad discourteous and ill-planned.

We were told constantly to be logged in 20 minutes before sign-ups went live.

I was at my computer at 5:51pm (nearly 40 minutes before the time originally communicated to us).

But I was not checking my email throughout the day because I had things to do and I wasn't worried about missing the sign-up cattle call because I was going by the originally communicated time (with no prior indication that the time had been changed or would/could change).

Perhaps if we there were an addendum to all the updates sent, prior to July 31st, that read something like: "Online sign-up times may change, please check your email regularly the day of" (and if such a note was included in the updates, I will gladly apologize, recant and accept responsibility).

Or, if this time change was known in advanced, it could have been communicated to us in an earlier update.

Again, what's done is done. I would just like to know the reason for the abrupt time change that caused me to miss out on several meetings I was looking forward to, and to offer a perspective that might help avert future frustrations."

 

And I am leaving it at that, and not reading anymore responses, because it has been a day and I do not need any further drama, conflict or frustration.

 

On another note, we (the writers at Pitchfest) have been getting a barrage of email about extra virtual meetings with companies like Scott Free (Ridley Scott's company), Zero Gravity, 87North (the John Wick guys), etc.

 

None of them look appealing to me except  a Zoom meeting with One Community (the contact is someone named Saul) and they are looking for "Features - elevated horror, thriller, contained drama", I booked a Zoom, with them for 11:45am - 11:50 this coming Sunday. 

 

Wish me luck!