If you had five minutes to pitch the perfect movie to a Hollywood producers amd directors, what would you say?
Cameron Primm, senior in radio, television and film, and Michael Gutierrez, senior in communications, were invited to New Orleans to do just that -- pitch ideas to industry professionals in the New Orleans Film Festival's Pitch Perfect Contest Saturday, Oct. 12.
"I think pitching is hard, because what you're trying to do is in a very brief period of time get a listener-anyone-to want to know what happens next," said Hollie Lavenstein, associate professor of communications and journalism and faculty advisor for the Pitch Perfect contest. "It's hard to reduce it in such a short period of time you have to give them just enough information you pique their curiosity."
Gutierrez and Primm traveled to New Orleans to pitch their ideas for narrative and documentary films to various producers and directors from around the country in the hopes of winning funding to complete the project.
Primm and Gutierrez were selected by a vote from the Auburn New Media Club and the Auburn Film Society to represent the school.
Both contestants had approximately three weeks to prepare themselves and their ideas.
Both were allotted five minutes to explain their idea for a film in the narrative and documentary categories.
Both narrative and documentary categories had first and second place prizes, a variation of the single winner from last year, though the pool of contestants barely exceeded a handful.
"What I've been helping the students do is identify, within five minutes, a way to talk about their film," Lavenstein said. "To help evoke the kind of feeling or mood of the film and introduce us to the main characters."
Gutierrez called his narrative pitch a "narrative short," saying it was about an emotionally disabled woman who locks herself in her room and listens to her family decide how to get her out.
The working title of Gutierrez's film is "We Just Can't Keep Doing This Anymore."
Primm's documentary project and pitch focused on the relatively recent birth of drag queen culture in Auburn, it's impact on the community and the evolution of drag culture and art.
"What Holly and I have worked on together is figuring out a narrative for this documentary," Primm said. "You should have some idea of what you're trying to convey or what you're trying to collect from reality, because documentaries, after all, are constructed artifice."
Auburn University paid for the students' travel and accommodations.
The New Orleans Film Festival committee supplied Primm and Gutierrez with VIP passes for every film shown and after-party hosted Saturday.
Though neither student placed, both walked away with the insight and constructive criticism they needed to further develop and realize their projects in the future.
Both were also able to get immediate feedback about what they should do differently for the next time they pitch an idea.
"Definitely prepare in advance, and not so much work on the content of the idea as the content of the pitch and the specific effect you want to have on your audience," Primm said.
One of the preliminary requirements for entering the contest was a willingness and determination to produce the film, regardless of the outcome.
Primm and Gutierrez said they both plan to uphold the requirement to produce a film.
"I feel like people who have a passion for movies see movies differently," Gutierrez said. "They don't just see the story, they see what the story is going for, the storytelling aspects of it which can make the biggest difference."
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