Pitching
Pitching is the art of communicating (verbally or in writing) the essence of your screenplay or project, usually to an agent, a studio executive, or a producer.” (Kathie Fong Yoneda, The Script-Selling Game, 2002, http://shop.mwp.com/)
Pitching a film or story concepts is a process that every creative person goes through. It is a task of getting your story concept in a a short yet precise speech of sorts, the elevator pitch is and even harder process to refine. The theory of an elevator pitch is your at a hotel in la and get into an elevator with a hot shot producer. Your task is to pitch your concept between the time you get into the elevator and the time the producer gets out. A space somewhere between 1 and 5 minutes depending on what floor you are going to. This does not mean you will get the funding to make this film pitch into your feature film this simply means that you have a better chance of getting to pitch in front of a panel.
screenmag.com says there are “7 essential tips to have a successful pitch. 1) never tell your full story, 2) focus on essential elements, 3) begin with how you came up with the idea, 4) leave the buyer in suspense, 5) follow the log line with a question, 6) finish your description with the title and log line and 7) answer any question succinctly”. A lot of this comes down to the limit of time and the cause for suspense to whom you are pitching to, you pitch a script in order to get funding, if your potential financier is not interested or intrigued by your script they aren’t going to fund it.
http://www.scriptmag.com/resources/pitch-festivals/7-keys-to-a-great-pitch
In front of our class we had to present a 5 minute Elevator pitch of a story we had been working on.Pitching is never an easy especially for someone who hates public speaking. This trimesters pitch was not supposed to best pitch ever. For most people this was there first experience with pitching. One thing I discovered is that you really need to have your idea thoroughly thought out before you pitch.
Procrastination is a key part of being a university student. However procrastination is never a god idea. Due to my personal procrastination I successfully changed my idea at least 3 times before the start of trimester. And then the trimester began and I worked out what I was going to pitch the night before I pitched my story. However I was more focused on the production design than I was on the actual script and story I knew how the film would look just not how it would flow and this came across in my pitch. I know for a fact that I confused my whilst standing in front of everyone so I have no idea how confused the “panel” I was pitching to would have felt.
The story I pitch was about 2 children who are kidnapped by a witch and are told to they have 3 chances to break free if they can set a challenge that the witch can’t complete. The children first give the witch a physical challenge that she completes with a cat like Grace, the second is a riddle and the third is to straighten a lock of hair from the girls head. It’s loosely based of a folk tale written by Enid Blyton. I hadn’t read the story in years and my memory of it was quite vague hence the term loosely based. But due to my lack of knowledge of the actually story I hadn’t been able to thoroughly work out my own story and thoroughly confusing myself.
It terms of the other pitches in the class the best presented and the most thought out presentations were the ones that succeeded in being made. Talking to Brittany we said we both liked Georgina’s and Alex’s pitches and Alfonzo and Emily were really well presented and knew what they were talking about. Surprise surprise Georgina, Alex,Alfonso and Emily all had their films created as well as the four from the other class. The best in my personal opinion and possibly quite biased opinion was Alfonzo’s however My personal favorite was Georgina’s. Alfonzo’s pitch for station was clear and concise as It also had some mystery about it without completely dumbfounding the audience and that reflected his script quite well.
Georgina’s pitch for swiped was my favorite because she had a well thought out pitch and made it engaging to the audience, even though I do not like comedy films and often find them over the top and mostly full of stupidity . I was entertained by her pitch without it being overdone. That did not mean I would necessarily like to work on her film, I just enjoyed her pitch.