Film Pitching: The Road to Netflix and Beyond

For most independent filmmakers, the dream is to see your project on the front of streaming platforms such as Netflix of amazon Prime—drawing millions of eyes to your film. Alternatively, many will want their film to end up at festivals, but how does a filmmaker arrive at any of these destinations? The answer starts with a good pitch.

However, unlike many years ago there are a bunch of ways to pitch your project, here we’ll take a look at two of the clearest routes to getting your film onto Netflix.

Reality Check

Before we get started, though, let’s get some perspective.

Firstly, it’s important to recognise that the people over at Netflix (or any production house) will be looking over hundreds of pitches each month. In this way we need to remember two things: that your submission really needs to stand out from the crowd, and that the process will take time—so you’ll need to be patient.

Moreover, Netflix, and most production houses, don’t take unsolicited scripts. Meaning there are three real options: go in through a licensed agent/representative, having a big name or being contacted by them directly.

But before that discourages you, remember that the 21st century is the century of media underdogs—people from all over the world proving their worth with very few resources, and competing directly with big studios. So, you can do this, but you are going to need to stand out.

Route A: Building Hype

One of the most effective ways to get your foot in the door is with hard-and-fast proof that your project is good and attracts audiences. The best way to achieve this is to make an absolutely killer pilot, trailer or short film relating to your future project.

With this, you can then amass hype, build an audience and gather enough cultural currency to get a conversation with them—be it through a contact or by having them contact you themselves.

As proof of this method working out, you can take a look at David Sandberg’s Kung Fury which garnered 30 million views on YouTube, resulting in Sandberg being called up directly by Netflix for a potential collaboration.

So, it’s clear that this method of building a pilot can work—but it has to really stand out, just like Kung Fury does.

Route B: Traditional Pitching

Pitching in a traditional way can be a nerve-racking process, there’s no doubt about it. But with some practice, it can become the best way to sell your film.

Whether you find yourself pitching in person or online, in a timeframe of 90 seconds or 20 minutes—the process is pretty much the same. You want to present the heart of your project—the genre, characters, conflict and emotion—all while leaving the person you are pitching to in suspense. It can also be helpful to put the film into context, explaining why the film may fit into the current cinematic market. However, when making such comparisons it’s worth keeping it in purely sales terms as many executives won’t look to kindly upon statements such as “it’s going to be the next ____”. Head over to FilmQi to find some tools to assist in getting your ideas pitch-ready, fast.

As with job interviews, you’ll likely leave a pitching session with a “we’ll get in touch”, which can be inherently frustrating. But remember to be patient—it may take them weeks or months to reach your point in the pile of pitches, but they will get there.

If you do want to follow up, do so politely. Remember that even if this project isn’t successful, there’s always next time, but if you turn a relationship sour with negative and harassing emails there may be no next time.

Conclusion

Pitching is a complex process, as getting your foot in the door is likely one of the largest and toughest steps of your entire career. That said, with the number of individuals joining the ranks of the film industry each year, the chances of you making your way in are high if you can show enough passion and dedication at producing projects which stand out from the crowd.

Ultimately, you may find yourself pitching countless ideas or creating a handful of pilots before getting your foot in the door, but that’s all part of refining the craft.

But before you start pitchting check out this video to give your script the Netflix feel it needs: