Pitch evaluation

https://youtu.be/WDlHl9s_jvA

Happy Families
Nada Mudawi

Above is the link for my short film pitch. In this evaluation I will be talking about what i thought went well in my pitch and what I believe could be improved, I will do so by outlining each slide I went through and exactly what I spoke about, highlighting areas where I thought I could have improved upon.

To begin, I feel that as it was my first time ever delivering an idea through a pitch, which of course required me to stand up in front of a class of around 18 students, I found quite daunting and patronizing. I believe my pitch had its downfalls here and there, where I had either not gone in depth with what I was saying and so my listeners were perhaps finding it hard to understand what I meant or where I spoke for too long on something which didn't need much emphasis.

Firstly, I began by talking about the scenes and considering we only have 4 minutes in total to perform our film, I thought it would be sensible to film each scene at a maximum of 10-20 seconds long. This was a brief about how long i would want each scene to last, therefore what went well was that i have recognized that it is important to stay under the time limit, and avoid prolonging each scene. What i could have improved on would probably be to actually mention this in the pitch- and perhaps what effect it would have on an audience if i only have 4 minutes to film an entire story the end should be the end. An extensive scene means i am unbalancing the flow of the film, so my audience would feel as though the film is not correctly done.

Secondly, I went on to speak about the genre of our film which was as a dominant genre Horror and a sub-genre suspense. The fact that i only touched on the genre but did not explain perhaps why we have chosen this genre, would be the downfall. To improve i should have discussed the audience and what makes the genre of horror more appealing compared to another such as comedy. Both entertaining but what makes horror just that tiny bit more usable. Also, i should have spoken about the genre conventions and again what makes it engaging. This would have made my pitch more convincing and therefore my listeners would be more urged and exited.

Thirdly, the major pitfall in my pitch was probably when I started describing our entire film content. I feel as though I dragged on, individually talking through each scene meant people were less engaged and started to get agitated. Although it was disappointing to see that what i was saying was not getting through to my audience, i feel there was some strength as well. Where i had described the scenes i was mentioning the various characters who will feature in my film, this is good because it means i have introduced them into the action of each scene and how they're prime factors of the film. This is useful because it allows my listeners to picture the characters in the scenes which makes it exiting and effective for them.

The next part of the pitch, handed over to my partner (Marcelo) who spoke again about genre. He mentioned one extra genres apart from horror and suspense/mystery which was tragedy. This again, was only outlined briefly, and my partner went on to speak about editing and narrative. Thereafter, he should have stayed on the topic of genre and explained why exactly we collectively have chosen to include these particular genres.

Our influences I thought were partially explained well, although they were self explanatory, as they are popular horror films, my partner has been successful in mentioning the fact that they are Japanese films which were directed using an American style. He should have made it clear that each film contains a certain asset in which we will try to duplicate and mirror in our short film.
The priority here would have been to mention the developments which we will obtain to, what we are going to do differently from these films, and step out of the norm.

Tamica who is the third member of our group, spoke quickly about identification and particular stereotyped characters in our film. However, it was quite poorly explained, the wording was not particularly clear and she spoke in a confused manner. To improve this she should have explained each characters representation, why it is they're a stereotype. Also, she could have stuck in a rhetoric asking the listeners whether they agree or not with the stereotype, or perhaps is there any ones they'd suggest in terms of our characters.
I felt Tamica was perhaps decapitated for ideas and what to say, which created a sense of confusion from our listeners.
Another thing which didn't go well was, where Tamica skipped the slide about themes, this would have been a good topic to speak about as themes are a key element which can help to construct a film. This made, the pitch look poorly delivered and again we as a group looked unconvincing.


For the next, few slides I spoke about camera language - but not camera language. The slide was supposed to cover camera shots, angles and movements. However, I only spoke about camera shots , saying that we were planning on using all camera shots, i could have included what impact it will have on our audience to have a specific camera shot, and in what way it is useful and effective when filming. The improvement here would be to have spoken further about camera language , talking about angle positions of my camera and the flair of movement my camera will perform.

As our influence we have chosen 'Night Night Nancy', we decided on this as it revealed exceptional sound design, which impressed us and sent chilling spikes down our spines. The main sound technique we picked up on in the video was the use of a dramatic soundtrack- which was from a classical song. Therefore i have decided to use Gustav Holst's planets classical music. This would be suitable for our genre and acting as he had conducted 'Mars' which was about war/battle so you get the dramatic feel which is alerting and makes you think something will happen next- again appropriate for our film as the hybrid genre is Horror-suspense. Once again, we skipped editing techniques which was a big mistake as we should have spoken about what editing techniques we're planning to use in our short film.

We then played the video clip 'Night Night Nancy' and it lasted 4:56 , which of course was far too long for the audience to watch. What would've made this better would be to only play 2 or so minutes of the video, suggesting that that specific part is what the influence for our film, a bit like a taster of the influence in order to portray what in this case was sound design really influenced us.

Next, we went on to talk about the props and costumes, on a high I would say that we succeeded in listing exactly what props and costumes we're going to use, and allocating them to the appropriate characters, also we spoke about why those characters would have these props and would where a specific . However, an improvement would've been to further explain how and why perhaps those props suited not only the film but the genre and themes.

Again very quickly we spoke about the equipment, just listing them. This was not a good idea because our listeners would want to know why it is important to have all the equipment we need.For instance, we mentioned using a tripod-from there we could have said , this is to get more accurate shots and so the camera is steady or at a specific height as the tripod is adjustable. Also, having a skateboard would play the part for a dolly track, and as we don't have the budget to purchase a dolly track using a skateboard could potentially give you the same smooth slow/fast shots that you'd need to make the film interesting. By saying that our pitch would have been a whole lot better and made more sense.

The location of a film can play a major role in establishing a lot of things, such as characters and how they fit in. For instance in our pitch we mentioned that we are going to travel to Hampton Court (known for its plush houses and up market shops). However we did not mention that we have chosen this location as it only makes sense that our "rich" father character owns such a house. Another location we mentioned was a cemetery which is iconic of sadness and grieve, therefore as our film is primarily about loss and mourn it is a perfect place for it. An improvement would be to elaborate on everything , speak more broadly and give reasons for everything, to keep things clear with your listeners.

Lastly, for advertisement, we went for the generic publication on social media. This is because the market we're are looking at to target our film to is teenagers, perhaps young adults, so ages between 16-23 years. Also, on tube stations , many young adults who travel via tube are more likely to see our film advertisement whilst waiting for their tube, than perhaps on social media. Therefore to improve I should have explained

Overall, i would evaluate this pitch with massive commiseration, there was defiantly a lot of errors and the consistency I feel was not smooth, therefore i have learnt that next time I should be better prepared with every little detail included in our presentation, speak less of things that do not need elaboration and more of things which are very important.