Assembling Your Pitch

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. There is smile on his face and a woman’s shoe beside the utility door, where she evidently escaped. Her phone number has been written in lipstick on Smitty’s thigh. It’s his birthday, or was. Thirty-two years old.’

See the difference? Version B, you’re a storyteller. Version A, your meeting is over.

Find the story that introduces your character in a memorable way. In most cases, this will be a scene from your pilot. But if not, it should at least capture the most important character traits of the people you will build your series around.

‘We meet our lead, Meredith Grey, at a bar across from the hospital that is about to change her life. In twelve more hours, she will be an intern, first year. Grunt. Peon. Slave. In twelve more hours, her life will no longer belong to her. As she looks across the street, the lights of Seattle Grace, the hospital that made her mother famous, she wonders if she’s really up for this much goddamn responsibility? Or if maybe she shouldn’t let this hunky troublemaker beside her, buy her another beer? Maybe go home with him and hump him stupid? Little did she know, she was about to hump her new boss.’

Assembling your Pitch (part 2 of 2) - © Ric Gibbs 2018 - page 4 of 12 Now, was this how Shonda Rimes pitched Meredith Grey to ABC? Who knows? But it certainly wasn’t: ‘our lead character is Meredith Grey, 28, daughter of Ellis Grey, etc.’

Put your characters into some kind of scene that reveals who they are. You can also add a few words about the storyline they will lead in your series. ‘But of course, not only is Derek (the one-night-stand) her new boss, he will also become the great, unrequited love of her life. Or at least for the first season of our show.’

The more you can introduce your character within examples of the kinds of problems and predicaments we will see in your series - the faster your buyers will see their potential and the more successful you are likely to be.

STORYLINES As you probably tell from these examples, the real art of the pitch is to introduce your characters in such a way that your listeners can already see the trouble they’ll get into.

For example, if I introduce you to a rather plain looking young woman in London, who has fallen in love with a handsome Greek below her social status; who defies her family’s plans for her and marries him anyway - I have already set the stage for the major conflict (and several others) that follow when this young woman suddenly becomes Queen of England in THE CROWN.

And I have done so, simply by bringing you inside my character first (a rather plain looking young woman, in love with the wrong man) before I set her against the forces that describe her main conflict - the duties, the expectations, the scrutiny and protocols that come with this new crown.

In an artfully woven pitch, a good writer will immediately blend their characters with the types of predicaments that will continually test them in the series.

So how would I pitch Elizabeth’s storyline in the Crown? I would say: ‘from the moment this young woman learns of her father’s death, she recognizes her life is no longer her own. Nor does it even belong to the two of them. Rather, she and her new husband are thrust upon a stage - not of their making. It is, in fact, the grandest stage in Britain, where their every act, every remark, every gesture will be studied and evaluated against the monarchs of history. It is a ridiculous amount of pressure for any human, let alone a girl just turned twenty-five. And this series will bring us inside the walls of Buckingham Palace - to watch her struggle with all of it:

In her new marriage to Philip - where she must constantly clip the wings of this rebellious young Greek she married.

Assembling your Pitch (part 2 of 2) - © Ric Gibbs 2018 - page 5 of 12 Inside her family - where royal decorum forces Elizabeth to betray a promise to her own sister.

In the political arena - where she must sit in judgement over the most revered Prime Minister in history, Winston Churchill, who is now falling down in his duties to the realm.

There. Done. Take a close look at the passage above. Using this ‘young woman’ as a frame, we have just introduced the four major storylines that run throughout season one.

1. Elizabeth the woman vs. Elizabeth the Queen (appointed by God). 2. Elizabeth vs. Philip (who simply wants to live as a normal man and wife). 3. Elizabeth vs. Family (especially her younger sister Margaret’s scandalous love life). 4. Elizabeth vs. The Government (and all the political intrigue therein).

In a great pitch, storylines (like characters) should always be introduced in context. Find examples that explain what’s likely to be at stake when, for example, Elizabeth’s younger sister asserts her rebelliousness by running off with a commoner, or turns a royal appearance into a stand-up comedy routine.

You don’t need a lot of examples to establish a clear storyline. One or two clashes that represent a larger tension will do nicely. Then move along to the next.

Your goal is not to spell out every tension in every episode. You just need to give a clear idea of the types of conflicts we can expect in each of the major storylines.

But please, do not wander into plots, complications, or other details. No one cares, not at this level. If too much detail obscures the big picture, it seldom helps your pitch.

THE PILOT EPISODE For this course, you will not be asked to include the pilot episode in your final pitch. HOWEVER, you should be aware that some version of your pilot is almost always included in any professional series pitch.

Good writers will have incorporated key scenes from their pilot while introducing their main characters and the conflicts they are facing; so the road is already paved to frame out what happens in the rest of the episode. Most importantly, we use our pilot outline to establish the key elements that make up the backbone of our series, going forward. A good pilot not only starts the story where you want it, but it should serve as a clear example of the episodes your viewers will experience when watching your show.

Assembling your Pitch (part 2 of 2) - © Ric Gibbs 2018 - page 6 of 12 None of this requires a detailed outline. You would NOT want to pitch your pilot beat-by- beat in your meeting. Rather, you are just looking to establish your main characters and the types of struggles they will be confronting - as vividly, and succinctly as possible. Again, too much detail will sandbag your pitch, and do more harm than good at this stage.

TONE One of our fastest, most effective tools for bringing your series alive in the mind of your listener, is to make smart comparisons to series they will already know. But here, we must choose wisely. The wrong comparison can sink your pitch.

This should be obvious, but let’s state it anyway: never compare your idea to a series that has failed. Likewise, avoid comparisons to obscure series that your buyers are not likely to have seen. Or series that ran twenty years ago (unless they were so good, they stand on hallowed ground).

Above all, a good comparison seeks to convey the tone of your series, which is often hard to do without a reference point, like another series. And for this, you can sometimes even reference well known movies, as the creators of STRANGER THINGS did, when they cited the four young boys of ‘Stand by Me’ as a model for the kind of tight friendships they wanted to put on screen in their series.

The series RAY DONOVAN (SHOWTIME) was pitched as a tv version of ‘Michael Clayton’ a George Clooney movie about a ‘fixer’ to the rich and famous. NASHVILLE (ABC) was pitched as a primetime melodrama ‘like Dallas but in Nashville, the center of country music.’

A smart comparison is one that clarifies, very quickly, the tone of your series and the audience most likely to watch it.

VISUAL ELEMENTS In addition to comparisons, it has grown common to bring along some kind of visual presentation, depicting the world you want to bring to life.

In general, visual presentation take the form of either a slide deck (images and captions) or a short video (called a sizzle reel). One is not necessarily better than the other. What matters most is how you use it in your performance. How seamlessly can it be integrated into the pitch you are weaving? Does it enhance your vision? Or does it risk confusion?

My current preference is for a short slide deck of eight or ten remarkable images. This is just enough to bring your world to life, but not so much that it steals focus from the

Assembling your Pitch (part 2 of 2) - © Ric Gibbs 2018 - page 7 of 12 storyteller in the room - that’s you. Slides can be kept on a laptop and integrated into your pitch at a moment’s notice, virtually any moment when you think an image might help.

I do not recommend more than ten images unless you have a very good reason. If you limit yourself to eight or ten, each image can be strong, unique, captivating, and evocative. Never illustrate the obvious. Make each image count and use a good app like Photoshop to give everything a consistent look and feel that really shows your buyers what they are getting. Your goal should be magazine quality images. And yes, it’s worth paying a few bucks to a stock photo agency to get the good stuff. “Adobe Stock” will even give you free images in their trial period. There are no excuses for using low quality images.

SIZZLE REELS - the short videos that many writers use, are certainly more dynamic, but risky. So before you even begin cutting video for your pitch, ask yourself this question (and be brutally honest):

I am going to show this video to a room full of professional television producers and executives; the same people who produce the slickest, most expensive video on earth. Am I really going to impress anyone? Can I put something on screen that will honestly make their jaws drop or bring waves of emotion to their throats? Because if you have the slightest doubt about your ability to ‘wow’ the room with your video - don’t even try. The risk, in my opinion, outweighs the reward.

A bad sizzle reel can torpedo your whole pitch. It’s all anyone will remember when you leave the room, along with the phrase, ‘glad that’s over.’ Television executives have zero tolerance for amateur video. Zero.

I see screenwriters make this mistake all the time. Some agent, some manager, some know- it-all tells them they have to have video to sell their pitch, and they throw something together that looks like a student movie. Don’t be that guy. Please. Your video is either A+ or it’s a reason to pass. There is no A–.

TECH TIP: If you do bring video, bring it on your laptop. It should be all queued up and ready to show in about half a second. Do not ask to use their projection system, or their wifi, or their big screen monitor. By the time you get all that working, all the energy and attention will have left the room. Big mistake. Remember 0.5 seconds is all it should take to open your laptop and hit ‘play.’ Seamless, or not at all.

Assembling your Pitch (part 2 of 2) - © Ric Gibbs 2018 - page 8 of 12 HOW TO HANDLE QUESTIONS Unless you have completely failed to connect with the executives in the room, you will get questions about your pitch. Before I started taking these meetings, I used to imagine that everyone would hold their questions until I was finished. Boy, was that naive! Development executives are not patient. They will ask you about characters you haven’t mentioned yet. Or storylines you haven’t divulged. Or why your show is different from some other show you’ve never seen. These questions may rattle you. They may throw you off your game or even piss you off.

Answer them anyway.

If you are smart and well-rehearsed, you will find a way to both answer their question and loop back into the story you are telling. If you’re smart, you’ll say, ‘I’m glad you asked that. Because there’s this storyline I haven’t mentioned yet, but now’s as good a time as any…’

You might even turn their question to your advantage, looping them into your creative process with something like, ‘you know, that’s exactly what I was wondering, when I created this character, Voldemort, our series villain.’

In short, whatever comes up, go with the flow. Always. Don’t blow off a question. Use it. Consider it a sign that people are interested. Engage their interest. Pull them deeper in the direction that has sparked their curiosity. If I get through a pitch meeting without any questions, I know it’s a bust.

Television executives are smart people, but they’re easily bored. If you engage them on any level, creatively, it’s a win. The more questions you get the better. But you’ve got to be prepared. That’s why when I design my presentation, it is always modular. So that I can rearrange the flow as needed.

Assembling your Pitch (part 2 of 2) - © Ric Gibbs 2018 - page 9 of 12 I know writers who script and memorize their whole presentation, but they are locked into a sequence. If somebody asks them a question out of sequence, they get flummoxed. This used to be me. Now, I try to learn my series in modules. So if somebody asks me about my ‘tone’ in the middle of presenting my ‘world’ - it’s no problem. I switch gears. I talk about tone, then loop back into my world. Or maybe move on to the Pilot. Or the storylines. The order of my presentation is unimportant to me. My focus is on the people in the room, and how I can best feed their appetite and excite more questions.

The challenge, of course, is to make sure you cover every module in the time that you have. But always stay attuned to the people in front of you. As soon as you see they have understood one element, move immediately on to the next. It takes practice and every room is different. But if you think of the whole pitch process as more of a conversation and less of a presentation, you will eventually learn to steer things in any direction you like.

WRAPPING IT ALL UP Regardless of where your pitch ends - be sure to take a few extra moments to wrap things up for your listeners. Leave them with a few key take-aways that you want them to report back to their boss when they have their internal meeting. Yes, everyone has a boss, even these guys. So make their job easier. Find the most memorable thing about your pitch (or the part they liked most) and hit it once more going out the door. Thank them for their time and get the hell out. Don’t linger. Don’t wear out your welcome. Leave on a high note and keep your fingers crossed. You’ve done all you can. You’ve done a lot. Good luck!

FOR OUR ‘PITCH WEEK’ PRESENTATIONS (DEC 2nd and 9TH) Below are the elements you are expected to cover. You may cover them in any order, although since you are new, it is recommended that you follow a traditional sequence.

Please begin with the Opening Statement you have already composed and practiced in class. I would like to see this first opener memorized, and spoken with ease and confidence. After that, you are free to use a script, or flash cards, or any other aids that get you through your material.

Each presentation will be limited to 10 minutes, so that we can have time to ask questions and give feedback. So please, time yourself during practice. Use a voice recorder to hear where you are strong and where you are weak. Record yourself at least 10 times, editing as you go. If you follow these tips, you’ll be fine.

(cont’d…)

Assembling your Pitch (part 2 of 2) - © Ric Gibbs 2018 - page 10 of 12 As a reminder, this ‘final’ is worth 30% of your grade and cannot be repeated. Do not come unprepared.

ADDITIONAL NOTES from our finals in 2018

There were two unhelpful tendencies exhibited by many students while pitching their storylines:

(1) they wanted to pitch the details of their story and (2) they wanted to pitch from the beginning. Neither of these approaches is helpful when you’re trying to get a room full of executives on board your vision in only a few minutes.

So when I advise students to pitch their main storylines, what I tell them is to pitch the big picture only, adding just enough examples that it begins to take shape in the listener’s imagination.

What does this mean in practice? Well, by the time you get around to laying out season one, you’ve already introduced your main characters and their dilemmas. Just take it a couple of steps further. In the case of June Osborn (THE HANDMAID’S TALE) you would pitch the arc of June’s story. This is an educated professional woman, living and working in Boston. Husband, one kid, normal life - who gets swept up in the violent overthrow of her nation by religious zealots, bent on solving this new scourge of infertility by seizing all the fertile women for themselves. And so, in June’s story arc, we will follow this young woman from the day of her capture, through her ‘training’ as a Handmaid, to her horrific ‘posting’

Assembling your Pitch (part 2 of 2) - © Ric Gibbs 2018 - page 11 of 12 in the cruel house of a Commander, and ultimately to her discovering of a rebel underground and quest for freedom.

In other words: I like to give the totality of a character’s arc (if I can) so that my listeners are clear on where I’m heading. THEN, I can double back and add a few details that will bring it to life. For example, I can add, “and along June’s journey to freedom she will meet a few others like herself. Ready to break ranks, to rebel, to do whatever they can to undermine their commanders. She will have to shepherd one girl through childbirth and the seizing of her newborn; she will find her long lost best friend, conscripted to an illegal brothel, and their reunion will give them both new hope and the strength to rebel. She will escape and be recaptured. The commander’s wife will tease and torture June by showing her (behind closed glass) her own child - the one they took from her. Hannah, the child she lost and must get back somehow. Some way. Or die trying.

That is June’s arc. I didn’t include every element. I didn’t even tell it in order. But I did lay out the complete arc. And then added just enough story that my listeners got invested. That’s it. That’s all anyone needs to do. That, and HOPE for questions.