How to make a pitch deck for a film or series

A film in a dozen slides

Meetings about films that don't exist yet tend to have a deck on the table or on the screen. A pitch deck is a short visual presentation, often ten to twenty slides, that shows what a project is about, how it will look and feel, and who is going to make it. It can travel with a script, or stand in for one at a pitch meeting.

A deck doesn't have to carry every turn of the story, because the treatment and the script are there for that. It needs to give a reader enough of the film to ask for them, and give you something to talk over in the room.

Who makes the deck, and when

That depends on how far along the project is.

• A writer with a finished script may send a short deck ahead of it, or bring one to a meeting, a lab or a fund that asks for one.
• A writer pitching an idea, a series or a film that isn't written yet, uses the deck to carry the meeting. It is what the room looks at while you tell the story.
• A director often starts with a lookbook for the look of the film, and builds a fuller deck once attached.
• A producer raising money makes the most complete version, with the budget, the finance plan, the cast and a plan for reaching an audience. The Sundance Institute's guidelines for project decks are written for this stage.

A writer without a producer can keep to the creative slides and leave the budget and the finance plan to whoever will raise the money.

The slides, in order

The order varies with the project, and a series deck differs from a film's in the middle. This running order suits most.

1. Title. The title, your name and the format (feature drama, half-hour comedy, short), over one image that sets the mood.
2. Logline. The sentence on its own, in large type. The logline guide shows how to write one.
3. Why this, and why you. A few lines in your own voice on what drew you to the story and what you bring to it, such as experience or a connection to its world. If the story touches something happening now, say so here.
4. Story. A short synopsis of one to three paragraphs. A deck that will be read on its own usually gives the ending; in a room you can stop earlier and tell the rest aloud.
5. Characters. The lead and the two or three people who matter most, a line each on who they are and what they want, with an image that suggests a type.
6. World. Where and when, and what the place does to the people in it.
7. Look and tone. A few visual references, chosen for their light and colour, each with a line saying what it stands for.
8. Comparable titles. Two to four recent films or shows that share its tone and scale, with a reason for each.
9. For a series, the engine and the season. How an episode works and where season one goes, in a slide or two; the series bible holds the full version. A film can use this slot for whatever makes it particular, such as a key sequence or the music.
10. Team. Who is attached, with a photo and the best credit for each. A writer on their own gives a short bio.
11. Where it stands. The draft, the rights, anyone attached, and what you are looking for. A producer's deck adds the budget range, the money raised so far and the audience.
12. Contact. Names, email and phone again, since the last slide is the one left on the screen when the talking starts.

How much to write on each slide

Most slides need a heading and two or three short lines, set large enough to read on a laptop across a table. The story slide can carry a couple of paragraphs and the characters slide a line per person.

A deck that is sent ahead and read alone needs a little more than one you present, because you won't be there to fill the gaps. One way to handle both is to write the fuller reading version first, then make a copy and cut it down for presenting, with what you plan to say in the speaker notes.

Build it in whatever you like (PowerPoint, Keynote, Google Slides and Canva all do the job) and send it as a PDF, so the fonts, images and layout arrive the way you set them.

Deck or lookbook

The two words get mixed up, and the line between them is soft. A lookbook is mostly images of the film's light and places, usually gathered by the director or the cinematographer to show how it will be shot. A pitch deck covers the whole project, story and characters and team, and at a producer's stage the money and the audience as well. The Sundance Institute's guidelines draw a similar line between a director's lookbook, centred on the story, and the broader project deck written for investors and partners.

In television, the deck usually sits beside a series bible, the longer document someone reads once the meeting is over.

Images you are allowed to use

A deck depends on its pictures, and most of the pictures people want belong to someone else. Finding a photograph online doesn't make it free to use. The UK Intellectual Property Office's notice on digital images says most images on the internet are likely to be protected by copyright, and in the US fair use is decided case by case, with no formula for how much may be used. A credit line under the photograph doesn't change that.

• Your own photographs. A day on location with a phone often gives a small film better pictures than a stock library, and they belong to you.
• Licensed images. Stock libraries license pictures for particular uses. Check what the licence covers before the deck goes anywhere public.
• Public domain and openly licensed work. Paintings and photographs whose copyright has expired, and Creative Commons images whose licence fits your use. Some Creative Commons licences rule out commercial use.
• Commissioned art from a concept artist or illustrator. Agree in writing who owns the result, since the artist usually keeps the copyright unless you agree otherwise.
• Frames from other films, as mood references. They are common in decks shown privately to a producer or a fund. Mark them as references, credit each film, and replace them before anything goes public, such as a crowdfunding page, a website or a festival catalogue.

Photographs of actors raise one more question. A slide of famous faces can suggest they are attached when they aren't, so call a wish list a wish list. The Sundance guidelines add that it should suit the budget: a star whose fee is several times the cost of the film raises the wrong question. None of this is legal advice; for anything public or commercial, check with a lawyer.

An example: a deck for Low Tide

Low Tide is the sample project in Scriptopus, a 12-page short drama about a sound recordist who finds her estranged father in her late mother's cottage on the day it is sold. A short like this might go to a short-film fund or a producer with a deck of twelve slides.

• 1. TitleLOW TIDE, a short drama of about twelve minutes, over a photograph of the cottage at the end of the coast road at dusk, a SOLD sign by the gate.The sign gives away the situation before anyone reads a word.
• 2. LoglineOn the day her late mother's cottage is sold, a sound recordist who listens to empty rooms for a living goes back to record it one last time, and finds the father she has refused to hear for thirteen years already inside.The logline from our logline guide, alone on the slide.
• 3. Why this, and why youFour lines in the writer's own voice. In a real deck this is where the personal reason goes, perhaps a voicemail from a parent that has never been deleted.Readers want a reason the story belongs to you.
• 4. StoryThree short paragraphs: the afternoon in the half-packed house, the argument on the flats at low tide, then the tapes in the drawer and the recording at nightfall.A fund reads the deck on its own, so the ending goes in.
• 5. CharactersMara Welles, early 30s, who records the sound of rooms before they change hands. Des, her father, who kept a promise and let her hate him for it. Elena, her mother, heard only on cassette.A line each. Elena's slide shows a cassette and no face at all.
• 6. WorldA stretch of coast, a half-packed cottage with one box marked KEEP?, and the tidal flats, over one afternoon that runs into nightfall.The tide going out and coming back in gives the film its clock.
• 7. Look and toneGrey-green light, wind on the microphone, rooms emptied of furniture. Four of the writer's own photographs of a real shore at low tide, and a seascape painting old enough to be in the public domain.Every image is the writer's own or free to use, so the deck can go anywhere.
• 8. Comparable titlesAftersun (2022), for a father and daughter remembered through old video, and one or two recent shorts the fund has already backed.Comps of a similar size show the writer knows where the film belongs.
• 9. The sound of itA link to ninety seconds of sound recorded at the location, wind and gulls over a door that sticks.A film uses the series slot for what makes it particular, and a story about a sound recordist can let the reader hear something.
• 10. TeamThe writer, and the director and producer if they are attached, each with a photograph and one credit.
• 11. Where it standsThe script is in its fourth draft and the location is found. The plan is three shooting days in spring with a cast of three, and the slide says what is being asked of the fund.
• 12. ContactName, email and phone, over the cottage again, this time with the lights on.

Most of those slides hold an image and a line or two, and even the story slide fits on one screen.

Where decks go wrong

• Too much text. Paragraphs on every slide turn a deck into a treatment in an awkward format.
• The story goes missing. A run of beautiful pictures that never says what happens leaves the reader guessing what the film is about.
• Another film's look. A deck built entirely from stills of one famous film suggests you want to remake it. Mix your references, and add images that belong to your project alone.
• Comparisons that don't fit. Comps should match the scale as well as the tone, and they should be recent; Sundance's guidelines suggest the last two to five years. Set a small drama beside a blockbuster and the talk turns to money the project will never have.
• A cast the budget can't pay for. A wish list of stars on a modest film makes the whole proposal look less realistic.
• Design that fights the story. Fonts, colours and layout are part of the pitch, and a quiet drama dressed in heavy black capitals reads like a thriller.

Download the pitch deck template

Twelve slides with the purpose of each one written on it and a note on what to put there, as a PowerPoint file that Keynote and Google Slides also open, and as a PDF to look through first. The outline is the same twelve slides as a Word document, for drafting the words before you design anything.

Questions

Sources and further reading

1. Sundance Institute, Suggested Guidelines: Creating a Project Deck (PDF), for the project deck against the lookbook, the cast wish list and comparable titles.
2. UK Intellectual Property Office, Copyright notice: digital images, photographs and the internet.
3. US Copyright Office, Fair Use Index.