Pitching
-
Understanding Copyright Law: Pitches, Facts, Characters and the Ambiguities of Section 102
Gregory Bernstein’s book Understanding the Business of Entertainment, the Legal and Business Essentials All Filmmakers Should Know, published this week, discusses such important topics for filmmakers as copyright law, First Amendment law, the FCC, the growth of media conglomerates, studio development and distribution, entertainment contracts, as well as a section for independent filmmakers. The following excerpt comes from the chapter about copyright law. Among many other things, the chapter discusses how story ideas cannot be copyrighted. The excerpt below, however, discusses one way filmmakers and other creative people can nevertheless protect ideas from being stolen, and whether facts, characters and titles may be copyrighted. Protecting Ideas via Contract Law Say […]
by Gregory Bernstein on Jun 10, 2015 -
Tips on Submitting to Festivals and Crafting Pitches from EYE’s Ido Abram
Don’t chase the wrong festival — that was one of many simple but useful pieces of advice offered by Ido Abram at the recently concluded 33rd Istanbul Film Festival. Abram is currently the Director of Presentation and Communication at EYE, Netherland’s national film institute. In the past, he has been the director of the Binger Filmlab and the International Film Festival Rotterdam’s CineMart, the world’s first “co-production market.” He also serves on the Advisory Board of the prestigious Torino Filmlab. Throughout his career, Abram has listened to hundreds of pitches, trained filmmakers on how to make them, judged dozens of […]
by Laya Maheshwari on Jun 4, 2014 -
Pitch to the Pros at IFP’s Filmmaker Conference
Think you’ve already thought of the next best film idea? Pitch it! Filmmaker magazine is happy to be co-presenting the Pitch Panels at this year’s IFP Independent Film Week and Filmmaker Conference. Five days of panels and presentations meant to educate and energize emerging filmmakers, the Filmmaker Conference is your place for inspiration, action and community, September 15-19, at Lincoln Center in New York City. Impressing your friends and family at the dinner table with your pitch is one thing, but with these exciting sessions, filmmakers of all stripes have the chance to dazzle a panel of industry experts who […]
by Zach Mandinach on Aug 21, 2013 -
Hearing Central Pitches at the IDFA Forum
So, I am in Amsterdam, attending my first IDFA, a fest I’ve been dreaming of attending since I first started working in documentary. IFP has 11 films in the fest, and four works in progress in the Forum, so I’m here for moral support, promotion of IFP, and reconnaissance. What is happening in documentary in the rest of the world? In advance of my arrival, I was most anticipating being a part of the Forum, “IDFA’s international co-financing and production market, Europe’s most important breeding ground for new documentary work.” The Forum presents works in progress to the international funding […]
by Rose Vincelli Gustine on Nov 22, 2012 -
The Potion to a Pitch
Independent Film Week kicked off on Sunday at Lincoln Center and co-writer/co-producer of Brooklyn Flee, Devon Kirkpatrick, and I sat in a room full of Emerging Narratives filmmakers nervously awaiting our moment to practice pitch our scripts in front of an esteemed industry panel. We spent two hours the day before sketching out our thoughts over bad guacamole and happy hour Chardonnay, attempting to figure out what makes a good two minute pitch. After a few hours, Devon and I parted ways needing to take a moment to center ourselves before a hectic week. I went home to fall asleep […]
by Alexandra Roxo on Sep 18, 2012 -
Rickey Henderson and 8 Tips for Pitching
Part of the No Borders orientation the first day is getting up in front of all the other participants in the program and pitching your project. I am very glad they made us do this–it prepared us for a week of meetings and pitching–but this was something Kat [Candler] and I were not exactly prepared for. To our credit, this fact was buried in a rather lengthy email (way to keep us on our toes, IFP). You could feel the collective nervousness from the group, but regardless, it was no big deal and it went great, no one fell off […]
by Kelly Williams on Sep 18, 2012 -
Delirium
I haven’t taken many classes on pitching. Wait. I’ve never taken any classes on pitching. Pitching is meant to be a precise, pressurized maneuver that either takes your project to the next stage or closes another door in its face. It is the subject of much study, stress and numerous overpriced workshops. Naturally, one always feels some amount of pressure before a pitch–similar to what I experienced as a dancer prior to going on stage each evening. Regardless of how many past meetings were nailed or how many accolades were received, one rarely goes into these “performances of passion” without […]
by Jodi Redmond on Sep 17, 2012 -
TOP 10 PITCHING TIPS FROM SCRIPT TO SCREEN
Following on from the Top 10 Screenwriting Tips from Script to Screen post, I thought I’d write a companion piece on pitching, as Saturday’s Script to Screen conference also featured “Pitch Intermission” sessions in which a panel of experts fielded pitches and then offered advice on how the screenwriters could hone their spiel. The industry figures giving their insider expertise were: Ron Simons, the producer of Gun Hill Road and Night Catches Us; Dana O’Keefe, a sales agent at Cinetic; Dia Sokol, a producer of both MTV reality shows and Mumblecore movies; and David Young, head writer at CollegeHumor.com. Below are […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 19, 2012
