How to Pitch Your Movie to Hollywood Producers

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Round up a selection of people in Los Angeles and chances are that more than half of them are hoping to break into Hollywood. Anyone can cook up a great idea for a movie, but putting that idea into action is a tedious process with more than a few ins and outs. First you have to come up with your ground-breaking project (any movie starring Ryan Gosling is always a good bet), then you have to write your screenplay, and then you have to option your material to a production company.

The free ebook, The Business of Show Business, has laid out a few tips on how to handle meeting with Hollywood big wigs, and first up? Making polite conversation. Sounds obvious, but you want to build up a rapport with the producers before diving into the next phase, which is asking intelligent questions and listening attentively as they are answered. This will earn your audience’s respect, which is the perfect way to jump into delivering a pitch. Once the pitch is complete (it should be succinct and you shouldn’t name too may characters), wrap things up with a brief Q&A so your potential producers can learn more about the project, and then leave when you sense that your audience is ready to end the meeting.

It goes without saying that the pitch is the hardest part of the process, so The Business of Show Business suggests preparing in advance as much as possible (you can always test your pitch out on friends), brainstorming questions that you think producers could ask, and taking the production company’s advice seriously. It’s easy to become offended by someone else’s notes, but chances are there’s an element of truth to their advice — even if you don’t like it!

Source: The Business of Show Business ebook

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Mehera Bonner is a freelance lifestyle and entertainment writer. She lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband and two children.