Why this? Why you? Why now?

How to pitch your next film or TV series

The three questions you need to answer in a pitch. Answer the first two and you’ll have answered the last one.

The pitch is an opportunity to engage a bunch of people with something you believe needs to be made right now. Think of it as an exploration, a journey, something to be unpacked, something to be held up to the light, something that needs to be hauled up onto the experimentation table and tested – you decide the analogy, but be clear, you are identifying a part of the human condition that requires our attention and the pitch is an opportunity to get someone to buy into that exploration. Think of yourself as a 19th century explorer seeking funds to seek out the Northwest Passage and that you’re putting together a crew.

As a TV series/film maker you’re not just an explorer, but part anthropologist, part detective, part psychologist or part magician. The storytelling aspect comes from how you manage these roles and how you assemble the mechanics of storytelling within your chosen form, be it a TV series or a film. A pitch is a chance for you to engage us in this quest and to give us confidence that you are a safe pair of hands.

To answer the first question 'Why this?' start by bringing the audience – the commissioners, financiers, teammates, juries, workshop attendees - in through either the Storytelling or the Theme.

Storytelling

Here you need to reveal the triangular relationship between three important ingredients: characters, the conflict and the setting. “What if two women, escaping domestic violence, attempt to get a wounded elephant over the Alps?”. Leave out one of these ingredients and we’ll struggle to anticipate the story. The premise is just one quick way into story, acting as it does like a compressed springboard. It’s the combination of the ‘what if’ and these three key ingredients that point us to something unanswered, something with potential. It’s often used as a log line: “What if an awkward teenager was bitten by a mutant spider and given superhuman spider powers?”. You can also go beyond the premise to unpack these elements, to unfold a richer and deeper understanding of the story. But whatever you do, you need to show us how you intend to bring characters, conflict and setting together.

Theme

Continuing with Spiderman, there’s the immortal thematic line “with great power comes great responsibility”. Themes point to universal conflicts, ones that resonate with anyone irrespective of them having superhuman powers. To us all. And themes can capture the paradoxical. In this case, the notion that more power gives us more responsibility and yet more responsibility can limit our power. The better it gets the harder it gets. It puts its finger on that part of the human condition that interests you as the writer, the most. Something perhaps seemingly irreconcilable and difficult to grasp. Your concept development might have been triggered by a question, such as “we believe that true love is about being 100% open, but don’t we often keep certain things away from those we love most - partners, children, parents?”. This is core and can be used to draw the pitching audience into the essence of what you are then trying to explore through your storytelling. You don’t need to be certain of the answers but you certainly need to be clear of your questions. And these themes can be described as questions but not limited to them; “does true love require 100% honesty?”. Questions with no easy answers. Death, love, jealousy, anger, greed, war etc. are not themes, rather topics that provide a setting in which a theme exists. Single elements don’t contain the conflict you need to drive a story. Once a pitching audience understands what you want to explore, then you can set out how your firm grasp on the story mechanics, will bring this exploration to the surface through the story.

Setting out the story and theme and how they drive one another, answers the question ‘Why this?’

You/the team

And now to answer the 'Why you?'. You might start a pitch with “last year I/we won an award for directing the TV series X that dealt with Y and that’s why this year I’m/we’re going to make Z”. Here we sell the idea that we have a talent, a craft, you’re someone that they would want to engage in – because that’s their need, to stay connected to good projects and good talent. It demonstrates that you are a safe pair of hands. You might also start with an anecdote about yourself which explains why you are either connected to the story, the theme or both.

The logic

By linking the story, the theme and you together, you create a coherent logic as to why the pitching audience should buy into your concept. But the fact that three angles exist doesn’t mean that you always have to talk explicitly about all three. Sometimes by talking about the story and the theme, we discover more about you for free. Likewise, by talking deeply about the story, the theme may well simply ooze out. How you decide to put the whole thing together i.e. the order in which you do it and the weight on which you place on the the story, theme and you, is entirely up to you. This will help you create the logic for your pitch.

Now you can see how best to incorporate and convey those additional elements, often best explained by the producer: genre, format, platform, what stage you are in development, partners, financing, shooting schedule, actors, rights, access, what you are looking for etc. These are the ‘how’s’ and ‘when’s’ as opposed to the ‘why’s’ within the 'Why this?' and 'Why you?'

Now that you've answered the ‘Why this?’ and the ‘Why you?’ then there should be no question as to why this shouldn’t be made now. You've answered the third question, 'Why now?'

How to come across

How you present is down to you. But be you. You don’t have to memorize everything. Use a piece of paper if you need some notes. However, it is important to really get into the logic of your pitch, rather than memorizing a huge page of words. Personally, I practice the logic and trust in my brain and mouth to fill in the gaps that get me from A to B to C to D (easier for me as English is my mother tongue). That said, it’s always good to practice the logic of the pitch many, many times, if only to allow your tongue and brain to get used to the words and the logic, much like a juggler is constantly throwing anything to hand up in the air. Play with the logic; play with the wording so that you will enjoy involving, engaging and evoking the pitching audience in the reason for why your TV series/film needs to be made. Your quest, much like the stories you make, is to take the audience on a journey. Think of the transformation you want to create in whoever you are pitching to. Sometimes it even helps to work backwards. Where do I want them to end up and design your pitch to get to that state of enlightenment.

Additional points to reflect on:

Why is this a TV series and not a film, or vice versa?

• ?It’s crucial that you demonstrate a clear understanding of the difference between these two forms.
• If it’s a TV series, then we want to understand the engine that will drive each scene, each episode as well as what drives multiple seasons. The engine is how the story explores and exposes the issues contained within the theme. The more paradoxical a theme, the more there is for the engine to drive. Often, it’s what moves the characters sidesways rather than forward towards some kind of resolution.
• If it’s a film, then what’s the arc, the journey? Who are your main and possibly central characters?

Why should this TV series/film be made?

• Is it because it’s deeply personal to you?
• Because you feel that the world needs to know or question a theme, an issue, a topic?
• Do you feel that there’s a subject matter out there that isn’t being addressed that should be explored?
• Perhaps you want to revisit something that makes us human and unpack it, poke it, challenge it?
• Maybe you just want to make us laugh, cry, feel empathy around something?

Why should the audience care?

• Why would someone see your TV series/film?
• Why would someone tell someone else to see your TV series/film?
• What would make this TV series/film relevant and to whom. It’s not about the usual demographics such as age (unless it’s for kids 3 – 15 where you need to show you understand which developmental stage you are targeting) or gender, rather think more about it in terms of their emotional state? What will the audience resonate with when they see your work? What’s the theme, topic, the characters, the conflict, the actors, director, format, setting and why does/should the audience give a damn? What unifies a group of people that could then be the target audience for your work? Perhaps it’s all of these, some of them or just one?
• What are people going agree on and more excitingly, argue about after they've seen your TV series/film? What issues, conflicts and feelings will it raise in the audience as they make their way to bed or on the bus home from the cinema?

How are you going to go about it?

• Is there something we should know about how you will put this TV series/film together that reinforces any of the above? For instance placing particular characters, within a specific conflict, within a particular situation/setting?
• Maybe it’s the way in which you will tackle a particular subject matter in a particular tone, thereby creating a clash e.g. a comic way to deal with loss, for instance.
• What could you tell us that would give us confidence in how you can handle the way in which you will put the TV series/film together? Have you done something similar in the past or perhaps you can give us examples of how real world or even fiction tackles this approach?

?What will the story be?

• Do we need to get a sense of the chronology of the story?
• Would telling the overall plot help us see why this story needs to be told? Or is it too much to hear the plot? Would we even remember it if we had to re-pitch your plot?
• Do you want to lead us up to the bit just before the end, in order to bring about suspense or would, by us knowing the ending of the film or the pilot episode, help us understand why this film/TV series should be made?

?What’s the take-away?

• What would you like the pitching audience to think after the pitch? What do they need to know, feel, remember, sense, question after hearing you deliver your pitch?
• What misunderstandings should your pitch eliminate regarding what it is you are trying to do?

?Where are you and what do you need now in order to move forward?

• What state are you in? It is a concept, or is there a first draft of a script? Is it something that’s already made? Perhaps you have a synopsis or a treatment that people could see if they were to ask for it? Or a trailer or even access to the finished film or pilot?
• Are others interested? Do you have a relationship with a production company? Is there a producer onboard? Do you have rights to a book for adaptation and for how long?
• What do you need from your pitching audience? Their interest and attention or perhaps you are looking for a production company or even someone to finance a particular stage of development. Tell them what you need.
• Beyond simply being asked to pitch, is there another reason why you are here today?

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