Andy Luck came up with the idea for the content at the beginning of the project. It worked well because it incorporated our equal commitment and involvement. To sum it up - we were to pitch a children's cartoon series, and each one of us were to design one of the main characters. At the pitch we could dress up as the characters to make it all the more memorable. We had a practice run through two weeks ago which proved essential for getting valuable feedback from Rosa Mulraney. There were a lot of flaws at the time - mainly: Why should we care about these characters (whats their motivation) and why are they on a boat.
We ironed these problems out throughout the week using Facebook as a platform for discussion. We also re-jigged the order of our pitch bible so all the business information (show formula, formats and audience etc.) would go at the end rather then the beginning. Andy was going to summarize the key concepts of the show at the beginning along with the title page so the audience had a fundamental idea of what the show was about before launching into design work.
Here is a photo of my costume:
A timing plan of our pitch:
And the pitch bible itself. I will briefly summarize the order, presentation and content of our pitch:
Entrance to pirate music, all wearing our character costumes. I'm pleased to say this seemed to amuse the audience.
Title page
Andy Introduced the basic concept and audience. ie. We have four characters who have been outcasted from society. They all have their own motivations and dream of obtaining treasure which is different for each individual. It is for a child audience aged 9 - 12. etc.
Character pages
Here we each talked about our own character.
ie. Chai is wild and crazy in nature, he has joined the ship in search of adventure and irritates Nigel the tiger by bringing chaos to his sense of order and structure.
Ship setting and Pilot episode
Thomas spoke about the setting of the ship and an idea for a possible pilot episode. They run out of bait and use Chai the chip as a solution. Chai attracts this huge fish and chaos ensues.
The world
Joseph spoke about the world and how it accommodates for their crazy adventures. Its a spontaneous, funny world.
Synopsis
Andy read through these bullet points talking about the business side of it and into more depth about the formula of the show.
We rounded it up and took questions from the audience.
The verbal feedback we got was to have a key character that children could latch onto and get interested in intially. For this we suggested Chai the chip could be the protagonist as he is the source of the main funny situation that occurs in out pilot episode idea. It was also mentioned that we should probably have 2 female characters and 2 male characters instead of the '1 token female.' It was suggested that we should spread out the text-heavy synopsis at the end of the pitch bible throughout the pitch bible - or at least simplify the text at the end so fewer key bullet points could be expanded on in verbal form.
In further written feedback it states that there is some confusion in the character relationships and how they work with each other (It would be nice to have more clarity on this point as I thought each of us spoke about the dynamics of our character and relationships with other characters.) They also said a few areas may not be relatable to a kids audience, they were mainly referring to Nigel the tiger here, whose motivation is a bit too grown-up (he wants a mortgage!)
On a positive note Kathy mentioned there was potential for longevity here (I believe this is due to the depth and play between the characters and the formula of the show.) The costumes worn at the pitch also reinforced the comedy of our project and it was suggested we should test the pitch out on children.
I think the final pitch went well. There was a bit of an issue with me trying to power my ipod speakers at the beginning - so next time I will either use battery powered speakers or simply make use of the computer to play the music (which was the solution in our final pitch.) Also it may have been nice for me to try and stay in my costume throughout the pitch - for this I would have needed to cut another hole for the mouth so my voice wouldn't be muffled. In the final pitch I took my costume off when I talked about my character (I soon put it back on again.) I think we could have benefited from one last dress rehearsal as well - unfortuantly we were all too busy with other projects and events to make time for this.
It was quite an enjoyable day, and there were some really good entertaining pitches and ideas.
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