FILM pitching

Use your practice pitch, and notes/handouts to help develop a strong pitch - the process of presenting a film proposal to film financiers/distributors, trying to convince them to risk money on your movie.

Your pitch should be backed by a PowerPoint or video with plentiful, frequent, relevant illustration.

This needs to be emailed (a YouTube link if video) before the Friday 7th April lesson. You will also Monday's lesson to work on this.

It should address:

1: SYNOPSIS
In no more than 2 sentences, sum up the narrative.
State at least 2 films this has similarities to (explain how), noting their box office + which audience/s you think those examples appeal to.
RESEARCH TIP: if you google 'film title box office https://www.theguardian.com/uk/film' you might find useful analysis on the audience, or just try 'film title audience' - Avatar example1; example2.

FILM box office, budget,production practices

As we'll see, there are some key choices made at the production stage that heavily influence the chances of a filming becoming a hit. We will consider only some of these here.

Year 9 Taster day 2016 from DB3igs

SUMMER 2015 US BOX OFFICE TOP 10
This 3-minute video runs down the top 10 biggest hits (box office is the total amount of money they took in from cinema ticket sales).

As you view this use your handout to note any success factors (or good production practices) you can think of.


Gallery with 2 posters for each, and a main cast list.

Summer 2015 top 10 posters gallery from DB3igs

FILM BUDGETS
Why do you think such films usually cost so much to make?
What choices are made that raise the budget?
(You will shortly be considering what choices to make for your proposed film)

FAMILY FORTUNES...
Time to take a break and play a game...


COMPARING WITH 5 UK EXAMPLES
See if you can match these films to the budget provided and the box office, and work out why they didn't do well.
HINT: cast, genre (they all use 'social realism', a genre that doesn't use stars ... or CGI ... or familiar 'posh' characters ... or the usual UK settings [London/South of England!] ... and can be a bit grim, 'downbeat').
There is ONE positive marketing element for all of these, involving places like Cannes, Toronto, Berlin, and newspapers like The Guardian...
How many of these have you heard of or seen?
How many of the 'stars' have you heard of?
They're all award-winning films!
'k' = £000 (so £22k = £22,000)

CTRL-CLICK to view full-size (CMD-click on a Mac)

Here's the trailer for For Those in Peril - what 'success factors' do you see? Stars? CGI? A popular genre? Franchise?

Here's the trailer for This is England - what 'success factors' do you see? Stars? CGI? A popular genre? Franchise?
NB: the full film is 18-rated, but the trailer is cut to enable it to be shown with 12-rated films.

FILM Hybrid genres and pitching

We started with this (PG-13) trailer; listening only to the opening 50 seconds, viewing the rest.

It is an example of a hybrid genre film.

Others are illustrated in the PowerPoint below.

Year 9 Taster day 2016 l2 from DB3igs

Your task today is this:

You have been invited to pitch a film idea to the world's most successful film distributor, Universal International Pictures.
They are especially interested to hear of any hybrid ideas you might have - no matter how outrageous.
You could combine two existing film franchises (series) or attempt a more original idea.
Either way you need to detail:

• the budget
• the main cast
• the genres
• which film/s it can be compared to (it should be clear they are successful films!)
• the title
• at least one tagline
• a summary of why you think this film would be box office gold

It would be to your advantage to have some visual aids (maybe even a mock-up poster) to boost your chances of successful pitching and winning funding - but focus on the content first!

Classic taglines; filmsite selected taglines; shortlist poster gallery of great taglines.