How to Convey Your films Tone and Mood in Your Pitch Deck
When creating a pitch deck for your film, it's important to clearly convey the mood and tone of your film (along with plot and characters) to make sure investors and collaborators are clear about the story you are telling. Last thing you want is for them to think you’re telling a comedy when in fact you’re telling a horror story. How do you make sure to clearly convey the tone and mood of your film in your deck? Here are some tips for how to do so:
State the tone and mood of your film clearly
Spell it out for people somewhere on your deck. Could be a slide of it’s own or it could be a tagline under the title such as “A light hearted comedy” or “A 1-hour dark historical drama.” It’s important that it’s clearly stated somewhere in your deck.
Use visuals that support your tone and mood
Mood and tone board for a rom-com
A bit on the obvious side, since pitch decks are about the visuals, and important to mention nonetheless. Visuals can be a powerful tool for conveying tone and mood. Do exhaustive visual research for your film to ensure you find the right images to tell your story that convey the emotionality you are going for. Ask yourself: what do I see in this image? What is it telling me about the mood and tone of this moment? Does that support the story that I’m telling? Edit images to make them your own, wether that’s cropping them, photoshopping them or the like. Make things yours.
If you’ve already shot your film and are creating a pitch deck for distribution or to sell your pilot, use as many, if not exclusively, camera stills from your project to show of the film and get people excited about it. Your own original content is a big asset, so utilize it.
Choose colors that support your story
The tonal color value (the greyscale value) of the images you use will have a large effect on the feeling your deck gives off. Darker tonal color pallets for horrors and serious dramas with lighter, brighter color pallets for comedies. The color of a world is often in the description of the type of show it is, “dark horror” or “bright rom-com.” This will give you a sense of where you might want to start looking at color pallets to help guide your image.
Often times, warm, bright colors can convey a sense of optimism and joy, while darker, cooler colors can convey a sense of tension or sadness. If you’re choosing to subvert these expectations, clearly show how.
Choose the right font
The fonts you use in your pitch deck contribute to the mood and tone you're conveying as well. Choose fonts that match the mood of your film, whether that's a sleek, modern font for a sci-fi film or a handwritten script for a romantic comedy. Ask yourself, what is this font saying? Also, make sure that the fonts chosen are legible. If people can’t read what’s there, then they won’t be interested in learning more. You can use a font for the titles to make them stand out and add to the over all mood and tone of your film, while choosing a simpler font for the text body to make it easy to read.
Use language that matches the tone
Support the visual tone in your deck with the way you talk about and describe your film. Use language that supports the mood of your film. The language you use communicate your film sets the context for the story as a whole and acts as clues for your investors and collaborators about where the story is going. If your film is a horror, use language that is unsettling and creepy. If your film is a comedy, use language that is light and humorous. Use descriptive language to give your audience a sense of what to expect from your film.
Use music and sound effects
If you’re creating a virtual deck or presenting in person, you can layer music and sound effects over your imagery and text to help convey the mood you’re going for. Make sure it’s intentionally used and avoids feeling kitschy, unless kitsch is what you’re going for. If you’re struggling to know what this could be, look at the films that inspire you for this project. How are they utilizing sound and music to help tell the story?
Conveying the tone and mood of your film can be easily achieved when you address it at all the points listed above. The more clearly you convey the tone and mood of your story, the more easily you draw people into your story and the world you’re creating. The more people can feel your world, the more excited about bringing it to life they will be. Ultimately, this will raise your likelihood of securing funding and bringing your film project to life.
What now?
To learn more about what makes a pitch deck stand out, check out my free workshop What Makes a Film Pitch Deck Stand Out.
