实战口语情景对话 第614期:How to Pitch a Film 如何推销

Todd: OK, now Jeff, you've been talking about your documentary. Can you talk about how do you actually pitch your documentary? How do you get it out there so people can see it on television?
托德：杰夫，之前你谈了你拍摄的纪录片。现在你能谈谈你是如何推销你的纪录片的吗？如何吸引更多观众在电视上观看你的纪录片？

Jeff: Because like I said before, it's independent so we have no one distributing this for us or we didn't sell this first before we shot the documentary which is usually the regular process so it just requires straight salesmanship, going door-to-door, talking to different channels and stations and seeing if they're interested, really trying to be convincing and making them think that this is something that the audience really wants. Just door-to-door.
杰夫：就如我之前所说，我们是独立制作，所以没有人帮助我们推广，在拍摄纪录片之前我们并没有先销售出去，而这其实是纪录片的常规程序，所以我们要推广就需要有推销技术，一家一家地去推销，和不同的渠道以及各电视台商谈，看看他们是否对我们的纪录片感兴趣，要说服他们，让他们认为这是观众想看的内容。就是要一家一家地去谈。

Todd: OK, so let's say you go into a television studio and you have your documentary on hand, what do you say? Like, how do you get someone to even look at it?
托德：好，那你拿着纪录片去电视演播室推销，你会说些什么？你如何说服其他人看这部纪录片？

Jeff: Yeah, that's very difficult. Usually in this world a good saying is everything is who you know and without having a foot in the door somehow, you're usually rejected, so and the good thing is that I do know a few in a few different countries so I can usually get a connection somehow who works in a studio or in the television station somewhere and they're recommended, we're recommended to them by our friend, so usually it's a foot in the door or someone else.
杰夫：嗯，这非常难。通常来说，会说话就是一切，没有门路就会被拒绝，不过我的优势在于我在几个国家都有认识的朋友，所以经过朋友的推荐，我可以和在演播室和电视台工作的人取得联系，这就是迈向成功的第一步。

Todd: OK, and actually, let's talk about money. Like how did you actually pay for this documentary? I mean, did you put it on a credit cards or what?
托德：好，我们来谈谈资金吧。你拍纪录片的费用是如何支付的？你是用信用卡还是别的什么方式？

Jeff: Well, doing a documentary is very expensive, very very expensive, and luckily there's three of us, three brothers who did this so we split the costs and one of the reasons we chose India is because it's one of the cheapest places in the world, which allowed us a little bit of mobility to stay as long as we did, and film as long as we did because everything is so cheap there so. And then yeah, we just put it on credit cards. All our savings. Spent all our savings on this documentary.
杰夫：拍纪录片的费用非常高，非常非常昂贵，幸运的是，我们三个人共同制作了这部纪录片，所以我们三个兄弟均摊了这些费用，我们选择印度的其中一个原因是印度是世界上最便宜的地方之一，所以我们能掌握一定的灵活性，尽可能长时间地待在那里，直到我们拍完纪录片，那里的所有东西都很便宜。我们是用信用卡支付的费用。我们所有的存款都用来拍这部纪录片了。

Todd: So for a filmmaker, or documentary personnel, how do you get your money back?
托德：那电影制片人和纪录片摄制人员是如何赚钱的呢？

Jeff: Getting your money back in not easy. Getting a portion of your money back in not easy. If you're lucky, if it's a good documentary and it's a good idea and it's something and audience wants, then you can sell it. You can manage to sell it, but it's a gamble. It's a gamble. It's like anything else. You might sell it or you might not sell it, so if you do sell it you get your money back. If you don't, it's a loss so be prepared for that.
杰夫：赚回本钱并不容易。赚回一部分本钱也不容易。如果幸运，如果是一部优秀的纪录片，或者说是观众想看到的好点子，那这部纪录片就能卖出去，能成功地卖出去，不过这就像赌博一样。和其他事情一样，你也许能卖出去，也许卖不出去，如果你能卖出去，那就能赚回本钱。如果卖不出去，那就要做好亏本的打算了。 Todd: Well, I hope you strike it rich. 托德：希望你能挣大钱。