Hollywood-speak
A guide to showbiz talk.
Pitch
Short for sales pitch. Pitching is one way that stories are purchased in Hollywood. In a pitch, a writer or producer will meet with a studio executive and sell him an idea for a story. Effective pitches are short and simple. Kosberg is known as one of the best pitchmen in Hollywood.
Spec Script
Scripts written without a commitment to be purchased are known as "spec" as in speculative. Thousands of spec scripts are written every year. This is another way that Hollywood buys stories. For example "Lethal Weapon" was written on spec.
Treatment
Rather than write a complete 120-page screenplay, some writers choose to write a 10-20 page treatment that describes their movie in a fair amount of detail. This is done as an interim step between a pitch and a spec script.
Coverage
Because of the huge volume of scripts submitted every year, studios hire "readers" to read and evaluate scripts. Their report, called coverage, is basically a synopsis of the story with a summary paragraph recommending that the script either be bought or turned down. In Hollywood a turn down is known as a pass. As in, "The coverage was brutal and they passed. Oops, this call's important. Bye!"
Package
Used as both verb and noun, the term reflects the business realities of Hollywood, which is avoiding risk while spending multimillions. Agencies and producers induce studios to fund their projects by bringing in a complete package of elements: a script, star actor, bankable director and so on. Sometimes Kosberg will get an actor or director interested and committed to an idea before pitching it.
Development
This is the process of taking a raw idea or even a draft of a script and getting it made into a film or TV show. Lots of ideas are put into development -- idea people earn option money, writers earn money to write screenplays, other writers earn money rewriting the previous drafts, etc. -- but only a few are actually produced. Millions get spent on development, which is why you have an opportunity to profit financially even if your idea never makes it to screen.
Studios
The major Hollywood film studios are Sony Pictures (formerly Columbia), MGM, Disney, Universal, Paramount, Warner Brothers and 20th Century Fox. Besides producing feature films, these companies produce television series and Movies of the Week for the networks and cable.
Production Companies
Actors, directors and producers often have private production companies that buy and develop ideas. Savvy creative people know that sustaining a career requires having good material. If they have enough clout, they can get a major studio to pay for the cost of running their production company (office space, salaries, etc.) in exchange for having the first crack at anything the company produces.
High Concept
High concept refers to ideas that can be explained simply and immediately understood. Read Good Ideas for a sampling of high concept ideas. Here's another: "Boy meets girl. Girl turns out to be a mermaid."
Although high concept is often a term of derision (rightly so in many cases) for dumb gimmick movies, it does not have to be so. "Failing actor disguises himself as an actress to get work." That is high concept. That is also "Tootsie."