Department of Redundancy Department

Excuse me if I’m repeating myself.

With NATPE, Realscreen, and other festivals coming up I have been going flat out helping people with their Pitch Packages and the consistent problem I see is redundancy in the One Sheets.

When creating your One Sheet you need to find ways to deliver your message clearly and concisely. Included in the definition of concise is; “brief in form but comprehensive in scope”. If you are repeating yourself you are not being concise.

The typical argument I hear back from people is “but that part is really important”. My answer is, “everything in your One Sheet should be important. If it’s not, it shouldn’t be in there.”

Have you ever seen the movie Jaws? It’s brilliant. Take 2 hours and watch the movie paying close attention to the dialogue. There is no wasted chit chat. Everything anyone says either leads to something that is going to pay off later in the film or is building on something already said.

That is how your One Sheet needs to be. If you feel something is far more important than something else in your One Sheet, you need to find a way to deliver the importance of that point without repeating it.

Tell the story. Introduce the heroes. Build the picture in the reader’s mind. Be clear. Say it once.

And whatever you do, don’t say, “excuse me if I’m repeating myself”.