03DEV – Project Pitching

Introduction

Project pitching is all about the sell. You need to sell yourself and the company you present but most importlantly its you and the team in the pitch meeting that they will be buying into.

The basic of all pitch meetings is to give the client confidence in you and your team.

All pitch meetings are usually won based on two main areas: Creative vision , Project Strategy. It can possibly a combination of both, but the most important thing is the clients buy into YOU.

How to prep for a pitch and what to focus on will depend on who will be attainding

Who’s Who?

The first thing you need to do when preparing for your pitch, is to understand who will be attending. Below are some of the common possibilities.

From the client team,

  • Director
  • VFX Supervisor
  • Executive Producer
  • Producer
  • Studio Executive

In your team,

  • VFX Supervisor
  • Executive Producer
  • Producer
  • Animation supervisor / director

Targeting Your Pitch

Depending on who is attanding the pitch, you will have to focus your pitch on two main areas:

  • Creative Understanding
  • Project Delivery Strategy

Creatitive Understanding
Targeting: Director and VFX Supervisor

These two key players will be mainly focused on wanting to know if you have the right creative understanding of the project and what needs to be achieved. They want to know that you understand the project and get it!

Director
The Director specifically wont be concerned with the technical side of things, they often don’t need to understand the tech or the process in detail and as a result they often don’t

They will however want to know you understand the creative and the narrative, they want to see you as someone they respect creatively and have value to bring to the table.

Be story minded. Don’t worry about the technical.

VFX Supervisor
The client side VFX supervisor will be focused on the creative, but they may have technical questions that they enquire about so be prepared to field these questions on the fly about the project or your studio.

Project Delivery Strategy
Targeting: Studio Executive, Executive Producer, Producer

These people will be more concerned with understanding that you will be able to deliver the project. They want to have confidence that you will be able to get the project done on time and to a world class standard.

They want to know you have a thought out plan and works with their schedule and will feasibly get everything done in time and to the standard their looking for.

Studio Executive
They are main interested in making sure both your team and company you represent will be able to deliver the project. This is in terms of schedule and capabilities.

Executive Producer / Producer
Similarly to the Studio Executive, they want to know you can deliver, however they can sometimes fall inbetween in terms of what their looking for. They can interested in both the Project Delivery Strategy and the Creative Understanding and capabilities.

With Some or All

The meeting may only be with a certain type of client, it could more on the production side such as Studio Executives or more on the creative side with the Director and/or the Client VFX Supervisor.

You need to read the dynamic of the “room” and see who is going to be engaging here.

Sometimes producers like to get invovled , others will sit in the shadows. Read the room , read the dynamic. If its just the director, it will be a different conversation to a director and producer.

If producers are presents , there is a good chance production logistics will be discussed… you have to impress all parties to their interests.

Outcome
Ultametly, the outcome is to prove to the audience that you are the right person/team for the job, both from delivery perspective and a visual perspective.


Pitch Preperation

Research
Now that we know who will be attending, we need to start our preperations.
First thing we need to do is research, research, research. You need to know as much about the people you will be pitching to as possible.

Project History: Find the last 4/5 movies they have done, watch them if you can… Understand the creative and filmaking approaches used in those films. Understand what they do.

VFX Vendors History Find out who they have worked with in the recent past and who they may tend to work with the most. This can help gauge an understanding of their expectations and experiences.

VFX Supervisor History: Understand who they have worked with recently, this may help give you perspective of what their used to dealing with.

Interviews / Media: Find any online interviews and videos with them and watch and study what is said. How are they presented, Are there any use qoutes that gives insight into their thinking.

Go Deep!

You want to absorb as much as possible about these people, so you can easily form a mental image of you being in the room with them. The more you know upfront, the more predictable the meeting will be.

Understand their backgrounds and physical characteristics. The more you know , the more confident you will be at the time.

9/10 times the research wont come up in the meeting, but knowing 10 times more about them , then they do about you will make you more confident and help give you context about their experiences and expectations.

Script
read the script and really understand the narrative. Understand the charactors, the dynamics and what is important to the story. We need to undertand where we need to focus on creatively based on the story.

Breakdown the script, analyis it…. study the script.

You need to be able to speak to it and possible suggest things that are in alignment with the core ideas in the story.

Understand the creative narrative being told

Script Re-Read
After understanding the directors philosphy, re-read the script and try to understand it through their eyes.

Fresh Direction
Its worth noting that even though the director may have approached filmmaking in a certain way for decades, there is always the chance that on this particular project they want to completely change things up. So be prepared to have this curve balled thrown at you.

Pitch Material

This is your ammunition , you need to have three times as much material on hand in the meeting, then you will ever need. So you can change course based on how the meeting is going. You want to show your strongest material first and gauge interest. Never strongly pose your opinion, use language that is broad when introducing material to allow for a recovery if it does not land.

Creative Material:
Show Reels: This needs to be work that your studio has previously created. You can not show other companies material.

You want to pick content that resembles similarities or is in some way relevant to the project you are pitching.

Have multiple examples prepared and include backups of varying styles of work you can use to pivot to if you get the impression that the examples you are showing are not the right fit.

Reference Material: Sometimes reference material can be useful to help convey creative ideas. This can be live action photography or other film/episodic work that can be used to help conveyed an idea.

Creating a mincut of reference material can be good to help convey the intensity or feeling that you are trying to propose for an animated sequence.

Breakdowns: Similarly to showreels, this can be used to help domonstrate apporaches or ideas to the client that are related to the project.

Concept Art: Creating concept art ahead of time can be a great way to show enthusiasim and share your creative vision about concepts and ideas for the project.

VFX Tests: Creating quick VFX tests can be another great way to help stand out from the crowd, demonstrating your studios ability and your visions and creative understanding of the project.

Project Strategy Material

Roadmap:

Weather its a Production-centric pitch meeting or more creatively led, its always useful to have a Production Roadmap on hand.

You need to have a plan in place on how the project is going to be delivered and when. This should be build around the clients schedule to reflect realistic milestones and deliveribles.

The key concept to have in the Strategy are:

+ Who are the key players
+ What is the delivery specification for the project
+ What are the areas to pay special attention to
+ What is the resource plan, i.e a resource heatmap
+ What is the delivery schedule.
+ What are the presentation stages and why? How does it best serve this project.

This strategy needs to convey that you have the right team for the project and its been thought through and considered in depth.

All stages and presentations have to serve the story and what needs to be conveyed at what time.

Show the thought process with the roadmap. How will the particular director like to have work presented to them. Understand this going into the meeting

Understand their schedule

Develope Ideas

You want to come armed with some creative ideas and suggestion that you can weave into the conversation, the aim of this is to show you understand the creative and get the narrative.

Find a few moments in the script, where you can develope some ideas and bring that to the table, show your passion and interest in trying to help shape and add value to the project.

For example:
“This moment here stood out to me because if we frame it like this …. it could be a really interesting way to help convey the isolation that the main character is feeling and also give us an oppertunity to give the audience a really cool shot of the environment here”

“This is another moment that I think could potentially benifit from refernceing snake and lizard motion for the animation of the character carring out this fight sequence”

Try and find common areas of excitment.

“This environment has alot of really cool areas we could explore, if we were to introduce subtle burtalism architecture within some of the designs it could be a cool way give it a really menacing impression”

Reference their Ethos
Listen to quotes of theirs and repeat it back to them in your own way. make it subtle, speak their language.

You and the Team

You and the team is what is going to win this project. Its less about the company you represent and more about you and the team.

if the project is animation heavy, you may have a client facing Animation Director that will be joing you. But otherwise it will be the VFX supervisor and Executive producer who is out to gain the clients trust.

You need to make sure the client know that:

  • You know the script and understand it in depth
  • Your passionate about the project
  • You have a rock solid plan to deliver the project on time.
  • Above all , you get it… you get the creative and understand what they need.


You want them to think instead of where is “Company X” on this shot, you want them to think where is “Ben” on this shot, because they know your the person.

They need to know you are in control and have the power to move the facility in favour of getting the work done for the show.

They need to know you will do whatever it takes to deliver the movie. It doesnt matter what your company has done in the past, you need to be the right person to get their project done.

You need to have a plan, understand the project and be able to execute on that plan. They need to know you are all over the project and have the company behind you to do so.

Be passionate about their project.

Showing you are in control, you know their project and you understand what they need , can trumph competiting with the likes of ILM, come across like the underdog that will die on the battlefield for their film.

You want to convey that you wont stop until its done and even when their done you want them to think that you wont be and keep going.

You want the production supervisor and director to never have to worry about you, you want them to be able to tell you something once and it gets done.

You need to know their short hand, Understand their lingo , Understand filmmaking.

Your job is to help the director tell their story.

you need to be able to compliment their vision and add value to their process.

You need to percieved as being in a position of power.

A spread sheet or roadmap , although they are important but its going to be the trust they have in you that will solve their problem.

Service Industry

VFX is a service based industry, the product is important. It has to look good for the right budget. But ultamtely when working at a world-class VFX studios. The work will generally always going get to the right level.

The difference is how and when you can get there.

All the major studios are capable of delivering great work at similar world-class standards, some have different strengths ofcourse but in general the work get to similar levels.

The difference then becomes the service, how enjoyable and predictable is the service you and your company can provide to the client.

Its not what we deliver , its how we deliver

The Pitch

Traditionally these meeting will take place in a screening room. The creatives will usually sit in the front row with productions sitting in the second row onwards.

First and formost, you will drive the meeting … you will show you are in control.

You will either be driving via computer that is setup in the screening room, or potentially you will be supported by someone from editorial who will be responding to your requests.

Often these may take place via a confrence call , which has become more common post-pandemic.

Eitherway, it will be you in charge and controlling the room.

No matter what the setup is, you want to want to lead the flow of the meeting and eventually they may talk control of the dialoge as the conversation starts to flow after some time.

YOU are running the meeting, you tell the editors what to play. if you need to change the direction, you say “OK cool, Jim can you bring this up I think they might find this interesting”

You need to take control and you bring someone into the conversation when you direct the attention to them. You need to be in control and you need to give the impression that if they bring a whole bunch of money to your company , you will sort it out and get it down.

For example if they bring up a production or non-creative question from someone on their production side, you can “introduce it and then say “Carine” They be able speak to this more and pass the buck to the production head that can represent that aspect.

Reherse!
Reherse the pitches, go over what your going to talk about at different stages and also when you’re going to hand it off to the animation director/supervisor or producer.. Make sure it shows that you and your team are are a unit.

If the pitch is to the studio execs, production may have more of an invovlement with the pitch and you should rehearse when to hand it off to them, if its with the director it will mostly be focued on the creative.

How to approach the Pitch

You are providing a sample of what the service is that you provide, your coming prepared with plenty of material and research and your making them feel comfortable by giving them choice in the direction that they want to go on.

Give them choice and allow them to let you know where they want to go.

Your driving it, but you are giving them the comfort of allowing them their preferences and faciliting it.

To achieve this, you need to think of the pitch as having multiple directions it can go and not looking it as a linear presentation.

Let them influence the flow of the meeting, by guiding them through options and working into the meeting topics and material that will benifit your agenda.

Invite them to make a choice, about how we should begin:

“We’ve prepped a bunch of reels that I would really like to show you. I don’t know if you’ve seen much of our material previously?

I would also really love to hear bit about your movie, I’ve read the script , I love the script… Thank you for letting me read it.

Always thank them for letting you read the script, it shows you care.

Then invite them to make a decision about weather they want to see some reals or tell you about their movie.

They usually will want to watch a real . Show them your strongest example.

Once they have sat through that, again, give them an option of how they would like to proceed.

“Ive got a couple more that I can show. Ive got Project X and Project Y that we can look over. Would you like to see any more ?

From here, they may ask to see another, try to select based on how the first one was recieved. Making on the fly adjustments to the material you show as you read the room.

They may use this oppertunity to discuss something about the first real or something that came to mind about their project that they want to discuss.

From their dialogue begins and it should flow naturally from there. If conversation dries up or a relevant topic is introduced , it could be a good time to introduce another piece of material that can help convey a related idea.

In general , meetings where you look at the least amount of material and the talking takes centre stage are the most succesful.

Use the material you have to spur up new conversation or help domonstrate an understanding of their project and creative desires.

They are hiring you , not the company.

General Tips

Directors have a ton of conversations about their movie all day long, if within 30 seconds of you speaking, if they don’t feel like you are on it. They will talk to you but their not going to listen.

Never deliver a project late, its offensive.

Directors don’t undestand our world in detail, because they dont need to. Becaue of this, they can fear how the “Black Box” of VFX can screw them, so they have to trust you and you need to protect that trust.

Don’t discuss budget constraints and negatives,

Side note, you need to bring your own team with you. You need to bring cast your own producer your own animation director or supervisor because you need people you work well with.

Expect some curve balls about any bad rumours of understandings of your company ” I hear MPC wont be able to deliver on time on this, what are you guys going to do to change that”

Be honeest about it and know that those hard questions will arise.

Bring it back to the movie
For example,
” Looking at the movie, I see the animation component is important, So I want to get you a first pass of rendered animation for september and looking at your schedule I think that will be idea”

Show that the company is owning the problem, don’t pass the buck to the producer.

Show you understand the problem and own them.

Be honest, “Look I know that MPC has failed to deliver on time these last couple of years and there been a massive leanring curve from that. We know it , we’ve learned from it. Im looking looking at your movie and im going to achieve this by making sure X, Y and Z”

Producers may say things like, “Hey greens screens are really expensive do we have to put them up, do we need to do this”

“Do we need to shoot all these plates” etc

this can be to try to see how you handled the curve balls.

Its best to refer to the script if possible and say for this scene I think we should probably do it like this but for this scene we dont… show how your answer fits the script and demonstrates your understanding of the content.

prepare for some productions questions that may come up.

If its a animation heavy show and you are doing the pitch with a Animation Director from your vendor, you need to convey that you are a great duo and are on the same page and working in sync on the creative.

Every stage of the production needs to add value and you have to be able to serve the story beyond what might be asked of you, if you believe it will serve the story. Try differen’t versions if you have ideas.

Give them more then they ask for, if you think it will help them serve the movie and the narrative. Show them that you care and your not just doing the minimum.

What ever plan you lay in front of them , you have to be able to deliver it.

The Final Pitch

There are three you want to achieve when wrapping up a Pitch meeting.

1) Pronoun Shift
2) Humble Thank you
3) Follow up hook


1) As we start the meeting we will want to start the first half of the meeting using pronouns such as “Me” and “You”. We start off as you would expect.

As the meeting progresses and if you are getting the the sense that the meeting is going well, you want to shift from “Me” to “Us” or “We” … pronouns that refer to being on the same team. It has to be sublte but essentially you want them to start to subconciously shift thinking from being strangers to already being on the same team.

From a person perspective, you want to fo into the meeting with the idea that your already on the film and throughout the pitch you want to start introducing that idea into theirs.

The conversation should end getting into their minds that we’re working on the film together.

2) End the meeting by being really greatful for their time and your appreciation for meeting them.

Be humble, be thankful and be greatful.

look them in the eyes and say its been really good, I’d love to work with you on this.

3) The last thing that can be really useful, is to provide a reason to follow up with the client VFX Supervisor.

Its worth doing this with the VFX supervisor, Basically you want to show excitment about something that was mentioned that either requires more research or could benifit from some concept art of a VFX test.

“it was really interesting what we were talking about , I’ll follow up on this I really want to do some tests”

Setup a reason to work with them post meeting, on some sort of capacity. We can do an animation test, we could do some concept art etc. Be ready to engage and do follow ups , in general throughout.

Give them something for free, without them asking…. show interest, show passion.
“hey I would love to follow up on this”

Not necessarily best to do this with the director, but with the client supervisor as your walking out of the meeting together or follow up with email.

If you’re dealing with the Director on their own. you have to becareful to not come across like you are stepping on the Production Designers toes. The Production Designer , designs the show… so if you are doing concept art or similar, this may feel like we’re are working outside of our lane to a traditional director.

Who Makes The Call

You need to win the production VFX supervisor , as they ultamitely have the say. Directors will often defer to the production VFX supervisor, unless you piss off the director

Don’t bad mouth other movies , even things as simple as saying a plate was bad so we had issues with X as result. This can put a bad taste in some peoples mouths.

Directors may weigh in , on the decision if they see something they like or if they don’t like someting and someone rubs them up the wrong way.