Assembling Your Pitch
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ASSEMBLING YOUR PITCH HOW TO BEGIN No matter what has been said by others to get you into that pitch meeting, always assume that YOUR WORDS are the first time anyone is paying attention. At a certain point, no matter who accompanies you into these meetings, all eyes will turn to you. And you will have about sixty seconds to convince everyone that you belong there; that you know what you’re doing. This is why your opening remarks are so important. If you fumble your first words, if you appear hesitant or uncertain: it’s GAME OVER. This brief window of opportunity snaps shut and the buyers will politely begin trying to bring your meeting to a close. Yes, it can happen that fast. By contrast, a strong, clear, unambiguous statement about your series will put everyone at ease. The buyers will say to themselves, ‘Oh, thank God. This person knows what they’re doing. This meeting may not be a waste of time after all.’ Bravo. You have now bought yourself another ten or fifteen minutes to deliver the full pitch - to ‘wow’ them, captivate them, and make them love your world and your characters. But I cannot emphasize this first part enough: OPEN STRONGLY. Script it, memorize it, rehearse until it comes out in your sleep. Let everyone in that meeting know you are a professional, and that you came to play. OPENING STATEMENT In two or three brief sentences, let your listeners know what they are about to hear, and why it will be compelling. Your goal is not to tell the story yet. You are just framing the series for them as succinctly as possible. Think of it as setting the stage. Here is an example: ‘This series is a one hour medical drama that follows the newest class of interns at a teaching hospital in Seattle. We will follow their training, their hazing, their messy love lives, and their introduction to a world of life-or-death decision making, as they try to help the patients whose lives are suddenly falling apart.’ Do you recognize this series? Of course you do. But notice that nowhere in these opening remarks did we ever mention the name Meredith Grey (or any other character). Nor did we Assembling your Pitch (part 2 of 2) - © Ric Gibbs 2018 - page 1 of 12 introduce elements of plot or storylines. It was much more high-level than that. Read it again: Medical drama. Interns. The world (a teaching hospital) plus several types of storylines that will sustain the series. 57 words that set up all of GREY’S ANATOMY. When Paul Feig pitched his series FREAKS & GEEKS to NBC, he introduced it this way: ‘Freaks & Geeks’ is a new one hour comedy/drama series that follows the very realistic, very funny and often very touching lives of Lindsay and Sam Weir -- a sister and brother who are trying, like all teenagers in this world, to get through high school and into adulthood as happily as possible. That’s it. That’s all you are looking for in your opener. A crisp, clean overview that sets the stage for the full pitch and makes them want to hear more. ADDING A ‘PERSONAL’ TOUCH Beyond stating the concept of your series, most experienced writers will take these early moments to lay out their own personal connection to the material; to personalize things a bit. Give your listeners a window into why you are the right person to create this show. In his pitch for BLINDSPOT (NBC) Martin Gero let everyone know, right away, about his lifelong passion for puzzles. ‘Ever since I was a kid I’ve been obsessed with treasure hunts and puzzles,’ he began. He quickly tied this obsession to the premise of his show: a series about a young woman, discovered in Times Square, her body covered in cryptic tattoos, with no memory of who she is or how she got there. ‘A human treasure map,’ Gero explains. And before we even hear the rest of his pitch, one thing is clear. Gero is the man to write it. It’s a smart, personal, passionate way to frame his premise, and a great addition to his opening statement. Let’s look at another. Mark Cherry famously began his pitch for DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES (ABC) with this anecdote. He was out of work, broke, forced to move home and passing his time watching daytime tv with mother. A story was making the news, some scandal about a single mom who tried to drown her own children. ‘How horrible!’ Cherry exclaimed. But his mother just turned to him, deadpan. ‘Oh honey,’ she said. ‘Sooner or later, ALL WOMEN dream of drowning their children.’ To hear Cherry tell it, this was his ‘lightbulb moment.’ The moment he understood there was a much darker side to being a suburban housewife than he ever imagined. And he had to write a series about it. One more? Elizabeth Meriwether, who created THE NEW GIRL for FOX, added this personal touch to her pitch: ‘I’m writing this show for my guy friends Matteo, Jeff, and Jay Assembling your Pitch (part 2 of 2) - © Ric Gibbs 2018 - page 2 of 12 who read all the text messages, Facebook messages, and phone messages from the men in my life. What does it mean when a guy does ________?’ she would ask. And sure enough, this is exactly the premise of her series. Guy friends translate other guys for Jess; Jess translates other girls’ behavior for her guys. Misunderstandings and mess-ups occur anyway because nothing about other sex is ever going to be clear. What is clear is that Meriwether’s stories for this series would be funny, personal, and above all, genuine. Adding a personal connection to your pitch is certainly not mandatory. But it’s an opportunity that smart, experienced writers will use to their advantage. It’s an opportunity to bring your passions, your curiosity, yourself to life for your listeners. To let them know that this material is meaningful, and you are the right person to trust with its creation. And if you can achieve that in a couple quick sentences - why wouldn’t you? THE WORLD OF THE SERIES We have spent some weeks already developing the ‘World’ of our series, but if you would like a review, please see ‘HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORLD OF THE SERIES’ here. As stated before, the ‘World’ is the first reason an audience will notice your series (among the hundreds of other shows on television). So make yours pop. Describe it as though you’ve been there. You have lived inside this world and it is so extraordinary, people need to know about it. Get excited! But what if my world is ordinary? What if it’s just a hospital, or a classroom, or someplace that won’t stand out at all? My answer: then you have not thought deeply enough about it! We’ve all been to hospitals. There’s nothing new about the one in Seattle. Except that we have NOT experienced a hospital the way a first year medical intern experiences it: panicked, sleep-deprived, unprepared, on stimulants, drinking to come down, hooking up for sex in closets, pretending you know what to do when a gunshot victim is bleeding out in front of you. Isn’t this ‘point of view’ part of the world of GREY’S ANATOMY? Of course it is! We do not have to invent a new planet or starship or alternate universe to bring the world of our story vividly to life. We just have to ask ourselves what is unique about my vision of this world? What are its inherent conflicts? What conflicts will deliver drama, episode after episode? What big themes will its inhabitants struggle with? You want to describe your world in such a way that its capacity for drama and excitement is obvious to your listeners. You want to give clear examples of the kinds of dramatic situations found here. The new republic of Gilead in THE HANDMAID’S TALE could easily take an hour to describe. But you won’t have an hour. So you need to hit the high points Assembling your Pitch (part 2 of 2) - © Ric Gibbs 2018 - page 3 of 12 that paint a clear picture of the struggles to come: It’s a world risen from the ashes of civil war. Ultra right Christian conservatives rule this world, but their wives are infertile. So they’ve rounded up all the fertile women and are using them to reproduce. They call this monthly rape a ‘ceremony.’ Could we say more about Gilead? Of course! But this much is enough to start. We have shown its capacity for big drama. And the listener is now ready for the most important element of your pitch… YOUR CHARACTERS In my experience, it is always a mistake to begin discussing your characters in a vacuum. John Smith, age 32, works as a fireman in Long Beach… you’re dead. D-E-A-D. If you take this approach to introducing your characters - a static, information based approach - I can almost guarantee the lights will go out for your buyers, and your meeting being over within minutes. By contrast, the preferred way of introducing your characters, should be within some story about them. For example: ‘We meet our lead character, ‘Smitty’ (actual name John Smith, which he hates) passed out behind a firetruck at the station. It is 3 am. A litter of beer bottles surround him and his pants are missing.