Hi Producing Lounge Fam!
Pitching is one of those skills nobody teaches you AND everyone has to learn. Whether you're pitching a studio executive to greenlight your project, going directly to financeers as an indie filmmaker, or working to attach high-profile talent, the ability to walk into a room and communicate your vision is often the difference between a film getting made and a film sitting on the shelf. And it's a skill that's genuinely separate from filmmaking itself.
I found a video breakdown this week that walks through how some of the industry's most successful filmmakers (Jordan Peele, Guillermo del Toro, Neill Blomkamp, Greta Gerwig, Damien Chazelle, the Wachowskis, James Cameron, Ti West, and more) approach the pitch. It's a genuinely fascinating look at how different filmmakers translate their vision into something that gets financed.
Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btXcMzDaskw
Guillermo del Toro on passion. "I find that there is one secret and one secret only to pitching, and it's exactly the same advice you get when you fail rather than when you succeed at pitching. I never ever ever think of the people listening. I pitch to get excited myself. If in the pitch I get excited and enthusiastic, I start adding details and I get really caught on the tail." After 20+ years of pitching successfully AND unsuccessfully, that's what he's learned matters most.
Jordan Peele on right-sizing your pitch. For GET OUT, he started by thinking like a producer, not just a director. "If this movie gets made, it's not going to be a huge budget. So let's mine the things that work that don't require huge budgets." That producer-first mindset is what got GET OUT off the ground when he was still early in his feature directing career.
Neill Blomkamp on the freedom of smaller budgets. "If you're not James Cameron or Peter Jackson, you have to kind of start off with films that are either smaller and you can do what you want or bigger and you can't do what you want." That framing is such a valuable reminder for emerging filmmakers weighing whether to chase bigger budgets or protect their creative freedom.
Damien Chazelle on proof of concept. WHIPLASH almost didn't get financed. So Damien shot a scene from the script as a short film "basically really intended as just a way to kind of convince financeers." That short led directly to the feature. Sometimes the pitch isn't just a room and a document, it's a piece of evidence you build first.
James Cameron on concept art. For THE TERMINATOR, Cameron sent Arnold Schwarzenegger a painting he'd done of the character with Arnold's face on it. Arnold saw the painting and said, "I am the Terminator. I'm going to make this call." Concept art can be a genuine attachment tool for high-profile talent, not just an investor visual.
Greta Gerwig on character-driven pitching. When she was taking LADY BIRD around, she noticed that every man who was raised with sisters or who had a daughter said, "I know this. That's my wife and my daughter. That's my sister and my mom." The mother-daughter relationship at the film's core made it universally recognizable, and that's what landed the pitch.
The through-line across all of them is simple but powerful: you're not just pitching a story. You're pitching yourself, your vision, your understanding of the audience, AND your ability to actually deliver.
What about you?
- What's the best pitch you've ever given AND what made it work? Or, if you're on the receiving side, what made a pitch you heard particularly memorable?
- Have you ever created a proof of concept (short film, sizzle reel, concept art, teaser trailer) to sell your project? What did it teach you about the material AND about pitching itself?
- What's your biggest pitching challenge, and what specific technique are you working on to improve it?
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These are golden, Ashley Renée Smith. I've pitched in a lot of industries for over 40 years now (really!) and what resonates with me most here is Greta Gerwig's, and if the concept and character align with the person you're pitching to, it's big first step.
Many people have said of The MicroCosmic Cartoon Show, but this is my story".
Ashley Renée Smith One thing that stands out to me is that the strongest pitches seem to come from filmmakers who understand that communicating the film is part of making the film.
I especially like the contrast between Guillermo del Toro’s approach of getting himself excited about the material and Jordan Peele’s focus on understanding the practical scale of the project. Those might sound like opposite approaches, but I think they actually complement each other: passion makes someone want to listen, while a clear understanding of execution makes them believe you can deliver.
As a filmmaker and screenwriter, I’ve also found that the hardest part isn’t explaining the plot. It’s communicating why this particular story needs to be made in this particular way the tone, emotional experience, visual language, and the reason you are the person to direct it.
I also think proof of concept can be misunderstood. It shouldn’t simply demonstrate that you can make something that looks expensive. It should demonstrate something about the project that a script or pitch deck cannot communicate on its own.
For other filmmakers here: when you pitch, do you find yourself talking more about the story itself, or about the experience you want the audience to have?