Pitchable vs. Unpitchable
Not every good idea is a pitchable idea. And to be fair, not every pitchable idea makes for a good movie. But pitchable ideas are what can be sold in a meeting in a matter of minutes.
And pitchable ideas are what (what else?) MoviePitch is all about. To be pitchable, the idea must be simple enough to convey in two or three sentences.
For example, the log lines in a TV guide that describe a movie are pitches. Watch TV advertisements for movies and study how the essence of the film is distilled into a few words -- words that make you want to see the movie.
Pitchable ideas are usually "high concept." For example: a shallow man with terrible relationships with women gets hypnotized so that he can only see a person's inner beauty. He soon falls in love with the obese daughter of his boss, and must face the derision of his friends and co-workers. That describes Shallow Hal.
Once you hear the idea, you can picture how it could be funny. The script that comes from the idea may not be good, but the idea itself works. That's pitchable. Now consider this: college chums from the 1960s reunite at the funeral of a common friend and spend a weekend examining their lives and their lost idealism.
That describes The Big Chill. That was a successful film because of the writing and acting, not the concept. In fact, John Sayles had already made a similar film. The Big Chill was dependent on the execution of the idea. This is an example of a story that is unpitchable (except if you're Lawrence Kasdan and you have someone eager to back your next film).
In short, pitchable ideas are high concept and do not rely on perfect execution. Even if the movie is so-so, audiences will turn out because when the hear the pitch -- now part of the ad campaign -- they will be intrigued