P4- Second Submission

Here is my recorded pitch, with client response.

D1 Second Submission

Evaluation of my pitch

For this project, the brief specified that I needed to pitch my ideas to the clients as part of a selection process to have the short film funded for the East London Urban Film Festival. The brief stated that the short film should contain the features of the Urban genre, and be 5 minutes long. To impress the clients, I spoke in my pitch about how the brief was met in terms of the features of the urban genre and how the short film is to be filmed in popular places in East London. I also spoke about the characters and plot, my inspiration for the short film, the budget that I would be requesting, and the target audience. I based my pitch mainly on why my script is the best how the brief wanted. I also made sure that it was included where my script specifically shows a positive perspective of east London, and the other ways where 'The Boggart!" fit the brief.

My pitch was for an urban genre film of an urban legend called ‘The Boggart!’. The idea of my film is similar to that of the 1999 film ‘The Blair Witch Project’ as it is about some teenagers who try to catch audio-visual evidence of a murderous being. I also planned to use the same 'mockumentary' style as in ‘The Blair Witch Project’ however this would have changed the genre of the film from urban to a 'mockumentary' which would then make the film not fit the brief. The plot has not changed but by filming the filmmakers rather than using their unedited footage, I achieve the urban genre. 

In making my pitch I used the online software called ‘Prezi’ because it looked more professional than PowerPoint and was easy to learn how to use and access. I also conducted a survey on teenagers between the ages of 16-18 to find out what type of films they like. My results showed that 1/3 of the teenagers I asked liked horror films, and 44% of the teenagers I asked like thriller films, which was why I decided to make the script an Urban Thriller rather than an Urban Horror. I was then able to use these statistics in my pitch to help the clients understand more some of the decisions I went with and the reach of my target audience research. 

In my pitch, the clients asked me if I had any thoughts on the marketing of the poster. I talked about the idea to make posters similar to the 1958 'The Blob" but saying "The Boggart!". This was helpful to me as it reminded me where some of the inspiration for 'The Boggart!' came from and therefore to remember to base lots of the cinematography and visual elements of the short film on the inspiration. The clients also asked me why I thought I should be chosen, which is an important question to answer as I needed to promote my script to be made into a film, but it is not feedback that will help in the further development process of the film. Other comments that the clients made, was that the story is based in Victoria Park which is quite a prestigious park in London, and they asked how I was going to avoid negative connotations of the park whist having teenagers disappearing in that location. This helped me improve and further develop my product as it reminded me to make sure that is was never the park that was looked on negatively, and to make sure that the fictitious nature of the film was evident to the target audience. 

Overall, I am moderately happy with the way my pitch turned out. I was able to clearly demonstrate to the client how my script met the brief, along with my detailed research into the story. To improve the pitch, I would talk more about the specific locations within Victoria Park, as that location is large and therefore I should have been more specific about the location as I do not think that I gave a clear enough view of where I want to film. However, I have happy with the way the clients responded to my pitch, and I am excited to make the product. 

P3 Second Submission

https://prezi.com/p/-qdhy9zotxzo/

This is the link to my pitch presentation, I created it in order to present my ideas to gain funding to produce the film.

P2 Second Submission

https://prezi.com/p/w2c0hoo7tzoy/

This is my treatment that I created for my short film. It is a detailed layout of my plan for the film. It is similar to my pitch presentation but in more detail.

M3 Second Submission

I think that my pitch went well as I was confident in what I was talking about and it was clear that I was knowledgeable about the film and everything to do with it. I think that my pitch could have been better by me being less nervous as I sometimes mumbled and rambled on at times. At the end of the pitch I was asked three questions to which I think I responded well to.

My first question was; 'do you have any thoughts on how you would promote the film if it was successfully produced?'

To which I answered confidently; 'yes, I think that a good way to advertise it would be with posters saying "The Boggart!" in a similar script to that of the 1958 'The Blob!' because it is mysterious and iconic and would attract attention'

The second question was 'why do you think you should be chosen?'

'I think my film should be chosen because it is a very good example of what the competition E3 legends is looking for because of the iconic locations and genre.'

The final question I was given was ' Do you think that the swamps and marshes that you said boggarts live in is a good thing to have associated with Victoria Park given its status and well maintained features?'

'I think that Victoria park is a good place to find the boggart because even though they are called marsh habiting boggarts, they live in any place of wildlife.'

Overall, I think that the question and answer section of my pitch went well, except that I was a bit nervous and rambled on in some of the questions and said "errr" a lot.

M2 Second Submission

In order to perfect my pitch, I did a mock pitch where my peers asked me potential questions so that I could improve my pitch and be prepared for what the panel may ask me. Some of the questions I received were:

• Why is there a picture of chips under 'iconic locations'?

Chips may not be an iconic location to east London, but they are iconic to East London and I had an idea that involved chips from a chip shop. I made sure that in my notes, when I got to the 'Iconic Locations' section of my pitch, that I included something about why I had a picture of some chips.

                                                                 

• Why do you think that Victoria Park is a good place to find a marsh-habiting Boggart?

Marsh-habiting Boggarts like to live in areas of wildlife for example a forest/swamp/field. Victoria is one of the largest areas of wildlife in east London and is an iconic location to the east end of London. I made sure that in my notes, when I talk about my Iconic locations, I should go into detail about why Victoria Park is an ideal location to film the Boggart.

                                       

• What was the point in making 'Jaymie' the strong character if she is the character who needs to be saved from the Boggart in the end? 

It creates some character development for the character 'Sean' as he was the weakest character. It will be done in a way that does not undermine her original self. I included in my prezi some information about why I have made the decision to have Jaymie be attacked by the Boggart. Jaymie is an adventurous character and therefore would be more inclined to go after the Boggart. Sean couldn't be the character to find the Boggart as he is too meek and timid to search properly for him.

I then improved my pitch by including the extra information that I revealed whist answering the question.

P1 + M1 Second Submision

I have interpreted the brief by looking at what the clients explicitly want and what they implicitly want. The film has to be set in East London and therefore I have decided to set my script around Victoria Park, the biggest park in East London. The brief states that I must base my script around an urban legend however it gives me the creative freedom to decide my plot line. After I interpreted the brief I did some research into East London urban legends and looked at stories about babysitting sessions going wrong and ghost stories. The blue-sky thinking session I did helped me to narrow down my ideas to three final ideas.

My first idea was to have something along the lines of stalkers or a mugging, where someone is walking home alone through the park at night and can feel someone watching them. Using paranoia and playing on the audiences minds against them to make them spooked. On one hand this idea was good because its a simple storyline which doesn't need a lot of explanation, which is good for a short film. Also the idea of a mugging in a park could fit easily into the genre of urban. However it would not create or promote a positive view of East London which is the point of the brief. As well as this, there is no room for character development and is a cliché idea. So the idea was abandoned.

My second idea was the idea of contrasting people in East London. For example a country girl moving to the city. This would be good as it would be easy to include a point or moral, and humour would flow naturally through the script. Ultimately, the idea fell through because the main location for my plot would take place in a school and that would not easily show the urban genre or the location of E3.

My final idea was to create a mockumentary where a group of teenagers go out in order to bust the myth of the 'Bogart'. This would make a good short urban film as a mythical creature does not show negativity about east London as the Bogart is obviously fiction. As well as this bogarts supposedly live in grassy spaces so I could set my film in Victoria Park. However the film being a mockumentary did not fit in the genre of an urban film so the initial idea changed slightly so it is now a film about a group of youngsters who are creating a documentary about the mythical Bogart living in Victoria Park, putting my film idea back into the urban genre.

I believe that my final idea is the best idea to fit the brief, as it can clearly be apart of the urban genre, as it is the story of an urban legend; as well as fit the location specified in the brief by being set in E3. My final idea, which is the one I wrote, is about three teenagers (Jaymie, Sean, and Joseph) who travel to Victoria Park in order to collect footage for a documentary they are making for school. While they are at the park, Joseph goes missing; whist looking for him, Jaymie and Sean get attacked by the mythical creature they are hunting. I have given it a cliffhanger ending because I believe it fits the urban genre better. The script is called 'The Boggart!'.