As a scriptwriter, you'll often be asked for a one page pitch of your ideas. How you present this information is really important. This isn’t a dry, factual document. Never lose sight of the fact that the pitch is essentially selling your idea. It should be exciting, compelling and really demonstrate your unique vision or perspective on the world: the pitch should leave the reader longing for more and feel that no one other than the writer is equipped to write it.
We’ve listed some of the key information to consider including in your document below.
NAME, TITLE, EPISODES/DURATION
Put your name and the title of the project at the top of the page. Next to the title, if you’re pitching a TV series, put the number of episodes and the duration (e.g., 6 x 60 mins). This is really useful to help get an idea of what you see as the scope and potential of your drama. It’s not set in stone and can be changed after further discussion.
Use regular sized-font – if you need to use small font to get everything in, then you need to go back and refine and edit your piece.
LOGLINE
The logline should come next. It’s a succinct, but striking, sentence that immediately answers the question: what’s it about? The logline summarises the premise or key concept of the drama, identifies the protagonist and demonstrates the conflict inherent in their journey through the series or film. It can be useful to identify the genre too, if applicable.
KEY CHARACTERS
Whose story is it? Your pitch should include a short description of your central protagonist. This is the character we will be engaged with and rooting for, or against. They should be compelling but above all, distinctive. We need to care what happens to them. It isn’t necessary to write a huge character backstory. We want to know where your character is in the present, and reveal anything important through the story. What do they want on a physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual level? Depending on your story, these elements will take different priorities. What is stopping them from getting what they want, what or who are the forces ranged against them?
This can be summarised as: ‘How does your character change?’ The answer to this question gives you your character’s journey across the series or film. If you investigate what your character wants and what is stopping them and why, it will help you to identify what it is they need to change to continue their life in a less fraught way. These changes may be big or small but what matters is that they are significant. If you look at your pitch, and your protagonist is in the same place emotionally at the end as they are at the beginning, then you need to look again at your story. It doesn’t mean that everything should be neatly resolved at the end – although it could be - but it does mean that they should be in a different place from where they started.
Your pitch should also indicate other key characters, most notably the antagonist, who is usually the main source of conflict for the protagonist, and anyone else who plays a pivotal role in the film or series. In an ensemble drama, there will still be one or two characters who are key, so ensure you foreground them while giving a general idea of the overall cast.
Visit our resources page for 'Characters Bring Your Story to Life'
STORY
What happens to your protagonist? We need a short summary of the key points of the story, including the inciting incident that sets the story in motion. ‘Something happens’ that changes the normal life of your protagonist (and their ‘normal’ could be criminal activity, or dealing with an overheated world). It should be clear from your pitch what the inciting incident is, and why this event is so significant that it will sustain a series or film. It can be something small but what matters is that it has huge consequences for your protagonist.
If your pitch is for a TV series, it will invariably focus on the first episode but it should also reveal some of how the story will play out over a series, including major turning points and the ending. It can be a closed or open ending but it’s important to have an idea of the resolution to the story.
Beware of just writing a dry exposition of events. The reader needs to be entertained and emotionally engaged. Surprise and tantalise the reader so they want to know more. If you are proposing a crime drama or a mystery, then consider revealing ‘whodunnit’ or the source of the mystery as it will help to show if the whole story works. You can still maintain the mystery and suspense in the way that you write your pitch.
WORLD
The ‘world’ of the show is more than just where the story is set, although if a specific location is important to the story, put that in your pitch too. The ‘world’ indicates the milieu that your characters operate in. What is different about this world that makes it stand out from other shows and is exciting for a viewer? Is it an elevated world or does it feel like the one we all live in already - even if it seems familiar your pitch should highlight why it is a world that we will be keen to enter as a film, or on a weekly or streaming basis.
TONE
This is a key element of writing a successful pitch. It’s what will help to convey your unique view of the world, your writing style and your vision for the show. The tone of your pitch will give the reader a sense of what it will be like, how it will feel, to watch your drama. On a very simple level, if you are writing a comedy or a thriller, the tone of your pitch should reflect this: incorporating humour or suspense into the piece.
Tone is not the same as genre, it’s the attitude of a show, or the mood of it so, for example, you could have a playful (tone) thriller (genre). The tone is what will set your idea apart from others out there, especially if it is within a world or genre that is very familiar. If you’d like to reference another film or series to give an idea of what your drama is aiming at, use sparingly and choose wisely as it can undermine your pitch if it’s hard to see the connection.
FINALLY, BE YOURSELF!
At the end of the pitch, you may want to put a line or two about what drew you to this particular story. Remember that the pitch is a starting point and much may change once you start developing the idea so don’t worry if you haven’t got everything tied down. These notes are only a guide. There’s no need to put these elements into separate sections, they should all be interwoven in your pitch. How you write your pitch is for you to experiment with until you are happy that it is a true reflection of you as a writer and the great story you want to tell.
Other useful resources: