Developing and pitching ideas for animated TV shows to networks and studios is a tough way to go. I have been going at it for seven years. I’ve managed to sell one property, my short Hero Heights at Nickelodeon. I’ve spent hundreds and hundreds of hours developing other shows and pitching them to all the networks only to be rejected time and time again, usually for silly reasons. Plus all of this development work is done for no pay
Holy smokes! Has it been 50 episodes already?!
I’ve had a blast producing the show. I’ve learned so much about art, artists, and about myself. Since day one, I decided to produce my show to a higher standard of quality than most others in terms of production value, editing, writing, music, comedy, and honesty in the content.
The inherent difficulty and comedic irony of producing a show about Visual Arts in audio.
Why on Earth would I choose to produce an audio podcast about visual art? What am I stupid?!
Attention all Artists and Creators who want to hone their pitching skills!
This podcast is especially for you! Today I talk about how to effectively simplify your pitches and get to the point of your story quickly and effectively.
Project Jose!
Jose Gonzalez is a faithful Minion and developing artist! The guy loves to draw and I have taken him under my wing to help him improve his drawing skills! I assigned him to draw a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat and below is what Jose drew. I then took Jose’s drawing and went over it with red to punch it up a little and help him make a better drawing out of it!
On today’s podcast I have a nice long chat with Animation Great Tom Sito! He’s an artist, animator, director writer, teacher and historian! He has more cartoon knowledge and experience in one fingernail than any of us have collectively!
Artist reps AKA Agents.
Why would you need one?
We artists dream of being represented by an agent who will market our work, set up pitch meetings, score us an in-house or freelance gig, and do all that boring non-art stuff like marketing, negotiating, and selling. Well if you have a great idea for an animated TV show, Movie, or book and want to pitch it to the major studios and networks, you’ll have a tough time getting a meeting without an agent.
The stark truth is that it’s extremely tough to find a good agent.
For artists it’s best if you’re already known enough in your field to have agents seeking you instead of you going to them. Sadly this rarely occurs. Very few artists get this privilege. The rest of us must submit material to many agents and agencies and choke down the pile of rejection slips before eventually hooking up with an agent willing to take a chance on us.
