Learn About an Animation Pitch Bible

Present your ideas in style

The cover for the Adventure Time pitch bible

  Pendelton Ward

So you want to be a Hollywood hotshot with your own awesome animated TV show do you? Well, you're going to need a pitch bible to get it off the ground! But what is a pitch bible? A pitch bible is a document put together to show the look and feel of your show, as well as to get the producers familiar with the characters and story arcs when they are deciding whether or not to greenlight your show.

Since animated shows vary widely in style a pitch bible is a tool to get everyone on the same ground when you're presenting your idea. With a live-action show, everyone can imagine what it's going to look like, a bunch of people walking around, but with animation, it could be anything from the pseudo-live-action feel of King of the Hill to the super-stylized world of Samurai Jack. The pitch bible shows people exactly what your show is going to look and feel like.

What to Include in Pitch Bible

A pitch bible can come in all varieties so there's no hard and fast rule about how you should set yours up, there are some elements that are expected, however. You'll want to include designs for all your characters as well as write-ups about their key features to give a little introduction to them. Is your character a rowdy professional wrestler? Or maybe they're a shy introverted toaster. Introducing your characters both visually and through text will help the people you're pitching to get a good sense of the show.

Along with main characters usually, you'll want to include some secondary or recurring background characters, to give them a sense of the extended world your show takes place in. Again you'll want illustrations as well as some short write-ups about any key individuals.

A Summary of the Show

Another common piece of a pitch bible is an overall summary of your show, this is usually done through a text summary. What's the overarching plot of the series? If it's Powerpuff Girls maybe you'd write that a scientist makes three super-powered young girls who then fight crime in their small town. It helps to point out any key conflicts that you're expecting to be an overarching theme throughout your series.

Episode starting points are another nice thing to include, and maybe even a few full summaries of an episode. If your characters find themselves at a skeleton wedding do a little write up about what happens and the arc of that storyline. This gives the people reading the pitch a nice sense of how different episodes will feel and that you already have some starting points to work on if they want to pursue production of the show.

All pitch bibles do things differently, take Adventure Time's pitch bible for example. You can see that it starts broad and then becomes more and more specific. It outlines the overall show before diving deeper into who Jake and Finn are.

Adventure Time had the unique chance also to already have a built-in audience, so the fan art section is a pretty neat touch that you may not be able to have in your pitch bible. If for some reason though you have some unique element to your show like that, maybe it started as a comic or something, it never hurts to include that to show the people reading it that it's unique and may already have a fan base.

Get Inventive With the Design

You can get inventive with the design of your pitch bible as well, a nicely designed pitch bible will certainly make your show more appealing. Another Pendleton Ward pitch bible is Bravest Warriors, which starts off as a comic book before transitioning into the pitch. That's a pretty neat way to get your reader invested in your characters and your show idea.

Supplementary material can also be helpful to get your show noticed and off the ground. Here's a little pitch animation that King of the Hill sent into the studio when they were pitching. Another great strategy to get your show to stand out and show off how it looks and feels.

Pitch bibles are starting points to get a stranger up to speed with what your show is and how it looks and feels. You may not be in the same room as everyone reading it so you want it to be straightforward and get the point across while flexing the shows muscles and showing it off.

So if you're thinking about making a show, why not make a pitch bible! It'll be great practice for when you need to make one to present and it will help you really become an expert in every detail about your show!