ScreenMasters Private Lab with Michael Schulman : Pitch meetings? by Michael Schulman

Personally, I think they're tough. They force you to think about your story from a level where the primary ingredients are only your characters, themes, and major story beats. It's such a balancing act between overwhelming someone with too much information that creates a convoluted mess of story elements and being too vague in an attempt to streamline your overall concept. Throw in that TV and features are pitched very differently, and being able to pitch deftly becomes an even more impressive skill. I suppose the desired outcome is two-pronged: 1) Entice them enough that they're interested in reading your script and 2) Impress them with the way that you present yourself so that there's potential interest in you as a writer and perhaps even other projects on which you're working. Just my two cents.

If we can tie a discussion about pitching back into our discussion about what makes a great story on the page, I think that might be helpful. I think Adam King is making some good points about how, in order to pitch effectively, you have to know how to crystalize the key drivers / engine of your story in a compelling way. And that means that you have to both have a good story that is well told on the page (the great story elements have to actually be there) and understand the basics of what makes your story great. So it's somewhat akin to a verbal synopsis. My layman's understanding is that pitches work best if you can casually but compellingly relate the key elements of your story, as if telling them to convince and draw in a friend - so in other words you might want to avoid creating some contrived presentation that you feel pressured to memorize in granular detail - but instead want to identify and internalize the key elements of your story well enough that you can rely on your passion and knowledge of your story to become a well from which you can draw the water of your pitch. That's not to say you shouldn't think about what story info to present and in what order, but it's to say that you want to know it well enough that you can almost 'forget' it, and then present it as if telling a friend what your story is over coffee. As when writing a synopsis, plotting out a pitch might help you see not only what your story is about at the core, but also where your story's strengths and lingering weaknesses might lie. That's a rambling answer - but hopefully helpful!

When pitching TV and Movies, beyond your screenplay, script, or even story boards, you also need to incorporate what spots are available for marketing and product placement, which is a completely different pitch in itself. I say this, because if you can get a couple big business names to sign on to your future project with letters of intent, it goes a long way when pitching studios and or networks.