Animation : Prepping for our first pitch by Rob Little

Rob Little

Prepping for our first pitch

So we landed a meeting with an exec at a network I can't mention currently and we are in scramble mode preparing the treatment and series bible. Would anyone out there happen to have some resources we could look over related to the two? Examples of either would be great, the stuff I'm finding online looks to be of questionable quality. A few examples of an animated show bible or wicked show treatment would do me some good. After all it is easier to achieve greatness when you know what it looks like. Also any tidbits of advice would be lovely, just as long as you aren't talking out of your ass or giving simple platitudes. Lastly, anyone who would help us out with our social media blitz when we launch our kickstarter would be great too. By this I mean those who would simply repost or link to our project. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Matt Morrison

Hey Rob, I currently develop television concepts for network pitches for an established production company. I've done one network pitch myseld with a pretty big cable network and have done a bunch of proposals that have been presented by other production company EPs. The caveat is that most of the stuff is docu/reality so we don't really submit series bibles, but rather treatments for the concepts with episode format outlines and samples of certain show components. I will say it's a bitch to get a show picked up and it takes time. We're currently about to start production on a network show that got "green-lit" 3 months ago. If you don't have a track record, they will pair you with an established production company, so be agreeable to that if they bring it up. Try to go in realizing that you'll do a ton of projects and pitches in your career, so don't go too crazy thinking that if you blow it, you're blacklisted or something. Don't sabotage it, but if they don't like the idea or it doesn't work for them or you don't blow them away, it's not a failure by any means. The development people at these networks see tons of shit all the time and lot of it is very similar. I've talked to execs with ideas I thought were so fresh and they're like "heard that a million times" Also, they want to look good to their bosses, so they won't support a project unless they think their boss is going to be stoked about it. They have to really see the whole picture very, very clearly. Keep it really simple and "re-pitchable." They have to go tell their boss what you just told them. Try to be out in 20 minutes; don't take too much of their time. Last thing I would say is to make sure you really understand the networks audience demos and their programming slate. It's a good idea to breakdown a couple of the networks shows, compare your show to them and see if it gels well. Every show creator wants to focus on the art, but these networks deliver audiences to advertisers under a very cohesive brand identity, so your show has to line up with that. Hope that helps.

Rob Little

Thanks Matt. That is good insight and consistent with what I have been reading about the process. We have a great demo, 18-35, strong written material and some great art to show for ourselves but being green makes the whole thing daunting.

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