THE IDEA ‘Sure I’ve got a minute. What’s your series about?’ Imagine this: through luck or perseverance, you have tracked down the exact producer you want to meet. You’ve done your homework. You know exactly who this person is, what shows they made and why they are perfect to executive produce your series. You’ve got them on the phone or you’ve planted yourself directly in their path outside a screening. However it happens, you’ve got their attention. For about a minute. How you use that minute will determine whether you are invited to come in for a meeting, or whether that producer will excuse themselves with a polite, ‘good luck.’ So what do we say? How do we best answer this basic question: ‘What is your series about?’ I’m going to give you a formula for this in a minute, but before I do, it’s important that you understand that there are at least two levels of communication going on in this situation. There is the WHAT (i.e., basic information that describes your series) and there is the HOW (i.e., the level of confidence and professionalism with which you speak). Which of these two do you think matters most at the outset? You don’t need to be a deep student of psychology or interpersonal relations to know that confidence is crucial in a situation like this. How you communicate matters tremendously. And yet, where is this confidence supposed to come from? You, someone who has never made a tv series? Perhaps never even staffed or written a pilot – how are you supposed to convey the confidence and authority to make this person comfortable enough to trust you? It’s actually pretty simple: practice. Your confidence (your how) comes from knowing exactly what you want to say when you get your chance. Let’s call it your ‘opening statement.’ I want you to script it, memorize it, practice it on strangers, practice it at parties when people ask what you do. Know it so well that if someone interrupted your wedding ceremony to ask, ‘what’s your series about?’ the words would tumble from your mouth before you could stop them. Confidence is all about preparation. The Idea of Your Series - Ric Gibbs - Dec 22, 2019 - page 1 of 9 When I teach pitching, I tell students they should practice their opening statement like a gymnast practices a balance beam: backwards, forwards, side dismount, with a twist. I’m not talking about word-for-word memorization. I’m talking about knowing something so well, you could say it a hundred different ways. CONVEYING YOUR SERIES IN ONE STATEMENT For clarity, let’s define some terms. In our business, you will hear the term ‘idea’ and ‘series concept’ used interchangeably. Both refer to a quick, clear statement that situates your series within the universe of known tv shows, and lays out its most important and compelling features. These opening remarks are quick distillation, whose purpose is simply to give your listener the context they need to understand what they are about to hear, while hooking them sufficiently that they want to know more. And yes, this can be done in less than a minute. If you’re good, you can do it in about 30 seconds. Here is what ‘idea’ does NOT mean. It does not mean telling your story, or your pilot episode, or its plot. It does not mean whatever idea first popped into your head and inspired you to write this series. (There’s a place for that, but not here). At the open, you are just doing your best to fit your series into a bite-size statement that (1) can be quickly understood and (2) makes us want to know more. In this regard, your series ‘idea’ functions a little like the logline for a movie script, but there are important differences as you’re about to see. In my experience, your opening remarks about a series – your idea – works best when it contains these elements: genre + format + world + character(s) + the unique sustainable conflict that will fuel the series. Let’s look at some examples. • This series is a one hour, a darkly comic fish-out-of-water drama, based on the true story of a privileged, white New Yorker who ends up in women’s prison for inadvertently smuggling drugs for a girlfriend. Totally out of her depth amid the street hardened women of this state penitentiary, our newly arrived ‘convict’ has to learn to to survive inside a world with codes and alliances and dangers she cannot possibly understand. From the creator of Showtime’s offbeat comedy, Weeds our series takes a hard, and often hilarious look at class warfare and the assumptions beneath it. (42 The Idea of Your Series - Ric Gibbs - Dec 22, 2019 - page 2 of 9 seconds). • This half hour, offbeat teen comedy turns the classic coming-of-age experience on its head by telling the story of a high-functioning autistic kid who decides it is finally time to experience sex. His decision carries major social consequences at high school, where his older sister already has her hands full defending her weirdo brother. Not only is Sam’s blank approach to dating both hilarious and painful to watch, but – like other classic savants – he enters into predicaments with such glorious naiveté that everyone around him (including us) are forced to reevaluate everything we thought we knew about love and intimacy. That is Netflix’s Atypical (in 41 seconds). • This one hour crime drama follows the unusual protection business of an Irish- American street thug from Boston who becomes a Hollywood ‘fixer’ who solves the dirty problems of the city’s rich and famous. If you saw George Clooney in Michael Clayton, he’s that guy. The clean-up guy for the worst, richest, over-privileged assholes in LA. It’s also the story of a man who just wants to build a respectable life for his wife and kids, but somehow can never escape his own dark impulses and the chaos stirred up each week by his criminal father and deadbeat brothers. Showtime’s Ray Donovan (44 seconds). As you can see, each of these opening statements declares its genre and format right away: ‘a one hour crime drama,’ ‘a half hour offbeat teen comedy,’ and ‘a darkly comic fish-out- of-water drama.’ Is this absolutely necessary? No. But it is extremely helpful to buyers and puts them at ease! In just a few seconds, you have already set a clear frame for your listener to understand the kind of series you are writing. Why wouldn’t you want to do that? Everything you find listed on television is described first by category. Don’t fight it. Use it! Also, try to slip in a sub-genre if you can. ‘Fish-out-of-water’ story. ‘Coming-of-age’ comedy. References to ‘tone’ are helpful. Orange is the New Black is a one hour drama (that’s your format) but the tone is comedic (mostly). And that’s important to say. It’s not a prison drama like Oz (HBO). Similarly, the series Atypical deals with serious topic -- autism -- but in a very offbeat, irreverent tone. If you just said it’s about a kid with autism, you would be missing what’s unique about this series. So ‘tone’ is important to your description, especially if you can link it to another series that’s familiar. The Idea of Your Series - Ric Gibbs - Dec 22, 2019 - page 3 of 9 It’s a little harder to find another comedy about autism in high school (part of what made Atypical so fresh!) but if this were your project, you could certainly reference other high school misfits in describing its tone. For instance, you might say that this series story has all the awkwardness of ‘Freaks and Geeks,’ magnified by the fact that Sam’s autism means he has no social skills at all. So things are even worse. Do you see how quickly you can set the stage for a series, with just a few words about the genre, and how this particular series will set itself apart? Awkward teen comedy made more awkward by autism. Rich New York woman tossed into state prison with tough girls. Ray Donovan trying (a bit like Tony Soprano) to raise a normal family, in a normal suburb, while his day job is both violent and criminal. It does not take many words – if you pay attention to the central problem of your series – not many words at all to lay out why someone would want to watch your series. FIND THE ONGOING PROBLEM In movies (and most theatre) the play unfolds in three acts (beginning, middle, end) all pointing towards a resolution of the main problem. The Wizard of Oz: Will Dorothy get home to Kansas? When she does, the movie is over. Lord of the Rings: Will Frodo destroy the evil ring and save Middle Earth? Yes, he does. Movie over. Charlie Brown Christmas: Will Charlie Brown get over his funk and find the Christmas spirit? Yes. And everyone comes together around him and the movie is over. In television, we want just the opposite! If we are building an ongoing series, we don’t want to resolve the problem. We want an ongoing problem that will keep our viewers engaged. Will Elizabeth Windsor ever reconcile her authentic personal desires with the impossible demands of duty in The Crown? Will all the young doctors of Seattle Grace Hospital find love and fulfillment in Grey’s Anatomy? Will The Marvelous Mrs.