HAMILTON SPARK Festival: Pitch Development Workshop

Turning Local Stories into Compelling Films - A pitch development and presentation workshop with Lyn Collie

HAMILTON, SPARK Festival, Tuesday 16th August

Script to Screen presents a Pitch Development Workshop with producer/directorLyn Collie at the 2011 SPARK International Festival of Media, Arts & Design.

This free workshop is for emerging and experienced filmmakers looking to sharpen their focus on their project's core idea and learn how to pitch to funding bodies and other industry professionals in a compelling yet concise manner.

When: Tuesday 16th August, 2pm-5pm.

Where: Wintec City Campus, Hamilton.

This workshop is FREE. There are limited places available, to register e-mail Paul Judge before 12pm MONDAY 15th AUGUST - paul.judge@wintec.ac.nz

Outline:

This workshop will enable new and emerging filmmakers to “hot-house” a film idea in a supportive environment and prepare the idea to share with funders or partners.

After receiving background information and instruction, participants will break into groups to develop a focused, appealing concept based on their idea. Each participant will then “pitch” this concept to the rest of the workshop. The pitch can be aimed at either a funder or a potential audience and will involve at least one powerpoint slide and one image.

The aim of the workshop is to sharpen the filmmakers’ focus on their chosen film project, forcing them to reveal the core of their idea in the most concise and interesting way and making this available for use in future pitches, writing endeavours and funding proposals.

Format:

The workshop is three hours in duration.

2:00pm-2.50pm: Presentation from Lyn Collie on film development, how to attract interest to a story and where to go for support.

2.50pm-3.00pm: Break

3.00pm-3.30pm: Participants work in groups on their ideas. Internet access will be available.

3.30pm-3.50pm: Participants rehearse their presentations in groups.

3.50pm-4.00pm: Break

4.00pm-5.00pm: Participants pitch their idea and receive feedback from the rest of the workshop and the instructor.

NB: The length of time allowed for each pitch and the complexity of the presentations will depend on the number of participants. Numbers are limited, register now by e-mailing Paul Judge - paul.judge@wintec.ac.nz

Registration Requirements:

To be included in the workshop, you must submit:

1. A brief written description of your film idea. This could be a short film, feature film or documentary, and does not have to be a fully developed idea. Your description can be anything from one line to 250 words maximum. The idea should include a beginning, middle and end, even if it’s for a short film.

2. Four to five images that relate in some way to the film concept – the mood, the shooting style, the colours, the actors, subject matter etc. These can be sourced from anywhere – google, flickr, your own photos, found photos. You can submit an online video instead of an image- please supply a URL for this.

3. If you are already working on an idea in a team, you are welcome to bring your creative team with you.

Participants are not required to come with a developed idea, although these are very welcome. If you have footage or images from an existing project, please bring these along on a laptop or drive.

Some more information about the instructor:

Filmmaker, writer, and tutor Lyn Collie has most recently produced award-winning feature documentary There Once was an Island: Te Henua e Nnoho, about the impact of climate change on a small Pacific community. This film is currently in worldwide distribution in festivals, has just had a theatrical release in New Zealand and is now available on DVD. Lyn is producer and co-director (with Briar March) of boutique production company On the Level Productions. She also produces video, lectures on video production and supports new teaching technologies at The University of Auckland Business School. Lyn was previously a film and media studies tutor and production co-ordinator for Annie Goldson, and produced, directed and edited Cruise Control, a 2005 documentary on “boy-racer” culture. She has an honours degree in Social Anthropology (Otago) and a Masters in documentary directing (Auckland).

ENDS

© Scoop Media