2020.01.27

Live!Ammunition! Pitching Competition London

Description

Have you got a great idea for a movie?

This is it! The Live!Ammunition! pitching competition return to Raindance.

And this time with a brand new partner: Collab Writers – the new online collaborative community for creatives.

This is your chance to pitch your movie idea directly to a panel of film industry executives and the toughest critics of all, a Live Audience.

The people on our Panel are the people who matter. They decide what gets made.

Pitching skills are the one skill often overlooked by writers, directors and producers. Learn how it’s done by watching the rest and hone your pitching skills by getting instant feedback. Who knows, your pitch could be taken up by one of our panel.  Past Pitches that have gone into production include Meet The Parents (1994), 51st State (1995), Siamese Cop (1996) and White Bhaji (2001).

The panel can, and will, gong you off if they get bored. But they have to give two good reasons why.

The Prizes!

At the very least you could leave with a stash load of cash. As is tradition the winning pitch on the night will take all the fivers in the hat. Additional prizes to be announced on the day.

How to Attend

Get a ticket here, call us on 020 7930 3412

How to Pitch

Sign up to attend and come armed with a £5 note to put into the hat. You will need to register your intention to pitch on arrival at the venue. Twenty places guaranteed to pitch will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. Once the first 20 places have been filled we will keep a waiting list.

Please note, the demand to pitch is high and admission does not guarantee you a slot to pitch. We will accommodate as many pitches as possible but he best way to ensure your place is to arrive early and choose an early slot.

Not ready to pitch? Then just come, watch, learn and network.

Discover Be Discovered

Book your seat quickly in order to ensure entry. The last Live!Ammo! was completely packed.

The Panel

Jennifer Dornbush

Few people know more about crime writing than our special guest, Jennifer Dornbush. Jennifer lives and works in Los Angeles as a film and TV writer. Her work has placed her on the short lists of the Fox/Blacklist TV Program, Final Draft Big Break, Nichols, Austin, American Zoetrope, and NBC’s Writers on the Verge. Her half-hour forensic comedy, Home Bodies, received a Humanitas’ New Voices Award. She also won first place with Baby First TV to create a bi-lingual kid’s show.

She teaches seminars and speaks on writing crime fiction for screen and novel, surviving and thriving the artist’s life, the novelization process of scripts, crime scene science, forensic fundamentals, and death investigation. You can read more about her work here: www.jenniferdornbush.com.

Jennifer frequently consults with crime writers on shows such as: Beauty & The Beast, Deception, Hawaii Five-O, Leverage, Rectify, Revolution, Suits, White Collar, and Conviction.

Jennifer hosts a YouTube channel on forensics and screenwriting and has developed webinars through Writer’s Digest and Script Magazine. She teaches forensics and screenwriting seminars to writers all around the globe and has mentored writers through the Act One Program, Regent University, and Università Cattolica Milano.

Tony Lee

Deborah Sheppard

Deborah was the Marketing Director for 10 years at United International Pictures (international distribution network set up by Universal, Paramount and MGM) which included such diverse films as Tomorrow Never Dies, The Thomas Crown Affair, Inside Man, Shrek, Bridget Jones’ Diary, Love Actually, The Ring, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-rabbit, Jarhead, United 93, The Bourne Identity, Nanny McPhee,The Rugrats Movie and many more.

Jonathan Sadler

Over a period spanning 20 years, Jonathan has been releasing film and TV content from within major studios (Universal Pictures), mini-majors (Momentum Pictures), and top independents (Revolver Entertainment and more recently Arrow Films), across every available platform, model and format, from wide theatrical releasing to direct to DVD.

Dean Cross

As the Film Content Manager for Vue entertainment with 20 years experience in the business, Dean has an appreciation for films across the whole spectrum, from the smallest art house and independent films to the biggest of Hollywood’s blockbusters, he can usually spot a hit.

Amy Sparks

After various production, development and script reading roles, Amy joined United Agents in 2013 to work with Sean Gascoine, whose list includes Oscar and BAFTA nominated filmmakers. She is now an associate agent representing writers and directors across film, TV and theatre. 

Additional resources for the pitching competition

• Pitching essentials for screenwriters and filmmakers

The Jury has spoken at past events!

Here is the event on October 1st at the Raindance Film Festival

June 24th 2019 Event Winners

Winner: Callum McKay: Miss Verity
1st runner up: Helen Ducal: Shelf Life
2nd runner up: Liz McMullen: Confined Space
Honourable Mention: Sean Grundy: Cavity
Honourable Mention: Daniel Newman: Kidnapped in London

Panel on June 4th 2018: Elliot Grove, Dean Cross, John Croker, Kira-Anne Pelican, Chee Keong Cheung, Zack Winfield, Michael Graf

Did you know?

• Raindance members attend this event for FREE? You can join online >HERE< and start saving immediately
• This course is FREE for our HND and postgraduate/MA students
• The Raindance Guarantee: If this event fails to meet your expectations, let us know at the break and we will make a full, 100% no-questions-asked refund.
• Since 1993 Raindance makes filmmakers

You want to pitch? Sign up today!

Ask a question about Live Ammunition

The History of Live!Ammunition! Pitching Competition

The first Live!Ammunition! was held in Leicester Square in what is now the VUE West End Cinema in Leicester Square in October 1994 at the 2nd Raindance Film Festival. I invited the comic Emo Phillips to pitch his new film screening two days later during the festival. it was my attempt to rustle up interest in his quirky and amusing low budget comedy. I didn’t realise an acquisitions executive from Universal Studios was in the room who saw and bought world rights for the movie two days later. The film languished in the vaults for five long years when it was remade: Meet The Parents.

The original Meet The Parents has a fascinating Wiki post here.

There’s been dozens of fascinating stories over the years. Many films have started their route to completion at this event including Stel Pavlov’s 51st State.

The Live!Ammunition! pitching competition has been staged over 150 times in New York, Toronto, Berlin and at the Cannes Film Festival and of course in London.

Hope to see you there!

Elliot Grove, founder