What are the differences for pitching Animation vs. pitching live action?
Is there any difference in approach to pitch documents or the actual pitch itself?
Animation : Pitching Animation by Ethan Frome
Pitching Animation
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It's "relatively" the same. The difference is that animation is a bit more visual. You are selling the character looks, the animation style and as well as the story. So, you have to come with a lookbook with images of the characters and character bios and something that shows the look and feel of the show. Sometimes it's a PowerPoint presentation with the same material.
Animation is often animator driven, the same way the comic books tend to be artist driven. Many animators I know create their own material. So, they are bringing that in with them to show. As a writer, you have to be an artist/animator yourself, or you have to hire someone to do the initial characters for the pitch.
You should probably have a pilot script and a show bible available. If you have the images in the bible, you don't need a separate lookbook. If you don't have a bible, have something that talks about the story arcs over the season. If you have a bible, you still should do a streamlined PowerPoint to project so they can see the images on the big screen.
With all of these many variables, it's always easier just to play someone a sample of the show, which means having an artist or animator do the mockup and use actors for the voices.
Christopher Phillips Wow. Okay that makes sense. Lastly What ball park budget range would a mock--up with 2D animation and actors be in? $3K - $10K ? $20K - 30K? Higher?
I want to thank you for all of your insight and responses to my questions.
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Purely depends on who is doing it. 2D animation is time consuming. 3D animation takes a lot of computer processing plus it's time consuming. Some of the costs depend on if you are doing it in the USA vs. overseas.
If you are really just looking to put together a 1 to 2 minute basic animation proof of concept of what the show will look like, you can probably find some new animators to give you the basics and you can probably find new voice over people looking to build their demo reel. The goal is do it as cheap as possible for the purpose of building relationships and finding a producer or studio that will fund a more dynamic proof of concept.
If you were to take on the production yourself, like an independent studio with hopes of getting the show syndicated, it could cost $30,000 to $50,000 for a proof of concept teaser.