A gentleman from the UK called Michael Hull had some questions regarding pitching a cartoon series to producers. Here is the Q&A.
1) Question: What’s the best way to actually budget the show, speak to a producer?
Answer: There is a certain formula to budgeting for a show by dividing it into 3 phases – preproduction, production and post-production. The percentage split is roughly 30-40-30 (in some cases 30-45-25) but can differ slightly depending on who you engage and where your work is being done. As for speaking to a producer, the best way is to meet them at TV Licensing shows, such as MIPCOM, MIPTV, Kidscreen, etc. Producers are usually open to discuss co-production opportunities at these shows, but do make sure you engage them as early as possible. Do your research on what companies will be going and look up their background to see
if they are producing shows that suit your genre. Then write a polite email requesting for a meeting during the shows. Alternatively, you can ask to visit them. But meeting them at shows is a better idea because you can get to meet many companies at one such event.
2) Question: Once we have completed our pitch package what is the next stage? We have the name as a registered trademark and the website domain name are there any other routes that are important to take in order to protect ourselves?
Answer: After you’ve completed your pitch package, hook up with a producer or an investor for a meeting! If you are looking for funding, clearly state your intentions. If you are looking for co-production opportunities don’t be shy about it. Producers and investors will be quick to indicate any interest, although it does take much longer to close any deal. Regarding protection, you can copyright your materials by sending them off
to international copyright offices for filing. These can act as your backup proof and be retrieved during legal suits. You can also trademark your brand and characters under various categories in various countries if your pockets are deep enough.
3) Question: Should we phone around/use contacts to get a Pitch Meeting or is it more important to first get an entertainment lawyer and/or agent?
Answer: Both are fine. There is no right and wrong. It all depends on who you know and who they know. What I am trying to say is – if you have the contacts, use them. If not, start from scratch. I did that.
4) Question: With regards to the pitch, I don’t consider myself the best public speaker, is it common place to hire a seasoned professional to pitch the idea?
Answer: I don’t know if it is common. But I do believe it will help. But at the end of the day, if your concept is weak and your character designs are not well-done, then even the best motivational speaker is not going to save the day. Also, while your speaker can do the pitch, you still have to do the Q&A yourself since you should know the concept much better.
5) With regard to the pitch, would it be frowned upon to create a video presentation pitch, then be available for questions afterwards and leave a CD behind, rather than doing the whole printed pitch bible thing and trying to sell it with your own mouth?
Answer: The answer is no, it won’t be frowned upon. But do make sure that you keep your presentation short and straight to the point. Also, make sure it’s really good because you have only one chance to impress anyone. The downside is – you might not be the only one sending in a pitch and they might miss
your package altogether.
6) Are cartoons now produced at high definition? Or are they still 720 by 576. What is the standard these days?
Answer: More and more channels are picking up HD nowadays. Although they will still purchase 720 x 576, you might want to make your program in HD as more and more channels open up to HD. They will pay more for HD and there might be an eventuality that they might only accept HD shows. It won’t happen overnight though.
August 20th, 2008 at 7:08 am
I wish to thank you, Aldric for all these great responses. I’m just starting in this industry with a small group of artists and animators wishing to get our first animated series, “Far Out Daddio” off the ground.
I’m currently attempting to put together a pitch package for this series and was wondering if you could offer suggestions regarding websites that have templates for how some pitch packages look?
I wish to make the one I’m working on as professional and eye catching as possible. It’s a great story concept with characters that are wacky. So if you could offer any input it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks very much and have a great week!!
Tim
August 20th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Hi Tim,
I can’t point you out to a site with that kind of information. I’ve never seen one.
Have you seen my other articles on creating a character bible at http://blog.media-freaks.com/character-bible-what-goes-into-it?
If you need help please feel free to ask.
Aldric
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:30 pm
Hi,
First of all I would like to thank you for posting up such great articles and resources.
I have a few questions in my mind and hope you could answer them.
1. I am about to complete pilot episode of my series. I am doing it all by my self at home. I am also preparing its website.
Please guide me on what to do next. Should I contact a production house for its ’sale’ or contact a distributor?
2. Do they pay on per episode basis i.e do they ( distributor / producer?) pay upon completion of each episode?
3. how can I find out what to ask for each episode. I am doing it in 3D and each episode are about 2 minutes. What is the average charge ?
4. And how do they ( producer / distributor make money/profit after paying such a big amount.
September 24th, 2008 at 8:54 am
Hi,
You are welcome. I am happy to help you.
1. You can actually do both. But I would probably first contact a production house and see if they would like to invest to produce the whole series. But before that ensure you have a character bible as well. Sometimes a distributor also has an investment arm where they fund shows, if not sometimes they also have other ways to getting together funds to produce the show if they see great potential in your show. But I won’t count much on a distributor to pull together such a deal the first time. You stand a better chance with a producer.
2. Distributors will not pay you. Broadcasters are the ones who will pay distributors and the distributors will pay you. In this case you need to be already in a distribution agreement. The only exception is in the case of a procurement deal where the distributor purchases the rights to distribute your content exclusively, but that won’t happen in your case. It only happens if you have a well known property like the Simpsons. Producers will only fund shows usually. They will seldom purchase a ready made show unless it is really made to their level of liking and quality. If they decide they like your quality so much they might decide to fund the show, in which case they come up with the money for you to produce the show. They might do it by disbursing lump sums of money after you reach certain milestones. But usually a producer will not trust an individual without track records to do that.
3. You will have to list down your manpower cost, your equipment cost and other miscellaneous cost and make it into a budget spreadsheet. There is no standard rate because it all depends on complexity of the show and how much manpower you need.
4. They profit by procuring a large chunk of the rights (if not all) of the property and through exploiting them after getting the animation to broadcast on TV.
Aldric
October 20th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Hi there, I just stumbled across site and I find it very interesting and informative; I have some inquiries which I hope you are familiar with:
Given I had a good spare budget to produce animated episodes on my own, and if I made a few of them:
1.How could I get to sell/rent(I’m not sure what the correct term is) them to networks t.v. or similar?
2.How much profit you esteem me as the producer could make? (you could use as reference one average show and one AWESOME show to answer this one).
3.Is it a bad idea to attempt selling/renting a finished product to a network T.V. ?(assuming its quality material)
October 20th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Hi Joe,
1. You can either sell your shows to networks or you can license them through a broadcast licensing deal. You usually do it through distributors.
2. It depends on whether you are just keen on selling the TV shows or you want to make money through merchandise and licensing as well. I can’t provide a lot of data on this as it varies too much from show to show. The biggest shows have made billions of dollars (shows like Bob the Builder and Barney) through broadcast and merchandise licensing deals.
3. Why would it be a bad idea?
Aldric
April 11th, 2010 at 12:56 am
First I wanted to thank you for the great information. I am a first time cartoonist and i wanted to pitch my cartoon to adultswim and I wanted to know:
1. What should I submit with the submission agreement?
2. And after i make the charater bible how do I go from there?
May 7th, 2010 at 1:40 am
I am about to finish my first animated series pilot episode and I am interested on pitching it to a network like MTV or FX, but the series are in spanish. I have de idea that the hispanic market is wide open. And the series that I developed are for adults that is why I want to sell it /co-produce it with MTV or FX or any other network that carries these kind of series.
Also I am about to finish a web series and I was thinking pitching it to Yahoo or any other web company that needs a spanish speaking character /series.
I would I go about getting in contact with the right person to discuss (pitch) my projects? Thank you. This is a great site!