Pitch training for Norwegian Film Students

Whilst I missed the scenic train ride from Oslo’s Gardermoen Airport to Lillehammer, I still got to work with a bunch talented students from the Norwegian Film school - year K11.  Apart from not being physically present, everything else went pretty much as it always does: a two hour presentation on How to frame you and your project along with a few ‘tips and tricks’ followed by 30 minute sessions, where each student gives a 5 minute pitch triggering 20 minutes of feedback.

Irrespective of whether it’s ‘in real life’ or staring down the barrel of a webcam, the principles remain the same. Does your pitch make sense and what is the transformation of those hearing the pitch? Rather than focusing in on how you stand, your diction or whether it’s good to read from the paper or not, my attention is always drawn to framing, logic and transformation of the story characters, and both audience watching the pitch and those who will get to see the film/TV series. Get that right and for all I care you could be covered in a bin bag and looking the wrong way.

There’s a pdf (Things To Think About When It Comes To Pitching Your TV Series or Film) you can download if you’d like to know  more about the approach.

Oh and thanks to Zoom that carried us all the way, and apart from the occasional and very understandable sound glitch, it felt like worked as it should have done.