FREE FORUM: Inside the Film Pitch: Creating a Movie Deck Live

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Free festival forum!

 

Step inside the creative engine of filmmaking in this live, audience-driven exploration of how a movie pitch takes shape. In real time, the audience will help generate a film concept, choosing genre, tone, budget, and creative constraints. Mixed teams of select filmmaking students from local higher education institutions including Full Sail University, Valencia and UCF, will then build the pitch live, developing story, visual style, world, and production approach into a cohesive pitch deck. By the end, audiences will see completed pitch visions side-by-side and engage in an open discussion about what methods and tools work well from the filmmaker, producer, and investor perspective. 

 

Sponsored by Full Sail University

 

Panelist Info:

 

Georg Koszulinski is an award-winning writer, filmmaker, and cinematographer who has been crafting films since 1999. Over the past 25 years, he has produced over 80 films, earning international grants and awards, screening at hundreds of festivals, and licensing work to major streaming platforms. His recent ​documentary A Map of the World in Time, filmed during 34 days at sea in the Arctic Circle, received support from the U.S. National Science Foundation and the European Geosciences Union, the latter awarding him the 2023 EGU Journalism Award. His debut speculative fiction novel Future X (Raven Chronicles Press, 2025) explores the social and ecological impacts of artificial intelligence and won the Keepers of the Flame Prize for Fiction. His follow-up dystopian novel, Notes from Lunar Underground (Broken Tribe Press, 2026) explores the prospects of non-human intelligence leaving our solar system, among other things...

 

Jackie Otero (Dean, School of Arts, Entertainment & Design at Valencia College) is a higher education leader, music business professional, and certified mediator. With a master’s degree in music business from New York University, and a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Yale University, she has served as a professor, program director, online education director, and conduct officer with Full Sail University and The Los Angeles Film School before becoming the Dean of the School of Arts, Entertainment & Design at Valencia College. Previously, she worked in artist management, supporting artists like Aimee Mann, Marc Cohn, and Suzanne Vega. She has also served as a music consultant, licensing music for film and commercial use, issuing expert opinions for music business publications, and speaking at music industry conferences. 

 

Jeremy Perez is the Implementation Coordinator at Valencia College's School of Arts, Entertainment and Design. He's a graduate from the Valencia Film Program, where he worked part time for 4 years. He's a member of the Critics Association of Central Florida, with a following across multiple social media platforms. He has freelanced on multiple national commercial and film sets, as production assistant all the way up to being production coordinator. Jeremy is a filmmaker at heart, as he also has a small catalogue of short films he's written, directed and/or produced in his free time.

 

Victoria Wasinger is Program Director of the Entertainment Business and Business Intelligence master’s programs at Full Sail University, where she focuses on how data and emerging technology shape the future of entertainment industries. A licensed attorney in Florida, her career has included litigation, representing creators and producers across film, music, and media, and working with companies such as Sony Pictures. Her background at the intersection of law, data, and entertainment positions her to guide conversations about how artificial intelligence is transforming film and media production.

 

 

Moderated By:

 

Anne Russell is the Program Director of the Film Production MFA at Full Sail University. With over 20 years of experience in film and television and more than a decade in higher education leadership, her work focuses on the intersection of filmmaking, emerging technology, and education. She has helped lead initiatives that earned Full Sail recognition among the top film schools in North America and supported the development of advanced production facilities, including a virtual production studio. Before entering academia, she produced unscripted television including Dancing with the Stars, The Bachelor, and The Bachelorette, along with documentary work for Bravo, TLC, MTV, and Discovery. She currently serves on the executive board of the non-profit Film Florida, where she works with industry leaders across the state to support advocacy and growth for Florida’s film and entertainment community. She holds an MFA in Film & Television Production from the University of Southern California.