How to Write An Elevator Pitch
How to Write An Elevator Pitch [FREE Elevator Pitch Template]
You may have a great idea but the real test is how you communicate it.
Learning how to write an elevator pitch is a skill you can’t put a price on. Why? Because we’ve all been there when lightning strikes and that excellent idea comes to life in our minds. Maybe it’s the greatest movie idea in the world. Maybe it’s an idea for a tv series or a piece of branded content.
The only way you’re going to see it through is if you can convince other people of its value. And the really hard part?
You’ll likely only ever get a few minutes to do that.
Enter the elevator pitch. The time-tested method of sharing the genius of a wonderful idea in a matter of minutes. In this post, we will break down this process plus provide you with a free elevator pitch template so you can start prepping the moment lightning next strikes.
How to Write an Elevator Pitch
The best first step when it comes to writing an elevator pitch is to get right at the core element of the concept that first grabbed you.
Your enthusiasm will be palpable in the room and on the page. What's the best way to tease out the idea?
That’s what you lead with.
We’re going to dive deeper into using the template itself and tweaking the process, but this is the critical first step. What makes you excited to sit down and write? What makes you want to see the movie? These questions are the key to your elevator pitch.
Let’s go back for a second and quickly define something…
What is an Elevator Pitch?
Yeah, we kinda skipped over that part. Why is it called an elevator pitch?
The elevator pitch is an idea is predicated on the fact that someday you could be in the elevator with someone, and you’ll only have thirty seconds to two minutes to tell them about your amazing idea.
Now, this whole scenario sounds insane, and it partially is, you’d need instant charisma with said person, and chances are if they’re in the elevator they’re probably not in the mood to work.
The model has been around for a while, and it’s helped countless creatives and people in all other businesses, formulate their ideas quickly, and present them effectively. It presents a huge challenge, and if your pitch and win in that improbable scenario, well then the sky is the limit.
Learning How to Pitch
First, you grip the ball with three fingers…Sorry, couldn’t help it.
So you want to learn how to write an elevator pitch? Well, first you need to know the basics. What’s a pitch? A pitch for a movie is a brief description of the characters, plot, and story.
You’ll do a pitch if you have a few minutes with an exec and they ask you about your next idea, you attend a pitch fest, you’re brought in by a studio or company for an open writing assignment, or you have meetings with financiers and are trying to raise money.
These are some common scenarios, but there are countless more. You want to convince your producer that this shot needs expensive camera equipment. You want to convince a star that the role you wrote her is perfect and she should take the part.
Pitching, and more importantly, learning how to write an elevator pitch, is a skill that you'll always have a use for.
The pitch should distill your idea down and make it clear to the target person what the ideas core value is. The stakes are real, so you want to get your pitch right.
How Long Is A Movie Pitch?
Pitches can range from a few minutes, to thirty seconds, to an hour. But in a professional setting for an open writing assignment or my own idea, I try to keep all my pitches between ten to fifteen minutes. You may think that seems like a long time, but there’s a lot to cover in your pitch. But, you don’t want to talk so long that people get bored.
Want to learn how to write a pitch? Watch stand-up comedy. Stand-up comedy is a lot like learning how to pitch a movie idea because they both are performative.
You’re telling a story, so you want a positive reaction. Not a yawn. The best movie pitches leave room for people to ask questions. Usually, the more questions you get, the more engaged people were during the pitch. More often than not you won’t have that much time, or you simply won't want to use up all the time with the pitch itself.
The next sections will help show you how.
Using the Elevator Pitch Skills
You can certainly pitch a movie idea within fifteen minutes, but our goal is to distill it all down into the quickest pitch possible, i.e. the elevator pitch.
Why?
Because if the quick version goes well they might want more. You start with less and tease out room for more interest.
That's better than the opposite, right?
The Elevator Pitch for Movies Ideas
In general, having your elevator pitch handy can help you in many different ways. When you move to Hollywood you’re going to take a lot of general meetings. These are sit-downs with executives and directors who WANT to hear your ideas.
I find it best to have a few of these two-minute stories laid out to keep them interested. You want them to be asking for more.
More, in this case, means reading your screenplay or treatment.
In these moments, you basically want to describe the trailer for your movie idea. The elevator pitch should be like a logline. You want to get people interested while also moving the story along.
For these, I focus on the main character, who they are, the world they inhabit, the actual inciting incident that makes the story go. Then throw in some fun scenes, the moment something truly terrible happens, how they put it back together, and finally how we leave them.
That’s a lot to do in a little time, but look at the elevator pitch I did for my movie, Shovel Buddies.
“After Sammy dies of Leukemia, his best friend Jimmy and a few of his other friends get together to clean out his room of all the stuff. What do they take? All the things you wouldn’t want your parents to find if you were dead. Booze, porn, drugs, and everything else on your cellphone. It’s the least they can do for their fallen friend. They want to destroy his cell, but instead find a random video message pleading for them to have their dead friend’s parents bury their pal in his football jersey. After the parents refuse to listen, Jimmy leads his friends across town to comply with Sammy’s wishes but wind up accidentally stealing his dead body. To make matters worse, Sammy’s police chief father is hell-bent on chasing them down. We see these kids deal with love, friendship, and a corpse as they battle with the most important lesson of growing older; loss. In the end, each kid reconciles their feelings and says goodbye. You can only carry your friend’s body around for one night. But you carry their memory forever.”
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