The Pitch

I had dinner with Chris Rasmussen the night before the pitch meeting for Round 3 of Scary Cow. I had wanted to get him involved with the project—not only because of his amazingly bright and buoyant energy, but also because he had a special skill—underwater cinematography. The day I met Chris at the first Scary Cow screening, I knew he was a person I wanted to get to know. That day, he handed me his business card, with the title “Deep Sea DP”. I remember thinking that it sounded like a cool idea, probably useful mostly within the context of marine documentaries. Then, when I got the inspiration to do Sagar, I knew I wanted him on board. The song was, after all, about the ocean, and what good would the ocean be if you didn’t dive in? On the other hand, I knew that Chris was very busy and would only commit himself to projects he strongly believed in.

We chatted over Chinese food for a long time, mostly about things other than my project. As always, we had fun hanging out, but part of me couldn’t help being nervous. Would he want to work on this project? Would the scheduling work out? Would we figure everything out by midnight tonight, the deadline for turning in my pitch?

Finally, we arrived back at my place. We sat down in my bedroom, and I played him the song. I’d been anticipating this moment—knowing that we liked each other, we wanted to work together in theory, and we both had a connection to the ocean. But would he relate to the actual music?

I pressed play on the CD player. Chris slowly closed his eyes. I could feel him sinking into that meditative space where he was hearing and feeling every note. For 5 and a half minutes, he let the melody overtake him. I watched him take his journey behind closed eyes. When the song was over, he returned to the room. I could tell from the huge smile on his face and the energy that was surging through every part of his body that he got it. He was on board.

He left me to my own devices, with just about an hour to figure out my pitch. I filled in all of the standard information—name, telephone number, title of the piece. When I got to the section where I was to describe what the piece was about, I drew a blank. How did I want to present this? What would be my selling points? What was this project about, really?

Time was running out. I had no idea what to say. Describing the whole story would take pages and hours. Finally, a few sparse but vivid words popped into my head. At 11:59 p.m., I turned in my pitch:

The open ocean. The desolate desert dunes. A soul-searching singer. A dancer on a quest. This parable, timeless and infinitely reborn, has kindly reincarnated itself in the landscape of my imagination. Set to the striking score of a Pakistani rock star, this story is simply begging to be told. All it needs is you.