Hollywood Fantasy Draft: Pitch Your Movie!
You are a wannabe producer trying to pitch a movie to 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros or New Line Cinema. Will you be able to sell them your idea?
Now that the draft has finally concluded, we can talk more about the next step which is possibly even more exciting and fun: Pitching your movie with the cast you assembled. All 27 participants are invited to pitch their movie in the form of a blogathon. You will be given the opportunity to do so either on your blog or as a guest blogger here on Anomalous Material. The movie pitches will be rolled out progressively (one a day) starting MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 2010. This will give you more than one full week to come up with your movie idea and pitch.
What to do Before Pitching a Movie
- You should immediately develop the basic idea, the logline for your movie: The logline is one or two sentence that summarize the concept of your movie. For example: “Are you interested in a story about a man who lives in the Statue of Liberty?” (A real and successful logline)
- You should have a firm grasp of your main characters and their roles in the story
- You should be able to explain why so and so is going to play so and so
- You should begin to develop some basic outline or treatment for your story
A treatment includes the theme of the film, its plot, the characters and their story arcs, the key sequences and their purpose within the plot and theme, and the temporal structure of the film. If you don’t have a story, you don’t have a movie!
How to Pitch your Movie
Think about a time a friend asked you about a movie and you described it to him/her, this is pitching a movie! Put in as little or as much time and effort as you would like to put into this since we are doing this for fun only. The minimum required that will be expected are:
- A title and a logline: The 1 or 2 sentences that captures the concept of your film. For example:
“This is the story about a man who tries to buy everything in the world, only for him to discover that he can’t buy back his lost childhood. (Citizen Kane)
- A quick 2 or 3-sentence description that gives some background about the movie you are pitching: The genre, the premise and the scope of your film
- A summary: the theme, the plot, the main characters, their goals, the conflict, what’s at risk and why should we care, any pivotal events or emotional turning points, and the conclusion.
- What makes your story unique?
- Answer questions as they come
You can be as creative as you would like (use pictures, movie stills, photoshop, create videos or movie posters etc…). I really hope everyone has a great time coming up with their movie pitch as well as reading some creative and fun content from fellow bloggers. Remember that you are trying to convince us that your movie is worth being made! There will be polls as to which pitch is the best, as well as a bunch of fake awards to be distributed!
Example of Successful Movie Pitches
To give you an idea of what a movie pitch is, here is an example below. Obviously, this is much lengthier than most of us are going to do but it’s nice to see what it is like.
- Destiny (PDF File)
- Book-to-film pitch sheet (PDF File)
Rules
- You do not have to use all the people you drafted
- Book adaptations are acceptable
- If you did not participate in the draft but would like to pitch a movie idea, let me know in the comments
Sign-Up
It seems like some of you are farther along your movie pitch than others so I would like those of you who are (almost) ready to pitch your movie first. Sign up for the dates below:
- Monday, August 30: Andrew R.
- Tuesday, August 31: Anna
- Wednesday, September 1: Novroz
- Thursday, September 2: Kai
- Friday, September 3: Peter
- Saturday, September 4: Marc
- Sunday, September 5: Ruth
- Monday, September 6: Castor
- Tuesday, September 7: Heather
- Wednesday, September 8: Travis
- Thursday, September 9: Andrew K.
- Friday, September 10: Ripley
- Saturday, September 11: Joel
- Sunday, September 12: Corey
- Monday, September 13: Dan
- Tuesday, September 14: Clara
- Wednesday, September 15: Nicholas
- Thursday, September 16: This Guy
- Friday, September 17: CS
- Saturday, September 18: Richard
- Sunday, September 19: Chris
- Monday, September 20: Fitz
- Tuesday, September 21: Michael
- Wednesday, September 22: Red
- Thursday, September 23: Julian Castor (Pitch 2)
- Friday, September 24: Neon
- Saturday, September 25: ACPG
- …
Questions?
Ask me in the comments!
More Resources
- How To Pitch (The Artful Writer)
87 Comments
I’ll take Monday the 30th
That’s courageous. Thank you sir!
Oooo….first one in the water. nice.
I think I have the gist of the story figured out, but not confident I can iron out the details fast enough, so I’ll take Sunday, September 5
WOW, I don’t think I have the time nor resources to do a video pitch, Castor! But a poster sounds like a great idea, I might do that if I have the time… or perhaps some Photoshop mishmash of possible movie stills 
Oh, forgot to ask. Where do I add the additional cast? Here in the comment section or just do that later in the draft?? I just want to make sure I secure them first.
Tomorrow in the supplemental draft.
Oh right, I think you did mention that in the Round 7 post. Man, just take out the “r” in draft and that’s what I am! Sorry Castor
you better not be thinking of taking Paulie Shore…that gargantuan talent is all mine, baby!!!
Aaah, totally missed that. Ignore all the crazy emails I sent you Castor
I wouldn’t dream of taking your gargantuan talent, Peter, he is all yours indeed
I’ll take Tuesday September 7th!
Noted! I think I will just wedge myself between you and Ruth
all right, fine! I will take the 3rd if still open….
Sandwich time! I have a week and a twisted idea!
I can take the 6th, right before Heather!
ahah sorry Peter
i know, I just saw that. Sorry. Give me the 3rd or 4th if you can, Castor.
I need a friggin’ title!!! I usually never come up with a title until I am finished writing a complete script. It usually just comes to me….damn my creative juices!!!
Title!!! Darn, I suppose every movie needs one, huh? I was too busy thinking about the plot I completely forgot about that. Oh well, hopefully it’ll come to me when I fine tune the plot. [sigh] A REAL producer won’t have to worry about stuff like this!
I’ll gladly take the 8th.
Dibs on the 31st!
Put me for the 10th, if you please.
I’ll go on 11th September
I can go september 1.
I can go september 1.
I’m doing a book adaptation because I love movies based on books…so it won’t take long to write
I already got a good plot and characters in mind. It’s pitching it that could be the downfall.
Wow, these days really filled up fast. I suppose I’ll take the 12th if it’s still available.
I’ll take the 2nd.
That’s a man right there!
I’M ALL MAN, BABY!!! haha
…kay.
You are a brave man!
I’m WAY too late to participate in this. I will just have to follow all of you. Can’t wait to start reading your pitches!
I will take the 14th
Can I have sep 13th or 15th please Castor.
September 13th, you got it!
I can fill the Sept 4th spot…if not just throw me at the back of the list:)
September 4th is all yours! Thanks Marc
Hey. You said that if anyone wanted to pitch a movie even if they didn’t participate they should say so in the comments? Well, I would love to pitch my movie on whatever date you give me. I already have the cast,director, idea and some form of a story in my head. Just tell me when.
Absolutely, we would love to have you! Does Wednesday September 15 sound good?
Ye. that’s good. Because I didn’t participate in the draft I can use anyone right? Sry 4 the late reply, got distracted by the UWI and orientation
Not gonna lie, this wasn’t the most fair occurrence that has ever happened. But it’s just a game so I won’t dwell on it.
Yea, it’s just a game ahaha, the main reason I didn’t want to be difficult but I will take your comment into account if we ever do this again some time down the road.
I’ll try for Sept 17th
Although I will be at the Toronto International Film Festival from the 9- 17th, I will try my best to have something ready by that date. Worst case scenario, I will switch days with one of the later dates.
Sounds good, thanks CS!
Sept. 16th.
Which is actually a blessing in disguise as my schedule for the next few weeks just got super complicated, so it’ll give me time to work on it! Hopefully no one will be tired of reading these things by then! But maybe it’ll be parallel the actual release year for movies… start with some quality dramas, transition into the blockbusters, then the guilty pleasures, and onto the award season films…?
Nah you are wrong This Guy. September 16 is like January where the least promising movies go to die
Hey dude – sorry I’ve been AWOL – I’ll take whatever slot is left
Ok Chris, I will schedule for the 19th
I’ll take September 18th. Hopefully I’ll be less busy by then.
Great that so many are doing pitches! Amazing to hear about all these projects, so much fun!
Isn’t it! We have 21 out of 28 producers who participated in the draft so far. Add in Nicholas who did not even participate in the draft but wants to pitch his movie. That’s really awesome! Hopefully, we get every single draft participants to pitch something
I can’t wait to pitch mine. I kind of already gave away the synopsis on the tracker but it will be nice to see everyone else’s projects and see their creative juices flowing.
I’m getting anxious. I want to say what my movie’s about, but I have to wait until my set date. The only thing I don’t really have is the title. I always suck at thinking of a good one.
September 21st for me!
Glad to hear that Michael!
The 20th works perfectly for me.
it’s time for me to show.. I’m sure Castor will make a post on the site.. but here’s my pitch for a musical romantic comedy directed and written by Joss Whedon http://www.gmanreviews.com/2010/08/23/a-movie-pitch-by-me/
My Film is going to so GREAT that it deserves a Friday release so put me down for sept. 24th
is there a way to edit your comments?????
Nope, only I can muahahahah
I put you down for September 24!
That’s what I like to hear
Can we e-mail our pitches?
If you would like, I can also allow you access to the user panel if you want to type it up/edit it right on AM (if you want more control)
Nah, I want more anonymity for the pitch.
On rtm’s site yo suggested i participate, so i will take you up on your recommendation. I guess i will go September 23(hopefully i will have everything completed by then). Now, do we type up our pitches in a comment, email, or what?
IF you have a blog, you can post it there. Else, you can send it by email
Thanks for joining us!
Should we give you the link to our movie pitch or you just going to check our blog one by one?
You can email me your link anytime.
I’ll twit you
Better, twit me your entire pitch through Tweeter AHAHHAH
Actually we should include a logline that is tweetified… for marketing purposes.
I’ve disappeared for a week! What did I miss? Am I eliminated? Did I lose? Sad
I wanted to play.
lol no you are not eliminated. Simply sign up for a date (I guess Saturday, September 25?) to pitch your movie
Lucky for me, I already signed up on the 16th!
Hoorah! I gotta keep checking back to see when people start posting their pitches. I can’t wait!
do we send the pitch to you via email? If we are just supposed to copy/paste on the site, where should we do it on our designated date? Thanks!
Yes, you can send it to me via email (HTML). If you want to have access to the user panel on AM, and work on it there, simply let me know ahead of time.
ok…thanks for the speedy reply!
My pitch: http://movienut14.blogspot.com/2010/08/movie-pitch.html
Outstanding! Can I post the entirety of it on AM or just an excerpt?
Post the whole dang thing if you want.
I’m just grateful I’m done with that ordeal.
Ahahhah cool Anna! Very good pitch and I’m sure everyone else will enjoy it as well
Castor, i think i may need to push back the date of my pitch. I have a lot to do for my television production class(a movie and a documentary), and i also have math this semester, so i won’t have as much time to devote to my fantasy movie script as i anticipated. Sorry
Ok Julian, I guess I will take your place and pitch another movie lol
Thank you. I will try to complete it at some point. Also, did you get my email? It has a link to my new movie/tv blog
hey Castor, sorry for the delay…i guess i’ll take the 25th? haha
Sounds good! The 25th is yours
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