The term “elevator pitch” has been popular in Hollywood for decades. 

In contrast to fully pitching a concept or script to another party, an elevator pitch is a short description that any listener can understand if given in a short period of time. In the past, this kind of pitch could be a short summary that took anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes to read or hear (mirroring the time span of an elevator ride). 

Well, maybe we shouldn’t be thinking of elevator rides anymore when pitching a concept or script.

Because even 30 seconds might be pushing it. 

With the technological advancements of the past 20 years, we’ve become used to instant gratification as a society. Every day we click on a headline or icon with a clear and concise idea. Information moves quicker and as a result, most people don’t have the attention span or patience they might’ve had in the 20th Century. And the film and television business has always been a fast-paced industry, so just imagine how quickly a concept needs to be conveyed to people working in it these days! 

The Thumbnail Pitch

In my article “This is What Managers Look for in a Script”, I discussed the notion of a “High Concept” and explained that it’s a concept that can be succinctly pitched, ideally in one sentence. This sentence is essentially the logline, which used to be thought of as the elevator pitch, but as discussed above: who has time for elevators??

A much better thing to think of is a YouTube thumbnail. The most successful YouTubers have both an official video title and text in their thumbnail. Not wanting to waste any chance to get a click, successful YouTubers don’t simply write the video title in the thumbnail: typically the text is a provocative statement or question that’s designed to quickly convey the video’s concept and grab your interest. Maybe it’s a sentence or even just an exclamation of some sort. The important thing is it makes a quick pitch to someone who is scrolling through numerous thumbnails.

'A Quiet Place: Day One' (2024)

So ditch the elevator and start thinking thumbnail pitch.

One short and concise sentence that’s easily understood, evocative and grabs a person’s interest. A Quiet Place is a great example of a script that can work with a thumbnail pitch. Just think of the film’s promotional tagline: “If they hear you, they hunt you.” 

Maybe fill in a few blanks and you have the following thumbnail pitch for a script that launched one of the most successful modern-day horror franchises: “A family is hunted by blind creatures with acute hearing.” 

Bam! You get the concept, you see the movie and it was all conveyed in a short and concise statement telling who the players are and what’s happening to them. To break it down even simpler: 

“This thing is happening to this person/people.” 

And the “thing happening” is what makes it a high concept or not.

If it takes more than a sentence to convey your concept, chances are it’s not a high concept.

Simpler Concepts

To a degree, Hollywood always favored simple concepts that could be easily grasped by a large group of people, especially when it comes to action, horror, thrillers and comedies. However, in recent years — largely due to an ever-growing global marketplace — the concepts that are most sellable have gotten even broader and simpler.

This trend started to become most pronounced a few back with survival thrillers like The Shallows and 47 Meters Down: a young woman stuck on a rock as a shark stalks her; two young women in a cage as a shark stalks them. The success of these films led to not only more shark-related thrillers but more survival thrillers in general. A relatable person trapped in a life-or-death situation is the key. 

'Smile' (2022)

Also, think of straight-forward and visceral thrillers like Kidnap (a mother pursues her child’s captors) and Unhinged (a young woman is terrorized by a psychotic man after a road rage incident). The horror film Smile — another modern-day franchise — can be pitched as “a woman is stalked by a malevolent entity that appears as other people smiling at her.” The one thing all these films have in common is they’re simple and visceral and their respective scripts fully committed to the concept: the writers focused on the precarious situation their protagonists were in.

Following this trend are upcoming thrillers like Trap (a serial killer joins his daughter at a concert and realizes it’s a trap set by the police) and Heretic (two young missionaries are held hostage by a psychotic older man who tests their faith). These characters might be less relatable than the above scenarios, but their concepts — the “thing happening” — are straightforward and visceral “cat and mouse” scenarios.

In short, if you want a sellable concept, put a character in an unusually bad situation. 

And make it the primary focus of your script or pitch. 

'Trap' (2024)

Simpler Pitches

The simpler and shorter the pitch, the better. As noted above, if your concept is simpler, you’re already halfway there. However, a bad pitch can still undo a great concept. 

When pitching via a query email or citing a log-line to someone in the industry, think “thumbnail pitch” rather than “elevator pitch.” Imagine the tagline on the poster or how you’d describe the movie if someone asked to know what it was about in one sentence. 

At its core, pitching is telling people what something is about.

Don’t overthink it.

Of course, the most successful pitching also involves generating an emotional response from the person you’re pitching: ideally, getting them excited to see your proposed movie or TV show. However, the simplest and most visceral concepts tend to elicit the biggest emotional responses from people, so this works with the above mindset. Tease a story that makes people think, ‘What happens next??’   

So when you’re brainstorming and deciding what to write, also think of how you’ll be able to sell it.

Test your concept by creating a logline and quickly pitching it.

If it takes an elevator ride to explain it, your concept might be too complicated for today’s marketplace.