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This is our Frequently Asked Questions page to answer, yes, frequently asked questions. To be honest some of these aren’t actually frequently asked, we’re just being extra careful.
For details on deadlines and timings check the Timeline section. If you’ve a question relating to the technical specifications of your video entry then skip ahead to the, er, Technical Specs bit. For questions about the pause, stay here.
As with any business/charity, The Pitch conducts regular reviews to assess its position in the competitive film marketplace. Our focus has always been supporting the filmmaking community, so we are reviewing the reach and impact of what we currently offer. We want to build on our great heritage as we near our 20th year and continue to strengthen our position - bringing brilliant stories to the world, adapted from the world's most-read book.
Absolutely. We are currently in pre-production for Kitty and The Acres and we can’t wait to shoot them this summer. You can find out more about these films here.
Great question! You can help us by emailing info@enterthepitch and sharing our social posts with your network.
You can head over to our Instagram, which is the first place to find out about what else we’ve got going on. Or you can grab some popcorn and watch our films.
Who can apply to The Pitch?
Anyone who is eligible to work in the UK and is 18 years old or over on the closing date. You can apply if you’re from overseas, but everyone is responsible for their own travel/accommodation/visas etc.
Nope. Entrants can be of any faith or none. We’ve had atheists win The Pitch, which presumably shows that God doesn’t hold a grudge.
Your pitch must include inspiration from a story, character or book from the Bible. You can simply chat straight to camera, telling your story and why you want to make the film, or you can include storyboards, or material you have filmed. Check out previous pitches for examples of how it’s been done. Or look at the All About page to get a handle on what we’re after. You need to own the material you use to pitch with, or hold a licence to use it (as explained in more detail in in our T&Cs here).
For anything related to length, style or content of a pitch video check out our Advice page.
Because! For a more in-depth answer to this question check the Why The Bible? section.
Yep. As long as it takes inspiration from the Bible, as outlined above, and is owned by you. Don’t nick someone else’s idea or try to reverse engineer your Transformers movie into Genesis or something.
One of the reasons that we ask people to adapt directly from the Bible is that it doesn’t come with any rights issues. Short stories usually do. Of course, a short story based on the Bible will have a source text, so why not go back to the original and start there?
This description should complement your video and set out the concept, genre and inspiration of your pitch. It should strengthen your filmed pitch rather than simply repeat it.
No, but if it is in another language it must be subtitled, or dubbed, in English.
Yes.
Nope. Not unless you can travel in time and record, say, the feeding of the 5,000.
We love your enthusiasm. But sadly, no.
Buzz Lightyear in Proverbs – love it. And yes, yes you can.
No. Don’t be greedy. Choose your best idea.
We all collaborate, that’s part of the industry, but we only guarantee one person a place at our residential and finals. So, you’ll have to choose one person to apply. If you are successful we work with the winner to build a team, honouring, as much as we can, their collaborators.
Pitches that make the In Consideration stage will be made public on the website, a couple of weeks or so after the closing date (depending on the number of entries - there's a lot to watch...)
Nope. You sit back and relax – if you can – once you’ve submitted. Our judging process will take it from there. More on the judging here.
Because all our pitch videos sit online on our website, we need copyright clearance for them. For more information on this head to our T&Cs.
We want to make The Pitch an even playing field – which is why we always have a long early bird entry period, where you can apply for FREE. Unfortunately, if this was the only entry type everyone would enter at the last minute (creating mayhem for us). So, we have a standard and late entry periods, to encourage filmmakers to submit before the last 24 hours. All the money from entry fees goes towards supporting filmmakers with our awards.
If your entry makes the final ten then you will want to be available for the residential training in December and of course the Finalists’ weekend in January.
If you win The Pitch then you need to be as flexible as possible in terms of getting the film made. The amount of time may depend on your role – a writer may not need to be as available as a director, for example. We understand everyone has to make a living and many people have family commitments. The film does have to be made in the first six months following the Finalists’ Weekend, though, so please bear that in mind. Don’t book a cruise or anything.
The Pitch Film Fund accepts submissions from all over the world, but you must be eligible to work in the UK and willing to cover your own travel costs. More on this at the T&Cs.
We currently don’t have capacity to accept submissions year-round or unsolicited material. Despite that, we are always up for a chat if you want to discuss an idea.
Gnash your teeth, weep and then make sure you have done the following:
Click the ’Forgot your password?’ button under the login section (you can do it!). Then enter your email address and wait for an email which will contain your password.
This is where we go on about the fiddly technical stuff to do with encoding your video etc. None of these are formed as questions, so just imagine there’s an upward inflection at the end of each sentence – as if you are Canadian.
For best results, we recommend using H.264 (sometimes referred to as MP4).
Uploading and converting your video may take some time, often several minutes depending on your connection speed and the file size of your video, so once you submit your pitch please do give it time to complete this process.
You will be able to view your pitch once it's uploaded, to check it's working, by logging into your account.
A wlmp file is a Windows Live Movie Maker Project file, which may be used on your local computer – if you have a PC – to link your images, videos and audio files into a timeline to create the video. Once you have your timeline in the project file ready, you will need to use 'File' > 'Export video file' (or similar) to export the timeline into a useable video format.
It’s best to encode your video at the frame rate you shot it at – unless that exceeds 30FPS (frames per second), in which case you should encode it at half that frame. For example, if you shot 60 FPS, you should encode at 30 FPS (and who are you, Peter Jackson?)
This setting controls both the visual quality of the video and its file size. In most video editors this is measured in kilobits per second (kbps). Use 2000 kbps for standard definition or 5000 kbps for high definition video.
Choose 640×480 for 4:3 SD video, 640×360 for 16:9 SD video, and 1280×720 or 1920×1080 for HD. If you have the option to control the pixel aspect ratio (not the display aspect ratio), make sure it's set to '1:1' or '1.00', sometimes referred to as 'square pixels'.
For best results we recommend using AAC for the audio codec. The highest quality audio rate we currently support is 320 kbps. 44.1 kHz is the highest audio sample rate we currently support.
If you’d like to keep up to date with The Pitch then sign up for our newsletter:
©2020 The Pitch. All rights reserved. | Website Policy | Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy | Change Cookie Settings | Contact us | Feedback