I’ve been to my share of conferences, seminars, workshops, and festivals. They can be a great place to network, get inspiration, or promote your work. They are not, however, your opportunity to pitch your screenplay to that famous director, producer, studio exec, or agent.

We just recently attended the Biola Media Conference. It was a great conference for Christians in the film industry. I highly recommend attending next year. One workshop we attended had Ralph Winter (producer of the X-Men movies and this weekend’s Wolverine) on the panel.

During the Q&A at the end, one guy asked if he could pitch his project to him afterword. Ralph played it off jokingly, but as soon as the workshop ended there was a line of people waiting to meet him that ran to the back of the room.

Now I’m sure they all weren’t pitching him projects. Heck, I even shook Ralph’s hand later in the day. However, I’m sure there were several people in that line whose one goal in coming to the conference was to meet Ralph Winter and convince him of how brilliant their screenplay is. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Ralph didn’t sign onto any new projects at the conference. Not because there weren’t any brilliant scripts being passed around, but because that’s not how it works.

Any time I see this happen, I’m always reminded of a couple of verses in Proverbs.

6 Do not exalt yourself in the presence of the king,
And do not stand in the place of the great;

7 For it is better that he say to you,
“Come up here,”
Than that you should be put lower in the presence of the prince,
Whom your eyes have seen.

Proverbs 25:6-7

Now you may be asking, “How would you ever get to work with people in the Hollywood A-List if you don’t find some way to put yourself in front of them?”  Ah. I’m glad you asked. Scripture gives us the answer to that as well.

Do you see a man who excels in his work?
He will stand before kings;
He will not stand before unknown men.

Proverbs 22:29

There you have it.  Your goal is not to meet famous people and convince them to work with you.  Your goal is to make work so excellent that Hollywood notices and asks you to work with them. Now go enjoy your next conference without worrying about meeting that certain A-lister.  Once it’s over go home and work your butt off. Me? I’m hoping we sell so many copies of Dangerous Calling this year that we get invited to next year’s Biola Media Conference. I want Ralph to come up to us and say, “Are you the guys who directed Dangerous Calling? I LOVE your film.” Hmm.  I’d better get to work!

Any thoughts?