Pitch Your Story is for anyone who has to pitch ideas, including screenwriters, documentary makers, podcasters and YouTubers, and those working in development for film or TV. It is also suitable for anyone who needs to pitch sales/business ideas to clients or investors.

The workshop is suitable if you:

• Want to craft a compelling pitch that prompts industry insiders to ask to see your work
• Have found it tough to get responses from enquiry emails
• Need to learn to make strong pitches or pitch decks, but don’t know how
• Want to discover why your pitches aren’t hitting home – and how to fix them
• Want to learn the underlying framework behind successful pitches, and how to apply it
• Have access to, and basic knowledge of, Powerpoint, Canva, Keynote, or equivalent presentation software
• Enjoy the discipline of deadlines and peer feedback
• Want to join a friendly and supportive small group of learners
• Can dedicate 2 days to the learning

This professional training allows you to:

• Perfect your pitching skills and learn how to communicate your story in a more effective way
• Move forward with a template that can be applied to all your future ideas
• Refresh your story skills, and use the principles of narrative to explain your ideas to others
• Distill your thoughts, and exert greater control over the drama of your pitch
• Gain greater understanding of industry expectations and processes
• Practise giving effective feedback and receiving critical notes
• Network with others in the industry, and with the tutor team and special guests

Our courses and training are carefully designed to support accessible and inclusive learning. 

Each course is divided into sessions. These sessions are released one by one (weekly or fortnightly, depending on the course). 

There’s no need to log on at a set time. You can work through the learning materials whenever suits you, day or night, wherever you are in the world. Just complete the assignments and join forum discussions by the session deadline. 

Our teaching method is based on the science of active learning: you read/listen/watch, try out, share and reflect. It’s a social experience – you become part of a small group, feeding back on each other’s writing to build a supportive bunch of readers you trust. Find out more here.

Day 1 Zoom Workshop 10am-4pm (UK Time) –

Understand how to hone in on the needs of the person you’re pitching to, whatever the pitching environment, before discovering a structure that works for selling any story idea. We’ll drill down into the narrative framework that underpins every successful story and look at writing effective loglines and synopses – so your pitch is the best it can be.

Then we’ll explore effective visual ways to engage people in your project, and look at how to present yourself with confidence.

We’ll guide you through the pitching process with practical tips and exercises to get you exploring and creating alongside a peer group looking to develop their own skillsets.

Before we meet on Day 2, draw on the learning as you write a pitch/create a pitch deck in your own time, with support from your peers.

Day 2 Zoom Workshop 10am-2pm (UK Time) –

Live pitch session. Pitch your idea to our panel of experts for live feedback.

We’ll recap key tips and tricks to stress-test and build aspects of your pitch that could work even better, thinking in particular detail about answering the Why this idea? Why now? Why me? Why you? aspects of your pitch.

Join our alumni

After your course, you can join our online alumni community where you’ll meet our growing network of past students. You’ll be able to.

• Rejoin your classmates in a private forum
• Continue to access an archived version of your course materials
• Meet alumni from other courses and share work for feedback
• Join discussions about screenwriting, script editing and the industry
• Attend live chats with guest writers and industry folk

Mentoring and one-to-one feedback

The John Yorke Story tutor team offer mentoring, script reads and reports. We are happy to quote by job or script, or to arrange a longer mentoring scheme as you work on a specific story idea. We’ll create a package to suit you, so for more information please email [email protected]

Taking things further

If you’d like to take another John Yorke Story course, we’ll give you a discount. Please get in touch for more details.