HBL Creative

Hoo boy. Pitch writing is tough. It’s not for the feeble of heart or mind, and I’ll tell you why.

A pitch deck is a sales document. It is a marketing tool. And to write one well, you need to remove your artist hat and tie on that business bonnet.

What is a Pitch?

A pitch is a short description of your story. It’s intended to convince a producer or investor to commission the series, option your script or hire you to write a screenplay. Writers in all kinds of industries use pitches to sell their work.

They come in all shapes and sizes. They can be used at various stages of development, pre-production and even distribution. Sometimes they are just one glorious page. Other times they run 40 or 50 pages. Some pitches are verbal – you’ve undoubtedly heard of the elevator pitch. But one thing is for sure; if you’re a freelance writer, you will need to write a pitch.

So let’s cover some of the more common pitch documents you will have to write.

The One-Sheet

Can you tell me all the salient details of your story idea on a single page?

That’s what a successful one-sheet will do. This dreaded document is a popular request from broadcasters and producers as it tells them at a glance all they need to know about the film or series. You need to use this limited space to set yourself and your project apart from the pack. Because let’s be clear, there is a pack, or more like a STACK, of these one-sheets sitting on the desks of some very busy people.

Typically a One-Sheet (sometimes called a One-Pager) will include:

• The Title of your Project

• Your name and contact details 

• The Logline/Genre 

• A brief section about your vision and why it matters

• 3-paragraph story summary

• A closing phrase about why this idea is suitable for the current market.

It’s ALOT to cram into a tiny space. Choose your words carefully. You can do it! I believe in you!

The Elevator Pitch

This one sends a shiver down my spine. Pitching verbally is a personal nightmare of mine, and even though I’ve been at it for over a decade, it still makes me sweat.

An elevator pitch is an informal (haha) verbal summary of your story idea that should run between 30 seconds to 2 minutes. That’s short, and if you don’t believe me, stop now and try it with your current work in progress. I’ll wait.

While using this pitch in an actual elevator is quite rare, you will find having this little speech handy for any time you meet producers, distributors, collaborators or cast. When people ask what you’re working on, this is what you say.

Here’s what to keep in mind while writing an elevator pitch.

• Start with a hook. A great “Imagine if…” statement should catapult your listener into the story’s world.

• Move into an extended logline that will explain the main points of your project. Namely, your characters and their conflict.

• Build to an epic ending. It all comes to a head when…

• Then leave them with a point of reference. It’s JAWS meets TWISTER…

The Series Bible

Sound important? Well, it is. While this is not the kind of pitch you would bring to a first meeting, it is becoming more and more common to request this TOME in the final decision-making process. Let’s get real. Nobody’s buying a TV show on a one-sheet alone. Unless maybe you’re Shonda Rhimes?

This is your opportunity to prove your show has “legs” and that you know exactly where the story is going. A Series Bible is a tool used to sell both Scripted and Unscripted Television. It will accompany your original pilot and expand upon the show’s world, characters, episodes and season arc. But that’s not all; The Series Bible has a life beyond development. It lives on into production, changing and gaining detail as the show becomes real.

Typically a Series Bible will include:

• Title, format and episode length

• Logline

• One-sheet

• Future Episode Synopses

• Character Bios

• OTHER FUN STUFF: Like a Visual Approach or a Mood Board, Casting Ideas, Marketing Plans, Confirmed Collaborators, Access or IP etc.

The Treatment

This pitch document is usually for narrative and documentary feature films to summarize the story in long-form. In addition, it’s often used to sell a film to producers or convince an artist’s grant to fund your project in the development phase.

The treatment usually runs at least ten pages and is written in prose. It’s a vivid summary of the film that starts with an opening image and runs through to the end. It should hold the reader’s attention from the first line and cover some fundamental things about the film, such as the main characters, crucial scenes, and plot points.

A treatment is a sales tool, but it can also be a valuable discovery process that really improves your writing skills. To write a pitch treatment that holds the audience’s interest, you’ll have to figure out all the essential elements of your film. The process often forces you to see plot holes, visualize key scenes and nail down the tone of your project.

Why is Pitch Writing So Hard?

Whether you’re pitching a factual series or a feature film, writing the pitch means taking several giant steps back from your baby and looking at it as a product to be marketed. Unfortunately, not everyone can find that distance, and when you read a lousy pitch, that’s usually what’s at fault.

Yep, pitch writing requires some shapeshifting. You’ve been writing your film or series with the audience in mind. But now, you’re talking to the middle man.

As creators, we tend to get excited about our ideas. Often, we get too excited, which leads us to fill our pitches with detail and anecdotes and research that no one in the right mind would possibly care about.

So How Do I Write a Pitch?

Pitch writing is all about simplicity. It’s about boiling the massive project down to its essence and putting yourself in the buyer’s shoes. What do they need right now? How does this project meet those needs? You need to tell them what they want to hear, and you have to keep them interested.

It can be easy to forget that network execs are people. They have bosses and quotas. So you need to make their job easier for them, not harder.

A good pitch deck is highly efficient. It wastes no time or space and tells the reader immediately what to expect. Most successful pitches include a Title Page with a snappy tagline and the format of the show or film. Then a logline or a very brief synopsis. It can vary here, but if your pitch is good, the writing (and images) has already established the tone, and the reader is hooked.

You want to lead with the most relevant information. When I say relevant, I mean relevant to the buyer. Have you got exclusive access to a fantastic character? Start with that. Do you have the rights to some very cool IP? Begin with that.

In essence, pitch writing is the art of seeing your project through the buyer’s eyes and writing a sales doc that ticks all their boxes. It means knowing the buyer, their audience, and their mandate and shaping your project to fit.

For more about pitch writing read this:

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO CREATING YOUR FILM/TV PITCH DECK