KYIV CoProduction Meetings 2017: call for applications continues! How to get prepared for pitching? 8 simple tips from experts

Discover new opportunities for your projects! On September 19, 2017 KYIV CoProduction Meetings will be held in the course international media forum KYIV MEDIA WEEK. It’s the first content marketplace in the CIS region designed for pitching and promotion of TV projects of different formats that look for co-production, as well as facilitating the co-production market in CIS region by allowing the local producers to cooperate with international TV projects.

Producers, production companies, associations, and unions of TV and film industry professionals, studios and investors from the CIS countries, Eastern and Western Europe, and other regions of the world are invited to participate.

What is the pitching and how to get prepared for it competently? Have a look at brief information and eight simple tips from our experts, with the help of which you will be able to give a good showing to your project.

To begin with, there are two types of pitchings – individual, when you present your project during a personal meeting and public, when the presentation goes directly from the stage. However, if you are seriously engaged in your project, you should be ready to present it under any circumstances. In both cases, remember – you are limited in time, so the information should be as brief and structured as possible.

Individual pitching differs most often in the fact that you know the person opposite you and can be prepared taking into account his/her interests and professional activity, as well as emphasize exactly on those aspects of the project that are interesting to your interlocutor – a TV channel, production company, fund, sales agent, etc. For example, if your film or series is great with both love story and action – think about what to put on the first place specifically for this interlocutor. Individual meetings also involve personal contact and, accordingly, simple human communication, which if successful can lead to fruitful cooperation, not only in the project you came up with.

In a few weeks we’ll tell how to get prepared for individual meetings, but for now let’s return to the public presentation of the project.

To begin with, it is necessary to realize what prospects the forthcoming pitching opens for your project. The fact that your project was chosen from many applications already shows that the professional audience came with certain expectations, and this performance can be literally life-changing for the project. Even though pitching does not guarantee an immediate result in terms of obtaining funding or co-producer, this is a significant contribution to the promotion of your project – producers, distributors, representatives and top managers of TV channels, film critics, selectors of festivals and other industry pros will hear about it and read in the professional press as well as in the festivals and markets catalogues. Also, the public presentation of the project confirms your authorship and, in some way, protects your intellectual rights. Ideally, the result of participation can be in a form of cash prize or professional assistance: media support, a trip to an international forum or co-production market, script-doctoring, post-production, etc. However, whatever the final result of the presentation be, you’ll get expert feedback, and also hear questions about your project, which will help make your presentation more "selling" in the future, and attract more demand to the project. And finally: creating content is a journey through a high staircase with many steps. The main task of the pitching stage is to gain interest and a chance to a second meeting. 

So, without further ado here are the promised eight tips on how to prepare yourself for a speech at a public pitching in the course of a professional event:

1. Think about the fact that potential partners consider not only your project, but also you personally, as its author and future executive – whether you look professional, confident, reliable, creative, flexible, etc.

2. Prepare slides for the screen, where you must include all the key information about your project. For an event with an international audience, write the texts in English or in two languages. Ask a professional proof-reader to check your presentation.

3. Think over the structure of pitching. Each market defines its own rules – you can be given a presentation for two to fifteen minutes. Let's say you have 10 minutes, which you can dispose in the following order:

• A short presentation about the producer, director (if any) and speakers at pitching. Say the names and, if there is – the previous achievements of you or your company (awards, ratings, the amount of produced content, studio capacity) – stay within 1 minute.
• The next step is to provide the key information about the project: title of the project, if it is a series – the duration and the number of episodes, the status of the project (readiness of the script, start of the shooting, etc.). Also provide information on the preliminary budget of the project and, if any, what part of the budget you have already closed and from which sources. If your packaging includes well-known actors or public figures, or your story is based on \ a well-known book – mention it. Do not overstretch the introduction and do not overload with financial information. The most important is the story, the script, so take the details of funding and production aspects to the final part of your pitch. Try to stay within 30-60 seconds.
• You can also specify famous films or series, as a reference for mood, visual imagery or story, but this is not always appropriate and definitely not necessary. However, do not hide the reference, if it is obvious, it is better to explain what is the essential difference of your film from the one that inspired you.
• Be sure to name the genre and switch to the most important thing – retelling the synopsis, it is desirable that the director or the creative producer does it: briefly and clearly, the whole story should be told to the end, without open finals. You can start with logline or bring logline to the screen (in this case it does not need to be announced). Specify the setting – the time and place of the events, tell the story, trying not to use too many names in the story (no more than two or three), especially if you are speaking to an international audience – call characters by profession, their role or attitude to the main character: doctor, brother, girlfriend, detective, etc. If you have a vertical series (procedural), give descriptions and horizontal stories of the main characters. Also, show the structure of a separate episode, perhaps specifically a pilot pisode, so one can understand what events and actions each episode is filled with. Stay within 5-6 minutes if you have a video that you’d like to present. If no – you can devote like 7 minutes to the story, but accompany the story with slides and pictures made specifically for the project or selected as a reference.
• Demonstrate the video. It can serve different purposes – demonstrating visual solutions, tempo-rhythm, cast, mood, director's work, etc. If the video reflects the synopsis and the whole story – it can be demonstrated before the story is told. Desirable time of the sizzle – up to 3 minutes.
• If you see a social mission in your project, report it after telling the story and presenting the video. If you did this before, the audience may not remember this information, because it can not be immediately correlated with the story. Briefly tell the audience what is your story unique with.
• Return to financial matters: tell if you already have pre-sales, a sales agent or other partners. Describe clearly which partners you are looking for, and what are your expectations of this partnership – distribution, television broadcast, the amount of funding or services and what kind – 1-2 minutes.

4. Be ready to answer additional questions. Be ready to be criticized (sometimes unconstructively). If you receive recommendations for changing the project – the script, structure or other components of the project – do not argue. It would be best to answer in the spirit: "Thank you, we can think about it". However, if it is clear from the question that a person did not understand what you’ve told, try to give a short explanation.

5. Bring presentation materials (but small and light) and business cards.

6. Do not leave immediately after pitching, stay until the end of the event, be open to communication. Also listen to other pitches and expert comments to them.

7. The week before pitching try to rehearse the upcoming performance in front of friends, relatives, colleagues, yourself before the mirror. The day before the performance perform the final rehearsal with a slide show and video demonstration. Use the stopwatch to stay within the timing. Learn the text by heart, do not use cheat sheets. Note which questions arise from the audience and correct your text to make the presentation more clear.

8. Good pitching is partly a creative process, a science (a clear scheme and structure) and an effective sale. All this requires serious preparation and concentration. So have a good night's sleep before the presentation. We are sure you will succeed!

Find more info about KYIV CoProduction Meetings 2017 here.

You can apply for participation and fill out the application form on KMW registration page.

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