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Mentorless Returns from Cannes with Advice on Pitching Projects at a Major Festival
One of the best filmmaking video blogs going right now is at the Mentorless site, where filmmaker Nathalie Sejean is posting weekly about her goal of making her first feature film, In Five Years. Both Sejean and her producer, Muge Ozen, attended the Producers Network this month and returned with enough info to fill up two entries. Among the advice offered here is what online filmmakers should make sure to do to get accredited to the Cannes market, when to submit — and not submit — scripts to buyers, and how to consider whether you should even try to tackle a festival like Cannes if your film is in development.
I had a chance to meet Ozen, who makes an appearance in the second video, at the Producer’s Network, where I was moderating several of the morning breakfast roundtables. I asked her afterwards her take on the experience, and here’s what she wrote:
Although it was my seventh time this year at Cannes, it was my first time in the producers’ network. Being in Cannes as a participant of the producers’ network as an emerging producer has been one of the greatest and most nourishing experiences of my professional life. I got to meet a lot of fellow producers from all around the world as well as many industry professionals. It has been a unique experience to broaden my horizon on international co-production and funding scene.
Under the sunny Cannes sky, I had a chance to pitch our project, “IN FIVE YEARS”, to many industry members, such as sales people buyers and producers and got their feedback. In my opinion, this has been the most valuable outcome of the market for me. The questions they asked made me think and realize the powerful and weak points of our pitch.
As for the festival itself, as always, I have returned home without watching even one single film but I had a lot of precious business cards in my pocket, each with a different promise for my future projects.
Check out post one in the box above, and their follow up is below.
