InterogaTIFF - Konstantinos Kontovrakis and Christian Routh, the Transilvania Pitch Stop trainers

Transilvania Pitch Stop, now in its second year, is a program designed to help film-makers develop pitches for feature films. We met with the two TPS trainers and they told us about this years’ projects and the most important aspects of a good seven minute pitch.

Could you briefly tell us a few words about the five film projects in TPS this year?

Christian Routh: We’ve got five projects, most of which are already completed screenplays.

We have a project called 1985 from Bogdan Mureșanu, which is a very intriguing study of life in Bucharest in 1985, at the time when Ceaușescu had ordered the demolition of some of the most wonderful buildings.

Konstantinos Kontovrakis: And it’s quite funny too.

Christian Routh: That’s a feature of many of the projects – they’re laced with that kind of ironic humour. Maybe it’s an aspect of Romanian writers.

Then we have a project called Soldiers (Soldați) which is quite a controversial story from Ivana Mladenovic. It’s a gay love story between a comfortably off sexually confused Romanian student who is investigating gypsy music for his Ph.D. and a gypsy guy who has just come out of jail.

Konstantinos Kontovrakis: We then have The Wind Seeker (Căutătorul de vânt) by Mihai Sofronea, which is the story of a man who is after a very painful break-up from his wife and has sort of resigned from life, and just when he is ready to get back on track he finds out that he only has three months to live.

Christian Routh: Then we have a project called Charlton Heston form Andrei Crețulescu. This is a story about a guy whose wife dies in an accident. He’s kind of shell-shocked and in denial about it. Then he receives a knock on the door from a younger man who explains that he was his wife’s long-time lover.

The last one is Horses to the King (Cai la rege) by Raluca Maria Rusu which is a strange but very intriguing project about a judge who behaves badly and does everything by the book and tries to follow the law in the way he lives and the result of that is dreadful to his wife and son.

Konstantinos Kontovrakis: It’s a bit like a fairy tale, a dark fairy tale, or a fable.

What are the steps of developing a good pitch?

Konstantinos Kontovrakis: I think the most important step is understanding your story and what it is you want to tell and why you want to make the film. If you have a clear picture then you can convince people your film matters and that they should get involved in it because TPS addresses an audience of professionals.

Christian Routh: It’s also a question of helping them to find a way to be concise and clear about their own ideas because most screenwriters don’t find it easy to perform on a public stage. It’s a major difference between the European industries and American industry where we can’t stop screenwriters talking and getting involved. It’s a painful process but it’s a necessity.

What’s new in TPS in this program’s second year?

Christian Routh: One aspect that is kind of surprising is that four of five projects are at fully developed screenplay stage. They’re not just short treatments which tended to be the case last year. And that would indicate that it’s become more competitive. There is a sense among the Romanian industry that you really need to do quite a lot of the work before you can get the money.

Konstantinos Kontovrakis: Some of them also already have some money attached and this gives them more points in terms of feasibility.

Christian Routh: And, of course, we’re not doing this just as an exercise. We’re doing it because we want the films to get made. We try to give the project the maximum possibility to get produced in the best possible way and hopefully reach international audiences as well.

Interview by Radu Meza

Article published in AperiTIFF.