42 Films India

Due to the unorganized nature of our film industry, pitching your story or screenplay to producers often lacks proper planning. Like any other production stage, pitching needs to be planned and executed meticulously. Before beginning this journey, be clear about how long to prepare for a pitch, how long to keep pitching a particular story, and how many producers you will target.

How Long from Script Completion to Finishing Your Pitch Deck

This stage begins with registering your story or screenplay, creating your pitch deck, and getting feedback on it. While it’s tempting to keep tweaking a story endlessly, it’s wise to stop and move on at some point. Setting a deadline to register your work gives you that hard stop. Next, spend about a week preparing your pitch deck and then send it out for feedback. We recommend a timeline of two weeks for this process, with perhaps another week for receiving feedback and making necessary corrections.

How Long to Rehearse Your Pitch and Acquire Producer Contacts

Time for rehearsals and acquiring producer or financier contacts should also be limited. This focus prevents wasting months chasing after one producer or another. Set a hard deadline for obtaining production houses’ email IDs, phone numbers, or setting up a pitch date. If you are determined to work with one specific company, expand your search and have at least three backup options. We usually limit this stage to three months maximum. You can continue trying after this point but should move on to the next stage.

How Long and to How Many People to Pitch the Same Story or Screenplay

Improper planning often causes creatives to get stuck in the pitching stage. By planning ahead and setting a deadline for this stage, they will be more productive and prevent burnout. Many creatives keep pitching the same story for years, leading to stagnation in their creative output and reputation. To avoid this, have a firm idea of how many producers you will pitch a particular story to and how long before moving on to the next story.

We recommend that creatives do not pitch the same story to more than fifteen producers or financiers and do not keep pitching the same story for more than six months. Below are the reasons for these recommendations!

Why?

Give Up After 6 Months?

Does this mean you have to stop and throw out your pitch after 6 months? No, it doesn’t mean giving up. It means taking stock and improving your story or pitching ability. It also means that you may need to leave this story behind and return to it later. After some time and distance, you and the people you’re pitching to might have a different take on it.

What You Do in the Meantime Matters – Show Your Versatility

In the meantime, you should be actively working on another story or screenplay. Why? Because what you do with that time matters. If you don’t have a story or screenplay ready to go by the time your self-imposed deadline comes around, you are shortchanging yourself. You need to show that you have multiple ideas ready to go and that you can multitask with creative projects. Often, producers will ask if you have something else ready or for specific genres of stories they are interested in producing. Having these ready will demonstrate your creative versatility.

This is especially important if they like you as a person or the story you pitched and want to work with you further. If you only have one story to offer, they may lose interest. Even if you don’t have a fully bound screenplay ready, have two other pitch decks and outlines ready to submit.

Your Mileage May Vary, But Show Planning and Commitment

Why is it important to have a timeline in mind? This timeline might not work for everyone. You might work slower and need two years for pitching, which is fine. Or you may work quickly and not want to pitch the same thing for 6 months, which is also okay. But having a timeline is crucial. 

You shouldn’t wait endlessly for one project to get picked up, as it doesn’t showcase all your creative ideas. Write and pitch more so that producers know you have a lot of creative ideas. However, don’t jump from one idea to another so quickly that producers think you lack staying power. Are you willing to put in the time, effort, and energy it takes to commit to one idea and see it through from beginning to end? Producers want to see this commitment. So, pitching a different idea every week is not good either. 

Maintaining enthusiasm for a story after 6 months of pitching it can be challenging but showing that enthusiasm is what demonstrates your commitment to producers.

The Indian Film Industry is an unorganised beast, but you can bring in some organisation to your journey as a filmmaker, and it can make or break your chances. Keep planning ahead and see the results for yourself.