Submitting your pitch to any outside party can feel like a fraught experience. How do you showcase the best aspects of the project, without completely losing control of your concept? What materials should you send, and how do you protect them? Today BLAKE& WANG offers you some tips from our decades of experience in entertainment law and helping clients get successful pitches.
How to present your project well
Whether you’re looking to ship a TV series or a film, the process is equally applicable. The key to protecting and presenting your project properly will lie in having it as well developed as possible.
This means that a script will always be favorable to a treatment, a polished and finished script to a rough draft, and so on. Try to prepare pitch materials beyond the script, too, like posters and websites. And, wherever possible, package your project. The presence of A-list performers attached to the project will get the attention of development executives. The studios know that the performers-and, in turn, their agents and managers-like the project, meaning less risk for them in choosing your material over the thousands of scripts they receive each year. Remember that another key to submitting a project and having the networks pay attention is using an entertainment lawyer. San Francisco, and in fact the entirety of the US, places strictures on lawyers that make a pitch brought through a law firm more secure (and possibly enticing, if your firm has the right connections like BLAKE &WANG P.A does). We take a look at this in greater depth below.
What if you don’t have these materials?
So, what is your position if you don’t have a script, let alone packaging? It’s not impossible to pitch like this. In fact, it’s often seen in projects revolving around real-life events and stories. Your concept may well be good enough to speak for itself. Here, it’s critical the producer ensures the underlying rights to the project are watertight. As these are not matters of well-developed intellectual property, where copyright offers protection, you may need to secure your rights to the material through contract law.
Agree or not, copyright requires a tangible form of expression-i.e, a mere idea cannot be copyrighted. Of course, the lines between ‘idea’ and ‘treatment’ can be difficult to determine-but ask yourself this: do you want to be the producer arguing that your pitch was more than an idea in court? Some networks won’t even accept pitched ‘ideas’, feeling that the chances of the project being unique enough to be a standout without leaving them open for claims of a stolen concept later are relatively slim. If you intend to take this route, your pitch will be harder.
With years of experience under his belt, Brandon Blake of BLAKE & WANG P.A knows what type of materials networks and studios look for in pitches. Your key lies in top-quality materials-don’t ask the development execs to ‘imagine’ how good the project will be with their help. Rather put on the table your ability to finish the job, which will get you the assistance and financing you need.
And above all, choose a reputable lawyer from one of the top entertainment law firms. San Francisco, L.A and NYC-indeed the entirety of the U.S.A-require lawyers to be associated with regional and national bar associations, and to adhere to strict legal standards. Although your lawyer represents you, many networks and studios will hear pitches brought to them by a legal firm they would not hear from you alone. Your law firm will save all material and correspondence, keeping a meticulous record of the submission and chain-of-title, protecting both of you and making stolen concepts/ideas a non-issue.
As always, we offer our articles for information purposes, and they do not replace qualified legal counsel. Always discuss matters of legal complexity with your own legal team. BLAKE& WANG P.A have decades of experience helping producers to pitch their work successfully, so don’t be afraid to reach out to us today.
Film and Television 