By Kristin Reiber Harris
In Women Make Movies’ recent virtual program, Creating a Pitch Deck, Look Book & More, Olivia Klaus, an experienced filmmaker and graphic designer, shared her process in creating the perfect pitch deck for a film project. The objective is to design a deck that is evergreen and adaptable to an ever-changing environment.

Presenter Olivia Klaus
The pitch deck is an excellent opportunity to highlight your skills as a storyteller. The deck is telling the story of what your film is about, how you plan to produce it and why you are the one to tell this story. A critical component for storytelling in the pitch deck is images. As Olivia says, “Images, images, images.”
In addition to making her Google Slides pitch deck available for filmmakers to adapt to their own films, she described the process of designing the document from A to Z including many tips and tricks. Her pitch deck covers these topics; logline, synopsis, topic summary, artistic approach, timeline, distribution, audience, social impact, bios, funding, budget, prior work, rough cut and questions. Visuals are extremely important, so a friendly reminder to take production stills and behind the scenes shots, even if they are done on a phone.
As she built out this sample deck, page by page, we were repeatedly reminded of the value of strong graphics in addition to photographs to make information about budgets, timelines and even subjects to be interviewed accessible. She shared lots of good examples. She believes funders frequently leaf through a deck first before they read it. The visuals will set the tone and ideally peak their interest.
The inspiration page pulls together images from other films, photos of locations, and other visuals that support the look of the film. She suggested including posters from films that reference your approach and indicating how your film will differ. Her example was “Our film has the story approach of Film A as it meets Film B with the twist from Film C.” Show posters with graphics that indicate how the various film styles coalesce in your project.
It’s very important to use the pitch deck to blow your own horn and brag about your accomplishments and those of your team. When you reference film festivals, use the graphics from the festival. Images, images, images. Team bios can include photos and you will want to include images of your subjects and talk about their accomplishments.
Not all filmmakers are comfortable with their design skills. A number of sites are available to assist with examples of great design or templates to adapt. For inspiration from other creatives, Olivia suggested Pinterest, designspiration.com and motionographer.com– a great source for video that can be embedded in the pitch deck. Canva.com, keynote.com, and Google Slides all provide templates and are relatively easy to use. Of course Olivia recommended working with a professional designer if possible.
The Perfect Pitch Deck is all about getting what’s in your head on “paper,” telling a compelling story, and emphasizing your team’s accomplishments to communicate why you are the ones to tell this story. All this with as many images as possible.
Thanks Women Make Movies and Olivia Klaus for this informative presentation with the bonus of a starter template.
[Ed. note: Olivia’s web design company, Orange Static, designed NYWIFT’s website. Email her at olivia@orangestatic.com]
Related Posts
Meet the New NYWIFT Member: LaKisa Renee
Welcome to NYWIFT, LaKisa Renee! LaKisa is a multitalented media/film industry professional, journalist, host, actress, videographer, voice artist, and award-winning makeup artist. She is the owner and Founder of LaKisa Renee Entertainment, a media, fashion and events company. As a media professional, she is a contributing journalist for Cultured Focus Magazine, In Black Magazine, and Steller Magazine. LaKisa spoke to us about her wide range of roles in media, fashion, and entertainment.
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Priya Mishra
Welcome to NYWIFT, Priya Mishra! Priya is an award-winning screenwriter and director. She wrote, directed, and co-produced her debut short film Bath Bomb in 2019. Currently, Bath Bomb and Only Business, the second film she directed, are both having successful runs on the festival circuit. A queer second-generation Indian immigrant, and a girl who lost her mom during her junior year of college, Priya’s work centers love, grief, acceptance, social-critique, and embracing your anger. Priya hopes that her work will make audiences feel more connected with other human beings, more angry at the state of the world, and more willing to improve it by embracing vulnerability and kindness. Priya spoke to us about identity, wildly fun times on set, and exploring grief through her creative work.
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Ifeyinwa Arinze
Please join us in welcoming Ifeyinwa Arinze to NYWIFT! Ifeyinwa is a neuroscientist-turned-filmmaker from Nigeria and is currently based in New York City. Her work draws inspiration from human behavior and prioritizes intimate portrayals of Black women and girls that are grounded in generosity and care. Her short film, Two or More, premiered at the 2022 New York African Film Festival and has screened at the 2022 Palm Springs International ShortFest, 2022 Bushwick Film Festival and 2022 TIDE Film Festival, where she received the 2022 NYWIFT Outstanding Woman Content Creator Award. Ifeyinwa spoke to us about why the TIDE Film Festival is special to her, her transition from STEM to the arts, and the inspirations behind her work.
READ MORENYWIFT at Sundance: In Conversation with Nitasha Bhambree
The wildly inventive 2023 Sundance Film Festival feature film Landscape with Invisible Hand follows Adam, a teenage artist coming of age in the aftermath of an alien takeover. Based on the novel by M.T. Anderson, the genre-bending sci-fi dramatic comedy with a YA twist directed by Cory Finley will come out as a limited release August 18, 2023. NYWIFT member Nitasha Bhambree helped bring the fantastical story to life as the Stunt Coordinator for the film. Since graduating New York University with a focus in dramatic performance and film studies, Nitasha has been employed in the entertainment industry for over 20 years. She regularly stunt doubles lead actresses in various TV shows and films, and has performed stunts in big budget features such as Joker, The Dark Knight Rises, Spider-Man and A Wrinkle in Time, and has stunt coordinated features and TV series for Netflix, Disney, MGM, A24, NBCU, Hulu, HBO Max and Starz/Lionsgate, and Marvel. Nitasha spoke to us about working in the sci-fi genre, her favorite scenes, and her upcoming projects.
READ MORE
Comments are closed