How To Email Production Companies
Tips & Tricks
Since we announced we’re looking for feature scripts and launched an open call (which is still open by the way - email us with your pitch!), I’ve read my fair share of emails. My inbox has been overflowing with hundreds and hundreds of submissions for over a month now - managing all these emails has been a part-time job on its own - and we’ve had just the best time reading through your work, understanding a bit more about you, chatting to creatives, and we’ve been honoured to read a little about the stories you’d like to tell.
As I’ve been going through so many emails lately, I’ve now become quite good at defining the core characteristic that compose a great pitch email; so let me share them - so that when you’re sending your scripts and pitches to other companies in the future, you can have the most incredible 10/10 email that can get you a step closer to making your film a reality.
N.B. We don’t actually really care about any of these things, we would never really say no to a script or a person if they did or didn’t do anything outlined below, but composing that ‘perfect’ email is - I suppose - just a little bonus that could work in your favour.
Follow Instructions!
Every company will ask for different things when doing a call out; some might want specific information, others might want a deck in the initial email, some might want to hear only from a specific group of people - make sure to read the callout carefully and include all (and often - only) the required information.
Formatting
This is not a big deal at all, but I’d be lying if I said a properly formatted email isn’t a bonus. You don’t necessarily need to structure your email a specific way, but it’s just more polite and tidy if you format certain things correctly.
Keep It Short!
We once received a pitch email that was 800 words. No joke. That’s an essay.
My personal ideal pitch email includes one paragraph (3-4 sentences) on the person and another paragraph (3-4 sentences) on the project. Absolutely, link any additional information and/or bullet point whatever else the company might require, but if you put everything you have to say about yourself and the project in the body of the email - well, that’s fine, we’ll still read it gladly and so will most companies, but it’s scary - imagine waking up to 20 emails and each of them being 500+ words - getting through that is half your day!
Keep It Kind!
You would be shocked at how many rude and/or passive aggressive emails we’ve received in the last month or so. And this is the first email we’re receiving - the pitch email - so there really absolutely no excuse to be rude or aggressive. Even if there’s something in a callout you disagree with, you could either a) bring that up nicely and kindly or b) wait for the company to respond (we, as well as many other companies, are always more than happy to clear up any questions and/or concerns).
More importantly, Look Aside has a very strict we work with good and kind people only policy, so if you’re rude or unkind - in any scenario really - we won’t want to work with you, even if your logline is the most brilliant logline we’ve ever read. Most good companies - the ones you actually want to work with - are the same.
Be You!
This is more a personal preference, but we like when the tone of the human comes across through the email. Some companies don’t, they would prefer to keep things as formal as possible, but we are very aware that if we end up picking up a script for development, that’s basically a 4+ year-long commitment to the writer/director. That’s a long and complicated relationship, so we prefer getting a sense of who the human across is as early as possible.
Bonus: Have A Pitch Deck Ready
If we like the sound of a project, we always ask for a treatment or a deck before asking to read the script, however in that case we always make it clear to only send us a deck if you have one ready as otherwise we’d feel bad saying ‘no’ to someone if they spend hours and hours preparing a deck specifically for us. Reason we ask for a deck is because a) it’s a long commitment to read a script and b) a deck demonstrates your vision best and the tone of the story best. If anything, I personally consider a good treatment just as important as a good script - at least in the pitch stage.
All of this might seem relatively obvious, but you would be shocked. Having said all this, I can’t stress the following enough - we read every submissions with joy (except the rude ones) and are genuinely so so happy so many people would consider us for a home for their project.
Keep creating beautiful things. Hopefully, this has been helpful. <3