First time pitch at M:DOX
Me (Linus Thorneus) and Hanna Westerlind had the privilege to Pitch before SVT (swedish television) for our documentary film “Don´t cry any more mother” on M:dox . M:dox is an annual swedish Documentary Film Festival in Malmö, arranged by Film i Skåne . During the festival ten new documentary projects has been chosen to pitch before SVT and with that, a chance to win 50.000 SKR intended to preproduction.
The day before the pitch we had the great opportunity to meet with Ove Rishøj Jensen, consult from EDN (European Documentary Network). There we did the whole presentation and he came with great response and constructive critics worth considering.
A few things he said was that we had to be more concrete, have a clear vision of how to create this film, not just inform about the topic of the documentary. How we picture us the contents of the film from the start to finale and how the film in general was going to look.
The pitch was going to be 7 min long. We made the choice to talk about the film for about 5 min and show them a 2 min preview of what we already had filmed.
Afterwards the jury from SVT asked us questions regarding the project for about 15 min.
I believe I can speak for both Hanna and me when I say that we was really nervous before the pitch, because neither of us had done anything like this before.
I had this picture of a jury all dressed in black suits with stone faces, maybe it can be like that to, but this jury was great, they gave us a lot of credit and asked question. And both Hanna and me think it went really good.
A few things I think u could think about if u are going to a pitch is:
- Don’t be abstract, be concrete of what the film is going to be, how it´s going to look and what u want the audience to see
- Prepare, prepare what u want to say, what do u want to get a cross to the jury or the people u are pitching for
- Don’t say what the already know, if the jury know anything about the film already, have a short introduction of what the film is about and then move to the other parts as fast as u can
- Don’t talk over time try to keep the time. U don’t want to bore the Jury
- But must important, speak from your heart and believe in your idea.
Don’t try to say what u think the jury want to hear. Just have a clear vision and believe that your idea is good. Because it probably is if u have the opportunity to pitch!
Enjoy the opportunity and I hope that it goes really good! And remember the people you pitch before, is just people!