[00:06:57] BB: Yes, yes. Okay. What then stands out for you with a pitch? Specifically, let's start with just the subject line because you first got to get past the subject line. 

[00:07:07] RS: Yes. I think, especially for publicist PR pitches, I think clarity. Simplicity is quite underrated sometimes. I'm very happy with if you're pitching a new talent to me, name – then the projects they have coming up or things I might know them from. That immediate recognition is great and super useful to me.

I know you asked us to look at pitches. Pitched subject lines are less useful. I would say, sometimes, I've received emails and pitches that have been like subject line is, “Have you seen,” and then it's the name of a TV show. Then the email body is blank. 

[00:07:45] BB: What? There’s nothing in the email?

[00:07:47] RS: No. It’s just a subject line. 

[00:07:49] BB: Are you – and you're supposed to respond to that?

[00:07:52] RS: Yes.

[00:07:53] BB: This is a first. I've never heard this before. Never. 

[00:07:56] RS: Yes. It's been multiple times and I don't – I think maybe people are working at speed. Or maybe it's an intriguing thing, and you reply because you don't know what it's about. But I just would prefer to know. 

[00:08:11] BB: I have never heard that, subject line with nothing in the – wow, wow. Okay. Well, let's switch, if we may, to then what is then – if you get the body of a pitch, what is in there that is enticing where you go, “Yes. Oh, I need to respond to that right now,” or whatnot?

[00:08:35] RS: Yes. I think I have alert set up for all the trade publications and stuff. I try to keep on top of what's coming out and what to know about. If it's a release that I recognize straight away, that's really, really helpful to me. If you have something like it's won some prizes.

Say it's won something at Cannes or Venice or something that I would recognize. If it's a talent that I've seen in something else maybe but not featured, I think to have things that are recognizable in that way and just have it be quite concise. There may be some images, quite useful, links, anything that can give me that information as quickly as possible. 

[00:09:10] BB: So you do like links, not necessarily attachments and all that crap. 

[00:09:39] RS: Yes. I like links. I also say from a film perspective, if you can also send me a screener with it, it's way so helpful. Sometimes, people do do that, and it's, obviously, password protected, et cetera.

But it's just great to be able to watch something. Then I can flag it. I can star it. Put it into my screener’s folder. Then I can watch it. I can respond in terms of if we want to feature that talent or cover something.

I think, sometimes, the screener processing, particularly for film journalists, it can be a little bit convoluted. There are Netflix, Apple. You have very straightforward systems.

But for some other places, I think sometimes you have multifactorial authentication. All my passwords have expired. It’s so much fast to arrange it that sometimes I'm just – it’s like I can't do this today because it's just so time-consuming.

I think if you send me a link, you send me a password, and I can watch it without it expiring. It's so useful, and I'm much more likely to do it. 

[00:10:34] BB: Yes, yes. That is something – I think, increasingly, I'm hearing on this show is, yes, the damn link inspiring. Or I got to now sign up for this to get to the box file and this and that. It's like, “Ah.” It’s just – no, no. 

[00:10:48] RS: It’s like an obstacle course sometimes, isn’t it?

[00:10:49] BB: It is a little bit. Yes. I get – I'm like, “What's the tech solution here?” Of course, it's security, and that's oriented [inaudible 00:10:55]. But, man, I don't know. We'll see.

Okay. Now, how much time are you spending consuming films, like actually watching the TV series and so forth that you do? I think that's a little distinct from other journalists we have on here who are like, “Oh, let me review the product. Or let me think about that topic. Let me do my seven interviews.” Okay, boom. Yours is quite different I imagine.