Sunday, December 15, 2013

How to Make a Successful Pitch

In my years working in television I heard thousands of pitches, and as head of development for production companies I made a few, too. I'm often asked, "what are executives looking for when you pitch them? In my experience they are looking for two things: 1. They want to be thrilled 2. They want to believe you can do it. Let's talk about that in detail. 1. Film studio and network executives hear hundreds if not thousands of pitches a year. They hear them in their offices, of course, but also everywhere they go. I once got pitched by a caddy at the Bel Air golf course who was also a screenwriter. Most of the time, they say 'no.' But the reason they got in the business, the reason they have their current job, is because they want to be part of creating something wonderful. Nothing excites an executive more than a great story - something that they can be a part of and that might make their reputation. They want to be thrilled by a pitch -- but they rarely are. 2. However, even a great story is not enough. As I've written in previous posts, an idea is only as good as its execution. For example, it's one thing to go into a network and pitch the idea of starring Bill Cosby in a sitcom where he plays a doctor. It's a very different meeting if, like Carsey-Werner productions, you walk in with Bill Cosby himself. (see my earlier post, turn your idea into a property). Even with Bill Cosby, the two networks at the time with the biggest audience turned down the pitch for The Cosby Show, which made NBC, the network that said yes, the #1 network during the 1980s. That's why it's important to create a track record in the entertainment business before you pitch. Unless they feel comfortable with the second point, it doesn't matter how great your idea is. If you're already a producer or can show a video of your work, that will help prove it. If you haven't produced anything, try to partner with a production company that has produced shows. Pitching and picking shows remain an art, not a science. If it were a science, no show or movie would fail. However, If you keep these two points in mind -- 1. Thrill them; 2. Prove you can do it -- you'll have a much better chance.

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Hunger Games: Catching Fire -- How to Make a Blockbuster

The second film in the Hunger Games series, Hunger Games: Catching Fire, is likely to gross over $500 million worldwide by the end of the Thanksgiving weekend. That's after a record pre-Thanksgiving opening day gross and a Thanksgiving Day record box office gross. It's likely that after just it's second weekend the film will be the fourth best-grossing film in the U.S. for 2013, and there's a good chance that by the end of the year the film will be the top grossing film of 2013. Remember this is only the second film of what will be four movies in the series. I hope whoever optioned the books for Lionsgate got a well deserved promotion. It's no wonder that the only growing section in most bookstores is teen fantasy adventure. It's not just the Hunger Games -- the Harry Potter and Twilight series also made billions of dollars for their movie studios and publishers. Some of these series, like the Percy Jackson and the Olympians book series, have not been nearly as financially successful. The latest film in the series, "Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters" has grossed just under $200 million worldwide. We've now seen enough successes amongst these types of films to identify certain common principles of their creation. 1. Start with a popular book series: Harry Potter, Twilight, and the Hunger Games all sold tremendously well as books. The Potter books started the practice of having parties in bookstores the night before their release. The first two Potter films were not critical triumphs, but the series had so many built-in fans they were financial successes. 2. Cast good young actors as the leads, but not stars. Jennifer Lawrence got great critical acclaim for her role in the independent film "Winter's Bone," but she was not a star when cast as Caitness. Similarly, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson had some experience, but were just about complete unknowns when they got cast as Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Let the audience create the stars. 3. Surround the young stars with the best possible adult actors: Catching Fire added Phillip Seymour Hoffman to a cast that already included Donald Sutherland, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Lenny Kravitz, and a host of other fine character actors. The adult Potter cast was a who's who of great English actors. Don't cast stars who will draw the focus from the young leads, but rather will help make the world believable. 4. Don't try to recreate the book on the screen. Aim for the essence of the book and some key plot points, but recognize that movies are a different medium. The Hunger Games films did that successfully by compressing the action that took months into a few days. 5. Include a strong heroine. Of course, Caitness fills that bill, but so does Hermione in the Potter books and Bella in Twilight. Your target audience should be first -- the target audience for the books, and second, their parents. If you can capture both the fans of the books and their families, you have a blockbuster. 6 Don't be afraid of including adult themes. The Hunger Games, for all of its love triangles and plucky heroines, is actually the story of a political revolution against tyranny. The Potter books are about the importance of self sacrifice for the greater good. Those themes make the action more compelling and help the films appeal to adults. 7. Keep the stakes high; make the antagonists strong. President Snow appears invincible at the beginning of Hunger Games; Voldemort is the most powerful evil wizard in the world. There's no challenge if the bad guys are easy to overcome. Most important, if you are the author or filmmaker, you have to care about the characters and the story. The Hunger Games series started because Suzanne Collins had a story she wanted to tell. JK Rowling hoped her first Harry Potter book would find an audience; by her own admission she didn't expect it the franchise would grow to its current size. The story and the characters kept her writing every day while she was on the dole in Great Britain. The first step to success is a burning desire to tell your story, and to make it as compelling as possible.