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Comment by michaelmcneff | Hacker News Reader

Long shot, but if anyone from Netflix sees this, I'm looking for finishing funds to complete one of Sir Christopher Lee's last films, The Hunting of the Snark, based on the Lewis Carroll story and I would be happy to exclusively license it to Netflix.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1887901/?ref_=nv_sr_1

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I am surprised that you would have to post it here. Don't they already provide some way to contact them? Given the small number of movies and shows that get produced, I expect that they would have responded to everyone.

As far as I know, there isn't an open channel to pitch projects to Netflix. This is because 1) they would get overwhelmed by pitches for projects and 2) because most studios don't accept unsolicited pitches for legal reasons (so that someone who sent them a pitch doesn't later sue Netflix for producing a similar project.

So I think you still have to go the more traditional route of knowing someone within the Netflix development department that you can pitch your project to. Or your agent/manager/producer will need to have that connection to get you in the door. I've been stuck in indie film limbo trying to finish this film because it has a lot of complicated visual effects (which are close to being finished) so I currently don't have a manager or agent who can help to get me in the door at Netflix.

have you considered trying to find out who in that department has recently _left_ Netflix? That way you can pretend you were in touch with them thereby promoting you from unsolicited to solicited.

...Yeah, and when that comes out, how will that end for you?

by that time the foot is in the door. The rest of the approval will be based on the merit of the work itself.

Remember that if all salesmen had the ethics of developers.... well the world would actually be a much better place but if some do and some don't then those that don't are not seen. Something like that... its just the old cold calling salesman within me looking for ins :).

Maybe, but for me, I'd mark that person out in my mind as someone not to be trusted, and I'd be looking to get rid of that person post haste. Not only would would they be sneaky, but they'd be bad at being sneaky.

for sure but how else does one penetrate a clique? Perhaps one might find out under closer analysis that everyone got into the clique through such skulduggery.

Generally I would not recommend such behaviour but in regards to cliques and arbitrary walls where meritocracy is unwelcome I would recommend skulduggery.

Probably not if that guy used his sneakiness to make you a million dollars. A lot of initial faux paux can be forgiven when bank accounts are involved.

I should try to get in touch with Netflix via the proper channels, but it will probably be hard to get an agent or manager involved involved with my movie because it is a short film (17 min). I'm currently working on finishing up the visual effects myself, but when I saw this Netflix post on HN I thought I'd take a shot at seeing if my post might reach somebody inside Netflix that could help speed things up.

> That way you can pretend you were in touch with them thereby promoting you from unsolicited to solicited.

I noticed that you were getting downvoted and I am curious why.

Is it because people don't like what they think is the dishonesty of the idea?

Or because they don't think it will work?

Or?

I think it's a fine idea.

I have done similar things (not in pitching netflix) and it has worked. It's amazing how quick people are to criticize something that is foreign to how they operate or think idealistically the world should operate.

I do my best to browse lots of industry news, publications, comments, and occasional gossip like tales.

From what I've come across, Netflix solicits what it wants, it doesn't really "take pitches" as the business has run via Agents/Studios in the past. Rather, if some of the comments here are hitting accurately, Netflix has an idea for their show and then assembles the team to execute. That's quite a bit of a different relationship than Work-For-Hire type studio productions I think. Thus, it's another way they kind of alienate themselves from the industry, in that they are a "Don't call us, we'll call you" company.

If your idea really is worth a lot, you'd probably be better off starting with media-focused venture capital and indie production studios. That way, you could build the momentum required to make Netflix take you seriously.

This project is a short film that has already been shot/edited/scored and is nearly finished, but could use some additional funding to get the visual effects completed. It's a passion project that I think Christopher Lee and Lewis Carroll fans will enjoy seeing finished. I'm not really trying to "sell" the movie in the traditional sense, because I don't think it will ever recoup its costs. I'm just trying to get the movie across the finish line and out into the world, so it's sort of a different situation than most film/tv projects that are aggressively trying to make money.

Kickstarter.

I actually did a kickstarter campaign for the project a long time ago, but I think my kickstarter video could have been better and the campaign didn't reach its goal, so it wasn't funded. I may launch another kickstarter and try again at some point.

If you only need money to finish visual effects I'd say give Kickstarter another go. If you've got a decent edit of the movie ready you can use that to make a good video and even give backers access to the current version of the film when they pledge.

For what it's worth, I just tweeted Netflix about its availability. Who knows, maybe it'll catch the right person's attention at some point. I know the odds are next to nil, but what the heck. :)

Thanks! I appreciate your help!

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