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CANNES:
"Pitching is not a matter of life and death, it is more
than that."
This is how European Documentary Network (EDN) director Lena
Pasanen ended the workshop session on How to pitch? at MipDoc,
at the Hotel Carlton in Cannes in the south of France.
Hosted with Paul Pauwels, project manager of the European
Television Management Academy, the session was well attended
and proved an eye opener to many.
Pauwels
said: "The world of television has changed. No longer
is one person – the commissioning editor - the decision
maker, it is teams that decide, based on the profile of the
broadcaster. Therefore you keep things simple, bullet points,
not too much detail, in one or two sheets of paper. Have a
big picture so that they can remember, have visual impact."
He
added that: "Once they buy in these people become your
evangelists internally within their organisation. Once they
are sold on your idea that is."
Added
Pasanen: "Please don't catch the commissioning editors
when they are eating; it is annoying. Also don't corner them
in the toilet. If you get them in the lift, make sure you
have a one-liner which will get their attention. Also make
sure you have your contacts in each page pat down and clear
so they can get in touch with you later."
After
the commissioning editor shows interest, you will have put
together a four five page document pointed out Pauwels, packed
in with a lot of research.
"They
will ask you, why you want to make this documentary? If they
don't get a feeling, this is a documentary you want to die
for, they will drop you," he said. "Then they will
ask you when you can deliver," he added. "You will
sign agreements and then they will then set milestones for
you, for getting more financing, if you don't deliver on your
milestones, they will probably pull out."
The
EDN TV guide is a good reference tool for a database of European
Documentary Makers, he added.
According
to him, a bound script is needed very early, after the commissioning
editor has shown interest. "This probably will come within
four months of interest. You can do it in advance, it depends
on the topic. Though of course the script changes as you produce.
A very good research file is what you should work on, if not
a script."
On
the question of linking with a distributor he said that it
is important to start talking to distributors very early;
not when it is finished. "Remember if a documentary has
gone to festivals, it is finished. So show the distributor
when you have 20-30 minutes to show," he said.
He
added that development cost should be 15 per cent of the project,
"A sum of 5,000 euros can be good for research, fliers,
EDN sessions etc. Documentaries cost 100,000 to 500,000 euros,
it's a business, and producers who have the pockets should
be your partners."
But
he cautioned that deals should be done carefully. "Sometimes
film makers have to pay money to distributors, because of
costs," he added.
Pasanen
pointed out that broadcasters have fixed slots genre wise.
So you cannot cross over genres, have history and science
in a project, she said.
Pauwels
pointed out that the positive side is that the European television
market is going to explode with 5,000-6,000 broadcasters slated
to come up. "You will get 500-1000 Euros per broadcaster.
To recover your costs you have to have a 360 degree experience
like DVDs, books, mobile, websites dgitial channels for smaller
audiences"," he said.
Additionally,
a route for recovering costs is to have different versions
of the same documentary for different channels, opined Pasanen.
"You need to know your broadcast partners needs...you
must face the fact you need to do versions...for instance
for one of our projects the Spanish people wanted emotions
,Germans wanted to know how they did it, the English wanted
something else."
Both
emphasised that the various windows of sale and creating versions
can open up a rights nightmare. "Broadcasters want to
cover themselves; they want all the rights whether DVD, or
online or what have you. It's a just in case option even if
they don't know what to do with them, You have to make it
clear that they will have to deal with them or get more production
budget, " highlighted Paul.
He
added that currently this issue is open and no solution has
been found. "Within three years an economically sustainable
model will be found when with mobile TV, broadband will take
off. Until then it will be a test period. There will be victims.
But you can work with advertisers, brands, to help lower costs,"
he opined.
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