17d • General discussion
Zoom Pitch Meeting with David Stem + Pitch Notes
Great to meet you guys.
Here's some thoughts I want to leave you with about story development and pitching:
Key Takeaways
At their heart, great stories are about what your character is avoiding dealing with emotionally. And the story comes along to kill or heal them.
Start with the Lie, Not the Logline
Your character's lie IS your story. It's not backstory or character development—it's the entire engine.
Think about the greats:
Tony Soprano believes he can compartmentalize—be a family man and a killer. The panic attacks that open the series? That's his body telling him the lie is breaking down. The entire show is the universe saying "you can't have it both ways."
Walter White believes he's doing it for his family. That's the lie that lets him avoid confronting his real wound—being humiliated, overlooked, cheated out of Gray Matter. The meth empire isn't about providing for his family. It's about finally feeling like Somebody. By the end, he admits it: "I did it for me."
Woody in Toy Story believes his worth comes from being Andy's favorite. When Buzz arrives, that lie gets attacked, and Woody has to discover that love isn't about being chosen—it's about choosing to show up for others.
Graham Hess in Signs lost his wife in a senseless accident. His lie? That the universe is random and meaningless, so faith is pointless. The entire alien invasion is structured to prove to him that nothing is random—that his wife's dying words, his daughter's water glasses, his son's asthma, his brother's failed baseball career—it all means something.
Their emotional avoidance drives the story, not the other way around.
Here's Why That Is:
Wound → Lie → Small Life
This is your character's trajectory before the story begins:
- The Wound: What hurt them? Tony's mother. The death of Graham Hess's wife. Walter White's humiliation at Gray Matter.
- The Lie: What false belief did they adopt to protect themselves?
- The Small Life: What limited existence are they living because of that lie?
Max mentioned his mom's line about feeding her kids the same things and reading them the same stories but getting different people—that's the wound of birth order and family dynamics. It creates different lies for different siblings, even in the same household.
Basic Good Story Structure
Act 1: Character lives their lie
Act 2: Universe attacks the lie
Act 3: Character learns the truth (or doubles down and tragic-endings themselves)
The inciting incident isn't "something happens to the character"—it's "something happens that threatens to expose their lie."
Make Me Feel Something in 60 Seconds
When you pitch, I need to feel what your character feels and why it matters.
When you can articulate the tension between what a character believes and what the world is forcing them to confront—I feel that immediately. That's a good pitch.
Every Movie Requires World Building
Even if it's the world of a 1950s ping pong hustler in New York. Or the Lego Movie. Every movie should feel specific, even if set in middle America. Again, see Signs.
Stop Explaining, Start Inhabiting
Justin mentioned his story was inspired by the loss of his father. That brief moment had more emotional truth than most full pitches because it was real. When you're developing your story, live in that emotional space first. Let your character be confused, angry, trapped. Feel their emotions, then transmute that into magic like Big Fish, the Lego Movie, etc.
The Real Work
Let what you're afraid of exploring and real emotion be a compass for your journey, especially in your pre-treatment blue sky phase—that's where you figure out what your story is actually about. There should be moments when you think, "Oh shit, can my character really do this?"
Executives don't know they're looking to feel something. They just know when they do.
Your job isn't to tell a clever story. It's to make someone feel something they recognize from their own life, even if it's wrapped in trekking to Mordor or whatever genre mechanics you're using to deliver it.
Keep pushing. You're all onto something.
— David
1:15:30
2
2 comments
Zoom Pitch Meeting with David Stem + Pitch Notes
powered by
Suggested communities
Powered by