TV and Film Pitch Writing

Dino is optimistic

For over 8 years now, I've been working with producers and directors, dreaming up ideas for new projects, and collaborating with them to write presentation or 'pitch' documents that help sell these potential shows to networks and investors.

How did I end up in this area of the entertainment business? You often can never predict what turns your life will take, but when you look back, it's obvious you've been heading there all the time. When I left the Banff School of Fine Arts in 1987, fired up from being only one of 13 chosen that year nation-wide for their writing program, I went to Montreal wanting to write a novel.

He thinks BIG, too!

It didn't turn out that way. I continued writing reviews and arts journalism -- which I'd been doing while at university. This got me versed in the language of press releases and publicity.

Meanwhile, I was pushing my own projects, plus collaborating with others, which helped me learn about making presentations.

I'm including a sample here of a pitch I've written according to a producer's idea (with, I hope, most of the identifying or private information "filed off").

Downloadable Sample!

(In PDF format)

They Write the Songs (8 pages)

The document above is "work for hire," where the producer gives me a concept which might have travelled through many iterations before it got to me.

If the producer likes your idea, they'll get you to sign an "option," which can last anywhere from six months to a year. The object is to make the option as nice as possible, keeping you involved in the project as it progresses, and getting a percentage of the production budget as "creator," if the show actually goes ahead!

Sounds like easy money, but it's not. It's tough generating a lot of interesting ideas. They have to be shootable, attractive, and not done a thousand times before.

At the same time, though, it has to be enough like things that are already on the air that people can understand what's going on. They seem to like the creative "take" I bring to these.

Extra monkey

monkey rampage!!