How to pitch your script: 10 tips from Marten Rabarts

DearCinema organized an interactive session with international script consultant Marten Rabarts on “How to pitch your script at international platforms” on March 8 in Mumbai.
For those who couldn’t attend the session, here are 10 takeaways from it:

1.

For European co-producers, co-producing with India is not about the money. You have more money in India than we have in Europe, from private sources. The kind of money we have available in Europe for Indian filmmakers  is cultural subsidy or soft money. European producers co-produce with India because they want to develop their own infrastructure or build relationships with India.

2.

What you get by working with a really experienced and culturally sensitive co-producer is knowledge of that market outside of your own country. A co-producer can work with you creatively to fine-tune the project that makes it viable for the international market.

3.

You don’t want to work with a producer who will de-Indianize the project or erode its authenticity and cultural specificity which is its greatest asset that the international market is looking for. So you have to really get to know your producer, you have to see their previous work, same as they want to see your previous work, before you commit to each other.

4.

An energy is building under the idea of Indian independent cinema. You have got a certain currency for a period of time. What does it mean? It means that all the festivals and sales agents are casting a very strong gaze on you. What the market needs is a flow of Indian independent cinema, so it can’t be just the films of Anurag Kashyap. Diversity is the reigning identity of the new Indian cinema.

5.

You need sales agents to place your content in the market outside the Indian subcontinent. You don’t know the international network of distributors who are great at distributing your kind of work. You don’t know if that distributor is the right one for your film because within any territory there are a stack of distributors. You don’t know what a good deal is. When a sales agent comes on board, you license them to sell your property. Then they start to promote your film at festivals. If sales agents have good relationship with a distributor, they can sell your film purely on trust. Distributors don’t trust filmmakers directly with deliverables and contracts.

6.

Never send out your script too early to either producers or sales agents. Take expert opinion on it before you are ready to show it to the world. If you put out an underdeveloped script, they won’t give you another chance.

7.

Never pitch anything that you can email. You are wasting everyone’s time. What you pitch, face to face, is your passion. What does the film mean to you? Where does it come from? You are pitching ‘why’ the film, not ‘what’ the film.

8.

Set up the main conflict of the main character. Pick an important scene from the film and describe it visually and cinematically. Always tell the ending when you are pitching your project.

9.

To show your previous work or some visual material to support the project is a good idea. But show something that is really polished. Don’t just throw something together overnight. Also, don’t overload people with information.

10.

Know who you are meeting with. Know what their needs are. Know what they have done before. Read the industry guides. What they have worked on before is an important piece of information, it will tell you what their taste is.