03 Feb 2025 4 min read

How to find a story worthy of the big screen

I've been at a number of film festivals and have received hundreds of pitches over the years as a producer. Being able to tell a great story apart from...something else...is an important skill.

Often what happens is that a filmmaker has a great idea for a scene, or a character, or a world. But story-wise, it's incomplete.

Books like Story Grid by Shawn Coyne, and Story by Robert McKee help you get a grasp of the full scope. But once you have that basic knowledge, then what?

How do you know if the story you're being pitched is deserving of your investment, and all of the time and effort to put it into theaters for audiences to see?

Personal Taste

Part of it comes down to your own personal tastes, like Ira Glass talks about in this clip:

The more films you watch, the better you understand what makes them cinematic, or award-winning, or crafted. Or, on the other end of the spectrum, what makes them less-good, less marketable, less valuable.

There's no getting around this. Every filmmaker I know watches at least a movie a week, often in theaters. If you're just starting out on your film investor journey, consider tackling some of the "best films of all time" list like the ones below:

Decide on your personal criteria

Every investor needs to decide - before they start taking pitches from filmmakers - the types of movies they want to invest in. Maybe they are movies made for digital streaming or cable networks? Maybe you care about theatrical releases. Do you know?

What types of budgets, genres, and stories are you interested in?

You're essentially deciding what your personal "big screen" is - what movie is worthy of your time, attention, and investment.

I'll share my two criteria, which is under the umbrella of my personal taste mentioned earlier.

Is there leverage?

I want to be able to see that there's some leverage somewhere in the project. Maybe it's a location, or the story itself, or a connection to an actor that gives us leverage.

I'm asking myself, "can I produce this in a way that no one else can, which makes it more profitable in the marketplace?"

If so, that gets a check from me.

Do I feel compelled?

The second criteria I use is an internal "pull", a sense of tension with the project. Is there something about it that makes me feel compelled to help, to get involved, or to acquire this story?

My first taste of this was in 2014, when I read a comedy piece by Eric D Snider about a fictional studio meeting to greenlight the movie Maleficent.

I read the piece, walked across the hall to my friend's office, and said, "we need to film this".

And so we did. Two weeks later, we had this:

I felt compelled! That sprung us into action, got all of the pieces in place, and we filmed the piece in one afternoon.

When you hear a pitch, is there something about it that makes you want to jump in right away and start making it happen?

That's the thing I'm always looking for when I hear pitches from filmmakers.

Coming up with your qualifiers is essential as you invest in indie films.

What questions do you have about the process? Let me know in the comments.

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