A few months ago I was invited to an animation festival in Seoul Korea to pitch my Leroy Dorsalfin project at their SPP conference. Although I had made a bible as well as a pilot in past, I had never made a formal "pitch" of the materials to present in this format.Long story short, the conference was a blast, and I had a fantastic time in Korea thanks to everyone's incredible hospitality. But now that the conference is over, I am left with quite a few materials that would otherwise collect dust in the innards of my hard drive.
That said, I thought it might be fun to share these in hopes that it could be interesting for anyone who has never seen what goes into a pitch for an animated TV show, and get a sense of how it works. If nothing else, I'm at least happy to have these drawings see some light of day beyond the conference.
The following this the pitch I presented ( The images correspond to the text below them).
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This is Leroy Dorsalfin
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half shark
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half man
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Leroy lives on the tourist island of Walawaki,
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| Along with his best pal in the entire world, Andy "Sharkbait" Anderson. |
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Now normally, when speaking of a Shark-man,
images such as this may come to mind.
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But Leroy is quite the opposite
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He is more your average every day “poorly
smelling, stinking up the hammock” type of shark.
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Although his bloodline is unique at best, he is
really just like any other fun loving kid, minus one unshakable shark-like
infatuation...
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| an incurable obsession, for succulent fresh fish. |
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This may seem perfect for a part shark who is
surrounded by the ocean,
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only this poor fellow got the bum end of the
genetic mix, when he was diagnosed with clinical aquaphobia.
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an immobilizing fear of the water.
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| Steadfast on a tasty meal, Leroy is constantly devising new and ridiculous ways to obtain the cuisine he craves, without going anywhere near the water he fears. |
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This urge can lead to all sorts of unruly predicaments
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of coarse, the predicaments I speak of are
usually influenced by his adventurous pal Sharkbait, who often goes beyond
conventional logic to help his best friend chase the fish he so badly craves
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like the time he suggested heading into the
“Mount Never Return Volcano” for the fabled hot n' spicy Albacore who swims in
the lava
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or the time he hypnotized Leroy to love water and
despise of fish instead of the other way around,
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| Boy did that ever turn out different than they had hoped! Sometimes they have success, sometimes not... |
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| But we can always bank on them getting into all sorts of preposterous fun along the way. Now as I mentioned, |
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Leroy and Sharkbait live on a small tourist
island a few kilometers off of the mainland.
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The natives of the island know and love Leroy. He
is simply one of its quirky residents.
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along with the spunky El Nino'
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the anti-genious Bjorn Bjornson, who’s family
moved to the island from Finland.
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and their great friend Edna Earth, who is the
Island’s local tour guide to name a few.
ALL the Island’s inhabitants love Leroy, minus one very important citizen.
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| Enter the very short, very short tempered, unruly ruler, EL PRESIDENTE. |
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| see, El Presedente owns and runs Walkiwaki island (his ancestors run aground were trying to reach the moon by boat), and he has two overpowering traits... |
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his love for money and power
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and his hatred for Leroy Dorsalfin.
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You must understand that El Presidente's
island's revenue is based on tourism,
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| so you can imagine what a walking, talking shark would do to a group of tourists seeing him for the first time. |
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| every frightened tourist leaving the island, is money out of El Presidente's pocket. So he would like nothing more than to rid the island of this sharky menace |
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unfortunately, he has no legal grounds to do
that,
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| so he is forced to come up with usually poorly planned, and utterly ridiculous plots to capture the shark man and banish him forever. So in reflection.... |
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Leroy is after fish
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But he hates the water!
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his best pal Sharkbait pushes him WAY of his
comfort zone to help him get it,
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| And El Presidente looks for any cockamamie scheme he can to rid the island of the pesky tourist scaring nuisance. |
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These are the escapades of Leroy Dorsalfin
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