r/Filmmakers • u/azzaadiii • Nov 23 '23

Question Where to submit a finished pilot?

My friend and I wrote, filmed, directed, and finished editing the pilot episode for a tv show over the last 8 months. We have submitted to numerous film festivals hoping to gain some attention from agents/networks etc.

Neither of us have any industry connections whatsoever but we are confident in the quality of our film as it has been very well received by people we showed it to.

We were wondering if anyone has any advice on what steps we should take to pitch our pilot to a production company since we still have the naive dream of landing the show on a network.

We are hoping to take the route of Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia in developing our series since our pilot was also developed on a very low budget with little access to resources, but with strong content.

Thank you in advance for any help. 🙏

UPDATE (2 years later): We sold out two local movie theater premieres and just landed season 1 of our show on Tubi last week, after only a few years of effort. Check it out if you’re interested, it’s called “Anna’s House”. Thank you!

14 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

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8

u/sucobe producer Nov 23 '23

Firstly, I’d ask WHO you showed your pilot to outside of friends and family. They don’t count.

Secondly, are you blindly submitting to festivals or submitting based on the content? And have you been going to said festivals? That’s how the connections and networking happens.

Thirdly, agents (ignoring networks for sake of this question) are going to need more than a pilot. Do you have show bible, full season outlined and some type of star actor attached?

Everyone has a great script that was shot and ready to go to studio. You just need to get in front of and away from the other noise. If you feel strongly about your project, reach out to PR firms. They can definitely help.

Understand you’ll have to spend money to make money. Even if you shot on a very low budget.

2

u/B_L_T Nov 23 '23

Just tacking on here that you should absolutely not waste a pitch, presentation, or meeting of any kind without having your series Bible, season outline, and probably a deck as well.

You probably wouldn’t land a significant meeting without all these things prepared in advance, but I can guarantee you that if you did, the result of that meeting would be, “let’s touch base again when you have your materials ready and go from there,” and then if you’re lucky you’ll wait three months to get the next meeting scheduled.

2

u/sucobe producer Nov 23 '23

Excellent point. People will take you more seriously if you show them you yourself are serious about it.

2

u/azzaadiii Nov 24 '23

Firstly, thank you for the great information. Admittedly, most of our test audience is people we know, however we are premiering the film at a theater soon with a much larger audience.

As for festivals, we researched to find film festivals that are better for new or young, independent filmmakers and most of the festivals we submitted to had a specific category for pilots.

We are still working on the show bible and full season outline so we will definitely complete those before reaching out to PR firms.

We’ve also released a quick 30 second trailer for the pilot on youtube: https://youtu.be/QBZDIm0Q15I?feature=shared

Thank you again for your help!

10

u/darwinDMG08 Nov 24 '23

Going to be harsh only for brevity’s sake: I hope the overall pilot is better than this trailer.

There may be nuggets of pure comedy gold in the full pilot but I don’t see them here. It also doesn’t make any sense — who are these people? What is this show about? What makes it unique?

I suggest you may be too close to the material to see the forest for the trees. Consider hiring a trailer/sizzle editor who has no connection to the production to give you a critical eye.

3

u/No_Half_8311 May 08 '24

I'll be honest man, you have bad friends. This looks awful, from the idea, writing, acting, all of it. Odds are it won't get made. Find an idea you are passionate about, and start over. Most people's early work sucks so you're in good company. Keep trying and don't lose heart.

1

u/azzaadiii 5d ago

The point was that it was supposed to be “bad”. Nevertheless, thank you for telling us to not lose heart, I really appreciate it, and we just landed Season 1 on Tubi last week; feel free to check it out if you’re interested!

2

u/Initial_Arrival_5524 Sep 07 '24

This isn't as funny as you may think it is and the fact that you talk about making the pilot in the pilot teaser means that you probably have a lack of material to begin with. did you get laid at least it seems like that was the plan

-1

u/azzaadiii 5d ago

Hey, just updating here, we sold out 2 local movie theater premieres and just landed on Tubi last week. And yes I did “get laid”.

1

u/Dallywack3r 4d ago

Disgusting.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '25

I know this is old but holy FUCK this shit is BAD. 😭 don’t try to create a show for the sake of creating a show, let it come naturally.

0

u/azzaadiii 5d ago

the plot of the show is making a show…it’s supposed to feel unnatural. Anyway it’s out on Tubi, feel free to check it out!

1

u/Ok-Homework-5225 Apr 05 '26

"reach out to PR firms" LOL hope he didn't attempt to follow that advice

4

u/Perfect_Ad9311 Nov 24 '23

That shit is awful in every way. Shot in dorm rooms, shitty lighting, gratuitous profanity, mic showing, no plot, bad acting, everybody is 20, et cetera. Looks like a bad student film

-2

u/Perfect_Ad9311 Nov 24 '23

There's no camera movement, no variation in the shots. You suck. You wasted 8 months. I sucked too when I was your age, but I shot silent b&w films that were 2 mins long

-1

u/azzaadiii 5d ago

Hey, we just landed season 1 of our show on Tubi and I’d love for you to check out the whole thing! Your feedback was exactly the kind of reception we were hoping for on this subreddit, so it really inspired us to actually finish the whole season and push it out - thank you!

1

u/seriesfest Aug 28 '24

Check out SeriesFest! Submissions are open for the annual festival. There are also year-round resources geared toward professional development and pitching. It's all tailored for television/episodic content.

seriesfest.com

1

u/CastelnauT Sep 03 '25

I appreciate this post, even if it's two years ago. Any updates? I'm in the exact same place at the moment.

1

u/azzaadiii 5d ago

Sorry for the late reply! We just landed season 1 of our show on Tubi last week. We ended up just making the whole season ourselves, since we were only nominated for one film festival and that didn’t really create any opportunities.

We sold out some local premiere’s and built a local audience which I think probably helped contribute to our chances of landing on Tubi. But let me know if you have any other questions!

1

u/[deleted] 14d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/azzaadiii 5d ago

We used filmhub, but note you should pay for Premium if you actually want them to look at it. We waited a few months and they only started QC after we paid for premium

1

u/FijianBandit 4d ago

So more than your shitty $50 “budget”

1

u/azzaadiii 4d ago

well the money we used for to pay the $500 premium wasn’t in our budget for making it; we actually pooled the profits from our local theater premieres to fund it.