Pitch Practice Makes Perfect: Producers’ Panel & Pitch Practice

Professional Development

The Writers Guild of America, East

Invites you to submit and attend

Producers’ Panel & Pitch Practice with Ilan Arboleda,
Alex Cirillo, Marc Lieberman, Rashidi Hendrix
and Julie Rottenberg

Hone your pitch with the help of experienced producers. In front of a live audience of Writers Guild members, up to six writers will have the opportunity to pitch producers Ilan Arboleda, Alex Cirillo, Marc Lieberman, Rashidi Hendrix and Julie Rottenberg. Each writer will be given constructive feedback and advice on moving their project forward. Members who are selected to pitch will receive a preparatory coaching session from HBO’s Development Team on April 29.

Alex Cirillo is a Producer and the Co-Founder of Big Vision Empty Wallet, a film and media incubator for film and series creators, and Big Vision Creative, a production company focusing on feature film and TV series development. Big Vision’s focus is to foster inclusion and develop unexpected content with women, people of color and LGBTQ creators. Cirillo recently produced A.M. Lukas’ One Cambodian Family Please for My Pleasure, which will be released on TNT and Refinery29 in 2018 as a part of their Shatterbox Anthology, with creative support from the Sundance Institute’s Women at Sundance Program.

Rashidi Hendrix is CEO of Metallic Entertainment and also the co-Executive Producer and showrunner for the highly-acclaimed second season of series We Are The Jones (BET). Before working on the series, he was the co-founder & Chief Content Officer for Laugh Radio, an award-winning streaming standup comedy platform. Hendrix joined Metallic Entertainment in 2010 as a Producer/Manager at Metallic Management where his clients included music artists and TV talent that produce & direct series like Criminal Minds (CBS) and NCIS:LA (CBS). Before Metallic Entertainment, Hendrix was a successful writer/producer who has worked on series Kitchen Nightmares (FOX), According to Him + Her (Centric), Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood (Oxygen), Hot Properties (HGTV), The Encounter (SYFY), MTV Awards (MTV), The Apprentice (NBC), Jimmy Kimmel Live! (ABC), Orange Is The New Black (Netlfix) and The Mo’nique Show (BET).

Marc Lieberman is President of Above Average, a digital-first entertainment company that creates and distributes comedy programming. Lieberman oversees creative development and production of original programming, as well as content distribution deals. Lieberman has overseen production for several series and specials, including Alec Baldwin’s Love Ride for truTV; Jingle Ballin’ with Liza Koshy for YouTube Red; and Thank You and Sorry with Jack Antonoff for Google Play/Sony Music Originals.

Julie Rottenberg started her career in New York as a playwright and sketch comedy writer before teaming up with lifelong friend Elisa Zuritsky. Together, they wrote for Sex and the City(where they earned three Emmy Award nominations and three Writers Guild Award nominations), Smash, Odd Mom Out (as Showrunners), and Divorce. They’re currently writing a feature film with Michael Showalter for Fox Searchlight. Julie has contributed humor, opinion, and entertainment features for publications including The New York Times, Slate, Real Simple, and Marie Claire.

This invitation is nontransferable.

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RSVP Cancellation Policy
Three-Strike Rule

We understand that unplanned issues can come up and you may need to cancel your attendance at an event. If that happens, you must provide adequate notice of your cancellation or else you will incur a late-cancellation penalty.

For evening events, you must cancel your reservation by 9:00am on the day of the event to avoid a penalty.

For mid-day events, unless otherwise specified, you must cancel with at least 24 hours’ notice to avoid a penalty.

Cancellations must be made by email; phone cancellations will not be accepted.

After missing three events without sending a cancellation notice to events@wgaeast.org within the defined window, you will be notified that you have been placed on a three-month hiatus from attending WGAE screenings.

Please note that is your responsibility to track your reservations and strikes. You will only be notified upon your third and final strike that you have been placed on hiatus.

Our priority is ensuring that our programming is robustly attended and accessible to all members. We hope this policy will enable us to better serve the needs of all members.