EPT
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How You Get to Pitch
In my previous blog entry I discussed unsolicited pitches, semi-solicited pitches and "ambulance chasers" (agencies). You can read that here
Here is a better one though- a solicited pitch through an agent! Not an agency, an agent. A person who wants you to get work, who represents you because they think that you are good and will be profitable, and whose business and personal reputation in the industry relies on their clientele’s success and quality of work. You want someone to represent you? It’s going to work better if they’re personally invested in your success.
My agent hears of opportunities to pitch through industry contacts and will try to arrange meetings to chat with the person responsible for the music. If all goes well, I get an email or a call saying that they need music, telling me any available info on the project and with any luck when it’s needed by. If there’s no specific date I assume it’s as fast as humanly possible, and work from there.
I like this type of pitch because it’s inside knowledge which gets me in ahead of the hordes of other composers who don’t know about it. They won’t be burying my stuff in a pile of dubstep, questionably produced “epic” music and ukulele whistling crap, or even worse, really good music. Of course I can never know how many other agents are also on the case and I’m not the only composer represented by mine, but I am sure that the field is greatly narrowed.
I also like it because my agent knows this person. The industry largely turns on who knows whom (or so I’ve heard from the illuminati), and they are much more likely to play my music if their agent friend who just bought them lunch says that I’m good, and has already handpicked me for the job.
I extra like that she can chase them up, get them to listen to my pieces and read my notes, and find out whether they’ve decided yet. I don’t like waiting around, and sadly this is not an unfamiliar situation:
The pitch brief comes in. The deadline is either pretty tight or there is no stated deadline, which is worse. This is because I have to assume that other people will have the brief too and will complete it ASAP, meaning that someone else could potentially impress them before my music is even done.
I work on the music and the pitch notes, putting together a strong concept and some well produced demos, and get it all sent as fast as I can.
Communication stops for a while, which can mean any stretch of time from a week upwards. There is no word until eventually I will be told that they are very busy and haven't listened to anything yet (no matter how urgent the deadline for pitches was), or that they like my music but there is no final decision yet, or possibly that they've changed the concept and found something else. Sometimes I hear nothing at all, and just have to assume when the film approaches release that someone else got the job.
So having someone who can chase them is really good, for my mental health for starters. Again, I don’t know exactly how much chasing goes on because obviously there’s a balance between persistence and annoying someone, but I know that she wants me to do the job and will do her best. This is definitely my favourite kind of pitch so far.
Please comment below if you have any thoughts, ideas or questions!
Currently I'm scoring a video introduction for an upcoming StarCraft event, which is a great project to be working on. This is also something which I'm going to be able to post freely, and to show you in detail and talk about, so keep a look out for that very soon!
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Website for more music: www.motekeatinge.co.uk
