SDCC Day the First, pt. 2
As I had mentioned before, the first panel we went to was Racebending.com’s panel on diversity in the media. By diversity they mean different genders, races, ages and sexualities. It was quite the enlightening panel to hear some of the things that writers have been told. It was both interesting and sad to hear some of the experiences that people have had with marketing and selling non-white (and sometimes non-male) protagonists to television producers and networks. They also talked about how it’s difficult to write romance novels that are non-white in origin, especially when it comes to the African-American community. African-American romance novels always wind up in a specialty section instead or being put on the shelf along with “standard” romance novels. It was an interesting conversation and an enlightening panel.
After that was off to my first pitching panel. Comic Con does not clear rooms between panels, I can see that as being both beneficial and a pain at the same time. I’ll go into more detail on that for day 2 as that becomes a bigger issue.
Before actually getting to attend the pitching panel, I got to sit in on the panel before it. It was the panel for the movie “American Mary”. I must say the directors were actually pretty funny to listen to. They were joking around a lot while talking about a horror movie. The part of the panel I saw (which I’m pretty sure was almost the entire panel) was actually quite funny. The movie sounds like it might be interesting. More than anything, the two girls are intelligent and funny horror directors. I love to hear directors who are capable of talking about film intelligently.
Then came the first pitching panel of the weekend. This panel gave you insight on how to pitch to… well… almost everyone in the media world. From video games to children’s TV, from movies to comics, they all had someone there. They also had some to represent the legal side and an agent. I was surprised. I’m not a huge fan of business law. I actually tend to find it quite dull. However, I did enjoy listen to the entertainment lawyer talking about Intellectual Property (IP). There was quite a bit I didn’t know about IP. Of course, it also varies between different types of entertainment. Having a manager there was incredibly useful as she was able to talk about how to go about getting representation. I found the information that I got in the panel invaluable. It also taught me some things that were never really taught about when I was in screenwriting classes.
Racebending: http://www.racebending.com/
American Mary: http://www.twistedtwinsproductions.net/americanmary.htm