#theonlywayout, #screenwritinglife, #screenwriting, #productplacement, #amygiaquinto, #martykatz, #steveschklair, #stephanierogers, #giaquintoproductionsllc, #screenplaymarketing, #filmfinancing, #ericschwab, #associateproducer, #backpacking, #rockclimbing, #hiking, #productintegration, #lookbook, #pitchdeck, #scarlettJohansson, #michaelrooker, #coloradofilm, #coloradorockies, #wildmoose, #moose
(As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. These purchases help support the creation of new website content.)
Become part of my tribe!
December 2023
In the last post, we left off with the great news of my promotion to Associate Producer and the hiring of the brand integration company. What I failed to mention was that during the process, of signing on with the brand integration company, I, as the Screenwriter and Associate Producer, was now tasked with building a pitch deck (literally overnight) for B so that he'd have a marketing tool to show the brands to whom we were pitching product placement.
B wanted some very specific information in our pitch deck, including a cast list, so his clients could get an idea of who would be promoting their brand. We, meaning me, Marty Katz (producer), Steve Schklair (producer), Eric Schwab (director), and Stephanie Rogers (manager) had to use the term "cast considerations" because we didn't officially have anyone cast in the film yet.
Before I go much further, let me back up for a moment. A pitch deck is a beautiful, picture-filled marketing document that contains the film's title, logline, synopsis, bios of each of the key players, (the writer, producers, director) a wish list for the cast, character descriptions, distribution goals, and anything else a writer or producer or filmmaker believes will make the film an enticing investment.
The goal is to give people an opportunity to conceptually visualize and connect with the film, and especially the main character's journey. The document gives investors an insider's look into the look and feel of the film while helping them understand the team's vision for how the film will be executed and how it will make them money.
Most people spend weeks or months crafting a brilliant pitch deck, but I didn't have that freedom. In fact, I had two days to get the job done AND this was in mid-December, the busiest month of the year! There were school parties, performances, awards presentations, and so many activities to attend all in addition to helping to manage the kids' homework and holiday craft projects.
And me being me, I had also volunteered to help with several of the school parties and put together a video presentation for an awards ceremony at my daughter's school, that, of course, had to be done last-minute (AHH!). There was holiday shopping to get done and, holiday planning and holiday decorating and, of course both my son and my husband have December birthdays, so there were also birthdays to plan. There was the normal shopping and cooking and cleaning to do as well. Even with Justin and the kids' help, my head was spinning.
Fortunately, I had drafted a very rough version of a pitch deck while I was writing the script. Unfortunately, it wasn't anywhere near complete. I hadn't had time to update it to reflect the revisions that had been made to the story, I had no casting considerations, and my working document was ugly, just plain ugly. Yikes!
Making the deadline was going to be tough, but I was also incredibly motivated to make it happen. I was willing to do anything to get this movie made, and so, I went to work. Every second I wasn't running my kids to school and activities, dealing with their schools, appointments, meetings, volunteering and managing my own doctors' appointments, I was working on the pitch deck.
I spent hours playing in Power Point, trying to figure out the design and content, often amidst a million interruptions. Determined to get it done, I pulled a couple of all-nighters because nights are the only period of time a mom EVER has guaranteed quiet, alone time (unless one of the kids has a nightmare, then all bets are off). I worked until 4:30 AM those nights, then slept from 4:30-5:30 or 6:00 AM, got up, got the kids ready for school, then drove my son to school (often driving carpool) while my husband took my daughter to her school. I had so much on my plate.
It was intense, but I was fueled not by caffeine, but by ambition and maybe also by the handful of dark chocolate chips I snuck downstairs as a special treat. I focused on the task at hand and let my brain run wild. I opened my original document, began moving things around and exploring new layouts and revisiting all of the pictures I had gathered while researching and writing the script. I even gave myself a rare pat on the back (and a couple of extra chocolate chips) for having done all of that work early in the process because having those images and a crappy draft of a pitch deck was a lifesaver and literally saved me countless hours of internet surfing.
When I began working on the pitch deck, Marty, the team, and I agreed we were going to pursue Scarlett Johansson as our lead and so, as part of the cast considerations, I found a few pictures of Scarlett Johannson online and popped them into the pitch deck alongside some killer pictures of what her character would encounter.
Beyond the initial choice of Scarlett as the lead character, I was then given the freedom to put together a wish list for the cast on my own. I submitted my suggestions to the team and solicited recommendations from them as well. It was a blast picturing what different actors would bring to each role. I was having so much fun!
During this time, I reached out to my great friend, and fellow author Jessica Dazzo (check out SUPER ME and TWENTY-FIVE HUNDRED Amazon Associate Links), who had read my script and was thrilled to provide some casting suggestions. She provided some amazing recommendations, one of whom was Michael Rooker for the part of the lead bad guy, a man named HAWK.
I first saw Michael Rooker in CLIFFHANGER (Amazon Associate link) (one of my all-time favorite action films) and over the years I've seen him in so many other films and TV shows. I really admire him as an actor! I presented Rooker to the team and they, too, believed he'd be a perfect fit. I also reached out to another incredible friend of mine, a longtime supporter, Shelly Knox, who had also read the script and had provided so much amazing feedback on early drafts. It was only fair to include her on the casting conversation. She, too, had some amazing recommendations that I used.
Marty, Steve and Eric send me their bios, which I edited and worked into the document, including posters from the plethora of films they'd worked on. Eric sent me this great picture of him working as the 2nd Unit Director on TOP GUN: MAVERICK (Amazon Associate link). In the picture, he's wearing a headset and sitting in the cockpit of a beautiful plane with the camera crew occupying the seats behind him. They were getting ready to film some of the flying stunts for the film. Seeing that picture, and knowing the story behind it, reminded me, once again, of just how far this script had come. I mean, my script's director routinely works with Tom Cruise and his team, capturing some of the most incredible stunt work ever performed on screen. WOAH!
Anyway, within a few days, I was done with the pitch deck and pretty happy with it. The team gave me some feedback, mostly to fix typos here and there or update the info in their bios, and I then went through the awful process of having to convert the large .pdf file to a 5MB or less file to send to B.
Fortunately, there's www.ilovepdf.com that will quickly compress a file. I still had to go through the process of uploading the file and then downloading the compressed version of it. But at least there was a solution.
Unfortunately, every time someone thought of a change or spotted a typo, I had to go back into the original document, revise it, resave it as a .pdf in Power Point, then go to the website, upload the .pdf, compress it, then download the compressed version.
It was a major pain that left me wondering why on Earth Power Point didn't have some kind of compression solution built directly into the app.
What I Included in the Initial Pitch Deck
Cover Page with Pictures and Script Title
Logline Page
1 Page Synopsis that Includes Major Set Pieces (Key Action and Key Locations), Theme, Characters and Character Arcs
Cast Considerations and brief Character Bios (1 Page Each) Introducing Each Character and Detailing Arcs for the Main Characters
Bios for Marty, Steve, Eric and I
Cinematography Page to Showcase the Look and Feel of the Story as it Transitions through the Beginning, Middle and the End
Film Comps (I have 6)
Amy's Creative Vision Page which Explains How the Story Came to be, My Passion for the Subject, and Why I Believe the Issue is Important to Explore Right Now.
Script Awards Page
Contact Info Page for Marty
And LOTS and LOTS of Pictures, Some Taken by Me, Others Sourced Online.
Once the lookbook was done and signed off on, Marty sent if off to B and came up with a plan for how to reach out to Scarlett Johansson. Marty truly believed that if he could get her to read the script, she'd want to do the role. My fingers were crossed. If we had Scarlett on board, all the other pieces would quickly fall into place.
After all, the companies to whom we would be pitching were looking at the pitch, but they were also looking at the full picture, taking into account the audience for the film, the proposed distribution for the film, and, most importantly, the potential star's power to make the film a box office success and give them the biggest advertising bang for their buck. Few actors give companies as big a bang for their buck as SJ.
Scarlett Johansson is, quite frankly, incredible. It's why she's the highest paid actress in the world. Not only that, but all of us believed the lead role in THE ONLY WAY OUT would challenge her in ways she hadn't yet been challenged as an actor. We believed the challenge would lead to major awards considerations for example, an Academy Award nomination and potentially a win.
And so, I crafted the pitch deck with Scarlett in mind, and Marty told B that we were working to get the script to Scarlett. B was incredibly excited at this proposition and said the companies he was working with were also incredibly excited and he wanted us to keep him posted as to our progress in getting Scarlett "attached" to the film. No problem!
With the pitch deck now finished and sent to B the head of the brand partnership company, as I mentioned in Part 16's Post, B began routinely sending proposals for brands that were seeking exposure in film and television. And I had Marty send B a list of companies that we, as a team, were itching to partner with for the film, companies B said he would be happy to contact.
And just like that, I moved on to reviewing the product pitches our brand partner submitted to us for possible integration into my film. I read each proposal which included the amount of money each company was willing to pay for integration. I then worked alongside Marty, Stephanie, Steve and Eric to figure out if each product was a fit. If it was a fit, my job was to figure out how to show the placement/integration in the film which often required finding ways to alter the script to seamlessly include product placement or verbal product integration.
A Brief Rehash in Case You Missed Part 16: THE ONLY WAY OUT's New Beginning and a Promotion
With the products the team and I felt were a fit, I'd craft a pitch detailing why product placement or integration was such a win for each brand. To do this, I thoroughly researched every product that came to my inbox, researching target market, cost, where the product was sold or going to be sold, and reading, in the product proposal, how the company wanted the product portrayed.
I'd then custom tailor an energetic and enthusiastic pitch for each product that included how much we loved the product, how we were going to incorporate the product into the film and detailing how target market data for their product aligned with the target market for the film.
The pitches were short, concise full of energy and I was having a ball writing them. It was so fun to see new products coming out on the market and how they were going to be marketed and how much each company was willing to spend for product placement/integration.
I was excitedly keeping a mental note of how much money THE ONLY WAY OUT stood to gain for placements if we were able to score deals with a certain percentage of the companies to whom I was pitching. $10,000 here, $60,000 there... It wasn't a huge amount of money, but we were getting a huge number of product pitches, and I didn't think getting to $1 or even $5 million in product placements would be too hard.
Even better, Marty, Steve, Stephanie and Eric were cheering me on, constantly praising my creativity and the thoroughness of each pitch. With my new Associate Producer title and the heaps of positive feedback and support, I felt like I was on top of the world.
Once I was finished with each pitch, I'd send it to B and he said he'd send it along to each company, let them review our pitch, then let us know if they thought THE ONLY WAY OUT was a good fit for them. It was like sitting on pins and needles every single day. I know THE ONLY WAY OUT is an incredible film for product placement and integration and I knew if a lot of the outdoor gear companies just looked at the pitch deck and read the script, they would agree. Someone had to bite!
Be sure to check out the associated post, Part 18: Sara Blakely and Finding a Path to Scarlett Johansson to see how I got to crafting a pitch for The Outset.
I took your pitch class, and reading this blog and feeling your enthusiasm gives us a great example of how to do what you explain in your book: Pitching to Win: Mastering the Hollywood Pitch.