Guide to Pitching Your Movie Project

If you're an aspiring or a new filmmaker or scriptwriter, an opportunity to pitch your movie project can be quite challenging. As a chance for you to sell your concept or screenplay, you must be able to do a movie pitch that is simple, catchy, and direct to the point. Instead of throwing branched out ideas here and there, making the presentation clear and concise is the first step to attracting potential funding for your project.

1. Register your screenplay at the U.S. Copyright Office or at the Writer's Guild of America Registry. While this is not exactly a requirement when pitching, this protects you from getting your work stolen. Doing this establishes a "proof of creation" that you own the material so that in case somebody takes credit of the screenplay you made, you have a clear proof of ownership and you can readily go to court to seek for damages.

Take note that you can't copyright a mere thought or idea. You can only copyright an expression of an idea. In the case of a movie work, a script and the actual movie made from it are clear examples of expressions of an idea. However, a movie plot that refers to a mere idea is not something you can copyright. An example of of something that you can't copyright: "A poor boy meets a rich girl, then they fall in love, separate, then reconcile after all the bad things that happened to them." You can't claim that you own this and that nobody else can use it for their movies.

2. Ask yourself: "What is the movie all about?" If you can't clearly and confidently answer this question in one, two, or up to three sentences, then either your script or its structure has a problem or you have a problem understanding your own story. Once you have clear understanding of your work, put down in writing the answer to this question, along with your story's movie genre, its main characters and short descriptions about them, and its major settings and short descriptions about them.

3. Write a logline for your movie. This tells what the story is all about in one-sentence. After which, expand this to a one-paragraph synopsis, then a one-page storyline.

4. Research for visual pegs and similar movies to your project. Since you are pitching to movie executives and producers, mentioning a movie similar to your material helps them visualize it, or at the very least, they get a better gist of what the story is all about or how the movie would most likely look. They are also very keen on a project's potential to earn money, have cult following, and/or garner awards.

5. Print your visual pegs to serve as visual aids for the pitching session. If you draw or you have an artist friend willing to help you, making concept artworks will also be ideal. You can even add some sound and music elements in your pitch, if you think they are crucial to your presentation.

6. Outline your pitching presentation based on all your available documents and resources and how you want to catch the attention of your listeners. The challenge is to make best use of your short time to both impress your audience and let them understand your movie concept and story. A pitch is usually anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes long.

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