Pitch and Foot

Went to Phil Parker's short film class in M/cr last week. Oh hang on, it was the week before - time flies when you're a lazy sod. Details in a follow-up post - if I get round to it.

In between, the film scheme I'm on just got interesting. I was chosen to be one of the five directors, and then the ten writers had to pitch to us directors to select five scripts we wanted to make.

So - I was really looking forward to the boot being on the other foot and listening to writers pitch to ME! And I think I learnt more from being pitched to than anything else I've heard or read. I've been on this film scheme for seven weeks now with a great bunch of Lancashire folk and we've all got to know each other and get on really well together, so although it was a serious pitch, I was surprised how nervous some people were. As the person being pitched to I found it strange - they were here to talk about their script, they were amongst friends - what was there to be nervous about? And thinking about my own pitching - I have been nervous every time - why?

Also, despite my feelings of goodwill, I got bored really quickly. I know it's stating the obvious, but the shortest pitches were the best. One stood out - a short punchy rhetorical question, with a couple of sentences about the film - then she asked if there were any questions - and that was it. Of course I had loads of questions.
Another good one was by a thickly accented Spanish guy - it was so short and quick I didn't grasp a word of what he said, but again I had a load of questions.
Most of the others though, either read a written pitch (No no no) or gave a nice short pitch then rambled on and on trying to second guess any questions I might have so that by the time they'd finished I'd forgotten their pitch, had nothing to ask them and their time was up (everyone had ten mins).

I have done pitches before as a writer - with wildy varying results as I still haven't learnt to love it - which is the key I reckon. Who doesn't love talking about their favourite movie? I think the trick is to transfer that passion to your movie. I'm actually looking forward to my next pitch.

Anyway, we had to make a shortlist of five scripts in order of preference, with the guarantee that we would get to make one of our top three - and of course as directors we all chose the same five scripts - so I got my third choice.

I'm quite happy really - the script at the moment is a bit of a mess, but there are good ideas in it - it's non-linear which gives me something to get my directing teeth into. I'm just about resisting the temptation to completely re-write it myself - as a writer I would hate it if a director tried to do that to me and we have a script editor to work with, but I can't help these new feelings of total control freakery.

Phil Parker - 'Writing Award Winning Short Films'

Ok, here are my notes from the Phil Parker class 'Writing Award Winning Short Films'. Phil is yer real genuine screenwriting guru - long blonde hair, long blonde/greyish beard and glasses - he looked like he'd come straight from a Californian life coaching class.

Phil's book is 'The Art & Science of Scriptwriting' I've just got it out of the library and not started reading it yet, but it looks interesting. Actually, although I've got a couple of scriptwriting books, I've never read one cover to cover, I just dip into them for advice if I'm stuck or something - doubt if I'll read Phil's either, but I will take a dip.

> There are approx. 300 shorts made per year in UK with public funds - and 300 privately funded.

> What are awarders looking for? There are 2000 festivals with awards in the world – find the right festival for your film.

> Define terms with producer/writer/director so all singing from same hymn sheet.

> Phil’s terms:

Narrative: The totality of a work – every single part of it. Everything has a narrative – all have common elements (doc’s ad’s etc.) Sound can be a narrative element – all combine to form whole.

Story: Nothing to do with plot. You don’t have to find a story – stories are already out there (CG Jung) your character and conflict makes your story stand out in a distinctive way. Understand your story – story not an original element.
There are ten main stories (see Phil’s book)

Plot: Is about how you tell ‘the story’ people aren’t interested in story, but in plot – how you solve character problems and take them through it. Plot is not story, but arrangement of story ideas.

Theme: ‘What is it about?’ is the subject, not story or plot, and applies to pitch/concept. Theme is more than this – it’s about emotion. ‘Everyone has been treated unfairly at some point in their lives’. Emotionally you want injustice addressed, or you feel unresolved. We can as humans relate to other characters injustice. Don’t have to be human to suffer (Blade Runner) but empathy is about being human. ‘Undeserved Misfortune’ is a theme – audience instinctively identify with that character ). Form the story or stories around the theme. Right stories for right plot – dramatic unity. Theme underpins story – don’t waver from the theme. Just have one theme for a powerful narrative , it might have several stories – unite them with theme.
There are Eight main themes (see book). ‘Desire For Validation’ – most powerful contemporary theme.

We also watched and talked about in depth, some award winning short films from the UK.

The films were:

'Is It The Design On The Wrapper' (1997 - only UK short film to ever win Palm d/Or) writer/director Tessa Sheridan.

'Small Deaths' (1996 - Cannes Jury Prize) writer/director Lynne Ramsay.


'Brown Paper Bag' (2003 - BAFTA winner) writer Geoff Thomson director Micahel Baig-Clifford


'Skin Deep' (2001 Jury Award Brest Euro. Short Film Fest. BAFTA nominated) writer/director Yousaf Ali-Khan.

'Moth' (2004) director Simon Corris writer Clifton Stewart.

'The Pearce Sisters' (2007 - animation) director Luis Cook adapted from a short story by Mick Jackson.


'Benjamin's Struggle' (2005) writer/director James Bresse.