Mind Your Business: What to Bring on a Pitch for an Animated Show

In this month's column, Mark Simon reveals some essential tips for pitching that you may have overlooked or may not be aware of if you're new to the industry.

By Mark Simon | Thursday, November 13, 2008 at 12:00 am

Posted In | Magazines: AnimationWorld | Columns: MindBiz

Animatic produced in Storyboard Pro. Animatic by Animatics & Storyboards Inc. Artist: Willie Castro.

Animatics are getting easier and cheaper to produce. An animatic is basically a video storyboard. You can have anywhere from very little motion to a lot of character movement, but it's really an edited video of your storyboard frames, set to an audio track.

Many artists are using Flash to produce animatics with their boards. I prefer to use Toon Boom's Storyboard Pro. The animatics build as quickly as I board. We've done a number of pilots lately at my studio using Storyboard Pro and the results have been fantastic.

I had a producer, Kati Haberstock from Identity, watch me work the other day on a project and she said, "This is amazing! Mark was incredibly fast on Storyboard Pro and watching him work was really cool. I want all of my artists to use this software from now on."

TV Pitch Tips Audio Postcards.

On another pilot, I added a funny sequence of a character being shot by tranquilizer darts. Not just one or two, but dozens of darts. I knew the timing of the darts hitting was crucial to the humor of the scene. Static storyboards of the darts would not have given the sequence justice, but producing an animatic showed exactly how the shot should play. Plus, even after a pitch, the animatic still shows the timing and humor without me.

Over the last couple of years I have noticed that the networks want to know more and more about the characters in your shows. Know your characters and make sure their personalities come out in whatever you produce.

Remember, it's not just that you should have art, but that art should sell both your concept and your characters.

Mark Simon is an award-winning animation producer/director and speaker. He owns a storyboard company, and animation studio and is co-founder of www.SellYourTvConceptNow.com, the most comprehensive source for expert guidance and resources for those who are serious about selling their TV show ideas. He is offering AWN readers a free month of TV Pitch Tips Audio Postcards.