Pitching a movie or television idea in Hollywood is murder. A screenwriter walks into a room and has 15 seconds to tell what may be a feature-length story to a bunch of grown-ups who listen to stories all day long, told by the world’s most talented storytellers. While the screenwriter talks, the grown-ups check their e-mail, their stocks and their makeup. And when it’s all over, the screenwriter can only hope that the grown-ups will hand over a suitcase full of money and send the writer home to write it all down.

Get a rare glimpse inside this mysterious, high-stakes Hollywood game by downloading transcripts of professional pitches below, one of which resulted in a major studio screenwriting assignment.

THE SKY’S THE LIMIT, transcript of a pitch for a feature film assignment. This successful pitch by screenwriters Christopher and Kathleen Riley landed them a major studio feature movie writing assignment.

A note about these transcripts: Even though these documents represent a written record of what was said in each pitch, please don’t conclude that a pitch should be fully scripted or read off the page. It shouldn’t. The best pitches are planned, but are at the same time natural and spontaneous in their presentation and hopefully engage the listener in a discussion of the idea.