As directors, our ability to be clear and engaging when we speak about our work has a clear impact on the success of our projects, on our careers, and also on our colleagues.
Acquiring and improving these skills is absolutely achievable — people even get to like it.
This course will take place over two sessions, where members will get the chance to brush up on their pitching skills on Day One, then selected members will practice pitching and receive some valuable feedback on Day Two.
The sessions will take place on Tuesday 7 July and Friday 10 July, at 11.00 - 12.30pm and 2.00pm - 3.30pm each day. Sessions will be conducted via Zoom. Please familiarise yourself with using Zoom before attending the sessions.
About the sessions:
Day 1 will cover how to pitch and present your work, including:
Why it helps us to do this well: the real reasons that go beyond the obvious ones
Important pitch elements: which ones have most impact, when and where?
That magic ingredient: it’s not magic…we have this even when we’ve temporarily misplaced it
The conference / zoom call Vs being there in-the-room
Speaking about character
The pitfalls of story and plot
Our “get out of jail” card is “theme”
Log-lines and synopses
Preparation
Visual material: pluses and minuses
Life’s a pitch and then you cry (except it isn’t and we don’t): dealing with nerves and performance stress
Day 2 will provide a number of attendees from Day 1 with the opportunity to practise their own pitching and receive expert feedback, alongside a closing discussion. Members who apply for day 2 must also apply to attend day 1
How to apply
Applicants need to specify whether they are interested in only attending day 1, or both dates.
If only applying for day 1, please email [email protected] with:
- An up-to-date CV
- A personal Statement – no more than 1 side of A4 specifying what you hope to gain from this session, and why you require this support now.
If you also applying for day 2, please provide the above materials as well a brief description of the pitch you wish to present on day 2. Members applying for day 2 must also attend day 1.
*The deadline for applications is Thursday 25 June. *
Before you send your application through, we recommend you read our Career Development team's application tips.
About David Keating
An experienced feature film director and screenwriter, David Keating has run training for Directors UK; BAFTA; The ICA & Channel 4 and at film schools and festivals internationally. He currently lectures in film directing at the National Film School in Dublin and continues to direct films and TV.
Member testimonials
"Really enjoyed this workshop and found it very useful to be amongst other directors, discussing our issues and up coming challenges. "
"David was excellent... the workshop covered a wide range of topics over the two days."
For other examples of David's work, check out his pitching and presentation workshop from last year's Glasgow Film Festival.
David also spoke at DIRECTOR'S CUT 2019 as part of our panel for THE BRAND IDENTITY. You can catch up with that session here.
