Pitching & Promoting Art Films To Today’s Hollywood
Wondering How to Pitch & Promote Art Films?
Pitching a film to today’s Hollywood circuit may seem like a daunting task for new filmmakers. But pitching is only the beginning. Promoting art films is an ongoing process that takes lots of perseverance, consistency, and resilience. Fortunately, with the right information and game plan, you’ll be able to pitch and promote your experimental film without too many setbacks. Through first-hand experience, writer and director Ann Huang from Saffron Splash Media explains how to navigate each step of nailing public relations for your independent art film.
Join a network for filmmakers.
As a preliminary step, Ann joined Cinando, an online network and resource for film professionals that provides tools to navigate Hollywood including access to industry contacts, projects currently in development, and market screening schedules. Cinando’s community helped Saffron Splash Media develop some interest in the film circuit. After that, Ann decided it was time to begin pitching her first experimental art film, Palpitations of Dust.
Register for film pitching sessions.
Her first experience pitching Palpitations of Dust involved signing up for FADE IN, a Hollywood film pitch festival that takes place in Los Angeles. The festival offers one-on-one pitch meetings for filmmakers with more than 200 film buyers and representatives from Hollywood as well as virtual film pitch sessions via Skype.
Ann booked five online film pitching sessions with FADE IN in which she was able to connect with various Hollywood producers, managers, and agents. “It was like speed-dating,” she remarks. “We were allotted a certain amount of time to pitch our shorts with each industry professional. I was awestruck by the refreshing informality of the people I spoke with.” Ann explains that although the representatives typically look for feature films in the comedy and dramedy genres, most of them still showed a keen interest in her short film pitches.
Ann also registered for the American Film Market (AFM), a major motion picture event housing over 7,000 industry professionals for eight days in Santa Monica, California. The event provides both rookie and veteran filmmakers with opportunities for networking, pitching, deal-making, and film screenings through workshops, conferences, and meetings. Ann attended the AFM for two days.
Learn from each pitch.
Looking back on a memorable pitching session at FADE IN with an executive from a European television production powerhouse, Ann recounts what she learned. She says, “The film studio was Europe’s equivalent to Lionsgate, and they spoke candidly with me about the potential of utilizing Saffron Splash Media’s experimental poetry films to replace TV commercials.” She explains that unfortunately, the economic aspect of the idea heavily outweighed the artistic and cultural community benefits. The man Ann spoke to said he very much enjoyed watching experimental short films, but that there were currently not enough monetary incentives to back that type of project. “He was of the belief that it would be a long shot for some of the top TV executive producers to give up their commercial income for the benefit of the filmmaking community.”
During her time at the AFM, Ann was able to pitch her short art film in person to several Hollywood agents, executives, producers, directors, and financers. “I encountered a significant amount of interested production houses that wanted to distribute experimental films, but not shorts,” she notes. Similar to FADE IN, this roadblock was driven by economic reasons, as experimental short films do not have the capacity to bring in revenues as substantial as feature-length pieces.
Keep it up.
The film pitching process will yield both setbacks and victories as well as several lessons to take with you on your next filmmaking venture. Having experienced pitching art films to the intimidating and humbling realm of Hollywood, Ann remains determined and is still promoting her poetry shorts. She hopes that one day, “We can strive for cultural heritage in the art world rather than strictly cash inflow.” She believes that the film industry will have to transform, starting with the philosophies of movie making, and that people will begin to recognize the urgent need for experimental art films, especially in the form of shorts.
In the meantime, Ann is joining the film community sector of people who hold her values, including Sofy.tv, a network of shorts for filmmakers and enthusiasts. In just two months, Sofy.tv created an online platform of over 350 award-winning short films. Promoting her poetry films has not been only an uphill battle for Ann; her experimental shorts have had their fair share of success with a number of official screenings, nominations, and awards.
Check out the trailers for the experimental art films by Ann Huang and Saffron Splash Media, Palpitations of Dust and the newest short Indelible Winter. For questions, comments, or collaboration inquiries for our production studio, contact us today!