How To Pitch
26 Nov 07
RTS Futures event How to Pitch took place on 20 November 2007 at the Blue Peter Studio at BBC Television Centre. The evening was introduced by Evan Davis from Dragons' Den and the panel, was made up of commissioning experts: Danny Cohen, Lorraine Heggessey, Andrew MacKenzie and chaired by Alex Graham. RTS Futures members heard the experiences of the panel on the pitfalls of pitching programme ideas, top tips on how to give a successful pitch under pressure and were able to have their questions answered.
Steve Clarke went along to find out How to Pitch.
There may be no such thing as the perfect programme pitch, but unless aspiring producers believe wholeheartedly in the ideas they are trying to sell to a commissioning editor their chances of succeeding are less than zero. 'There is only one thing that really matters,' observed Alex Graham, the head of leading independent producer Wall to Wall. 'Do you feel passionate about the project? The worst thing is to pitch a show you aren't really sure about. Passion is the only absolutely important ingredient.' This point was repeated like a mantra throughout the RTS Futures session, How To Pitch. Despite the raw November night, the event was packed as the BBC's economics editor Evan Davis introduced the evening featuring a panel of experienced British TV executives including a former BBC1 controller and the head of BBC3.
For starters Davis, who as the presenter of BBC2's Dragons' Den has been weighing up business pitches for the last couple of years, played a short video What Makes A Bad Pitch. Comprising of clips from Dragons' Den, the film offered a master class in 'How Not to Sell an Idea'. We saw budding entrepreneurs turning up to pitch their brilliant proposals to the dragons under-prepared, under-dressed and under-committed. 'I am amazed at how people don't grab the opportunity to talk about their products, warts and all. My advice is that it's better that you uncover the vulnerabilities in something than let the people you're pitching to uncover it' explained Davis. But the broadcaster's most telling piece of advice for people seeking to sell ideas was…to avoid looking like they're actually selling anything. 'If you can sound and look like you have the honesty and presence to be interpreting the panel rather than selling to them you're halfway there' he said.
As the debate got into its stride, this point kept emerging in different guises. To be successful at pitching programme makers need to strike up a dialogue with the person on the other side of the desk. 'I think the greatest pitch leaves the commissioning editor thinking it was his idea,' is how Channel 4's head of factual entertainment Andrew Mackenzie put it, to the agreement of the panel. Of course, even when a positve rapport is achieved would-be producers often come away empty handed. Producing programmes is a buyers' market - and even seasoned practitioners learn to become familiar with the 'no' word. The RTS Futures audience heard how Graham had first tried pitching the highly successful celebrity-driven genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are? back in 1989 when two BBC channel controllers rejected the idea. Likewise the popular BBC1 MI5 drama Spooks, was cold-shouldered by the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 before the BBC finally executed a U-turn. MacKenzie recounted how the idea behind the award-winning documentary The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off was pitched six times to a colleague at Channel 4 before the programme at last was green lit.
Are there any guaranteed ways of avoiding these levels of frustration? The panel offered several more key pointers towards successful pitching including the importance of programme titles. 'If you can come up with a really good title it can sell the show,' said Heggessey. 'At BBC1 Strictly Come Dancing was pitched to me as Pro-Celebrity Dancing. They spent six months trying to persuade me that celebrity should be in the title. Ultimately they came up with a better title, Strictly Come Dancing, which embodied the show's attitude.' Andrew Mackenzie recalled that commissioning editor Ben Frow famously commissioned How Clean Is Your House? when the phrase was thrown into the conversation as a meeting petered out.
This kind of ad hoc commissioning is the exception, rather than the rule as Danny Cohen, head of E4 before taking over at BBC3, pointed out. He said: 'You should always show respect to everybody's ideas because it's their opportunity to tell you what is on their minds and it's their creative ambitions. There is a very thin line between creativity and insanity. Often the best ideas are on that border-line.' Another element of a successful pitch, Cohen added, was to avoid turning up for that all-important commissioning meeting loaded down with ideas. It was better to arrive with fewer, more polished ideas.
If less is more, what was the most effective medium for pitching - paper pitches, power point pitches or pitches that come with teaser tapes? The panel were in two minds about the use of power point, some agreeing it is beginning to date others believing it is a successful way of getting ideas across clearly. They all agreed against spending large sums on elaborate audio-visual presentations. Said Heggessey: 'Don't waste money on needless things. I've seen taster tapes where people have wasted money on title sequences, which is irrelevent at this stage. If you're going to make a tape spend your money wisely, use the tape to show that you've got a good character or good access.'
But standing out from the crowd is important. Lorraine Heggessey recalled how when she was running BBC1 a man came to her office looking every inch the businessman - except for the pair of fairy wings attached to his jacket. 'He sat like that throughout the pitch. It just made me laugh. To this day I remember that.' Did she commission his show? It was an expensive animation so fairy wings or not, the idea ended up on the floor. 'Finding different ways of grabbing the commissoner's attention can be a good thing as they sit in their offices day in and day out seeing 50 pitches a week. Do something to bring your idea to life.' Heggessey added.
The How to Pitch event was produced by RTS Futures committee member Kate Mordaunt, Head of Planning and Scheduling, BBC TWO
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