1301 FLM DIR Documentary-Pitching

7/29/2019 1301 FLM DIR Documentary-Pitching

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94 FILMMAKER WINTER 2013

stitute getting involved early on as a North

American partner. Sundance Institute Docu-

mentary Film Program Director Cara Mertes

told me in an interview, “This is a orum or

films that want to afect change, films that

want to have some kind o social or political

impact, which not every film wants to do. It’s

not meant to serve the entire contemporary

documentary field, and that’s a choice that

we’ve made because we do see more re-

sources, partnerships and, in a way, impera-

tive around this set [o films].”Good Pitch’s simple but radical idea is

that, rather than go to the same handul

o film industry unders, participants are

trained to conceive o a ar wider variety o

sources or not only unding but also screen-

ing and outreach support. These are sources

that haven’t been inundated by hundreds o

film pitches a year and who have as much

to gain by partnering with a film relevant to

their causes as the filmmakers do.

For invited filmmakers, the process begins

three months in advance o the event with sev-

eral conversations with Good Pitch Outreach

Director Sandi DuBowski, who pioneered in-

ventive engagement campaigns or his own

films (Trembling Before G-d, A Jihad For Love)

long beore “engagement” became the buzz-

word it is today. With palpable enthusiasm,

he starts the process by brainstorming a list o

organizations that can be invited to sit at the

filmmaker’s roundtable and, ideally, make a

commitment the day o the pitch.

Our film, Remote Area Medical, explores the

state o the American health care system by

documenting a ree pop-up clinic built or just

one April weekend on the infield o a NAS-

CAR motor speedway in Bristol, Tenn. Given

our subject, the benefit o being introducedto public health organizations around the

country was clear. But not only did DuBowski

turn our vague ideas about building relation-

ships in the medical community into a tan-

gible list o Good Pitch prospects, he also

helped us tease out less obvious thematic

strands in the film in order to identiy other

partnership opportunities. These themes in-

cluded volunteerism, which led to us inviting

VolunteerMatch to our table.

Lucy Walker, who attended Good Pitch

with her latest eature documentary The

Crash Reel, said o the process, “No matter

how coy or anxious you might be eeling

about reaching out to new partners, [San-

di will] find ways to encourage, or indeed

orce, you to get over any shyness or reluc-

tance and reach out. Leading up to the ac-

tual pitch day, we had months o gentle and

not-so-gentle pressure, which has netted

us some remarkably exciting partnerships

and laid the groundwork or a thrilling and

hugely impactul campaign.”

Some o the organizations we approached

with DuBowski had never participated in

a film event beore, or ever considered do-

ing so, and had to be convinced o the Good

Pitch philosophy, which insists that docu-

mentary films can be powerul tools or any

organization. Patrick Creadon, director o

participating film Studio H, said, “by the time

we headed of to San Francisco, I thought we

might be joining a cult, with this passionate

and fiery leader named Sandi DuBowski. He’s

very demanding o participants, in a good

way. He expects you to show up having done

When I learned that Remote Area

Medical, the film I am co-di-

recting with my husband, Jef

Reichert, was accepted into the 2012 Good

Pitch San Francisco, I was honored but not

entirely sure why. The event is such a new

phenomenon, such a twist on the traditional

public pitch orum, that it takes time to ully

wrap one’s mind around it.

For each Good Pitch event, six to eight

documentary films with strong, social-issue

components are selected to participate ina single-day pitch orum where filmmakers

have seven minutes to pitch their films and

show clips or trailers. Representatives rom

various NGOs, oundations, philanthropies,

brands and media, whose institutional goals

dovetail with films rom the lineup, then dis-

cuss the documentaries with the filmmakers

at public roundtables, while 200 to 400 more

representatives watch rom the audience.

The films are selected by BRITDOC and

the Sundance Institute. BRITDOC’s Chie

Executive Jess Search and Foundation Di-

rectors Beadie Finzi and Maxyne Franklin

created Good Pitch in response to narrow-

ing distribution and unding opportunities

within the industry, with the Sundance In-

Positive First Impressions

LINE ITEMS

Documentary filmmaker Farihah Zaman shares the secrets of the Good Pitch.

Good Pitch San Francisco 2012



95FILMMAKER

WINTER 2013

your homework and to have really bought

into what Good Pitch is and what it can be.”

Ater finishing the process o prepping

with DuBowski and populating our roundta-

ble, Jef and I ocused on the demands o the

pitch day itsel, only to realize we had given

little thought to the campaign development

workshop beorehand. As it turns out, likethe submerged portion o the iceberg, the

intensive prep (two days ollowed by a day

o rest beore the pitch, though most o the

filmmakers used this time to continue refin-

ing their pitch on their own) is the most sig-

nificant part o the Good Pitch experience.

Many pitch orums and conerences will

do brie sessions on how to pitch, but ew

events workshop how a film is presented

with such rigor and ocus.

As we settled into a circle around a coner-

ence room at the Bay Area Video Coalition,

Dubowski announced that he was “literally jumping out o his skin with excitement.” He

introduced the rest o the team, and then

we started by giving the “pub version” o

our pitch, talking about the film the way we

might to a riend at a party. A lot o the new

material that Jef and I wound up adding to

our pitch came rom this seemingly humble

warm-up, rom details that we thought too

idiosyncratic or slight to be part o a ormal

pitch, but that others ound incredibly mem-

orable. Examples include the use o the word

“pop-up,” sharing how the 20 members o

our crew all stayed in a house together, and

the perspective I gained on America’s health

care crisis coming rom Bangladesh, one o

the poorest countries in the world.

Then there was a cycle o ormally pitch-

ing to the room, receiving eedback, and re-

turning to the hotel to lick our wounds and

rewrite or the next round. The advice rom

the filmmakers and organizers involved ev-

erything rom making basic concepts clearer

to wording and order o ideas to what per-

sonal elements to include in the pitch and

how to crat certain phrases so they catch

the attention o particular unders. Some o

our filmmaker colleagues even recut their

trailer or everishly created new animation

over the course o the prep days. The result

o this two-day session was that we talked

and even thought about our film diferently

— and more efectively.

Anthony Arnove, who is producing the

highly anticipated drone strike exposé Dirty

Wars with Brenda Coughlin, said o the peer-

to-peer process, “There were a number o

times when [ellow filmmakers] said some-

thing better than we had said it ourselves,

and we incorporated it into our general way

o talking about the film.” Indeed, while

having mentors like DuBowski, Search and

Mertes in the room was an incredible oppor-

tunity, it was the filmmaker powwow that

really made these sessions special. There is

no reason why someone who doesn’t have

the opportunity to go to Good Pitch couldn’t

recreate that at home with a group o like-

minded ellow filmmakers.

Jef and I had pitched Remote Area Medi-

cal at three other events over the past year

(at the Sundance Documentary Fellows

Program, Sundance Creative Producers

Summit and IFP’s Independent Film Week)

in one-on-one sessions, to some degree o

success, but many o the issues that came

up in the Good Pitch workshop we had never

considered. There are things that make or

a good pitch in any context, and then there

are things that make or a good Good Pitch

pitch.

First, personal inormation is ar more

crucial to a room ull o nonfilmies. I’ve been

under the impression that while people like

to know what brought filmmakers to a proj-

ect, that personal note shouldn’t be dwelled

upon. But at Good Pitch, where many or-

ganizations don’t customarily review film

projects, that inormation is o particular

value. It makes it clear to them why you are

the right person to tell the story you’re pre-

senting. Seeing your personal investment,

your dedication, makes them confident in

your ability to ollow through. Things that I

tend to mention in passing — the act that

we volunteered at a clinic beore deciding to

make the film, or my background in distri-

bution — were now the things that people

commented on at the reception ollowing

the main event.

By the same token, some o the tech-

niques I’ve learned about pitching in one-

on-one or small group sessions needed to

be thrown out the window in a public pitch

environment, particularly one with time

constraints as stringent as Good Pitch. For

example, I considered the ability to adapt

a pitch based on reactions — to “read the

room” — a strength. Is the exec at the other

Good Pitch’s Jess Search and Sandi DuBowski

“Good Pitch revolves around a belie system. A belie that flm can changethe world, in the power o small detailsto create big ripples.”

P H O T O C

O U R T E S Y

O F G O O D P

I T C H



96FILMMAKER

WINTER 2013

end o the table not that interested in the

description o your film as predominantly

vérité? No problem, delve into the act that

it is character-driven instead. At Good Pitch,

however, consistency was ar more impor-

tant than adaptability.

These ideas o being personal and being

rehearsed speak to the theatricality o the

event; the Good Pitch team has consideredevery single detail in terms o organization

and production, rom the theater-in-the-

round design o the room (the “architecture

o collaboration” as DuBowski calls it), to

the inclusion o break times when people

can connect. While we filmmakers agonized

over our pitches, the stunningly charismatic

Search, who served as emcee o the event,

and DuBowski strategized about things likeFarihah Zaman and Jef Reichert’s Remote Area Medical

TOP 10 PITCHING TIPS FROM THE 2012 GOOD PITCH SAN FRANCISCO CREW:1 Invest yoursel as much as possible during the workshop in the other films, filmmaking teams and pitches. You are all in this together

and can really help each other make the most out o Good Pitch. — Gillian Caldwell, producer/engagement strategist, Citizen Koch. Caldwell

has a more in-depth list of tips available at the Good Pitch website

2 Make it personal and real. Try not to sound scripted. — Suzan Beraza, director, Uranium Drive-In

3 Be un, pithy, memorable, and above all clear and specific. Cut out every single boring word. Present all your basic inormation in a clear

way. Practice about 10 times more than you think you need to. — Lucy Walker, director, The Crash Reel

4 Pitch it to your teammates and then pitch it to people who don’t know anything about you, and listen to the questions that those people

ask you. — Patrick Creadon, director, Studio H)

5 Personal connection is so important. Potential partners in the room have to understand why to invest in a filmmaker or in a campaign.

They have to eel the passion or the story and or the work that the filmmaker and their team will do with their project in the world. We

have to eel the impact. Why will this film make a diference? — Sandi DuBowski, Outreach Director, Good Pitch

6 Telling the story in the first person, living your story as you’re telling it — there’s nothing more powerul than seeing your certitude

and your belie and your passion; your commitment to the story and your knowledge about the story. — Cara Mertes, director, Sundance

Institute Documentary Fellowship Program

7 Don’t orget that you’re able to show clips rom your film. Letting your film speak or itsel is important. You’re there in service o your

film, and the burden isn’t just on you making a really compelling presentation. Understanding that your film can do a lot o the work or

you takes a little bit o the pressure of and also takes you back to the space o why you’re doing the work you’re doing in the first place.

— Anthony Arnove, producer, Dirty Wars

8 Make sure your trailer is clear and emotive, but it doesn’t have to tell the whole story. It just has to get people interested in hearing the

whole story. — Cara Mertes

9 Consider approaching one o your donors that will be joining you at the table and asking them to make a challenge grant rom the

table at Good Pitch with a time-limited duration to spur additional giving rom the audience. Apprise the Good Pitch team about the

pledge in advance, and ask them not to announce any matches made right away so as to maximize donor possibilities throughout

the day. — Gillian Caldwell

10 It is about being very clear about needs. We encourage filmmakers to just articulate what they need. Be clear about money, be exact

about money. And think big. — Sandi DuBowski



97FILMMAKER

WINTER 2013

placing sympathetic audience members

near a floor mic to encourage them to speak

up, or calling on an already-committed

advocate at the table beore a newcomer

so that the latter would be convinced by

the groundswell o support accumulating

around the project. Occasionally Search

and Dubowski would know about a recent

development in a film’s situation and askthat it be publicly announced or the first

time during a pitch in order to heighten the

sense o drama and urgency. While we had

been privately inormed in advance o the

event that we had been given a Pare Lorentz

grant rom the International Documentary

Association, Good Pitch invited a represen-

tative rom IDA to sit at our table and an-

nounce then and there that they were com-

mitting to supporting Remote Area Medical.

Search announced midway through The Yes

Men’s pitch that the Kickstarter campaign

or The Yes Men are Revolting had gone liveand stats suggest that films that receive a

certain amount in donations within the first

24 hours are extremely likely to reach their

overall goal. This prompted a flurry o audi-

ence members to donate to the campaign

on their smartphones, then announce they

had done so to the room and via social me-

dia, creating a delicious eedback loop o

buzz. It should be noted that The Yes Men

did, in act, raise nearly 50 percent more than

their goal o $100,000.

More than at other pitch events, the film-

makers are the entertainment here. This

means they can and should do things like

bring the subject o their film, as Walker did

when she introduced snowboarder Kevin

Pierce to an audience o people still tear-

ul over seeing him sufer a devastating

accident in her trailer. It also means that

sometimes pitch suggestions are made that

sel-conscious types might find gimmicky.

For instance, Casey Nay, co-editor and co-

producer o Uranium Drive-In, was cajoled by

Dubowski and Search into wearing a cow-

boy hat rom his very real days doing rodeo

so that the audience could visualize his con-

nection to the film, which is about the de-

bate surrounding the opening o a mine in

a tiny, struggling rural town not ar rom the

one he grew up in. Nay said, “I actually loved

wearing my rodeo clothes. The business-

man in me didn’t want to wear my hat at

first. Sandi and Jess won out though, as soon

as it was decided that we should include my

story. It was almost like an extension o the

film because people don’t see that culture

up close every day.” Andy Bichlbaum, one

hal o The Yes Men, struggled to determine

whether he should pitch as his Yes Men per-

sona or as himsel, or some combination o

the two. In the end he gave a straight pitch

in a hilarious “survival pod” rom a previous

perormance piece, allowing him to both

take the pitch seriously and show the audi-

ence his team knows how to address an is-

sue with playul humor.

Documentary filmmakers are not neces-

sarily used to being the entertainment, and

nervousness among the Good Pitch teams

was palpable on the day o the event. Be-

ore our pitch, I rocked back and orth in a

corner, rehearsing it to mysel in a slightly

unhinged ashion. As a first-time filmmaker,

being sandwiched in the schedule between

Lucy Walker, Academy Award-nominated

filmmaker and pitching pro, and The Yes

Men, who have spent the entirety o their

careers perecting how to be both unny

and thought-provoking via public peror-

mance, did nothing to calm my nerves. At

least I knew people were unlikely to leave.

But in many ways, Good Pitch is a ar riend-

lier room than other pitch events because

participants are made to anticipate both an

inspiring show and a brave new venture or

their business or organization. Unlike some

film unders, they are not there thinking,

how am I going to eliminate projects rom

this list o promising films so I can make my

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see page 108



1 08 F I LM M AK E R

WINTER 2013

can independent ilms. They do a lot o

Latin American movies and French movies.

We were at New Directors/New Films and

Marian Masone introduced me to [head o

sales and acquisitions] Eric [Schnedecker]

at a brunch beore our movie was about to

screen. I was like, “Just go see it. Here’s two

tickets.” And he was like, “I want to watch

Mad Men all day.” I said, “Go see the movie.”[Aterwards he said], “I love this movie. We

don’t really do independent American mov-

ies, but that could help. We can say to ilm

estivals and international distributors, ‘You

know us, we don’t normally do ilms like this.

This isn’t just an indie hipster movie. There’s

something really exciting and resh about it.’”

And you’ve had good sales? We’ve had good

sales. We have this great French distribution

deal with Diaphana, and it’s coming out Jan. 2.

We have a great U.K. deal with Soda Pictures.

Have there been surprises, things you didn’t

plan on during this process? I didn’t plan on

a French distributor lying me out to Paris

three times to do press and to have it come

out on 40 screens in France.

What about the process of filmmaking?

What did you learn? What it conirmed or

me, which I already knew, is that I do not

produce. I don’t know what is wrong with

you guys, [laughs] but I love directing so

much. And I hope this doesn’t sound preten-

tious, but, obviously, I believe in mysel. You

don’t do this i you don’t believe in yoursel.

I really thought I could do it. I’m nowhere

near a master cratsman. But I think there’s

no doubt I’m a much better ilmmaker now

than I was a year and a hal ago. I do not,

however, think that I’m a better ilmmaker

because o Cannes or because o an Inde-

pendent Spirit Award [nomination]. It’s

through the process o making the ilm that

I learned so many things. I read interviews

with ilmmakers, whether they are Robert

Altman or even Steven Spielberg, who say

that they are always learning. They learn

something rom every project. And that’s

one o the things I really love about it.■

ALL AT SEAfrom page 87

the action would be accompanied by a gasp-

ing sound recorded on the sync soundtrack.

In another auspicious and thoroughly bi-

zarre instance o accidental sound/image

occurrences, Karel noticed that in one par-

ticular shot, as a seagull crosses in ront o

the moon, the mic recorded a sizzle as i the

bird was momentarily immolating.

While most sound designers might have

discarded the “compromised” GoPro sync

soundtracks, Karel instead sought to maxi-

mize their expressive potential, bringing

out the resonant requencies and keeping

the accidental “sound artiacts.” (The pur-est example o this occurs at the very end

o Leviathan during a two-and-a-hal-minute

shot o seagulls disappearing into blackness,

which is the one piece o “music” composed

or the film.) However, even ater Karel’s nu-

anced mix, the soundtrack remained abra-

sive. According to Ribicof, the filmmakers

questioned how much assault the audience

could realistically take, especially given that

the soundtrack is primarily abstract. At what

point would the audience lose the sense that

they were on a ship? Ribicof’s work ocused

on keeping the audience in the present mo-ment by building out a robust sonic land-

scape and pumping up the horror elements

to dramatic efect. He added sound efects in

nearly every scene (including some limited

oley or water sounds), enhancing textures

and isolating specific sound events. (I you

are alert, you may catch the one sly musical

reerence, which appears diegetic but was

added in post.) Ribicof, taking ull advan-

tage o the 5.1 mix, sculpted dynamic sonic

arcs that key into the dramatic arcs o each

scene. Just as the cameras continually move

through space, the film’s sound continually

moves around the theater, giving a palpable

sense o dimensionality to the soundtrack.

The film, which is set or a March U.S.

release rom Cinema Guild, is about to take

on new lie at this year’s Berlinale, where

the filmmakers will unveil three versions o

the film to be exhibited as installations. The

main piece, provisionally titled Abyssal Loss,

will screen once daily or the duration o

the estival as a six-hour version o the film

without sound in which we view the film at

one rame per second. During the process o

editing Leviathan, the filmmakers discovered

spectral figures appearing in single rames,

primarily in the underwater shots. These

apparitions may be the visual analog to the

mysterious resonances — that is, digital ar-

tiacts recorded on the camera’s sensor. But

just as the film is seemingly haunted by orc-

es that remain just out o view, we can take

comort in the act that not knowing may be

much more useul than knowing.■

POSITIVE FIRST IMPRESSIONSfrom page 97

limited grant budget count?

At one point, when my partner was shar-

ing the story o how our unconventional

distribution strategy or Gerrymandering, his

first film, helped overturn unjust redistrict-

ing practices in the state o Caliornia, peo-

ple actually applauded. For a moment, I wasstupidly perplexed. I didn’t understand that

they were clapping or us. I thought, “There

are places in the world where people ap-

plaud you en masse or making a dent in an

arcane and conusing piece o legislation?

And in what parallel universe are distinctly

unamous filmmakers, like mysel, essential-

ly bum rushed ater a presentation, so eager

are people in very powerul positions to talk

with us about our film?”

There was no better evidence o the suc-

cess o the Good Pitch method o approach-

ing and preparing an audience than theenthusiasm o the audience throughout the

day. Amped-up participants aside, however,

I know the incredible reception o our pitch

was due also to the workshopping process.

A ew points o the Remote Area Medical

pitch have been around since the beginning,

like the succinct statement that this is a film

about people, not politics, and that it is as

much about shedding a light on the ignored

communities o rural America as it is about

health care. We have been lucky enough to

have a strong trailer that boasts all the bene-

fits o a sound mix and color correct, thanks

to the unding o the Cinelan/GE partner-

ship Focus Forward, which commissioned

a three-minute Remote Area Medical short

(available on the Focus Forward website).

Many o our most efective points, however,

were brand new. Although elements o the

pitch’s content were geared toward a more

politically charged audience, and elements

o its delivery don’t seem appropriate or an

audience o two rather than two hundred,

the presentation o Remote Area Medical

that emerged rom Good Pitch San Fran-

cisco is basically how we now pitch the film

in situations ranging rom casual conversa-

tions to film estival applications.

Jef and I went rom starting of with an

explanation o what the organization Re-

mote Area Medical does, a pitch more or

the group than or the film, to the more pro-

vocative statement, “Everything you need to

know about health care in America can be

learned by attending just one ree medical

clinic.” We went into the act that we de-

1301 FLM DIR Documentary-Pitching

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Transcript of 1301 FLM DIR Documentary-Pitching