Produce and pitch to perfection for TV

Stillwater Communications |64 Dame Street | Dublin 2 | +353 (0)1 677 0630 | www.stillwater.ie

Produce and Pitch to

Perfection for TV

Session 1

19th November 2010

Stillwater Communications |64 Dame Street | Dublin 2 | +353 (0)1 677 0630 | www.stillwater.ie

Introducing the course

• Purpose

• Length

• Schedule

• Mentoring

• SlideShare

Produce and Pitch to Perfection Course Dates

19-Nov 26-Nov 03-Dec 10-Dec 17-Dec 24-Dec 31-Dec 07-Jan 14-Jan 21-Jan 28-Jan 04-Feb

Session 1 Session 2 Mentoring Sessions Session 3 Session 4

Commissioning

Rounds

Introduction -

defining needs of

participants and

examining course

content

Send

progress

report to

SC

Progress report

on researched

ideas

Structure of

programme/series

Find

contributor

s

Design

and

refine

budget

Write up

document

with the

progress so

far

Writing a

treatment

and

proposal Pitching the idea

Current TV

landscape - TG4

representative

included here. a TV

scheduler will help

participants identify

where their ideas fit

into schedules

Sign off on

researched ideas

Detailed

breakdown of each

episode

Source

archive

Putting your

idea to

paper

Answering

questions about

the programme

idea

Checklist - criteria

for good television

ideas will be

presented. Format?

Storytelling for

television

Research

locations

and

resources

Prepare

presentatio

n for

pitching

Introduce Ideas -

ideas will be heard,

explored and refined

Explain

Commissioning

Round Process

Stillwater Communications |64 Dame Street | Dublin 2 | +353 (0)1 677 0630 | www.stillwater.ie

Your needs

• Your objective

• What’s your story?

Stillwater Communications |64 Dame Street | Dublin 2 | +353 (0)1 677 0630 | www.stillwater.ie

TV Schedules

• TG4

• RTÉ

• TV3

• Setanta

Stillwater Communications |64 Dame Street | Dublin 2 | +353 (0)1 677 0630 | www.stillwater.ie

TV Schedules• Lifestyle

• Fact Ent (Factual Entertainment) The Apprentice, Retail

Therapy, How Clean is your House, How Healthy are

you?

• Religious

• Current affairs

• Regional

• Entertainment

• Early evening/late evening

• Shares

Stillwater Communications |64 Dame Street | Dublin 2 | +353 (0)1 677 0630 | www.stillwater.ie

TV is a business

• Your programme has to:

1. Make money

2. Get an audience

3. Reinforce the brand

• Your story is a product

• Most commercially successful

programme on RTÉ?

Stillwater Communications |64 Dame Street | Dublin 2 | +353 (0)1 677 0630 | www.stillwater.ie

Who is your customer?

• Commissioning editors

• Understand their needs

• What are they thinking and what do they

want?

Commissioning Editor:

Bubble Trouble

TroubleTrust

Latest

idea

Stillwater Communications |64 Dame Street | Dublin 2 | +353 (0)1 677 0630 | www.stillwater.ie

Checklist• Budget

• Genre (religious/factual/current affairs/regional/entertainment)

• What channel are you pitching to?

• Duration: one-off/series

• Slot? What’s in that slot now?

• If presenter-lead, do you have a presenter in mind?

• Target market/age-group

• What experience do you want the viewer to have?

• TV Formats

Stillwater Communications |64 Dame Street | Dublin 2 | +353 (0)1 677 0630 | www.stillwater.ie

Introduce your idea

• Is it a one-off

documentary/series/drama/other?

• Where in the schedule?

• Worthy but dull ideas

• What’s the tipping point

of a bad/good idea?

Stillwater Communications |64 Dame Street | Dublin 2 | +353 (0)1 677 0630 | www.stillwater.ie

Research

• Internet

• Newspapers

• Archive

• Libraries

• Local history

• Other TV channels

• People, people, people