Have you seen the show called "The Pitch"?

This is a "reality" show on AMC--DVR it if you can. In each episode, two ad firms vie for the same project.

You can see the creativity in action--or see the process stall.

I am a product namer, but I never worked for an ad firm. I love this, though--it brings back old memories.

It is also fun and snarky. In one episode, the product to be pitched is a women's facial hair remover called Fuzz Off.

One firm is two metrosexual men, one especially so with obsessive hair issues, the other a sort of snooty Asian guy. No women, although they agonize over whether to bring a young blond intern to the pitch to get the women's angle in there. Gee, that wouldn't be a token, would it?

The other firm is almost all women, run by a mad genius type guy who lost his money in some murky backstory and lives at the office.

The women team brainstorms in one room. The two-men company disdains that and has people work separately. But I notice they eventually BS (funny how those initials came out) in one room.

Both pitches make female mustaches sort of larky and funny--just get rid of it, no worries. Both are asked to incorporate social media, FB, video. That is the new way now.

Another episode is for a company that replaces all your electronics if they break--eek, my phone! It's basically a warranty company--how sexy is that?

The two firms are an older one, serious, almost grim (also no women), and a loosy-goosy new viral video company--all big talk and I wonder how much marketing or ad training (no women). They made a funny video, though.

Both spend three days of their week getting...nothing. Then the client comes over and says, you have nothing. So they get serious.

No matter how much new media is involved or how people have "changed," you still need to listen to the client, find the big idea (although this is mentioned way too often for me), and execute.

You may fall in love with a quirky angle and think it's "big"--but it may not be anything the customer cares about.

In a pitch, think client--but also think sales.

Plus--smile. These young people troop into the client's office as if they were coming to bury their pet dog.

Goldilocksing the coffee...

According to a story by Amy Westervelt (WSJ, Aug 19, 2013), two engineers, David Jackson and Dave Petrillo, were talking about phase change materials.

These are substances that, like water, change based on temperature.

At the same time, Jackson was trying to make a perfect latte--first it would be too hot, or he would have to put it in the microwave to make it too hot.

The two were thinking along the same lines--why not make a phase change product to keep coffee at the perfect temp?

They started tinkering with Coffee Joulies--metal cubes about the size of ice cubes filled with phase change stuff.

When place in hot coffee, the Joulies cool it to 140 degrees F. As the coffee cools, the beans release that heat keeping it drinkable for five hours.

With the help of Kickstarter, they perfected the materials and launched in upstate NY. Last year, they did $1.4 million in sales.

They now work on Joulies full-time, but are still thinking and inventing. All that caffeine can't hurt.

Wah--where is my flying car?

I love mid-century modern furnishings. I have a Jetson's coffee table--orange, of course. I cowrote a script about Raymond Loewy, the renowned industrial designer.

But where are all the future things I was promised? I saw a story about a drone that delivers food to your table in a restaurant. This is not a flying car!

Jennifer Forker, Arizona Republic, Aug 4, 2013, writes about a book by Gregory Benford called The Future That Never Was.

Basically he says just because something CAN be built does not mean it SHOULD be or WILL be.

There are personal flying devices--they just aren't much use or much good.

One idea that flopped was plastic furniture--I mean, all plastic--you would clean house with a hose.

Not comfy. Also maybe a little soggy.

We do have picture phones--Skype.

We have smart homes that you can regulate from afar--but they can be hacked or maybe even lock you in. I once wrote about NASA's House of the Future--and the people who lived in it to test it liked the dishwasher best--they didn't have one at home.

Future models of Google Glass, the eyeglass computer, will have facial recognition--you can walk around a party and everyone's name and digits will come up before you talk to them.

Pretty soon, futurists say, we can skip the glasses and interface with our brain.

Stalker's Paradise.

Look out! Here comes my burger! Duck!

By the way, what happened to "futurists"--we used to hear more about them.

Screenwriting: Breaking all the rules

Twenty years ago, I sort of stumbled into screenwriting, then embraced it in a big way. With writing partners, I wrote five feature-length scripts, one of which, SWIM FOR THE HORIZON, a family dramedy, was optioned to be a Movie of the Week. The deal fell apart, as such deals almost always do. This is a heartbreaker, this business. Someone said you have more of a chance of winning the Powerball.

I spent 15 years chasing the dream. I ran the DC screenwriting group for 10 years. I even wrote and then-co-produced a short that won a Telly and showed in NY and LA. Then I had to move to take care of my mother in Arizona.

A few years ago, I dreamed a script--the first night's dream was the High Concept--Law & Order but animated with animal cops, a wolf and a bee. The second night, in a dream, the title was suggested: PAW & ORDER.

I made some notes and put it away. A year ago, my mother, 95, left the planet.

Now, I have dragged out the notes---hmmm, not bad. Did I write this?

I fluffed up the notes into a 12-page sort of "pitch." No one does this. Against the rules. You need to pitch in person or write a 40-pp treatment or just use a two-sentence log line.

Also, I am way too old to be a screenwriter--and I am not a guy. Against the rules.

Oh, so what--what do I have to lose? My favorite phrase is "Nothing from nothing is nothing."

I also like the phrase: "Those who attempt the absurd achieve the impossible."

I tried to get a hold of Dick Wolf, the Law & Order guy. I tried every phone number I could find. The Hollywood Creative Directory, I learned, is out of business. A friend turned me on to a weird site of agents and production companies compiled by a guy who was mad at all of them and feverishly kept his "hate" list up to date. Dick Wolf either did not get my two snail letters or hates me, who knows.

I found an email for William Morris Endeavour (WME), a big agency, and remembered an in-person contact we had in the Wayback. No response. Tried again. No response.

Put up a website--since I love websites. It's http://pawandordermovie.blogspot.com.

I sent that to WME. They emailed. They even agreed to read my weird "pitch thing."

Their response--too edgy. Should I make it more boring?

But--and this is crucial--I can now go back to that agent if I generate interest on my own.

And a better class of rejections is always good. I think.

Want to find out what happens? Watch my blog site. I really need to write now--instead of chatter on. But I will check in there from time to time when I find a rule to break.

For now, my protags, Detective Ricardo Lupine and Sergeant Burt Buzzy, are clip art --clip art in search of Pixar, Disney, or maybe Netflix.

Can I get you a Coke?

Yes, Mom and Dad, your education dollar at work.

But still, it does require ingenuity and foster teamwork.

Check out how students at Purdue built a "Coke machine."

With a hat tip to Rube Goldberg, naturally.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEBJmZL8G1E

Uh-oh--here come cookies and toy cars

A Chile-based company called ThinkerThing has connected today's rage--3D printing--to the human brain.

Forget the tricky digital files these printers require--just go from brain to reality.

The first version uses an EmotivEPOC headset that reads brainwaves and detects emotion and facial expressions hooked to a MakerBot 3D printer.

The wearer watches what the thing comes up with on a screen and can edit it somewhat to look like what they were thinking.

The first product was an orange monster "thought" by an adult.

Chile pitched in some money so kids can experiment with this in school.

This stuff is moving fast. I can think up lots of jokes about it--but those don't print.

Check out http://www.thinkerthing.com.

Creativity for the heck of it

Daniel Pink is author of Drive and To Sell is Human--and an authority on the changing world of work.

He is also what I call a white tiger talker--he strides back and forth as he speaks--like the white tiger in his moat at the National Zoo.

Check out this video, though... You probably won't get a sore neck, no guarantees.

http://fora.tv/2012/05/01/WIRED_23_Artists_2_Physicists__1_Frog?goback=%2Egde_40908_member_258392020

Pink's point seems to be that employees and creative thinkers come up with their best stuff when not on the clock.

For the joy of it, basically.

He cites examples of artists--all their work is technically competent, but the non-commissioned output is deemed "better."

At Intuit, they needed to migrate to mobile, but before they could get a meeting going, their programmers knocked out some apps in the 24-hour creative period of the week.

The only rules for the work done at these free-for-all sessions at various companies? Not work-related, not grant-subsidized, and not boring.

Of course, the company retains a piece of the action--they aren't THAT altruistic.