Pitching At AFM – Do not Be Shutout
The American Movie Market was based in 1981 as a technique to circumvent the strangle maintain large studios had on advertising and marketing and distribution, particularly in international markets. The reply has been to promote distribution rights on to unbiased gross sales brokers, brokers and distributors. The market additionally facilitates financing by bringing collectively filmmakers, product, and monetary sources.
Held in early November, almost a billion {dollars} of manufacturing and distribution offers are sealed yearly on movies in each stage of improvement, pre-production and manufacturing. The Loews Santa Monica Seashore Resort is transformed right into a busy market place. Some 700 screenings are held at numerous theatres on the Santa Monica Promenade and at close by resort screening rooms. With 8,000 attendees and the business’s largest conferences, AFM is the should vacation spot for unbiased filmmakers and business folks.
Final yr’s AFM Convention Sequence included discussions on financing, pitching, manufacturing, and advertising and marketing and distribution. Additionally they centered on crowd-funding, crowd-sourcing audiences, movie festivals, and video on demand. On this article, I’m going to deal with the pitch convention and pitch classes. Pitching your challenge is the preliminary step in getting a challenge rolling, to acquiring finance, gathering a manufacturing group, and advertising and marketing and promoting the movie to gross sales brokers, brokers, and distributors. All these steps require some kind of pitching exercise. Thus, understanding and perfecting stable methods is important to the success of any challenge.
Getting your script learn in Hollywood is troublesome. Most brokers, producers, and studios won’t settle for unsolicited work. One should fire up sufficient buzz to get up the business and by doing pitches to anybody and everybody you create consciousness. On this approach, you create a water-cooler talk-ability that will get you referrals, opens doorways and obtains these face-to-face conferences. Screenwriting is a really aggressive occupation and having the ability to pitch your script successfully locations you above the rank and file. It is estimated that the Writers Guild of America registered over 100,000 entities and the MPPA rated 708 films in 2014. Thus having the ability to rise above the competitors and mingle with the 1,670 AFM consumers from 70 counties enormously ups your odds.
A pitch convention is an efficient place to study this course of. They are saying pitch can get a nasty movie made and a nasty pitch can go away a terrific challenge languishing on the shelf. At this convention, attendees study the important guidelines and instruments of pitching from specialists. These specialists included Stephanie Palmer, former head of inventive affairs at MGM, Tobin Armbrust, producer of “Start Once more” and Cassian Elwes, producer of “Dallas Patrons Membership.”
I’ve included recommendations and ideas supplied by these specialists, together with these referenced in articles they wrote. The objective of your pitch is to generate sufficient curiosity to entice additional improvement or to have them learn your script. Thus, your pitch is very like a film trailer, offering the essence of the film to create additional involvement.
Open your presentation with some small speak that establishes a standard floor and builds rapport. By doing so, this is usually a main consider promoting your script. It cleanses the palate and also you started on a clear slate with no carry over from earlier shows. Earlier than you start your pitch, present context by defining the style of your script or give a quick background of your story earlier than you start your detailed pitch. For example, this can be a comedy that takes place at an all lady boarding college exterior of Boston.
Make the expertise as in the event that they have been watching a trailer of your accomplished film. Pitches within the comedy mode must be humorous and people within the thriller style ought to have moments of shock and suspense. Use exact phrases to create a vivid visualization and keep away from summary themes and generalizations. Likewise, present markers the place you’re within the script reminiscent of, “Shifting into act two,” or “Within the closing scene.” This helps the listener know the place they’re within the story and the place the plot factors and twists are positioned.
Use suspense to up curiosity. As an alternative of telling the listener how the story evolves, plant the seeds for the twists and stunning revelations to come back. By utilizing these set-ups and pay-offs to your benefit, it illustrates your storytelling expertise; some extent usually neglected when selling your talents as a screenwriter.
Anticipate to be interrupted. Most conferences are conversational and interactive. So be able to increase in your pitch and supply extra particulars. Being too detailed and describing each scene, character, or location bogs down the method. The extra you say, the much less they hear. Discover descriptive and energetic phrases that rapidly deliver life to the story. Being animated and emotional likewise enlivens your pitch because it lets your enthusiasm shine. It reveals you imagine in your challenge.
Utilizing too many names additionally confuses the presentation. Whereas it is okay for fundamental characters, it is best to establish supporting characters by their perform or descriptive deal with. As well as, do not be afraid of clarifying your pitch. Work together and ask if they’ve any questions at this level. Reply to their questions and recommendations in a optimistic approach. Disagreeing with them reveals a scarcity of respect for his or her enter. Contemplate their recommendations after which get again to them.
In addition to the convention with specialists, the market additionally sponsors a pitch session. Right here ten individuals chosen based mostly on their submitted video and get two minutes to pitch their concept. One other ten are chosen from the viewers and from these two teams judges choose a winner. A modest money prize goes to the winner together with business consciousness.
These pitching classes aren’t for the weak. Critiques are typically on the caustic aspect of constructive. If it is boring, you will seemingly hear that evaluation. Likewise, you’ll hear questions on casting, price range, and marketability. Be prepared with solutions and comparisons to different footage with related budgets which have performed effectively.
Beside the pitch classes, there are various alternatives to pitch your script or challenge to folks attending the market, folks reminiscent of producers, manufacturing firms, distributors, and gross sales brokers. These folks and their contact info are listed out there’s catalog. You can even mingle with these folks within the giant resort foyer or at screenings, occasions and events held throughout the market.
What you study at this market will assist enhance your pitching talents. The networking potentialities are infinite and supply ample alternatives to attach. As well as, thanks notes, question letters, and follow-up conferences will assist strengthen these relationships. One ought to likewise think about pitching at different venues, reminiscent of movie festivals, author conferences, and pitch fests. Hyperlinks to those occasions can be found on-line. Every time you do a pitch session, you study what grabs folks’s consideration. You develop into higher at describing and selling your movie.
Furthermore, if you happen to maintain training your craft, it will not be a strikeout, however a house run deal.
