Series Development vs. Features

Series development is a fully different beast than feature film development.

Series development is actually a fully different beast than feature film development.

Remember we talked about taking the temp in the market during the feature development process? Yeah, you really don’t want to do that, at least with actual network and streaming commissioners during development. You’ve only got one shot with them and once they pass, it’s usually a hard pass and not ‘come back when you have talent attached’ type of response you can get in the film world.

However you can take the temp with potential partners, for example sales agents and production companies. The idea is that you would continue co-developing with them anyway, that’s part of their value-add at this stage after all, so you don’t have to be fully developed before reaching out to those prospects.

I’m currently working with a handful of submissions clients on taking their ‘initially developed’ series pitches to the market and approaching possible partners. It’s an iterative process. I get feedback, and we edit materials. We send back, and it’s an ongoing discussion.

Understand series development timelines are long. There’s a lot more development and packaging that needs to be done with your partners before taking it out to commissioners. Everything from fully fleshed out and written pitches, treatments, sometimes scripts, and even teasers or work samples depending on genre and format.

The transatlantic financing model is alive and kicking for Series even more than in the feature film world, so your partners are likely to be international at some point. Create your pitch materials accordingly! If you’re in the US and your series is too domestic-focused, that may limit your opportunities so be sure to enhance any of the more global elements in your pitch.

Hope some of these tips I’m sharing along the way help you on your series development journey….. hit me up in the comments and let me know or email me at stacey@filmspecific.com.

Thanks everyone and have a great day ahead!

Stacey

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