Pitches 101-Be Careful how you pitch your work

I had something similar to this in my old WIX Blog but since the migration which was a year ago, I thought about exploring this topic again since the migration to Blogger.com

So... Pitching.... WHAT THE HELL IS IT?

It's the process of presenting your ideas to studio executives on what your project is about and what it's marketed to. 

Of course, It's not easy to pitch an idea to studio execs. There are many obstacles such as an executive's attention span so you really have to find that edge and show it off. 

Don't bore your executive to death or let him stare off in the distance. Make sure your ideas are engaging.

Keep in mind that what I'm talking about refers to the North American system to pitching your concepts to studios. I don't know how they do it in Europe or Japan so please be mindful of what I'm talking about.

When pitching a concept for a tv show or movie, you have to be mindful that there's also another issue referred to as VETO POWER. 

The Issues I have with executives is that just because they have all the money doesn't mean they want to listen to you.

Many creators dread the decisions made by executives due to their veto power, meaning that Executives will do whatever they can do to screw over creators, writers, etc. How else you gonna describe the Hollywood strikes that happened between May to November 2023?

While I have had my share of antagonizing executives, not all are bad. There's others who are compassionate such as VANESSA COFEY from Nickelodeon who actually would take the chance to listen to creators and even give the creators their full creative control of the project.

The trick is to engage them on said concept.

Don't let it all go downhill from there. ENGAGE!!! Executives can yank all the control and change things to the point that your concept no longer bears and semblance to your original concept. You need to demonstrate you have control from the get-go. Don't let them take all the control. ENGAGE!!!

Other things to deal with when trying to engage your executives during the pitching process is to convince them that your project is perfectly fine with no changes to the concept. And if the executives push for changes no ifs, ands, or buts, try to persuade them that the changes should be kept to a minimum.

Here are other red flags you need to be wary of: Letting Executives choose which actor they want.

I've seen how certain productions vocal talents are hampered due to executives preferring name talent instead of new blood.

For example: Let's say you hold auditions for a Teen Girl type of character but what you want is a fresh new ACTING SCHOOL GRADUATE or FRIEND or FAMILY MEMBER.

Then out of the blue, executives say NOPE and instead suggest name talent.

Why would I be talking about new rising star talent?

Because the more fresh or amateur the actor who is starting, the more authentic to real-life it gets.

Unfortunately for most creators, they often don't have the veto power of who gets to provide the performance. Like I said, it's the executives who have all the veto power and often at times don't agree with your decisions. 

So what name-talent that executives prefer am I talking about?

It depends. 

It depends if they want someone like JIM CARREY, CHLOE GRACE MORETZ, ROBIN WILLIAMS, DAISY RIDLEY, EWAN MCGREGOR, WILL SMITH, JOAQUIN PHOENIX, ANTHONY HOPKINS, NANCY CARTWRIGHT, all those actors in the industry who have the most experience because to executives, the most experience are so good.

While I do agree that experienced actors are good, it sort of takes away from all the other actors who are just getting started.

Another red flag to look out for is when Executives pish for your animated characters to look like their actors NO IFS, ANDS, OR BUTS.

To be honest, I'm getting rather sick about this overused trope of character faces looking like the actors who play them. To me, it's a dirty trick that's only meant for marketing.

Some actors like BILLY WEST are also sick of this happening.

And get this, sometimes it also affects anime but not all the time. Mostly as a coincidence. 

For example, Colonel Muska from CASTLE IN THE SKY looks a lot like a younger MARK HAMILL to the point when he was casted as the character, the face looks remarkably similar.

I'm done talking about Red Flags in pitching. Let's get to another method to pitching. 

That's referred to as an ELEVATOR PITCH.

The above image is not an exact representation of an elevator pitch but rather it's a metaphor for what it really means.

You need to pitch your concept in a short amount of time. Sometimes, and executive is impatient, wouldn't care less about your concepts, or has a familial duties.

They also say an elevator pitch is for convenience and simplicity and also to make your executives even more engaged without complicating things. 

Whether it prevents execs from yanking creative control from the creator or not is up for debate.

While I have said that the LITERAL ELEVATOR PITCH PNG image is just a metaphor, there is actually a real-life example of a concept that actually started as a literal elevator pitch:

KINGDOM HEARTS was indeed a literal elevator Pitch.

I don't know much of the details but from what I can gather, the first pitch took place inside an actual elevator. Other pitches soon followed in a bid attempt to develop the story.

I have more posts on Pitches and this may be examples of my own work, detailed examples of pitching styles, or even shows/movies and how they got pitched in the first place.

For now, I'm not at the process of pitching at the moment due to industry issues but the real reason is because as of January 11 2024, It started snowing like crazy around the Vancouver area.

Is this the weather making up for the lousy December of 2023? It could be. 

Oh well, At least we trumped EL NINO.

Let's just hope Vancouver doesn't suffer the same blizzard issues like it did in December 1996. I wasn't alive that time but I remember we had a similar thing going in December 2016 with less damage.