Elements of a Great Pitch Deck
Man, the 1990’s were a great time to be alive, right?
We had MTV, N64, and arcades were THE social hangout spot. Blockbuster was still around. WWE was still in its “Attitude Era.” Hell, as kids we could go play outside all day long and never have to worry that our parents would care.
Cars had wood paneling. Gas prices were low. And our every move was not recorded for all eternity on the hellscape that is social media.
Yeah, those were the days. And that sentiment applies even more so to Hollywood.
I kid you not … the entertainment industry was BOOMING during the 90’s. Seriously, anyone with a typewriter could walk off the bus and sell a spec. All you needed was a wish, a prayer, and a decent logline. Hell, I legit remember talking to an agent mentor of mine about how she once sold a script off the title. Yeah, you heard that right. JUST THE TITLE!!! Can you even imagine?
Sadly, we do not live in the 90’s anymore. Not even close. In today’s Hollywood, it takes a LOT more than a catchy title and a killer logline to land a sale.
Enter the pitch deck. That thing every project pretty much needs to have but every writer equally dreads making. The fact is: show bibles aren’t optional material anymore. You must have a document that quickly and concisely breaks down your project to overworked producers to stand a chance nowadays.
“But what goes into a good pitch deck?!,” you cry.
Fear not, young padewan. I’m here to help with that. I’ve spent my career working with documents like this. I’ve made them for major production companies. I’ve reviewed them for development at TV networks. And I’ve judged hundreds of them for Script Pipeline’s Pitch Contest.
And while no two pitch bibles are ever the same, the good ones do share commonalities.
So, with that in mind, let’s go over some dos and don’ts of pitching. Starting with the most important:
DO PITCH THE WHOLE STORY. DON’T HOLD PARTS BACK AS A “TEASE.”
This might feel like a “well, duh, Spike,” moment, but I’m telling you, there are more than a handful of pitches I judged this year that didn’t do this. And many, many more that didn’t go far enough.
A pitch bible is a document that is meant to provide the framework for your story. The FULL framework. Just like you wouldn’t expect an architect to show you partial blueprints for a house you were building, this isn’t the time to think you can catch people’s interest by only pitching your first act.
If you’re making a bible for a feature film pitch, then make sure you pitch the whole film. Meaning the beginning, the middle, AND the end. Don’t leave out the third act thinking, “I’ll get ‘em hooked with the first two, and they’ll request the script to see how it finishes!” In my experience, this is not how it goes. Producers have limited time. They want to know that you have a full, complete, and entertaining story ready right now. Let them see all of it, without needing to do more work.
And if you’re pitching a TV series, then absolutely, unequivocally, make sure you …
DO INCLUDE A FULL PITCH FOR YOUR PILOT EPISODE.
I’m making this its own category because this is the mistake I see most commonly in submissions for the Pitch Contest. Wayyyy too many people are skipping over this crucial step.
Back when I worked in Drama Development at a TV network, I used to sit in on pitches and read over bibles that got submitted to us by agents and producers. Do you want to guess what was, hands down, the most important element of a successful TV pitch?
You guessed it: the pilot story. My colleagues and I wanted to know that there was a complete, entertaining first episode of this series ready to go. If a writer could convince me of that in a one- or two-page summary, I was 100x more likely to request the script.
I’m seeing a LOT of people not do this. They’ll write a paragraph about the pilot, but leave out any details that would allow me to make an informed decision. Don’t be this person. Going back to my analogy about architects, you wouldn’t walk into a meeting with a client and show them a blueprint for a house that didn’t show the kitchen, right?
Make sure this information is prominently placed in your document.
But also …
DO GIVE A FULL SUMMARY OF YOUR FIRST SEASON.
Most of the decks I’m reading this year include this, but it’s worth covering anyway. You want to show the reader how you plan for your whole first season to go. Yes, this means revealing plot twists and character moments. Yes, this means going into detail on how it ends.
But also, don’t go into too much detail either. One page about the arc for the full season is sufficient. But off that idea …
DON’T PITCH TOO MANY SEASONS EITHER.
I’ve seen wayyy too many decks go overboard with this. Sure, you do want to show producers you have ideas ready for more than one season. Talking a little bit about season two is good (and I do mean a little … a couple paragraphs are more than enough). Heck, maybe even float a possible season three … but going into seasons four and beyond is not a good look.
Again, speaking as someone who sat in on professional pitches, talking about a show four years down the road BEFORE you’ve proven you can make one compelling season of TV comes across as amateurish. It feels like you’re presuming that your idea is SO GOOD that it will demand this much content. And hell, that might be the case! But you have a lot of hoops to jump through before getting there.
Thereby, play it safe. Don’t put the cart before the horse. Your primary goal here is to get people to fall in love with your first season of a show. Don’t go much further than that at this stage.
DO INCLUDE PICTURES. LOTS AND LOTS OF PICTURES.
Never underestimate the depths of human laziness.
But also don’t underestimate how overworked producers these days are, either.
Any executive you send your pitch deck to will be tired. Accept this as a fact. They will have dozens of other things demanding their energy and attention. This is just what working in Hollywood is.
So, if you’re a tired, overwhelmed producer, what seems more appealing? A 10-page document of straight, unformatted blocks of text, or a pretty pitch bible with lots and lots of pictures?
One of those is getting read more quickly than the other.
In the age of ChatGPT, there’s no excuse for you to not have pictures in your deck. At the snap of your fingers, and with a short A.I. prompt, you can generate whatever image would most perfectly fit your dream story. Yes, you might need a little training on how to use Photoshop to put these together, but overall, that’s a small obstacle to overcome.
However, and I say this with all seriousness …
DON’T USE CHATGPT TO WRITE YOUR PITCH FOR YOU.
I have caught at least six Pitch Contest submissions this year doing this. It’s not hard to spot once you know the trademarks of A.I. writing.
The “it’s this, not that.” Or constant overuse of an emdash. If you’ve used A.I. for more than five minutes, you’ll be able to spot this, too. And if a producer catches you red handed, your chances of seeing your idea onscreen just went up in smoke.
Because knowing that a “writer” used A.I. to craft their pitch for them completely blows the whole thing. What self respecting executive would have any confidence in that person moving forward? I know I wouldn’t, and I doubt you would either.
Using A.I. to write a basic first outline for you to edit and improve? Sure, that’s fine. Hell, I do that sometimes (not for this article, mind you). But just lazily putting in a prompt and hitting copy/paste? In the words of the immortal Randy Jackson, “That’s gonna be a no from me, dawg.” Immediately.
Does it suck that writers need to go to these lengths in 2025 to make a sale? Yeah, I won’t argue that. I wish things were easier for creatives. I wish studios didn’t make us jump through so many hoops to put our ideas out there into the world.
But until they stop doing that, we writers need to go the extra mile to make our dreams a reality.
Because your story deserves its shot. Now go make a deck that kicks the door down to make it happen.
Godspeed y’all, and happy writing.
*Feature photo by Bussakon (Adobe)
