How to fix common mistakes in your Film Pitch Deck

1. Vicious & Co How to Fix Common Mistakes in your Film Pitch Deck www.viciousandco.com

2. Pitching a film or TV idea is an exhilarating but challenging process. Whether you’re a seasoned industry professional or a novice trying to break into entertainment, creating an effective pitch deck can be essential. As a full-time TV and film pitch deck designer and writer at Vicious & Co, I’ve seen far too many common mistakes. In this article, we will explore these mistakes and provide insights on how to avoid them. the world of

3. Not starting strong Get to the good stuff… and do it quick. Time and time again clients come to me with their deck which they have already written and it is messy, wordy and all over the place. Whether they are just too close to their script to really see where it shines or they think the audience needs 3 pages of intense backstory to “fully understand their intricate world” (clue… we don’t), what they usually present is several pages of meandering, excessive details to start that just don’t need to be there. Screenwriters are often told that they have failed if their script doesn’t grab a reader in the first 10 pages. Unless the person is obligated to continue reading they are likely to stop then and there. Well, when it comes to a pitch deck, I say you have 3 pages. If by that point you have not piqued the interest of the person reading this deck then you have failed. Use those vital first few pages to grip the reader.

4. Incorrect Visual Tone Tone! Tone! Tone! One of the biggest problems I see in TV and movie pitch decks is incorrect visual tone. An example I use often is if you were pitching a horror film about a cabin in the woods. People often find stock images or images that depict the place or thing they’re talking about and use them in their deck. So you choose a picture of an old cabin, but it’s in the middle of the day, it’s sunny, it looks more like a real estate shot — there’s nothing visually that sells the reader on the horror aspect of your project. Instead, make sure you find an image of a cabin that’s reminiscent of a horror film, something cinematic — think night, dark, with creepy woods surrounding. This note on visual tone should obviously be applied to whatever genre you’re working in. If something is comedic, make sure the visuals you use are comedic in tone, if it’s an action film, do the same. Choosing images with the correct visual tone will help set up your project in the correct light.

5. Too much text Far too many decks try to give too much information about their project and in doing so their pages are filled with mountains of text, half of which isn’t necessary. While making sure you cover all your key points, understanding when you have too much text is important. After crafting over 1000 film and TV pitch decks, I’ve given myself and my clients a general rule to not exceed 200 words (for most pages). This gives your pages space to breathe. Sure, in some circumstances even I go over this limit, and this isn’t likely to apply to pages with team biographies or episode descriptions — but it’s always been a great rule to stick by for the majority of pages. However, what this doesn’t mean is that you take the ‘X’ number of words you had on a single page, and split it over 5 pages, because that will quickly make your deck 50 pages lone. It means you need to read your content, understand where you’re waffling or straying from your key points, and cut the word count down. Execs and producers see a lot of decks (as do I), and there is nothing more daunting in a pitch deck than staring down page after page completely filled with text

6. Missing Information To counter the point above about too much text, I have also seen far too many decks with missing information. As the writer of the project, you’ve spent hours, months, possibly years, crafting the ins-and-outs of your story. You see how ‘A’ gets to ‘D’ because this entire world is in your head. But for the person viewing your deck, they need parts ‘B’ and ‘C’ in order to connect the dots. Remember, your reader doesn’t have the vast knowledge of your story that you do. If it’s not on the page, they aren’t going to know about it, and the only thing worse that an overexplained story, is a story that doesn’t make sense because something is missing.

7. Conclusion My best advice to clients or anyone creating a TV and film pitch deck is to have as many people review and get feedback before sending it out. Whether that be your peers or even just your friends, getting feedback, and understanding where people’s interest is piqued and where it falls away is key. From there, adjust, get further feedback until your project is the best that it can be.

8. Contact Us 562-338-7268 hello@viciousandco.com www.viciousandco.com 169 S Oxford Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 90004, USA