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In Media conference, Christchurch 1 October 2009

Geoff LealandScreen and Media Studies

University of Waikato

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Doing the Perfect

Pitch

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A Pitch for Television (or Film)Draws together knowledge on:

• Industry structures and processes

• Funding (budgeting and funding sources)

• Genre and formats

• Audience and demographics

• Scheduling

• Writing for television

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A Pitch also …• Replicates industry practice

• Provides a low-tech production element

• Allows for student creativity and collaboration

• Develops important presentation skills

• Is ideally suited to Level 2 and Level 3 production-oriented Achievement Standards (Media Production and Design and Concept)

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Students in my second year course SMST216 Television: Media, Audience, Narrative do a pitch as a major piece of assessment (as a trio or pairs).

The over-riding imperative is that they pitch a programme for an audience other than themselves ie no programmes about 4 students living in a flat!

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My Pitch

Delivered to The Big Pitch competition, SPADA conference,

November 2008

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S aturday N ig ht at the M ovies

Geoff LealandScreen and Media Studies University of Waikato

Grainy Productions

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But it could play any night of the week!

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A g ap in the s chedule

There is not much attention paid to film on New Zealand television, except for the occasional plug or cursory film review.

There is certainly nothing to compare with Australia’s very popular

At The Movies (ABC)Grainy Productions

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At the M ovies

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Saturday Night will feature…

The kind of content you would expect to find:• Box office news

• New releases

• New technology

• New Zealand (and Australian) filmsGrainy Productions

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B ut there is much that is new …

Such as:

My Favourite Film

- a weekly surprise guest, talking about his/her best-loved film, the first film they ever saw, what going to the cinema means to them.

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g ues ts

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A ls o

A regular slot:

B eg inner’s G uide to the M ovies :

Eg -some basic film terminology

-what is the ‘box office’?;

-how do films get funded and distributed?;

-what does a film producer do?

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and important ques tions like…

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Another weekly s lot

Films You Oug ht To K now About

- featuring the great and the not-so-great films/stars/directors of the past 110 years.

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V iew s from the Audienc e

Vox pops from film-goers

E xpert opinions from writers and reviewers

When I sit down next to you in a movie theatre, we get to share each other’s point of view. We become part of a collective soul.

That’s the magic in the movies.

M. Night Shyamalan (2005).

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The B es t Little C inema in N ew Z ea land

Our Woman in the Dark visits cinemas (public and private) around New Zealand and rates the ambience, screening quality and the refreshments.

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In P roduc tion

Visits to local film sets and post-production facilities, to see it all being made

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• Competitions (such as The C ell-phone Remake)

• Stunts (and stunt-men !)• A dedicated website, with

blogs)Grainy Productions

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The potentia l audienc e

15 to 65 year olds but with a strong skew to 19-35 year olds (the primary film-going age group)

But niche audiences (eg The Gloomy Sunday set) will not be neglected!)

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The likely audienc e

• Films fans…and film festival buffs• Media students (the 10,000+ of them!)• Budding film-makers• Viewers who like info programmes with a local

slant• People who want to be entertained but also

learn something new along the way• The New Zealand screen industry!

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The format

• Half-hour, weekly programme (Wednesday at 10pm would be a good slot!)

• Pre-records and live continuity• Clips and interviews• Flashy graphics

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Pres enters

A engaging male-female pair, who seldom agree on anything (think Siskel and Ebert!)

Young, attractive and laconic (think Jaquie Brown!)

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Funding

• New Zealand On Air (mucho local content and support of local enterprise!)

• Contra deals with distributors (Paramount/Universal, Sony, Hopscotch)

• Merchandising (DVD releases, T-shirts, books)

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Format s a les ?

With a simple substitution of local content…

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fina lly

As William Goldman once famously declared “Nobody knows anything

[about the movie business]’

but Saturday Night might just make us a little wiser

Kia oraGrainy Productions

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The outcomes of my Pitch?• A positive response from the judges and

audience (but not the winner!)

• Approach from a producer

• Tentative agreement from a broadcaster

• But nothing much has happened in the past few months…but I enjoyed the experience!