What appears to be Chicago’s first open mike film pitch, so to speak, will take place as part of a broader collaborative networking evening called “Chicago Film & TV Industry Networking Event,” Thursday, June 19 in the Loop.
The event was initiated by DePaul University faculty member, Kristyn Jo Benedyk, screenwriting program chair, who is co-hosting it with her husband, Matt Irvine, director of DePaul’s School of Cinema and Interactive Media.
“We were originally going to hold the event as a way to connect the school’s graduate students in writing, directing and producing, with the hope they would collaborate on projects,” Benedyk says.
But after giving it more thought, Benedyk decided to include a pitch session and open the evening up to the entire Chicago filmmaking community, “as a way for all the great filmmakers in the city to connect and explore different possibilities of working together.”
Pitches, limited to three to five minutes, start at 7 p.m. and will last for abut 90 minutes. The pitches might include screenwriters seeking producers, producers looking for funding for their projects, MFA students in need of scripts for their theses, festival organizers looking for submissions, companies seeking interns – or anything else that’s film related.
The pitches will be made from the stage at the Theatre and directed to an anticipated 100 attendees.
After the pitch session ends, the moves to the rooftop Sky Lounge where they can follow up with people they liked from the pitches and meet fellow filmmeisters.
“There’s so much talent in this city,” Benedyk declares. “We are the Third Coast of filmmaking. The more we work together, the better the projects will be that come out of this city,” and they could be a means of students staying here for their careers instead of heading for LA.
Benedyk can be reached at kjb@cim.depaul.edu.
