Three days away from our first pitching session and how are we feeling? I dont know about you but I can tell you that the few of us working on this are feeling the jitters. For a start, we have been reminding ourselves that whatever we do, the atmosphere for Tuesday, and subsequent sessions, must be right. By right, we mean - dont let it become an American Idol session. In other words, no personal attacks, no grandstanding, no hazing. The jurors also agreed unanimously on one thing - it is not only important for those shortlisted to be congratulated; those who didnt make the cut this round should receive useful feedback so they know how to improve. Pitching or whatever name we choose to call this exercise is a nerve-wrecking process. But the purpose for us is not to torture or to get a kick out of people panicking. Most of us pitched before, and even at this stage of our career, we still occasionally have to pitch to win contracts, to win jobs. (some also say love) Where I teach, open pitches are part and parcel of the learning. Every semester, students in class take turns to sell ideas to each other. They also give each other pointers. I dont have any magic potion but I always share a little dossier with them and I gladly share this here. In preparing a pitch, I always ask myself The 7 Questions to ‘Eternal Happiness: 1. Why and how is this story important? Who should care? 2. What non-visual references can you refer to, in order to gain more insights? 3. Has this been done before, if yes, by whom, and how is yours different? 4. What is your approach to this story? Are you going to be a fly-on-the-wall silent observer? Are you going to art-direct your subjects? 5. Who are some REAL PEOPLE you have lined up or spoken to for this? 6. What are some of the possible outlets for your project? Web? Print? Guerilla poster campaigns? Wallpaper? 7. What are some of the obstacles that will prevent you from completing the project in the time (and budget) allocated? You can rest assured that I still use the same checklist today and it has worked for me on many instances. It is only a start, a framework, and in no way the solution to everything. If the checklist works for you, feel free to use it. But if you have a better one, please share with us too?
Posted on: Sat, 31 May 2014 08:01:24 +0000
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