Pitching

[untamed_aggression]

S'up, folks.

At uni, we are pitching to direct or produce one of the five films that being made this year. I pitched to direct on Tuesday, and my good friend Nicola pitched to produce with me.

The results of the pitching session went up on the noticeboard yesterday, and apparently none of the directing/producing pitches for that project were "satisfactory." Of course, they've given no indication of what they were after either before or after the pitch, so we had to guess.

I've spoken to other peeps who got the directing gigs on other projects, and came to the conclusion that I might've spent too much time on the technical style I hoped to achieve, instead of the focusing on the characters and the story.

So, in my second pitch next tuesday (with higher stakes this time, since everyone who failed to get their project will probably now go for this), I'll be heading into more character-based territory. Anyone got any further tips for me?

Also, just how do you pitch to be a producer? We assumed that it would be showing organisational skills and plans on how to achieve the full potential of the script, but apparently, that wasn't the case.

I await your wisdom.

[miker]

Be sure to watch The Player. In my mind the director is the "manager" of the film's production and it sounds like the producer role being pitched for is probably a line producer role. A line producer has to arrange things, solve unexpected problems etc. Both roles require you are able to deal with people in a mature manner. Don't forget that a good presentation can also be visual - take your concept art or collection of montage to help people understand what the frack you are talking about.
(one of these days I'll take my own advice ...)

[eidde]

seems reasonable to me, Directing (proper) is not about how you get shots, which shots you are going to get, or how to do special effects - but its more managerial, how you deal with people, and what your idea of the story is/the point of the story, with perhaps a little (technical) on how you want to bring that across (for example you might want to do everything close up, or handheld or something, to emphasise something important in the story) - and prove you have the people skills/charisma....to get performances out of people. They are the 'stars' not you. Its not nessesarilly about how great YOU are, but how great you are at getting other people to do good work. Of course some people just may not like your story, in which case you have to sell it hard, and why there might be an audience.
Just my guesses really - easy to say than do.
A Producer in my experience, a REAL producer, rather than someone who just swans on set, lords it around makes crap jokes and inappropriate suggestions and basically getting in the way of the director/camera ops, is the engine behind the production. Someone who can get things done, get things for free/cheap, arrange locations with difficult owners, knows what resources are available and how to use them, chase people up when they are difficult...etc - a driven organised person, who generally wont get much glamorous credit at the end of the day. In a no budget production these jobs are usually done by the same person - I expect most of your experience is doing it all. Directors and Producers know how to delegate and trust their people to get on with it.

The best director I ever did anything for gave the impression that he hardly did anything (although I know that he did) and had a clear idea what he wanted to acheive, and appeared quite laid back. He chose people well and then just pushed them in the direction he wanted, and was charismatic enough to get people to do stuff for him.
The best producer I ever met seemed to be busy ALL the time :-) and things fell somehow into place, and was fun to work with/for.

Perhaps give examples of how you have done these sorts of things in the past, rather than gush about what you hope to be able to acheive. Its difficult, because the interviewers may have a very different idea of the sort of film they want made than you, so you will have to convince them that it will be a good showcase for the department.

good luck, hope that helps.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ October 06, 2006 05:34 AM: Message edited by: eidde ]</font>

[untamed_aggression]

Okay, folks. I think I'm pretty much set for my directing pitch.

In the first one, I did draw some pics detailing key points in the story (not really storyboards, enough to give an idea of what I'm going for), but apparently, that wasn't the done thing. To quote our directing lecturer, "Some people brought storyboards and drawings, which may not have done you any favours." In fact, they seem to be discouraging any kind of visual presentation.

I think our main problem at the minute is figuring out our producing pitch. Nicola went into a fair amount of detail about a proposed schedule, location acquisition and managing a budget, but still, they're not happy.

Originally posted by Nigel:
You are there to show these people why you are head and shoulders above the rest. Not to tell them about how the blood will ooze from your lame-ass zombie's mouth.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Why do you assume it's a zombie movie? [img]wink.gif[/img]

And zombies fucking ROCK, sir. Show some fucking respect.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ October 06, 2006 07:21 AM: Message edited by: Untamed Aggression ]</font>

[miker]

In fact, they seem to be discouraging any kind of visual presentation.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">If it's a "25 words or less" pitch then fair enough (again, watch The Player). Ralph McQuarrie stays at NASA which ultimately saves us from those awful prequels, and Terry Gilliam never works again after Python. Roland Emmerich and Uwe Bol rule for ever more leading to the ultimate demise of cinema as an artform.

[untamed_aggression]

Originally posted by miker:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">In fact, they seem to be discouraging any kind of visual presentation.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">If it's a "25 words or less" pitch then fair enough (again, watch The Player).</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">It's not. We've got 10 minutes to pitch why we're right for the job.

You'd think some visual material would be beneficial to this, but this uni appears to do everything arse-backwards.

[Nigel]

I would talk about why you can direct your project...

Why you have what it takes to get the job done. Avoid technical aspects whenever possible.

You are there to show these people why you are head and shoulders above the rest. Not to tell them about how the blood will ooze from your lame-ass zombie's mouth.

What makes you good at what you do??

Why should I give you the cheque and not someone else??

Good Luck