We’ve had a great year of Good Pitches so far! From DC to the UK and most recently San Francisco, we’ve been covering ground and helping generate exciting partnerships among filmmakers, NGOs, funders and brands.

Are you wondering what happens at these pitches? Fear not! Rachel Seifert (of the film Not on the Label) gives insight on what it’s like to be up on the pitcher’s mound.

Last week I pitched at the BritDoc Good Pitch –my first ever pitching session! I was pretty nervous. Despite having interviewed a number of Presidents, trekked through the jungle with the Colombian army, and filmed on the streets of Juarez, this seemed to me to be a far more daunting experience! I suppose that is why I generally prefer to be behind the camera.

But, when I got up to the table to give my presentation, spotlights shining, and a large number of faces staring down at me, I remarkably felt fairly relaxed (thanks to Jess for this), and to my huge surprise I actually enjoyed it! I suppose when it comes down to it, this is something I’ve been living and breathing for the past 18 months so I’m not short of things to say. Admittedly, I couldn’t have done it without the BritDoc/Working Films bootcamp training sessions earlier that week. Or without the amazing BritDoc/Working Films team who gave all of the pitchers so much support and encouragement. So a big thank you to all of them. See their amazing work here: http://britdoc.org/ and http://www.workingfilms.org/

The pitch went very well. I think I managed to just about fit into the 7 minutes time limit. The response from the table was very encouraging and supportive and they offered up a variety of suggestions and ideas. So I am now going from meeting to meeting to follow up on it. I will let you all know when we have some concrete outcomes!

Aside from the obvious contacts and organisations which were brought together for the film, there were two other things which I really took away from the whole experience of the Good Pitch. Firstly, the collaboration of the other pitchers and the BritDoc/Working Films team on my film. This is my first film, and having spent a lot of time working on it pretty much alone from my study for the past 18 months or so, it was a breath of fresh air to have other people outside of my normal world (and aside from the cat in the garden) to talk to and comment and throw ideas out for the film – which was absolutely brilliant. And it was also a relief to realise that other filmmakers have the same problems and struggles that I do! The second thing that the Good Pitch really helped with was clearly defining and streamlining the film, its aims, what we want it to do, where we want it to be seen, and how we want it to be used.

So, I am now ploughing ahead to get the film finished. We are hoping to launch our online space in the next few weeks so I will let you all know when that is up and running.