How do we even begin? This week was A-MA-ZING!

On Monday we had our first meeting with Saraswathi Vani Balgam. Vani’s ideas were sooooo interesting and useful. She taught us that:

  1. The journey is the most important thing! (The river is more important than the sea)

  2. You need to learn to trust people: you can’t make a film alone

  3. The more you pitch, the better you get at it… so learn to love rejection!

  4. Define what you want, but know what you need: is it appreciation? acknowledgment? expansion?

  5. The look and feel of the project is very important. A single image is going to sell the idea (try collages, sketches…)

  6. Get into your “adult mode” = be cool. Leave the parent inside you (who gets defensive), and the child (who get upset), aside for the pitch.

  7. Get specific with the feedback: if they liked it, ask WHAT they liked about it

  8. Make space for silence because the audience need silence

  9. Be smart! Think about copyright early on

Yep, very very cool advice. Can you tell that she’s pitched her ideas a MILLION times?? Pretty cool, huh?

Last, but not least, a little homework that we’ve been working on… Answer this questions about your project! How specific can you get?

  • What is a story?

  • What do we want from a story?

  • Who? What? Why? How? When? Where?

  • What do I want my audience to take away from my project?

  • What are the 3 most powerful scenes where the audience is going to feel Empathy with the character?

  • What is my Poster going to look like?

  • Tell your story in 2 lines (Elevator pitch)

  • What do I like about my project?

  • What do I NOT like?

  • What’s the main EMOTION of my project?

  • What’s the conflict in the story?

  • What is so unique about my project?

  • What are you looking for?

To maintain the level of “wow-that-was-so-cool-my-head-is-about-to-explode”, we finally met David Prescott yuhuu! He gave us some amazing tips and vital pieces of information for a pitch.

First of all, he didn’t differentiate between pitch and project definition (“they are the same for me!”).

He gave us this list of questions to build the perfect pitch/define our project (it was a “question-all-you-know” kind of week):

  1. What are you pitching/defining?

  2. What stage are you in?

  3. Who are you pitching to? = KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE!! (Research them and believe in the power of banter)

  4. What are the goals of the pitch?

  5. Why does it have to be told NOW?

  6. What do you want ultimately? (Money? Awards? Professional relationships?)

We know, we know, super useful!!

Check out this last great tips:

  • You have to know your work

  • If you are in a very early stage, is better to say it

  • Use “This MEETS That”

  • Summarize key moments of the pitch as a wrap up

  • Be passionate, be authentic

  • Be humble with confidence (dial yourself back a tone)

  • Find your rhythm

  • Rehearse and take time before the meeting to prepare

  • Make relationships with the people you pitch to. Empathize

  • Use supplementary images to better define what you want (always more images than text!!)

  • Slow down for the big hitters

DO NOT send ANYTHING before the pitch (they might not want you to pitch it anymore because they misunderstood something…)