Arts & Entertainment, Writing

Pitching Your Show

Lesson time 17:33 min

You can't make a TV show without pitching it first. Shonda shares how she originally pitched Grey's Anatomy to network executives and her top tips for how to deliver an effective pitch.

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Topics include: The Structure of a Pitch • How to Practice Your Pitch • Shonda's Pitch for Grey's Anatomy

Shonda Rhimes

Teaches Writing for Television

In 6+ hours of video lessons, Shonda teaches you her playbook for writing and creating hit television.

Preview

So a pitch, for those of you who don't know, and why should you know? Because they're the worst. A pitch is when you go into a producer or a studio or a network, and you tell them the story of whatever idea you have. You say, I have an idea for a medical show about four young surgical interns who blah, blah, blah. A pitch. And it's usually five to 10 minutes long, and you give them all the details of the show. And in television, they'll tell you whether or not they're interested in buying that show and thus hiring you to write that script or not. That is a pitch. Pitching is probably the single most important thing that you can do once you've gotten in the door. You want to get a chance to write a television show. You want to get your chance to develop something, you have to pitch. You can't just do whatever. You have to walk into the door and say, here I am. Here's my idea. And here's how it's going to work. That is the most important thing you can do. And if you're bad at it, it is a giant challenge. So you really have to figure out how to do it and how to do it well. Oftentimes, what makes a really bad pitch are two things. One, no sense of structure. Two, something you cannot follow. If you can't take me from plot A point to plot B to plot C point, and I don't know what's going to happen, or I have no sense of where we're going or where we've been, that's terrible. If I'm lost or just too much, like if it goes on for too long, and it gets sort of painfully long, you're doomed. You want to be able to get in, speak your piece, let them ask you questions, and then you can elaborate all you want to, and get out. You start with the premise. You tell them what the pitch is about. This is a show about a group of young surgeons. Then you tell them what the world is going to be. You give them a paragraph of what the world is going to be about. Then you introduce the characters. You tell them what the plot is going to be. Then you tell them the plot, then you tell them what you told them, then you tell them how funny it's going to be or how moving it's going to be or how great it's going to be, then you tell them how many episodes you can come up with. Basically like, this endless amount of episodes, because we can do blah, blah, blah. And then you thank them and you leave. It's actually quite simple, but it feels difficult. I think it's incredibly important to know as much as you can about your idea before you walk in the door and pitch it. You don't ever go in the door sort of vague. I want to do a show about martians, and that's all you know. But you also don't go in the door and say, I want to do a show about martians and their names are Joe, Sally, Tom, and Eddie and they live at 452-- you don't do that either. That's way too many details. So you have to be able to know all the details, bu...

About the Instructor

When Shonda Rhimes pitched Grey’s Anatomy she got so nervous she had to start over. Twice. Since then, she has created and produced TV’s biggest hits. In her screenwriting class, Shonda teaches you how to create compelling characters, write a pilot, pitch your idea, and stand out in the writers’ room. You’ll also get original pilot scripts, pitch notes, and series bibles from her shows. Welcome to Shondaland.

Featured MasterClass Instructor

Shonda Rhimes

In 6+ hours of video lessons, Shonda teaches you her playbook for writing and creating hit television.

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