People and Pitches

Here I discuss dealing with other people, elevator pitches and three project proposals. 

The focus of today’s seminar was 'dealing with people' and how, whether we like it or not, we would have to deal with them at some point during our CE projects. It’s was all pretty obvious and I have no problem working with other people (as long as their not lazy). However, the profiling we did of ourselves (I was green) was very useful in allowing us to see how different mentalities can actually complement each other! We also touched upon CVs and, while there were some good pointers on layout, it was mostly stuff I’ve already covered.

The main point I was hoping/dreading we would touch upon was creating loglines (elevator pitches) for our projects. I’m fully aware that I am useless at explaining anything constructive to a stranger, if I have not prepared it in advance. Certainly, this exercise was designed to allow us to compile a succinct synopsis of our projects, which we could then present to other people.

Using twenty words, we had to write out what our project was and make it sound as exciting as possible. Using project proposal 1 (My blog that investigates the work of industry established filmmakers) I found it increasingly hard to put down its purpose in twenty, exciting words (which may be an indication to drop the project). Therefore, I tried my hand with project proposal 3 (Transmedia web series) and this is what I came up with:

“Through planning out an overall web series and producing the pilot episode, my project is an exploration of transmedia storytelling.”

I don’t think it sounds terribly exciting, but it is only twenty words! Although, when I presented it to the class, the response I got was very positive. They said it did sound exciting, but I think that is mainly because they didn’t know what ‘transmedia’ meant (I didn’t). I was quite struck by just how positive people were towards proposal 3. In addition to this, when I discussed all three of my proposals with the table I was sat at there responses were much more positive towards proposal 3, opposed to proposals 1 and 2 (Making a short film to investigate what is required of a director, packaged together as a means of application for postgraduate study).

Out of the three, I would be lying if I said 3 wasn’t the most promising proposal and, following on from the positive reactions I’ve had to it, I’m thinking this could very well be the project I end up doing. I don’t want to entirely rule out the other two, because there may still be life in them. However, In terms of pushing myself academically towards a career and delivering a project that meets the criteria of the module I couldn’t go wrong with proposal 3.

For next week I have to create a ‘background context report’ and I’m going to have to do it for all three proposals (I’ve shot myself in the foot here). However, by establishing what the contexts my projects can work in I’ll be closer to deciding which one I want to do. I also suspect proposal 3 will operate in the most contexts and, therefore, be the best project to pursue. I won’t give up on the other two quite yet, though (Although, subconsciously, I think I already have).