Production Pitches Used to Be “Fair Fight”, Now They’re Burning Out Directors

Production companies pitch for work to invest in future talent, relationships with brands and agencies, and market reputation. But some leaders question whether the three-way pitch process is sustainable or fair when project budgets keep shrinking while expectations keep climbing.

“Part of the issue at the moment is the budgets have come down, but the expectations of jobs have stayed the same,” Elise Trenorden, an executive producer and partner at TRUCE, told LBB.

“So when you're having three people trying to bid for the same work with an unrealistic budget, you wonder -- how is anyone supposed to do this?”

Elise has spent over a decade at production companies, and previously worked agency-side. She believes the three-way pitch process isn't fair for jobs with small budgets.

“It makes more sense to me, if it's a tricky budget, to choose one director and develop the project from there. They can make the budget work for the creative from the start.”

In the production world, an agency producer will approach a production company and ask it to put multiple directors forward for a specific project. A nominated director may then be invited to a three-way pitch, and the directors write a full treatment. From there, the agency and brand select their preferred partner and move on to production.

This kind of pitch process has become standard, but Elise said team members sometimes find themselves pitching on projects that don’t justify the initial outlay and risk. What people sometimes forget about pitching, Elise said, is successful or not, the work isn’t paid.

“If you get a week for a pitch, you’ll have a director who will work full time on that pitch for the week.

“Usually, they don't get paid, so they’ll be working for no money for a project they have a one-in-three chance of winning. I don't even know how most directors survive, to be honest.”

TRUCE tries to adopt a more “sustainable model”, employing production managers and producers in full-time positions.

“They never have to worry about the next job. But when it is quiet, that’s a high risk for us. When we're pitching on jobs, it’s full-timers, so it is a lower cost. But if we're not winning jobs, it does get quite expensive.”

For large jobs over $500,000, three-way pitching tends to make more sense, but for jobs under $100,000, this will mean favours from crew and talent.

On small jobs, production companies will sometimes handle casting and location scouting because the budget doesn’t exist to outsource those functions externally. Increased pressure on budgets has also changed the competitive landscape in the Australian production industry.

Production companies have traditionally played within their own 'sandboxes'. But, as budgets stagnate, top-tier companies are starting to play in the mid-tier sandbox, where they have an automatic advantage.

The disappearance of this “bread and butter work”, as Film Construction founding partner Perry Bradley terms it, is compounded by the disappearance of lower-budget work due to agency in-housing. AI-led production has also started hoovering up low-budget, high-volume work.

“We’re increasingly being asked to work for free as budgets shrink,” Perry said. “We can negotiate deals, work efficiently, but costs are costs.”

ProdCos Want to Present the Pitch, Feedback, Transparency

​The Producers’ co-founder and executive producer, Tanya Spencer, said the true cost of pitching is often obscured. But rather than look at the expense as a liability, the company prefers to look at pitch opportunities as an investment.

“Stretching some creative muscles, establishing or improving relationships with clients, team collaborations, researching new techniques and innovations -- all these things are the by-product of pitching and strengthen our business in some way, no matter whether we happen to win or lose the project,” she told LBB.

“It's not simply a matter of sustaining costs, but making sure we invest our time and energy the right way.”

Unsuccessful pitches also rarely receive any kind of constructive feedback, with agencies sometimes going dark on production companies. Participating in a pitch also doesn’t guarantee the opportunity to present that pitch properly, Tanya noted.

Working long hours to produce a pitch submission, only to send it away in an email, has “never felt like best practice”.

“Our preference would be to present our ideas and costs to the agency team, and even the client if possible. Not everything can come across in even the best-designed and written document. A presentation with Q&A has benefits for all parties.”

The communication shouldn’t stop there either, Tanya believes. It is uncommon to receive feedback on a pitch or treatment, and this lack of transparency is unfair, she argued.

“If we’re asked to invest in a pitch, we don’t think it’s unreasonable to know how many other production companies we’re pitching against and who they are,” she said.

“Just like when agencies pitch, they often ask the same questions of their potential client. Our view is that trust is built at the early stage of the pitch process, then transparency should naturally follow throughout the process. If trust supposedly erodes at the decision end, you’ve got to question if it was even there in the first place.”

The Producers has developed a systematic approach to its work, which Tanya said mitigates burnout around pitching.

“Pitch burnout probably happens if you have a templated approach and you’re just colouring by numbers over and over again. We deliberately look at every opportunity with fresh eyes and don’t follow a structured formula for responding. This helps keep our directors, researchers, and designers free to flex in different ways. It’s all about making sure that even when we’re busy, pitching isn’t seen as a chore or obligation but a dynamic aspect of our jobs.”

Protecting Mental Health

TRUCE is conscious of burning out its team by over-pitching, Elise said.

“If you can't do your job within your allocated weekly hours, then there are not enough resources,” she explained.

“But we're finding, as a small business, we have so many people working on pitches full-time that aren't turning into jobs. It's not sustainable.

“It's not just production companies that are copping this whole burnout from pitching. I think it's a common experience across many agencies, where they now have to pitch job to job, so they're feeling it too. I think it's just a reflection of the world right now.”

Other leaders have echoed these concerns, including Film Construction EP Belinda Bradley, who told LBB in May the pitching process is held together by the “invisible labour” of production companies.​

“Directors invest emotionally and creatively, and companies often cover costs without a fee,” Belinda said.

“Sometimes you’re ghosted entirely — no feedback, no explanation. That lack of closure is deflating. And when decisions are made on politics or pricing, not the creative, it’s easy to become jaded.”

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"We Only Eat What We Kill": The Toll of Pitching as a Production Company

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Do you have thoughts on the state of production pitches, or suggestions on how to make it better? Get in touch with reporter Tom Loudon at toml@lbbonline.com