ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 5.6 - SEPTEMBER 2000

Pitching Perfect: A Word From Development

by Heather Kenyon

Development executives sit through pitches each and every day and have seen it all -- from the dull reading off sheets of paper to action-packed pitches complete with singing dogs, marching bands and Aunt Rosemary singing the national anthem. Everyone knows a great pitch starts with a great series concept, but in addition to that what do the executives from top networks like to see? What makes them cringe and what impresses them? Here they let us know which elements are really important and surprisingly, the bottom line turns out to be pretty casual — professional, but casual. So leave the singing dog at home and take some of their advice:


Kevin Kay, Vice President/Executive Producer, Development, Nickelodeon.

Kevin Kay
Vice President/Executive Producer, Development, Nickelodeon

Kevin Kay: I think shorter is better, especially for the first go-rounds. It's more about selling an idea than it is about selling a series, because I think you don't know whether you have a series or not until you really get into the whole bible and the designs and the stories that you're going to tell. But shorter is always better. I'd rather see two pages than twenty. Funny pictures. That's the key to me. There's got to be something that makes me laugh. Something that I can look at right away and it's visually either hysterical or different. That's gonna get my attention. Nothing that looks like the other stuff that we do. I think the biggest mistake people make is they say, 'I got the next Rugrats.' I already got the Rugrats. I'm fine. If I need the next Rugrats I'll call up Klasky-Csupo and they'll give me the next one. I've said this before, but I think it sort of hits the nail on the head. That picture you drew on the napkin at the bar last night where you woke up the next morning and you looked at it and you thought, 'What was I thinking? No network's ever going to buy this. I should stop drinking.' Then you put it in the bottom drawer of your desk. That's what I want to see. I want to see the idea that seems like it might be a little too outrageous or a little too over the top, because that's gonna probably be different than what everyone traditionally walking in the door thinks I want to buy. So, given that, the other thing is tell me a story. We're in the kid's business, and the family business is built on good storytelling. So, if somebody comes in and pitches me a story that sort of gets me from A to B to C and lets me know that they know how to tell a story, especially, for a young writer that I don't know or a young artist that I haven't met. If you can come in and tell me a story that's going to capture my attention and keep me riveted or laughing for five minutes, then, I can kind of get the sense that you can do that on TV too. I think that's the key.

Heather Kenyon: How would you want artwork presented?

KK: I think it doesn't really matter. It's different for everybody. It's great to see some character designs and some background designs. Or a key frame, a great scene, that's in the story. The best way and the ultimate would be to come in and tell me the story of your pilot and show me a couple of key frames that go along with it that show me the characters and what the world's going to look like. But, it doesn't really require that. Some people are not artists and some artists are not good writers. I think it's up to the network or the development executive to be able to have the vision that there's somebody in front of me that has part of the skills and knows how to do enough that we can help them do the things that they can't do. Or that they don't yet have the talent to do. It would be great to see some boards in whatever condition, whether it's the drunken bar napkin, or the big presentation boards. That's great to see, but I think it's different for everybody. The other part is it's also about personality. The best example is when Stephen Hillenburg pitched me SpongeBob. He had a whole board. He's an artist and he's a filmmaker. He had boarded out the whole story. That would have been great in and of itself, but he took me through the board playing all the characters himself and doing the voices and singing the songs. And it was hilarious...it was like, 'Wow. This guy is funny. He gets what's funny and he has all the other skills to go along with it, but he understands these characters and he knows this world.' I think that's part of it. You've got to sell yourself.


Jonathan Rosenthal, Vice President, Development, Fox Kids Network.

Jonathan Rosenthal
Vice President, Development, Fox Kids Network

First of all, don't deliberately take a long time -- you are pitching a concept for a television show, not a novel. If the person you are pitching responds to your idea it will be natural to spend a few minutes talking about it, otherwise limit yourself to 10-15 minutes.

Second, figure out who the show is about -- who the stories will revolve around and what those characters want. (As well as any weakness that may keep them from attaining their goals.)

Third, don't ever just read from your materials. As one of my colleagues here is fond of saying, "If that's what you're going to do, you might as well have just sent it in the mail. I can read." Tell a story (a short one). It should feel like I'm being pitched an episode of a show that already is on the air.

Fourth, do your research. Don't pitch inappropriate things to inappropriate people, even if you are doing so just to get the pitching experience.

As far as having art or something written to leave behind -- this is always a plus, but not critical. And as far as written leave behinds go, keep it short and sweet.

Other things I would suggest would be to rehearse the pitch at least a few times, and just to have fun. Best of luck and see you in the conference room.


Linda Simensky, Vice President of Original Programming, Cartoon Network.

Linda Simensky
Vice President of Original Programming, Cartoon Network

When some people ponder pitching to a network, I think they imagine themselves standing in front of huge foam core blowups of their characters, pitching to a boardroom full of serious network executives. When others tell me about the pitches they think we want at the Cartoon Network, they suppose that we want to see wild acting and jumping around. Some people apparently think that we'd like them to come in and read their pitch out loud to us...

The truth is none of those is quite the right situation for pitching to Cartoon Network. Sometimes I just tell people not to even call it a pitch, just to come in and show us their artwork and tell us what kind of cartoons they'd like to make. That's how we like to start the development process.

As for what to bring, a person looking to make a cartoon for Cartoon Network should have an overall idea of what the show is about, some characters designs and descriptions, and about four or five story ideas. The material can be rough, there can be several versions of the designs, and there can be Xeroxed pages from sketchbooks. Just these few simple items usually can tell us if the idea is right for us. No need for theme songs, storyboards, scripts or letters of recommendation. The artist should just be able to come in and tell us about their idea and what they want to do.

What helps more than anything is if an artist can bring along something that communicates his or her sensibility to us. That intangible sensibility is what makes one show about two dogs seem brilliant, and another show about two dogs seem boring and predictable. Artists have been able to communicate their sensibility through their personal films, Websites, comics, sketchbooks, etc. Even if something has nothing to do with the show being pitched, it's still helpful.

Since we deal almost exclusively with artists, our goal has been to keep the process relaxed and casual. And someday, when we change the name of pitching officially to "just come in and show us your designs and tell us what kind of cartoons you'd like to make," then everyone will be able to relax a little more.

 

1 | 2


Note: Readers may contact any Animation World Magazine contributor by sending an e-mail to editor@awn.com.