In partnership with our friends at IFP, The Telly Awards hosted a Digital Brunch at IFP Week—an annual gathering of industry innovators and digital storytellers looking to connect and collaborate on a variety of film, TV, and episodic projects.
We were thrilled to host creatives from media leaders like Great Big Story, Casual Films, VaynerMedia, Hearst Digital Media, WSJ. Custom Studios, and Vox Creative to meet and review episodic pitches from up and coming shortform creators.
Our experts gave quite a bit of feedback during a full day of fantastic pitches. Here are 3 pieces of valuable advice we heard.
Until next year, IFP Week! We’re looking forward to seeing these digital and TV series out in the world in the coming months.
Who are you?
Regardless of whether a project is fiction or documentary, has a fantastic concept or a highly polished script, the people behind the project will always be key to its success. The panel consistently wanted to know more about the creators and why they were the right people to tell a particular story.
What is the format?
It goes without saying that the stories you can tell in a TV hour versus the ones you tell in a 10 part webseries will be drastically different. Our experts noted that the format is fundamental to understanding what these projects are and who the audience will be. They were also interested in ancillary content: Could the main project be edited for sharing across social media? Could shorter or longer versions be created that might reach a larger or more diverse audience?
What’s your point of difference?
With any creative pitch, identifying your competition and expressing how you’re different is key to success. A few projects were similar to existing series, but their creators delivered convincing and inspiring pitches by incorporating a unique format approach and emphasizing their access and personal angle on the topic.
