QUESTIONS about the AFM

Are you thinking about attending the American Film Market?

This November 2008, over 8,000 industry leaders will converge in Santa Monica for eight days of deal-making, screenings, seminars, networking and parties.

Acquisition and development executives, agents, attorneys, directors, distributors, festival directors, financiers, film commissioners, producers, writers, the world's press and all those who provide services to the film industry will be in attendance.

Getting in is expensive and if you are considering paying the price, make certain that your pitch is perfect and that it will stand out over and above all others. Don’t leave anything to chance. Have ready answers to any and all questions that you might be asked.

If YOU can’t answer questions about YOUR project, who can?

Be prepared on all levels. Whether you are a screenwriter or an independent filmmaker, do not carry your screenplays, business plans or any other lengthy reading materials that could be construed as excess baggage.

The people attending AFM will be swamped with reading material and this is not the best time or place to give then another hundred or two hundred pages to carry. They are there to see what's out there, meet new people and find what is innovative and what will shape the future of this industry. They are there to make contacts and eventually, cut deals.

It's totally unreasonable for anyone to think that they will take the time to read your printed material no matter how good it is. AFM is the place to entice the people you meet, build a relationship and get their interest up so they will go home and contact you and ask for additional information if your project peaked their interest. And you can always follow up with a polite phone call to see if it did.

For information CLICK HERE: http://www.ifta-online.org/afm/home.asp

©2008, Stanley Lozowski. All Rights Reserved.

"Film will only became an art when its materials are as inexpensive as pencil and paper." -Jean Cocteau

PITCHING at MEETS, FESTIVALS and EVENTS

To the readers asking for advice on pitching at events, maybe we should call this, "How to throw your money away" since it seems that someone will always figure out a novel method to take your dollars.

Looking at the lines outside the hotel of one of these so-called "pitch" festivals and "pitch" meetings, it would appear that the promoters have discovered the "goose that lays the golden eggs". Amazingly, people are paying good money to be here and they are so desperate to tell others their ideas that they will pay to fly across the country and do whatever it takes for the privilege of doing so in style at a Los Angeles hotel. What was it that P.T. Barnum once said?

The trick in trying to sell your idea and get it produced is not to be one of the hundreds paying to pitch your idea to people sitting back and wearing dark sunglasses. These people, as a group, can best be described as "Simon Cowell wanna-bees" and they are there to be entertained and to watch you make a fool of yourself. Some have been bribed into attending with free rooms, dinners and drinks from those sponsoring the event and while they might really be representing a production company, they don't have a care in the world about you or your project.

It's amazing how easy it is to exploit screenplay writers just starting out in the film industry. Many will spend hundreds of dollars so they can return home and tell their friends how they had their fifteen minutes of fame and how some unknown production company promised to contact them in the future.

There are plenty of better ways to get production companies to look at your work and hear you out but sad to say, they are not as glamorous as visiting a big hotel and attending a pitch meeting.

Instead of paying to speak to reps from production companies you would be far better off spending your money on cell phone bills, certified letters and contracts or developing your screenplay and getting your business plans in order. Yes, it takes leg work and it takes time to make phone calls every day. Be persistent!

And after all is said and done, you can tell screenplay writers that they are being "had" but they will all do what they want to do.

©2008, Stanley Lozowski. All Rights Reserved.