How to Sell Your Own Life Story to Movie Producers

A movie usually begins with a pitch, a short descriptive sentence or group of sentences that put value into a movie idea as a promising or saleable project. While it is relatively challenging to sell any story to movie producers, you can still look for opportunities to tell your own life story to make it into a movie, especially if you can develop an interesting idea from it. It may generally be difficult, especially for amateurs, struggling film professionals, or anyone who is not famous, but it's always worth a try for a person who is passionate and dedicated for it.

1. List down significant and memorable moments in your life story. These can be thoughts, memories, emotions, and milestones in your life. You can simply write details in bullet-style or in paragraph form -- whichever you are more comfortable with.

2. Review and organize your list whichever way you prefer. You can arrange them in chronological order or based on feelings, people, places, events, or any other possible connection you find significant. Ideally, this depends on how you work on your creative process.

3. Pick any part of your list that you want to adapt into a movie. When making your choice, the first thing you must consider is the clarity of the idea as a pitching material. Depending on the producers you are selling your life story to, they may be looking for the commercial or artistic potential of the story or both of them.

When making your story pitch, you can take note that not all great stories are "pitchable." If you are pitching, it is important to find a story idea that is not only promising as a movie but also sound great as a movie pitch. As a guide, pitchable and readily marketable ideas are usually "high concept" ones. They contain interesting stories that can be easily described in a few sentences without sounding too complicated. Remember, some very promising stories may not sound "that" great as a pitch. At this stage, you are still looking for producers to champion your story; your movie pitch should first be appealing to them.

4. Make a logline, a one-liner that serves as the primary selling point in your movie pitch. Accompany this with a short paragraph to support your idea, along with a storyline, which is a one-page document summarizing the main plotpoints in your story. While it is always best to have the script ready so you have it handy when potential producers look for it, prioritize polishing your movie idea and storyline first, since these are the immediate things you will present to them. If they find the pitch compelling, this leads to further inquiries about the details of the story idea, then you can also tell them that the script will follow soon.

5. Research online or through film groups and organizations to acquire contact details of possible producers you can pitch your story to. Take note that getting appointments with famous producers may be extremely difficult, but you can still find some independent producers and starting out mainstream producers who may be looking for brand new ideas. You may also want to consider finding an agent who is open to getting new people in the industry. An agent has many industry contacts that can help you.

6. Confirm appointments for your movie pitches. Get all the details you need, including the time, place, and other specific requirements for each pitching session.

7. Print pitching materials, then practice how you will present your movie idea during the pitch.

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