So, this past week Nick and I have been working on the famous Film Pitch. This is basically just a video presenting our movie to the production and distribution company of our choice, which we chose Warner Brothers. So to appeal to Warner Brother’s, I based our presentation off a couple questions:

What production company are you pitching to? Establish this first so that we know what perspective to consider your film from.

Obviously, Warner Brothers.

What is the title of your film?

Simulation: Renegade

What is the basic synopsis of your film?

The main summary for our film is that a detective and a hacker are forced to team up to find a suspect who hacked a popular simulation called Renegade. However, the owners of the simulation are mysterious, and there seems to be more to the hack than what is initially let on. The two characters, the detective and the hacker, have directly contrasting personalities. The detective is dry and constantly serious, and is constantly monologuing to himself about his life. In contrast, the hacker is sarcastic and socially-oblivious, constantly breaking the detective’s train of thought. Everything that he says is either sarcastic, a joke, or not extremely helpful. He expresses his unhappiness about being paired up with the detective a lot more openly, and is a bit of a jerk to the detective. 

Why do you think this production company would be a good fit to make your film?

Warner Brothers is a good fit for our film because of the amount of history making of darker science fiction films that the company has made. Plus they are a larger company, which  shows that have many opportunities within their studio for our film to generate profit and become appealing to a worldwide audience

What films has the company made that are similar to yours?

The Matrix and the Dark Knight, these two movies are going to be close to ours because the Matrix uses the simulation that main character Neo lives in before going into the Matrix, reality. Our movie is incorporating the elements of the simulation reality that is relative in this society. The technology can be traced and hacked just like the Matrix, where the agents can trace phone calls. The noir part of Dark Knight will be incorporated, by having a gritty detective who lives in a big urban city trying to find the criminal.  

Does “the brand” of your film align with some of the other films this company has made?

Warner Brothers has produced darker and gritty films, they are known for fantasy and science fiction films. In addition, we are going to have a slightly comedic image, as our two main characters are strongly contrasting in character. We are striving to have the detective be extremely serious and gritty in this world, but this noir image is constantly subverted with the hacker’s ridiculous antics. It’ll be a contrast in tones for comedic effect. We want to have some action in the movie, which will probably be split with physical action done by the detective and ‘hacking’ done by the hacker. So the Warner Brother’s image aligns with ours because of the action and dark gritty movies they have made such at the Dark Knight and The Matrix. 

Can this company secure the resources necessary to make your film? (I.e. a small production company would not be able to make the next Jurassic Park.) + Approximately what kind of budget will your film require? Provide examples of other films to support your figures.

Warner Brothers is part of the ‘Big Five’, meaning they are financially capable of producing our movie without having any financial worries.They can provide the special effects and other additives that our film would need in order to produce a successful and quality movie. This can be equipment and proper editing programs, etc.   With independent films, they have made either one or two big hit movies in our genre, implying a problem of consistency. This can be seen with older film hits such as The Terminator and 2001: Space Odyssey, they were made in the Independent Production Companies these companies haven’t had a big seller in our genre since these films, again showing that their financially unstable and unfit to successfully produce our film. Which is why we need Warner Brothers, our movie needs a company that is willing to finance and produce our film with the special effects needed.

How do you plan to pursue distribution for your film?

We do want to pursue a wide or theater release since we will be working with Warner Brothers which is it’s own production and distribution company. With Warner Brothers distribution will be a breeze and using them as a production and distribution company would cost us less,because we do not have to spend money between  two different companies and we could get a deal/agreement with Warner brothers that would be a lower price for us to sign with them. In this case, signing with Warner brothers allows us to have the finances for a wide release, having a wide release could generate more money and have a larger audience base that people will be aware of and go see the film. Signing with Warner Brothers could help us with digital releases, they could make negotiations with streaming companies such as Netflix. 

Does the production company have a distribution arm of its own, or will you need to find a separate distribution company? If so, which ones do you have in mind?

The company has its own distribution company so we would not have to reach to another source of company, we can remain in the company, which would help us financially and would help with continuity of staying in the same requirements as Warner Brothers.  

Will your film seek distribution through the festival circuit?

No, we are doing a wide release. Since we would be with Warner Brother we would not have to project our film at festival circuits. We would be able to do a theatrical release, since Warner Brothers is one of the Big Five companies, they are based not only in the United States but abroad.

Overall:

So from this film Pitch, we were able to com to conclusions as a group about our financial position and why Warner Brothers is our best bet. Yes there could be drawbacks, back lash from the audience since its a movie being produced by a major company, our own way of distribution and non-theatrical release might not be considered due to the fact we have to abide by contracts and regulations from Warner Brothers. Even though there is negative from going with a big company, it will benefit us in the long run, since they have made successful movies and have the stable finances to back our film. We will basically profit….. BIG TIME. Also, I recorded the audio for the film pitch presentation, so of course Warner Brother will accept, confident speaker over here.