The Pitch to Rule Them All

How do you pitch professionally and successfully?

Simple: Keep it short, stupid, AND catchy.

That admittedly sounds like a simplified formula sold by shady late-night telemarketers, but it is a formula that - at least so far in my career at CCAD - proved to serve its purpose efficiently.

As you can read in my previous blog posts, already with Live Project 1, we learned how to pitch professionally to our clients. Thus, we did not only learn how to pitch, but I was also able to draw a couple of lessons and inspirations just from observing how people pitched.

But first things first: In general, a pitch prepped for success thus usually consists of the following basic structure:

1) a logline

2) a 30 word or five line summary

3) a moodboard

4) a short treatment

5) a description of the type/genre of film and

6) a description of the target audience

A logline is the presentation of the theme or basic concept of your story in a single, catchy line. For example, with Ridley Scott's film Alien (1979), the logline was 'In space, no one can hear you scream.' It's a short line that comprises what the film is about without giving away too much of the contents. The goal is to hook the panel into listening to your idea more closely, and to present your idea in an outstanding manner. With my pitch for A Good One, I decided on the logline 'On your last day on earth, the person you are meets the person you could have become.'

The 30-words or five-line summary is a short but succinct summary of your plot. Here, you not only explain the onset and the major conflict, but - since you are effectively SELLING an idea - the ending of your story. The goal here is to keep the summary as short as possible without getting lost in the intricacies, subplots and various characters or plot lines.

This not only ties into selling a clear idea, but it also prevents you from losing the focus of the narrative, confusing the panel, and effectively overselling your idea. A rule of thumb for a good idea is usually, that the description of your story may not last longer than the actual story itself. If that is the case, you might want to reconsider elements of it. And the 30 words-/five lines-rule prevents you from waffling on.

As you can image, the moodboard and the treatment (character descriptions, colour and/or sound schemes) mainly deal with the visual and aural style of your idea, but also - most importantly - with the main character(s). Presenting characters briefly allow for the audience/panel to emotionally invest in the story. And since images say more than a thousand words, this is the most effective way of selling a style and story, which ties directly into the question of what your intended genre, target audience (and thus portion of the film market) is. These last elements are highly essential if you want to secure funds for your idea.

All the above-mentioned basic elements, while by far not the only aspects one could cover in a pitch, allow for an efficient and clear presentation of your idea, saving a lot of time for everyone involved. Naturally, they can be expanded by many elements. Depending on the idea, the requirements set by the executive producers and/or clients or the development stage of a project, it could be beneficial for you to expand upon the following aspects as well:

a) (Possible) issues of an idea or project

b) Solutions to these issues

c) Copyright

d) Prices and pricing

e) Test footage and/or location recces

f) Intended/secured cast

g) Intended/secured crew

h) Shooting schedule

etc.

In addition to that, there are further tips to consider if you want to deliver a good (and maybe even selling) pitch:

NEVER rabble in your pitch but give concise answers or solutions to possible problems. A pitch furthermore needs to be complete and finished. Cause nothing screams unprofessionality more than delivering an unfinished pitch and being unable to convincingly navigate through issues that might be asked by the executive producers you are pitching to.

Although I would never enter a presentation or pitch without a piece of paper containing the most important key words of my presentation in my hands, I personally prefer to deliver my pitch as freely as possible. It does not only portray confidence in the project itself, but I also think that this demonstrates how well I can navigate and - more importantly - envision my idea coming to life. I furthermore feel that this demonstrates my commitment, and I consider that is a good impression to give during any presentation.

As you can see, there is a lot you can do with a pitch. If you ask me - apart from a good idea and detailed preparation - the challenge mostly lies with the ability to identify how to present exactly what and to strike the right tone at the right time with the right panel.

With all that in mind, I should be able to prepare a solid presentation without any issues whatsoever. In our case at CCAD, we students are furthermore allowed to pitch our own roles in case our idea does not get picked. Which is why I will, as a matter of course, opt for camera and lighting.

So keep your fingers crossed for my pitch on the 20th March!

References:

Anderson-Moore, O. (2017) How to Pitch Your Film: A Step-By-Step Breakdown [online] https://nofilmschool.com/2017/03/how-to-pitch-your-movie-tv-series [Accessed on 12 March 2018]

Burton, T. (1994) Ed Wood USA: Touchstone Pictures [online] Image taken from: http://www.revthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Ed-Wood.jpg [Accessed on 12 March 2018]

Ferrari, A. (2017) How to Pitch Your Screenplay or Film Idea [online] https://indiefilmhustle.com/how-to-pitch-your-screenplay/ [Accessed on 12 March 2018]

Grove, E. (2012) Pitching Essentials for Filmmakers and Screenwriters [online] https://www.raindance.org/pitching-essentials-for-filmmakers-and-screenwriters/ [Accessed on 12 March 2018]

Hauge, M. (n.d.) How to Write a Pitch in 8 Essential Steps [online] https://www.writersstore.com/the-8-steps-to-a-powerful-pitch/ [Accessed on 12 March 2018]