How Elevator Pitches can help get your film made.

This episode of This American Life devoted the first quarter of the show to elevator pitches. It got me thinking…

Part of the art (and daily reality) of professional filmmaking is film pitching. You may have a great idea for a movie or short film, and if you do then your first step is to convert that idea into a list of who and what you need to make the film. Then you have to go round up whoever and whatever is on the list.

It boils down to people with talent, people with technology, people with time to help you, and people with money to fill in any gaps in the above. There will likely be some borrowing of props and haggling over access to locations. There might lawyers involved at some point. Any number of things can cost money. Just make your list.

Try to separate the nice-to-haves (anything that costs money upfront) from the must-haves (an actor or actress who can carry the lead and deal with your personality, a script, and some kind of camera).

You may have the resourcefulness to make your film on no budget. I encourage people to make short films this way all the time. Just get started with whatever equipment you have! It’s easy to do in this age of smartphones with cameras, cheap webcams, free video editing software, plentiful computers with lots of hard drive space, and Youtube.

However, not all films can be made that way, particularly if you have film festivals in mind. You may not have the resources and risk tolerance to make the film yourself. And no will pay you to make a short film (or a long film) on faith. For a producer to find financial backing for filmmaking projects, you have to convince investors that they are going to get a product that an audience will pay to see. That you know what you’re doing. That you and your project are worth the investment.

That’s actually true even if you’re making a no-budget film and need to talk a couple of actors and someone with editing software into helping you. They are investors in your you and your project. They just have talent, technology, or time–these are better than money if you’re making a short film or two.

Some creative minds find the language, values, needs, and priorities of the business mind completely foreign. So let’s start with just the first step: your elevator pitch.

The elevator pitch is the idea that you find yourself introduced to someone who can help finance your project, connect you to financing, act in it, crew for it, edit it, compose music for it, or otherwise might have an interest in what you’re doing. You have a brief period of time to convince that person of the business value of your project.

And this is where being a filmmaker works for you when talking business. Filmmakers know how drama works. Filmmakers know how to hook an audience and take them for a wild ride. Filmmakers know how to keep people interested.

So pull out your storytelling skills and practice them: work out your elevator pitch. Hook someone in two sentences. Would your two sentences keep another person on the elevator, asking questions, wanting to hear more? Then draw them in further with another 3 sentences. Then, if you got another half-minute, practice what you’d say (and ask) to go to the next step. Are they asking for your contact information yet?

You never know when it might come in handy.