First Step to Hollywood: The Pitch Bible
If you’ve been a part of the NFH community, you’ve heard us talk about the road to Hollywood and building a pitch bible. We want to share the development of this process and be as open as possible, but we figured that first of all we needed everyone to understand exactly what it is, why it matters, and what makes it so hard to do.
A pitch bible is a document that outlines the story and characters of an animated series, as well as estimating its production process and possible marketing plans. It requires careful planning, research, and attention to detail. It’s an essential tool to give executives and producers a clear understanding of the project and why they should potentially invest in it, since it’s incredibly expensive: between a huge team of writers, storyboarders, animators, show runners, directors, voice actors, musicians, producers, marketing, legal costs, software licenses, etc, there are many factors that contribute to the overall cost of a 2D episodic show in the US running into 7+ digits. So yes, those guys will need some serious convincing!
A good bible is ideally both comprehensive and concise, covering a detailed description of the characters and their relationships with each other, the world they inhabit, synopses of episodes and a list of potential storylines for future seasons, while still being short enough to be presented in 20–30 minutes. It should also contain artwork and other visual elements to help to bring the story to life.
In summary, a pitch bible should contain:
- Target audience, theme, style, structure;
- A simple 30-second logline (“elevator pitch”) with an interesting enough hook for the perfect first impression;
- Relatable characters with arcs and backstories that will engage viewers;
- Art, look-and-feel and impactful visuals;
- Deep lore and world building that will make viewers invested in the story;
- A breakdown of episode synopses and a captivating series outline.
If you get the attention of the executives on a first presentation, they might ask for extra things such as a fully fleshed out pilot script, lore and mythology deep development, and more; while still leaving enough room for collaboration.
All of this to say: creating a solid animation pitch bible takes time, as it needs to consolidate all that necessary information, in an objective way, for investors to understand the uniqueness and potential of the IP, and hopefully get picked up by networks or studios. It’s a difficult balancing act, but if we nail it, we’re good, baby!
We’re thrilled to be at the forefront of community collaboration, exploring the new frontier of Web3 IP character development with all of you. In short, we positon what we’re doing as the work of the world’s largest writer’s room, and we’re always identifying more ways to give each of you a seat at the creative table. Every month we’re going to do a peek behind the curtain of the pitch bible progress, and share details about how your creations are being integrated into our documentation and presentations.
PS: Check out some pitch bibles of famous IPs here.
