Pimping Advice
Feb. 18th, 2012 01:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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escapade_conCut becuse this is long.
1) LOVE what you're pimping. Seriously LOVE it. There should be joy on your face and glee in your voice when you talk about it.
2) Talk to your victims. Find out what kind of shows they like, think about the mood and tone of those shows. Find out what actors they like. Make comparisons to previous big fandom shows, to major character traits, unique things about the main characters and the show, the plots and style of dialog. This will also let you know if they're a lost cause. Some shows and people just aren't a match and no amount of pimping is going to do any good. But in talking to them sometimes you'll discover a better match for them with a show you weren't planning to pimp.
If someone likes Sherlock Holmes, then House, Psych, Mentalist are worth a try. If someone likes police procedurals, then Mentalist is probably the best option, but if they like Due South, Psych is probably a better match.
When I'm pimping White Collar, I talk about it being light and snappy, with strong, intelligent characters. It's clever with a lot of heist/caper influence. It stars Matt Bomer as Neal Caffrey, a great thief/con artist/forger, Tim DeKay as Peter Burke, the FBI agent who caught him and Tiffani Thiessen, Elizabeth Burke, as the FBI agent's wife. Neal is smooth and charming, Peter and Elizabeth have the most amazing tv marriage ever.
3) Focus on the selling point. What's the key?
When I'm pimping Veritas: The Quest, it's adventure and archeology. When I pimped Finder, it was Walter's quirkiness and the lighter tone with a sense of fun.
4) Give a short summary of the show's premise. What's it about? Explain it in terms of what fans find interesting and exciting. What works for us, not necessarily what the creators think works.
White Collar is about an FBI agent, Peter, his pet criminal, Neal, and Peter's team. They supplement their knowledge and skills with Neal's criminal talents to solve crimes.
5) Wait until the end to talk about the relationships. Shipping possibilities are good, but they're not going to keep someone watching if they don't care about the rest. You're better off emphasizing the quality of characterizations rather than relationships. At the end of your pimp, then you can talk about the relationship, the slash, the het, the friendships.
6) TV Shows - If you can, handing out dvds with episodes is always good. You want them labeled with the show title, actors, a little blurb about the show. You want to make sure that in 3 months, when someone finds a stray disc laying around, they'll know what it is and why they picked it up.
When I'm pimping Veritas: The Quest I hand out the entire run on dvds that are playable in any normal dvd player. It's 14 episodes and not available anywhere. If I was pimping Leverage, I'd have the pilot and a couple of episodes from early season one. With Finder, I'd use the crossover ep from Bones last season and all of season one, that's aired so far.
Movies – You might have some clips or a trailer. If anyone has vidded the movie, you might ask them if you can include their vid.
General things you can do:
1) Support your fandom authors and vidders. Give them feedback. If there's a charity auction, buy a story or a vid.
2) If your fandom is small enough, you might consider making a 'fandom at a glance' site. For example, for Veritas: The Quest we made: http://www.fichorde.com/veritas/ Because the fandom is so small, we've managed to collect every thing we've found on one page. As much as possible, try to make it one stop shopping.
3) Volunteer to rec for Crack Van.
1) LOVE what you're pimping. Seriously LOVE it. There should be joy on your face and glee in your voice when you talk about it.
2) Talk to your victims. Find out what kind of shows they like, think about the mood and tone of those shows. Find out what actors they like. Make comparisons to previous big fandom shows, to major character traits, unique things about the main characters and the show, the plots and style of dialog. This will also let you know if they're a lost cause. Some shows and people just aren't a match and no amount of pimping is going to do any good. But in talking to them sometimes you'll discover a better match for them with a show you weren't planning to pimp.
If someone likes Sherlock Holmes, then House, Psych, Mentalist are worth a try. If someone likes police procedurals, then Mentalist is probably the best option, but if they like Due South, Psych is probably a better match.
When I'm pimping White Collar, I talk about it being light and snappy, with strong, intelligent characters. It's clever with a lot of heist/caper influence. It stars Matt Bomer as Neal Caffrey, a great thief/con artist/forger, Tim DeKay as Peter Burke, the FBI agent who caught him and Tiffani Thiessen, Elizabeth Burke, as the FBI agent's wife. Neal is smooth and charming, Peter and Elizabeth have the most amazing tv marriage ever.
3) Focus on the selling point. What's the key?
When I'm pimping Veritas: The Quest, it's adventure and archeology. When I pimped Finder, it was Walter's quirkiness and the lighter tone with a sense of fun.
4) Give a short summary of the show's premise. What's it about? Explain it in terms of what fans find interesting and exciting. What works for us, not necessarily what the creators think works.
White Collar is about an FBI agent, Peter, his pet criminal, Neal, and Peter's team. They supplement their knowledge and skills with Neal's criminal talents to solve crimes.
5) Wait until the end to talk about the relationships. Shipping possibilities are good, but they're not going to keep someone watching if they don't care about the rest. You're better off emphasizing the quality of characterizations rather than relationships. At the end of your pimp, then you can talk about the relationship, the slash, the het, the friendships.
6) TV Shows - If you can, handing out dvds with episodes is always good. You want them labeled with the show title, actors, a little blurb about the show. You want to make sure that in 3 months, when someone finds a stray disc laying around, they'll know what it is and why they picked it up.
When I'm pimping Veritas: The Quest I hand out the entire run on dvds that are playable in any normal dvd player. It's 14 episodes and not available anywhere. If I was pimping Leverage, I'd have the pilot and a couple of episodes from early season one. With Finder, I'd use the crossover ep from Bones last season and all of season one, that's aired so far.
Movies – You might have some clips or a trailer. If anyone has vidded the movie, you might ask them if you can include their vid.
General things you can do:
1) Support your fandom authors and vidders. Give them feedback. If there's a charity auction, buy a story or a vid.
2) If your fandom is small enough, you might consider making a 'fandom at a glance' site. For example, for Veritas: The Quest we made: http://www.fichorde.com/veritas/ Because the fandom is so small, we've managed to collect every thing we've found on one page. As much as possible, try to make it one stop shopping.
3) Volunteer to rec for Crack Van.
