The Hollywood Pitching Bible by Ken Aguado & Douglas Eboch

Author:Ken Aguado & Douglas Eboch [Aguado, Ken & Eboch, Douglas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781301156214
Publisher: Screenmaster Books
Published: 2013-06-27T00:00:00+00:00

Once you’ve successfully introduced the nature of your project, it’s time to dive into the actual story you want to tell. We’ve been calling this “the plot” of your story even though we’ve advised you that it’s really more than this.

First, you will need a strategy to introduce your main characters. You will have to decide whether to present your characters as they appear in the normal course of your story or introduce them before your launch into your plot.

You may want to set up your characters before the plot if establishing your main character requires a long description. In this situation you might not want to stop the flow of your story for a long-winded aside. Perhaps your listener needs to understand the past or “back story” of a character to make a plot point in the story work. In the script you might handle this by using a flashback or a short preamble but both of these devices can be deadly in a pitch, unless the events they present are very dramatic. Or perhaps your main character is not human and lives in a fantasy world. For example, imagine how tough it would have been to explain what a Hobbit is if the Tolkien books had not existed! In our heist story, it shouldn’t be difficult to establish John’s character as we meet him. In the first few scenes we can easily dramatize what John does for a living, how he tries to help customers (including Tony) and how this causes conflict with his boss, Kent.

On the other hand, what if a significant plot point of our heist story required the listener to understand something that happened to John in his childhood? We may not want to have a flashback in the pitch, or describe the scene where John tells Tony this information in the course of their growing friendship. If the story about John’s childhood is really important, we might want to tell the listener about John’s character, including this incident, before we launch into plot.

Another reason to establish your character up front is when you have multiple lead characters in your film and you’re afraid introducing too many characters in the body of your pitch will confuse the listener. This situation can occur if you are pitching an “ensemble piece.”

Frequently it is better to start off by describing each member of the ensemble in comparison to each other, focusing on the key similarities and differences that are critical to the thematic elements of the story. So if you were pitching “The Usual Suspects” you might want to describe the five criminals that compose the gang, or if you were pitching “Little Miss Sunshine,” you might start by describing the six members of the family.

When choosing this approach, be sure that you have given a solid logline in the set-up so the listener knows where you are headed. Also, it can be easier for the listener if essential characters are referred to, not by their names, but rather by what they do or how they are related to the main character.

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