What are the key takeaways from this The Pitch episode?

Key insights include: **Short Film Strategy:** Vanishing Angle produces shorts with directors before features to identify their specific needs—whether extended post-production, two-camera setups, or production design priorities. This tailoring process helps directors succeed on their first feature and builds toward larger studio projects through proven collaboration patterns.; **Pitch Framework:** When pitching executives, address two elements simultaneously: provide risk mitigation through comparable films, proven talent, and clear audience targeting, while also inspiring passion by demonstrating personal connection to the material. The subtext is always "here's why you won't get fired if this fails."; **Feedback Methodology:** Effective notes reinforce the creator's vision rather than imposing your own. Listen beyond surface-level suggestions to identify underlying concerns. Even seemingly disconnected executive notes often reveal brilliant instincts about what isn't working. Train yourself to hear the note behind the note through regular practice.

What did Vanishing Angle and Interview With Vanishing Angle discuss on The Pitch?

Vanishing Angle producers Matt Miller and Natalie Metzger explain their strategy of building long-term filmmaker relationships through short films, their approach to pitching studios, and how they've produced 27 features and 60+ shorts. Key topics include: **Short Film Strategy:** Vanishing Angle produces shorts with directors before features to identify their specific needs—whether extended post-production, two-camera setups, or production design priorities. This tailoring process helps directors succeed on their first feature and builds toward larger studio projects through proven collaboration patterns.; **Pitch Framework:** When pitching executives, address two elements simultaneously: provide risk mitigation through comparable films, proven talent, and clear audience targeting, while also inspiring passion by demonstrating personal connection to the material. The subtext is always "here's why you won't get fired if this fails.".

How long is this episode of The Pitch?

This episode is 68 minutes long. SignalCast provides an AI-generated summary so you can get the key insights in about 3 minutes.

The Pitch

#6 - Interview with Vanishing Angle’s Matt Miller and Natalie Metzger

March 23, 2023

68 min episode · 2 min read

Vanishing Angle,Interview With Vanishing Angle

Episode

68 min

Read time

2 min

Topics

Career Growth, Relationships, Investing

AI-Generated Summary

Published Dec 25, 2025

Key Takeaways

✓Short Film Strategy: Vanishing Angle produces shorts with directors before features to identify their specific needs—whether extended post-production, two-camera setups, or production design priorities. This tailoring process helps directors succeed on their first feature and builds toward larger studio projects through proven collaboration patterns.
✓Pitch Framework: When pitching executives, address two elements simultaneously: provide risk mitigation through comparable films, proven talent, and clear audience targeting, while also inspiring passion by demonstrating personal connection to the material. The subtext is always "here's why you won't get fired if this fails."
✓Feedback Methodology: Effective notes reinforce the creator's vision rather than imposing your own. Listen beyond surface-level suggestions to identify underlying concerns. Even seemingly disconnected executive notes often reveal brilliant instincts about what isn't working. Train yourself to hear the note behind the note through regular practice.
✓Personal Connection Pitch: Lead with seemingly unrelated personal anecdotes during initial conversation, then connect them to your project during the pitch. Example: Director Sean Mullen discussed his Ground Zero experience and Wall Street stand-up comedy before pitching his film about a veteran working on Wall Street, establishing unique authority.
✓Relationship Building: Approach industry connections as genuine friendships rather than transactional networking. Submit projects repeatedly to the same contacts even after rejections—programmers and executives track careers over years. One filmmaker received three short film rejections from Sundance before their feature was accepted with enthusiastic support.

What It Covers

Vanishing Angle producers Matt Miller and Natalie Metzger explain their strategy of building long-term filmmaker relationships through short films, their approach to pitching studios, and how they've produced 27 features and 60+ shorts.

Key Questions Answered

•Short Film Strategy: Vanishing Angle produces shorts with directors before features to identify their specific needs—whether extended post-production, two-camera setups, or production design priorities. This tailoring process helps directors succeed on their first feature and builds toward larger studio projects through proven collaboration patterns.
•Pitch Framework: When pitching executives, address two elements simultaneously: provide risk mitigation through comparable films, proven talent, and clear audience targeting, while also inspiring passion by demonstrating personal connection to the material. The subtext is always "here's why you won't get fired if this fails."
•Feedback Methodology: Effective notes reinforce the creator's vision rather than imposing your own. Listen beyond surface-level suggestions to identify underlying concerns. Even seemingly disconnected executive notes often reveal brilliant instincts about what isn't working. Train yourself to hear the note behind the note through regular practice.
•Personal Connection Pitch: Lead with seemingly unrelated personal anecdotes during initial conversation, then connect them to your project during the pitch. Example: Director Sean Mullen discussed his Ground Zero experience and Wall Street stand-up comedy before pitching his film about a veteran working on Wall Street, establishing unique authority.
•Relationship Building: Approach industry connections as genuine friendships rather than transactional networking. Submit projects repeatedly to the same contacts even after rejections—programmers and executives track careers over years. One filmmaker received three short film rejections from Sundance before their feature was accepted with enthusiastic support.

Notable Moment

Natalie Metzger financed her documentary Special Blood by guessing the CEO's email address after the marketing head rejected her pitch. She tried five or six variations until one didn't bounce back, leading to full financing and ongoing screenings eight years later.

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Episode Transcript

You can find and subscribe to the premium episodes of this podcast at pitch.supportingcast.fm. This week's premium episode features Kayla MacVicar, Parker Forrest Olson, and David Cepeda with their pilot, Peaches and Daisies, Tory DuPree with his feature, Loving Death, and Brianne Bushes with the pilot for an animated series entitled Zuli's World. Make sure to check that out. Hi. Welcome to another episode of Pitch, connecting storytellers with the world. I'm Leah Saint Marie. And I'm Angel. And we have two special guests with us today from Vanishing Angle. We have Matt Miller and Natalie Metzger, and your films have been at Cannes and South by and Sundance, and you've done Thunder Road. You're big in the indie world. You just did the film that I wrote, Spoonful of Sugar. You did Stargate Atlantis. Welcome. Thanks for being here. Thank you for having us. Yeah. Yeah. It's our pleasure. What's new with you two? Something very, very important is brewing. We're developing something quite big. Yeah. Have you pitched it to anyone yet? Hopefully not hopefully not too big, but, yes. We're we're having a baby next month. Congratulations. So that's a big thing. But in addition to that, we, you know, have a bunch of projects that just released. We have two features that just released earlier this month, Spoon Flow Sugar in the Park. Woo hoo. And, we have a feature releasing in May called It Ain't Over, a documentary about Yogi Berra. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Pictures classics. And then we have two shorts that we just wrapped that are gonna be hopefully well, one of them will be we know the festival premiere will be later this year, and the other one we just finished and are starting to get that out into the world. And so and then we're shooting two features at the end of the year. So Yeah. At least two. Yeah. So not busy. Yeah. As well as a baby. We just like to juggle a lot. Unreal. Yeah. That's amazing. Can I ask real quick? So you've got several features and then the documentary, obviously, this year, and you're still doing shorts. Mhmm. So shorts aren't a stepping stone to doing features for you now that you're well established in the feature world. What motivates you to continue to do shorts? We we've always made it a priority. When we started the company in 2010, we hadn't started doing features yet. Our first feature on record of the company was, like, 2013. But right away, we started doing shorts. We've always felt like, for us, it's there's countless reasons. So first and foremost, it's, like, really good to just continue to have product in the marketplace, specifically in festivals. So, like, even when we don't have a feature, timing for a certain festival run, we generally have a short film available and allows us to sort of continue to have product available that we can keep in touch with programmers, that …

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