The clock is ticking, there’s $100,000 on the table, and the room is packed with people eager to see if filmmakers can sell themselves and their docs in just three minutes.

These were the circumstances facing first-time pitchers Daniel Cross and Mila Aung-Thwin last year when they made the winning pitch at the Banff Television Festival’s Documart and walked away with $50,000 in development funds for George, From Athens to Beijing. The doc, about a Canadian musician on the verge of becoming a pop star in China, is currently shooting overseas for event sponsor CTV.

Following their initial win, the principals of Montreal-based EyeSteelFilm are planning to give it another go this year with their one-off doc about a river tour called Up Your Yangtze. For Cross, the benefits of pitching at the Documart go well beyond development money.

‘There’s a certain visibility that happens by pitching at an event like Documart,’ he says. ‘What’s different with Banff, compared to most pitching events, is you don’t have to have a broadcaster attached or a certain percentage of your budget already committed. So it’s like the ‘Wild West’ of pitching, where people’s ideas are still wide-open, fresh and playful.’

Six Canadians will compete for a share of $100,000 in development funds, the largest cash prize offered at any pitch competition in the industry.

Cross will be up against Jeff Newman’s Hockey Gladiators: Behind the Brawl, Dugald Maudsley’s Hearts of Darkness – Pol Pot & The Man Who Found Him, Scott Harper’s 30, 40, 50: The Big Birthdays, Anne Pick’s Exiles and Lauren Millar’s Finding Fletcher Christian.

Documart is one of six formal pitch events at the 2004 Banff Television Festival, which received more than 400 submissions for only 40 pitch slots.

This year saw an increased number of comedy submissions and more reality shows from first-time pitchers, says Pat Ferns. The former CEO and president of the Banff Television Foundation, now president emeritus, has been conducting public pitch sessions for more than 20 years.

‘Among the New Players Pitch submissions, there was more reality, but not much of high standard,’ says Ferns. ‘I think people underestimate just how difficult it is to come up with a reality format that will really stand the test.’

At this year’s New Players Pitch, 24 projects, including 22 from Canadian producers, will compete for $10,000 over three days in categories including children’s, entertainment and documentary. The National Film Board and Kodak each put up $5,000 in services and film stock, respectively.

While no prize money is up for grabs at the International Market Simulation, it is the festival’s signature event and one of its most influential initiatives. The first Simulation introduced the industry to public pitching at Banff 1985.

‘It was the first time that real independent projects were pitched to real commissioning editors with money discussed and people making deals in the room. Now pitching is the most common thing you find at every industry event around the world,’ says Ferns.

Six pitchers will participate in this year’s Simulation, including two Canadian projects: Hello I’m Special, an MOW from Ari Cohen and Evan Beloff of Montreal prodco Diversus, and Summer Wheels, a tween drama series from Pat O’Brien and Barrie Abbott of Vancouver’s Penguin Films.

According to Ferns, 40% to 50% of the projects pitched eventually go on to get produced.

Since the first Simulation, pitching at Banff has evolved into specialized events, such as the HDTV pitch, or CyberPitch for new media projects.

‘The whole purpose of public pitching is the efficiency of it,’ says Ferns. ‘Rather than pitching one-on-one over a desk in an office, here you’ve got a chance to pitch to 40 or 50 commissioning editors at once.’

Knowing what different broadcasters are looking for is key to a successful pitch, and to that end Meet the Commissioning Editors will be introduced this year. The industry session, which Ferns expects about 300 people to attend, provides an opportunity for broadcasters to demonstrate the major strands they commission and the kinds of programming that have worked for them.

‘The most common complaint I get from commissioning editors about independent producers is that they don’t spend any time researching broadcasters,’ says Ferns.

Who Knew submits six

The same, however, cannot be said of first-time pitchers Lafleur Johnson and Sheryl Ratcliff, who will be pitching the makeover/ biography show Time Machine Makeovers at this year’s New Players Pitch, in the entertainment section. It is one of six projects the principals of Calgary-based Who Knew Productions submitted to Banff this year.

Johnson found out at the beginning of May that Time Machine had been selected, and since then has been working on developing her presentation and strategies for targeting key broadcasters.

‘We’re planning to use Banff as our jumping-off point. We’re also setting up meetings with decision-makers at Banff to shop this idea and some of our others, so we can get a feel for the process of meeting with people,’ says Johnson.

She is also participating in Take a Decision-Maker to Coffee, where commissioning editors meet with groups of five filmmakers to discuss what types of programming the broadcaster is looking for.

Knowing this ‘is paramount to a successful pitch,’ says Johnson. ‘You only have 10 minutes at most to get your ideas across, so you have to do your homework.’

-www.eyesteelfilm.com