Quotes from Pitch Meetings by Ryan George - the OG of alter-ego genre

My inspiration for Two Michaels arguing, especially as I recorded the videos of Meetings and Impromptu Coffee Meetings, come from the YouTuber Ryan George and I must say I have still a long way to go to learn his craft. Here’s my favorite of his Pitch Meetings and some of the iconic phrases he uses that I still started using in my life, especially when talking to my daughters:

• Structure of Pitch Meetings as an alter-ego video
• You have a movie for me?
• Tight!
• Wow, wow, wow…
• Super easy, barely an inconvenience!
• I’m not a scientist! 🧑‍🔬
• Other phrases I loved from this particular Pitch Meeting

Structure of Pitch Meetings as an alter-ego video

His videos start as meetings between a Screenwriter Guy and the Producer Guy - both starred by Ryan George himself, hence “alter-ego” idea. Same as I do in my Team Productivity Show recently with the Office Michael and NoOffice/Remote Michael where I argue about the way we run Nozbe - our #NoOffice company.

What Ryan does brilliantly is that he really knows how to edit such videos - the audio overlaps as to imitate a true conversation, the office is the same (which in my case is not yet), there’s a chatter in the background, and he has a series of similar phrases the guys repeat, which I still haven’t nailed for my show yet. Here are some of my favorites:

You have a movie for me?

So you have a movie for me? Yes sir, I do!

He always starts with the same phrase, which I haven’t quite nailed yet for my Michaels but I’ll figure it out!

Tight!

The Producer Guy repeats: “something is TIGHT”. In this case (1:01):

S: This movie is a “but”?
P: But(t)s are tight!

Very often now when I want to say that I like something to my girls, I say - THIS is tight! And they know exactly where it comes from 😜

Wow, wow, wow…

The Producer Guy is always using this phrase where he realizes the BS in the movie script, like here (2:10):

S: Elsa is singing that she’s not interested in following the voice but by the end of the song she’s gonna be like: “Yeah, no OK, let’s do this!”
P: Wow, wow, wow, wow…

Super easy, barely an inconvenience!

This is the key phrase of Pitch Meetings, because very often in movies situation goes really bad and the audience thinks there’s no way the main character will get away from this, and then it’s kind of too easy! Like here (3:32):

S: Throughout the movie the characters are going to encounter a bunch of magical-related problems!
P: Oh man, is it be difficult to solve those?
S: Actually, it’s gonna be super easy, barely an inconvenience!
P: Oh, really?
S: Every time a magical problem arises it’ll be solved by some additional magic that exists because I decided it did.

Very often when in our family we solve a problem that seemed very serious, we later laugh it out and say it was super easy, barely an inconvenience! I even bought his official merch for it:

I’m not a scientist! 🧑‍🔬

This phrase is particular to this pitch meeting but I love it, because any time my daughters ask me a question I have no way of answering, I’m just saying I’m not a scientist and we all laugh, just like here (4:40):

S: In the whole movie there are these elemental spirits: earth, water, wind and fire… but we’re also saying that there’s a fifth mysterious bridge one… and in the end we’re gonna find out that Elsa is that final spirit!
P: But aren’t her powers kind of water-powers though, because what ice is?
S: Listen, I’m not a scientist!

I think this phrase would be a perfect cop-out for many movies and many screenwriters. And as a father, my daughters assume too many times that I am indeed a scientist! 😜

Well, I might be a Jack-of-all-trades as I founded Nozbe and built its first version, but I don’t know everything, so I’m not a scientist…

Other phrases I loved from this particular Pitch Meeting

This Frozen 2 Pitch Meeeting is one of my favorites, because Ryan makes lots of great jokes, especially when it comes to movie sequels, like (0:55):

…but then money happened

Referring to the success of the first Frozen movie and how the second one is really just milking the cow. Also (2:19):

S: Let it go was such a hit in the first movie so I figured that if we throw a bunch of songs out there, maybe one of them will stick!

And actually my favorite song from this movie is Next Right Thing and it did stuck. Then there’s more about the the characters just copied from the first movie (2:30):

S: Ana, Olaf, Christof and Sven go with her, because they were in the first movie
P: But story wise…
S: They were in the first movie…

Or the thing about Olaf, the light-motif snowman (3:50):

S: (Olaf) is pretty much doing the same thing he did in the first movie…
P: Chiming in once in a while to try to sell merchandise to children?

That’s so true… and the same thing goes to Christoff (4:10):

S: I didn’t know what to do with him so I gave him a story line from a 90s sitcom and then sidelined him for the last 40 minutes…
P: Fair enough, as long as he’s in it, I guess, because he was in the first movie…

Anyway, I’m now subscribed to Pitch Meetings and as I’m developing my @MichaelTeam YouTube Channel with two-Michaels arguing concept, I’m trying to learn from Ryan George as much as I can.