#28 - Paul Bae - Writer, Director, Producer
Episode
56 min
Read time
2 min
Topics
Relationships, Fundraising & VC, Leadership
AI-Generated Summary
Key Takeaways
- ✓Personal Story Framework: Structure every pitch with a one-minute personal story at the beginning that connects to the project's theme, then weave that narrative throughout character descriptions and plot points to answer why you before executives ask.
- ✓Reading the Room: Develop nunchi, the Korean cultural skill of assessing room temperature and social dynamics, to adjust pitches in real-time by cutting characters or plot points when executives show disengagement through body language and timing cues.
- ✓Relationship Over Transaction: Recognize when executives are exhausted or mismatched for your project and offer to reschedule rather than forcing the pitch, building trust that leads to future opportunities and sales with that same executive later.
- ✓Collaboration Mindset: Approach screenwriting expecting multiple hands to improve your work rather than protecting original vision, working with showrunners as mentors who can elevate dialogue rhythm, joke placement, and structural elements beyond your current skill level.
What It Covers
Paul Bae, writer-director-producer of Marvel's audio dramas and The Black Tapes podcast, shares his approach to pitching screenplays and TV shows, emphasizing personal storytelling, reading the room, and building relationships with executives.
Key Questions Answered
- •Personal Story Framework: Structure every pitch with a one-minute personal story at the beginning that connects to the project's theme, then weave that narrative throughout character descriptions and plot points to answer why you before executives ask.
- •Reading the Room: Develop nunchi, the Korean cultural skill of assessing room temperature and social dynamics, to adjust pitches in real-time by cutting characters or plot points when executives show disengagement through body language and timing cues.
- •Relationship Over Transaction: Recognize when executives are exhausted or mismatched for your project and offer to reschedule rather than forcing the pitch, building trust that leads to future opportunities and sales with that same executive later.
- •Collaboration Mindset: Approach screenwriting expecting multiple hands to improve your work rather than protecting original vision, working with showrunners as mentors who can elevate dialogue rhythm, joke placement, and structural elements beyond your current skill level.
Notable Moment
Bae walked into an NBC Universal pitch unprepared, not realizing the meeting was a formal pitch, and improvised by playing spooky music from his iPhone while dramatically describing his anthology horror series, which executives bought despite the unconventional presentation.
Episode Transcript
The holidays mean more travel, more shopping, more time online, and more personal info in more places that could expose you more to identity theft. But LifeLock monitors millions of data points per second. If your identity is stolen, our US based restoration specialists will fix it guaranteed or your money back. Don't face drained accounts, fraudulent loans, or financial losses alone. Get more holiday fun and less holiday worry with LifeLock. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com/podcast. Terms apply. Hi. My name is Leah Saint Marie. And I'm Angel. And welcome to season two of pitch. Today, we have a special guest. I'm gonna do a quick intro. Paul Bay, who is a former high school English teacher. What what? And stand up comedian is an author, you suck, sir, and award winning audio drama writer producer of the black tapes and the big loop. So Paul is the director of Marvel Entertainment's critically acclaimed hit series, Marvels, and he's had a multiseries deal with Spotify to develop his original audio projects. Welcome, Paul. Hey, Leah. Hey, Angel. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for coming on. Just real quick. She wasn't saying that she wasn't saying to him, he sucks. I think that's the title of something. Right? Yeah. I was gonna joke about that saying, yeah. I'll tell you he's an author, but you suck, sir. I saw your joke. So sorry. I love to I love to sass my guests. It makes them feel welcome, right, when you when you can instantly sass somebody. It feels like I'm in the green room of my comedy club, the local one again. So I I'm at home with this. I'm I'm in peace with I like this. And, also, the little what what she threw in there was because she too also taught high school at a certain point. Is that correct? Yes. So you do you do have that in common, and I was in high school, but I can't stand high schooler. So you guys can talk talk about that all you want. Leah, what did you teach, if you don't mind me asking? No. I don't mind you asking. This is now the podcast where we talk about what we used to teach. I taught high school English, for Halstrom Academy here in California, and then I taught at two men's correctional facilities back in Ohio. I taught here in California. Just everything. AP, creative writing, regular classes. Fantastic. And what did you then teach, in high school? What were your specialties? It was English lit, a gifted program and a special needs program. I've I've taught the whole thing. I I I took I I took courses in special needs to because my principal told me it's a good way to keep my job in in the early start of my career. True. And then I did it and then I sort of fell in love with it. So ended …
Get the full transcript (11,741 words) + summary by email — free
One-time email with the complete transcript and AI summary of this episode. No account needed.
One email, no spam. We’ll also show you what SignalCast does.
You just read a 3-minute summary of a 53-minute episode.
Get The Pitch summarized like this every Monday — plus up to 2 more podcasts, free.
Pick Your Podcasts — FreeKeep Reading
More from The Pitch
#186 Supercool Earth: Making It Rain, Literally
Sep 9 · 50 min
The Daily (NYT)
Classical Music Is in Crisis. Gustavo Dudamel Is Here to Save It.
Sep 6
More from The Pitch
#185 it’s electric: Beating Tesla Was the Easy Part
Sep 2 · 48 min
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Open Source Wins, AGI Is Here, and Scorsese's AI Toolkit with CEOs of Cerebras & Black Forest Labs
Jul 10
Books, tools, and gear mentioned in this episode
SignalCast may earn commission on purchases via these links.
podcast
“Paul Bae, writer-director-producer of Marvel's audio dramas and The Black Tapes podcast, shares his approach to pitching screenplays and TV shows”
More from The Pitch
We summarize every new episode. Want them in your inbox?
#186 Supercool Earth: Making It Rain, Literally
#185 it’s electric: Beating Tesla Was the Easy Part
#184 Ventrix: The Gas Plant of the Future
#183 Pitz: Car Repair as Fast as an F1 Pit Stop
Season 16: Software Is Out. Cool Stuff Is In!
Similar Episodes
Related episodes from other podcasts
The Daily (NYT)
Sep 6
Classical Music Is in Crisis. Gustavo Dudamel Is Here to Save It.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Jul 10
Open Source Wins, AGI Is Here, and Scorsese's AI Toolkit with CEOs of Cerebras & Black Forest Labs
The Daily (NYT)
Jun 7
Scott Pelley on His Firing and the ‘Massacre’ at ’60 Minutes’
Up First (NPR)
Apr 26
The hidden cost of separating 'emotionally disturbed' students
TED Radio Hour
Mar 18
The TED talk that put writer Pico Iyer in “Marty Supreme”
Explore Related Topics
This podcast is featured in Best Startup Podcasts (2026) — ranked and reviewed with AI summaries.
You're clearly into The Pitch.
Every Monday, we deliver AI summaries of the latest episodes from The Pitch and 192+ other podcasts. Free for one show.
Start My Monday DigestNo credit card · Unsubscribe anytime