COOL STUFF

See Kevin Tancharoen's Pitch Video for His Take on 'Hunger Games'

by Ben Pearson
September 6, 2012
Source: SlashFilm

With Joe Carnahan's recently leaked Daredevil pitch videos, movie fans had a chance to see something that we rarely get to see: an early look into the process of dealing with major Hollywood studios. Pitch videos are made to sell the director's vision of a movie, usually by cutting together footage from existing films and trying to make something that represents the tone they're trying to achieve with a hopeful project. Now we have the chance for another look into this method, as /Film has Fame director Kevin Tancharoen's cool pitch video for his take on one of this year's biggest success stories, The Hunger Games. More below!

Tancharoen is probably better known as the man who put together the impressive Mortal Kombat: Rebirth video as a pitch for a new take on the Mortal Kombat franchise, which led to a web series and development for a new full length film. Check out his vision for The Hunger Games below in this pitch reel via /Film:

Obviously this isn't exactly how Tancharoen's movie would have turned out, but I like the concept of the visuals being a bit blown out, almost giving it a Tony Scott feel in certain situations. The violence definitely has a bit more of an edge to it, whereas in Gary Ross' film, it's toned down considerably for that PG-13 rating. But the most interesting aspect of the trailer is the cast that Tancharoen put together. It would've been mighty interesting to see all those names in the movie. /Film spoke a bit with Tancharoen about the process of pitching films, and he had some interesting things to say about how it all works:

The idea of a “pitch reel” has been around for awhile and is very common practice for any director. Trying to pitch a vision to a room full of people is always very difficult verbally. In the past two years, the pitch reel has significantly become more demanding since technology allows for people to make mini movies in their own homes. It’s almost expected for a director to show some visual materials, but the need to impress has become elevated. At first, it was just some concept art, some storyboards and possibly a treatment. Then the rip-o-matic (a visual reel using clips from other movies to portray a visual style) became really popular. I even know some directors who do a full animatic at their expense just to take into a meeting.

There is an epic feeling about trailers, and when done right, they are extremely gratifying. It’s also much cheaper if you have the hard drive space haha. The first mash up trailer I saw was in 2006. Ever since then, everyone I know makes one for a pitch to complement other materials. I also think the idea of making a trailer is very attractive because when you watch it, you have the feeling that this is what the movie will be like when it’s done.

It's cool to get a description of how this process works from someone who has personally been through it and clearly spent a lot of time putting at least one piece together that ended up not coming through for him in the end. But at least we get the benefit of learning from Tancharoen's efforts, and a cool "what if" scenario with an alternate version of The Hunger Games. Thoughts on this interesting pitch?

Filed under Cool Stuff, To Watch

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