Film making, television development, original programming, content creation, whatever you call it, it’s hard. Resiliency in filmmaking is one of the toughest traits to build up.
No one is born with it- the innate ability to bounce back from rejection after rejection. It’s a skill that’s taught, usually in the school of hard knocks.
After you’ve perfected your story, written the final draft of your script, developed your show bible, and crafted your pitch deck and any other pitch materials, you will likely be shot down until you find the right executive at the right studio who is willing to take a chance on you…
But there are some workarounds- cheat codes to success in the entertainment film and television industries. Here’s what you need to know.
Four Questions to Answer in Your Pitch
The four questions a studio exec is going to have in mind when hearing your pitch are as follows:
- Why are you telling this story?
- Why is this story relevant now?
- Why should you tell this story?
- Why am I hearing this story?
This article contains spoilers for The Matrix, The Village, and Don’t Worry Darling.
Why Are You Telling This Story?
They say there are seven stories in the entire world. Everything we hear is derivative of those seven. This is true for both fiction and nonfiction.
Why is your story important enough to land above the noise? What are you saying that is so different from everything else that’s already been written?
Innovation is big in storytelling. If you have an original idea, an innovative story that transcends anything audiences have been fed in the past, that’s a big deal.
If you’re not sitting on the story-that-was-never-told, then perhaps you can tell an older story in a new way.
The Matrix is often compared to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, mostly because of a line that Morpheus says in Act One about going down a rabbit hole. In actuality, The Matrix is a retelling of The Allegory of the Cave. A man sits in a cave watching shadow puppets on a wall, cast by unseen figures against the artificial light of a fire. To him, that is truth. It isn’t until he steps outside his cave that he realizes the actual truth of the world around him.
This story is a great one that can be retold in any number of ways.
What about The Village? Exact. Same. Story. Except this time is about a woman who thinks she’s living in a colonial village instead of a computer simulation.
Let’s put those two together: A woman in an isolated, seemingly perfect community who turns out to be trapped in a computer simulation housed in a much darker reality? That’s the exact plot of Don’t Worry Darling.
Three major blockbusters. All the same story. It doesn’t matter if the story has been told before. What matters is how you tell it and if it’s unique enough to capture someone’s attention.
Why is This Story Relevant Now?
Sticking with the three examples above, timeliness can make an old story seem new and fresh. What’s more is audiences are inundated with content today, so having a story that is timely and pertinent to the world’s modern age (whenever that is) is critical.
(Blame the 24-hour news cycle of the internet. I do.)
The Matrix came out in 1999, the year before Y2K. For those who don’t remember, there was a bit of anxiety around computers then. Many conspiracy theorists thought 2000 was going to be a devastating, potentially life-ending event, focused on an inherent flaw with how software operated at the time.
How apt for The Matrix. Not only that, we were stepping into a new age, technology was accelerating faster and faster, people were concerned about what the future had in store. They wanted to see a sneak peak, they wanted guidance. The Matrix provided all that.
Just five years later, The Village came out. 9/11 happened just three years prior, America was in the midst of a war, it seemed bad news was the only thing on television, and the internet was becoming more of a tool to bring us closer together for better or worse. The Village focused on a small community that was created by the village’s elders to save their townspeople from the evils of modern society.
Don’t Worry Darling was released decades later in 2022, the age of the podcast, America’s general dissatisfaction with government oversight, and a time when we were still dealing with bouts of isolationism due to COVID-19. The story is of a virtual world set around the 1950s where everyone lived happily together whilst ignoring (or being completely unaware of) the fact their world was a simulation built by a corporate tech genius. It’s not hard to see how this would be an appealing way to tell The Allegory of the Cave at that point in history.
When planning and timing your pitch, consider technological leaps or social changes humanity has reached or is approaching. AI is on the top of everyone’s mind. So is streaming, political chaos, racial injustice, gender inequality, and more.
Find a way to tie your story to the real world around you. If it can easily attach to something currently in the zeitgeist, you’re miles ahead of the competition.
Why Should You Tell This Story?
This is the most personal of questions studio execs and development teams are going to judge you on during your pitch. The presentation is great, but why should we trust you with our careers?
It’s a reasonable question. Your story may command millions of dollars to develop and produce, not even considering marketing.
You need to build personal connection to your story and intertwine it into your pitch. Of course, you’re the person to tell it, you wrote it for Pete’s sake.
While your script is your baby, it’s the studio’s prospect. They are looking to make a profit and they follow the age old wisdom of investing, “Don’t invest in the project, invest in the person.”
After all, things go wrong in production. Storylines change and characters are erased all in the name of telling an even better story than you shopped around. When the project hits troubled waters, investors and stakeholders want to know the captain can navigate them to safety. Explain why you’re the person to take the helm.
Why Am I Hearing This Story?
Anyone hearing your pitch is going to be a busy person. They have very little time in their day to hear a pitch by some writer or producer. With their time at a premium, it’s incredible to have gotten to the point where you’re in a room with them at all! Capitalize on that. Sell them on it. Make them feel this meeting is worth their time.
Do research on your pitch targets. Understand what types of stories they like. Look at what their studio has released in the past. Look at what their competition is releasing right now.
When you look up lists of development executives and development team members, go to the bottom of the list. That is where you’ll find the younger more hungry executives itching to make a name for themselves and more likely to take a chance on a new story.
Know the pitch audience by name before you enter the room. They may be hosting you, it may be your pitch meeting, but you need to swoon them. Thinking it’s the reverse can be deadly.
Look at the Facebook IPO pitch meetings. Zuck appeared in a hoodie and expected everyone to be chomping at the bit to invest in Facebook. At the end, they had an initial share value of $38 which dropped to $18 before they corrected course. This same mistake can cost you the green light you’re shopping for.
Appearance is everything, so if you come off not prepared, your pitch will suffer. Answer the question for the audience by referencing work they or their studio has released that did well; provide parallels to competing content without making it seem like a 1:1 match- you still want to show them something fresh and unique.
I’ve spoken with more studio executives than I can remember. They all want to help. They all want your show to succeed. Getting them on board by allowing them to relate and by providing a little creative freedom is the secret sauce to them seeing why they are at the pitch meeting.
If they still don’t think they are the right fit at the end of the meeting, they may know someone who is. Getting a referral is the next best thing to a yes. Entertainment is a small world, so their contacts will know each other. If you’re steered toward another exec by someone you’re pitching, the referral will have some trust equity attached to it since you came to them by way of a colleague.
Perfecting Your Pitch
Nailing your pitch is difficult. It’s harder than writing the story and creating the pitch materials themselves. Understand your story on a molecular level, research the market, identify yourself as the person to tell your story, and make your pitch’s audience feel at home.
Those four elements can take months to cater to effectively when working on your own. Hire a seasoned development producer to help you bring your story to a pitch-ready level of quality. Contact our team today to get you in that pitch meeting and on the way to a green lit show!
Scott Duvall 