First Feature Director & Producer Incubator
First Flights is an incubator for first time feature film directors and producers. The First Flights team are adept at spotting and developing emerging creative talent. They help develop the individual in conjunction with their project, with the ultimate aim of reaching full production on their first full feature. Long term the team hope to incorporate this new talent into Goldfinch’s future productions.
How to apply
As you can imagine, we get plenty of submissions at First Flights. So what makes a director and project stand out? What makes us instantly email someone back to have a meeting? Below is an outline what works for us and gives examples of what we are looking for in a director and their project.
Storytelling
Filmmaking is about storytelling, not just on the screen but behind the screen across production, financing, and marketing a film. You have to tell us a story that we can tell other people about you, about your film that’s interesting and persuasive, and memorable.
There are a multitude of people that need to get behind you to green light your films, and you need to create the best pitch package you can. So what does an ideal pitch package look like and what requirements do we need?
Requirements
One downloadable folder as a dropbox /google drive link that contains the following:
Essentials
Treatment
Script
Teasers/Ripogram/Anamatic
PitchBook / Lookbook / Info Brochure that contains:
Treatment
Keep the treatment to no more than 5-6 pages.
Script
The script doesn't have to be the final script, but we need to see the first draft as a minimum.
Ripogram/Anamatic/Short Clip
This is an essential asset as we have to show the project to many stakeholders and this will very quickly communicate the central theme and tone of your film. Think of it as an audio and visual representation of your mood board. There are three main ways of doing this
Ripogram
This is where you pull together footage from other films and stitch them together with a voice-over, text, and soundtrack to create a mock trailer for the film. It is probably the most straightforward version to do, as you’ll only need to edit existing footage 'ripped' from youtube.
Anamatic
This is similar to Ripogram, but you use stills of the film's storyboard with voice over and soundtrack to create a trailer or even to show a key scene from the film that captures the essence of the story. You can use the Ken Burns effect to zoom in and out of each still to create movement.
Miniclip
If you already have footage of the film, maybe from a screen test you could use this footage to show to vision, style and tone of the film.
Pitchbook aka Lookbook
This is the long form document that should contain everything else to pitch the film. Make this look slick. Check for grammatical errors. The whole document should visually represent what the films look and feel will be. The Pitchbook should contain:
One page synopsis
Short and sweet and allows anybody to quickly understand the main story arc.
Director’s vision
Why is the director making this film? Be honest. Don't tell us what you think we want to hear. This is where you can get across the story behind the story, the story that allows us to tell others why this film should be made.
Director’s Bio
First Flights is a talent lead initiative so this section is important to us. Any notable achievements, awards, and links to existing work we can look at go here.
Optional
These next sections are optional, as we understand you might not have them in place yet. However, if you do have them then it’s a big plus and can play a significant deciding factor in selecting films and directors we will choose to work with.
Storytelling
Filmmaking is about storytelling, not just on the screen but behind the screen across production, financing, and marketing a film. You have to tell us a story that we can tell other people about you, about your film that’s interesting and persuasive, and memorable.
There are a multitude of people that need to get behind you to green light your films, and you need to create the best pitch package you can. So what does an ideal pitch package look like and what requirements do we need?
Requirements
One downloadable folder as a dropbox /google drive link that contains the following:
Essentials
Treatment
Script
Teasers/Ripogram/Anamatic
PitchBook / Lookbook / Info Brochure that contains:
- One page synopsis
- Director’s vision
- Budget / Financial Plan
- Sales Estimates
- Bios of any confirmed cast and crew
Treatment
Keep the treatment to no more than 5-6 pages.
Script
The script doesn't have to be the final script, but we need to see the first draft as a minimum.
Ripogram/Anamatic/Short Clip
This is an essential asset as we have to show the project to many stakeholders and this will very quickly communicate the central theme and tone of your film. Think of it as an audio and visual representation of your mood board. There are three main ways of doing this
Ripogram
This is where you pull together footage from other films and stitch them together with a voice-over, text, and soundtrack to create a mock trailer for the film. It is probably the most straightforward version to do, as you’ll only need to edit existing footage 'ripped' from youtube.
Anamatic
This is similar to Ripogram, but you use stills of the film's storyboard with voice over and soundtrack to create a trailer or even to show a key scene from the film that captures the essence of the story. You can use the Ken Burns effect to zoom in and out of each still to create movement.
Miniclip
If you already have footage of the film, maybe from a screen test you could use this footage to show to vision, style and tone of the film.
Pitchbook aka Lookbook
This is the long form document that should contain everything else to pitch the film. Make this look slick. Check for grammatical errors. The whole document should visually represent what the films look and feel will be. The Pitchbook should contain:
One page synopsis
Short and sweet and allows anybody to quickly understand the main story arc.
Director’s vision
Why is the director making this film? Be honest. Don't tell us what you think we want to hear. This is where you can get across the story behind the story, the story that allows us to tell others why this film should be made.
Director’s Bio
First Flights is a talent lead initiative so this section is important to us. Any notable achievements, awards, and links to existing work we can look at go here.
Optional
These next sections are optional, as we understand you might not have them in place yet. However, if you do have them then it’s a big plus and can play a significant deciding factor in selecting films and directors we will choose to work with.
- Budget / Financial Plan
- Sales Figures
- Bios of any confirmed cast and crew
Do's and Don'ts
DO
DON’T
- Keep it visual. We get hundreds of submissions, and you have to stand out.
- List directors/producers accolades and notable achievements.
- Show you already have experience making quality content. e.g. music videos, short films, commercials (for DOPs).
- Have a Ripogram/Anamatic/Short Clip.
- Show you have brought something to the table such as money or talent already secured.
DON’T
- Compare your film Blair Witch Project / Paranormal Activity / Little Miss Sunshine
- List unattainable actors. Be real. Huge Jackman is not going to be in your film. Show you have done your research with actors that you have discovered and are in line with your budget.
- Have a 10M budget with no track record. Is 20M really realistic? Definitely not. Is 3M realistic, probably not.
- Don’t ask for everything. Come to the table with something of value that is something unique to you.
In conclusion
Once you have all the above in place, send the Dropbox/GoogleDrive link to firstflights(at)goldfinchstudios.co.uk
We want to work with people that are as passionate about making successful films as we are. We want to see an attitude that says to us that you are going to make this film with or without us.
We want to work with people that are as passionate about making successful films as we are. We want to see an attitude that says to us that you are going to make this film with or without us.