Tv Series Pitch Document Guidelines

TV SERIES PITCH DOCUMENT GUIDELINES Television pitches are presented verbally in the room with television executives at the Studio or Network. The series pitch document will be your “script” for the pitch meeting. You will not be leaving this behind or submitting this to anyone. You may bring the document into the meeting for reference, but your pitch should be memorized and spoken in a conversational way. Props, photos or sizzle reels are not typically used, but can be if necessary. Comedy pitch docs are usually about 4 to 6 pages. Drama pitch docs are usually about 6 to 8 pages. You should plan about 2 minutes of talking for each page. Try to keep the pitch to about 15 minutes. And most importantly, follow the KISS principle: Keep It Short and Sweet!

TITLE LENGTH & GENRE For example: a half-hour workplace comedy or an hour long coming of age drama WRITTEN BY LOGLINE A sentence that describes your series premise, the main characters, their dilemma and the hook. REVOLUTION: A high octane action drama from J. J. Abrams following a group of characters struggling to survive and reunite with loved ones in a world where all forms of energy have mysteriously ceased to exist. MY NAME IS EARL: After losing his winning lottery ticket, 30 year-old Earl decides he is the victim of bad karma, and dedicates himself to righting every wrong he’s ever committed. THE TEASER A paragraph describing a visual teaser that grabs your audience, gives a sense of the world, tone and set up of your show. THE WORLD In one or two paragraphs, tell us what the world is and why you want to do a show about it. Think of it as an expansion of your logline. Describe what is unique about the world, characters, story arcs, themes and tone. THE CHARACTERS Outline your characters in order of importance, allowing what makes each one distinct to shine through (quirks, traits, flaws, back story). Also discuss character dynamics, how each character relates to each other and what their point- ofviews are about each other. Tell us about conflicts, triangles, rivals, love interests, etc. Only list about 6 of the major characters - more than 6 gets difficult to track. A few sentences for each character are enough. Do not include photos. THE PILOT Give a one page overview of your pilot story expressing the show’s concept using broad strokes and key plot points which helps establish character and set up the series. Do not go beat by beat or act by act. Your pilot needs to serve as an example of what a typical episode would look like (i.e. an example of a closed ended story and examples of character conflicts.) Try to keep this to one page. THE SERIES Discuss what an episode of your show looks like, where you want to go in the series, potential storylines and character arcs and entanglements. THE TONE You want to make sure you have clearly established the tone of your show and may want to hit it again in the wrap up at the end. It is often helpful to use shows that people are familiar with, but do not mention more than 3 or else it is confusing.

GOOD LUCK!