High Standards

Friday January 23rd

WE DIDN’T GET IT!
Jo Schofield from RTE called this morning. She was apologetic and positively gushing with praise. She thanked us for an amazing pitch. She praised the promo, especially the acting. She said that we were great and was sure we would be doing exciting things on the Internet. The only reason she gave for not picking us was the eternal: “The standard was very high.” She then went on to tell me again how very good we were. She promised to send out an email with feedback from the panel.

So why didn’t we get it?
1)Reason:“The standard was very high”: Damn right it was. Our standard was apparently sky high, so one can only imagine that 50% of the short list (10 out of 20) was positively stellar.


I believe that we had one of the most solid proposals in the running and then some. I’ll go further and say that I think we were one of the only ones to really grapple with this new medium of Internet drama and come up with a truly original concept that tied in with the marketing criteria of the proposal. I know we blew them away at the pitch.

Does that sound resentful? It isn’t. I’m just trying to figure out why we didn’t get it. Back to

1) Reason: “The standard was very high”.
1.2 OK. We got that bit. I know that our standard was very high. In fact, I believe it was up there with the highest.

2)Reason: Intrigue:
That’s the problem with using: “The standard was very high”. It can only mean two things:
a) you suck (see 1.2: We didn’t suck.)
b) other forces were guiding our hand. It is unfortunate but, when dealing with public bodies such as RTE, or the Arts Council or such, there is always much room for intrigue. We all love to speculate on the Other Forces that guide funding decisions. Other forces include: We’re too old/too young, they already knew who was going to get it, we’re not from Dublin, …the list is endless. I’m as partial to speculating as the next applicant. Here’s my favourite: Appearing confident and capable can work against you. It’s a fact. There’s a weird reasoning that goes something like: “You don’t need it. You’ll make it anyway.” With a little bit of “Someone so confident and capable is sure to be difficult to work with.”

Which leaves us with: Deluded?
Maybe. I know that we blew them away. It was a great pitch. If it had been NY they would have told everyone else to go home. Or so I thought. Maybe they were blown away-just not in a good way.

Jaysus! They’ve got footage of the pitch. I think I’m going to tell me them they can’t used it. Feck’em.

Bitter? Who me? Never.