Pitch Machine
Proof-of-concept trailers for film & television

Don't roll the dice
on your pitch.

Trailers. Animatics. Previs. Concept art.Emmy-winning talent

The reel

Any genre · any style · created to sell your project
The Sincere Kindness of Complete Strangers Horror Trailer · 0:58 Zero shoot Vimeo
A derelict white farmhouse under a storm sky, a lone figure and a car in the field
Teaser · 0:57

Hollow Ground

Hollow Ground Southern Gothic horror Teaser · 0:57 Zero shoot Vimeo
A painted crime boss in a red coat descends a staircase flanked by armed men
Trailer · 1:00

All In

All In Adult animated crime drama Trailer · 1:00 Zero shoot Vimeo
Five teenagers and a pickup truck look out over a crop circle at sunrise
Teaser · 1:23

Inner Circle

Inner Circle Sci-fi thriller Teaser · 1:23 Zero shoot Vimeo

How it works

Story in · cut out

Send your story

A screenplay, a treatment, a logline or just an idea. Your story is yours, and you keep full ownership. Everything you send stays confidential, and we're happy to sign your NDA before you share a page. If you want to bring it to life, we're here to help.

  • Screenplay
  • Treatment
  • Logline
  • Just an idea

AI or by hand

Prefer an artist only? We hand-draw, edit and direct your frames, with fifteen years of industry experience at your fingertips. Prefer a polished AI trailer? We cover that too. It's never been easier to make visuals for a project, and instead of rolling the dice on prompts and burning money on endless credits, you get a working director's eye on every finished frame.

  • Hand-drawn
  • AI-finished
  • Both
Pencil storyboard: a detective sweeps a flashlight across dead cattle in a fog The same shot, finished By handAI

A full cut

A finished trailer, concept art, storyboards, an animatic? Yours, all of it, to take into the room. We want your project to succeed, because we need new stories. Let's use the tools to make something special.

  • Trailer
  • Concept art
  • Storyboards
  • Animatic

Every shot starts by hand

Artist using a machine > machine creating the art.

Two finishes · one director

Hover or tap either side. Same shots, same director, your call on the finish.

Hover a board to watch the shot it became.

The fireInner CircleBoard by hand · shot generated
The flashlightInner CircleBoard by hand · shot generated
The highwayInner CircleBoard by hand · shot generated

Creatures. Robots. Worlds.

Spectacle is the job

If your story needs something with teeth, something with an engine, or a whole universe, good. That's the part of the business I've spent fifteen years in.

Creature testOriginal · 0:06Zero shoot
Stranger Things · four seasons

Creatures

Four seasons in the Upside Down and an Emmy for Special Visual Effects. If your story has something with teeth in it, it's in good hands.

Hard-surface · Blender · ZBrush

Robots & hardware

Vehicles, weapons, armor and machines designed from the modeler's chair, so they read like they were engineered, not dreamed.

Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey

Universes

Galaxies, scale and awe, with the science kept honest. Worlds that hold up to the widest shot you can imagine.

Inner Circle · Hollow Ground · Kindness

Period & place

Small towns, big weather, back roads and the wrong decade. The texture that makes a world feel lived in before anyone speaks.

All In

Animation

Painted worlds and graphic styles. Not every pitch should look like a photograph, and the ones that shouldn't are often the most fun.

Art Directors Guild · Local 800

Titles & logos

Every title card and logo on this page was designed by hand by a Guild graphic designer with ten years in the chair. None were generated.

Genre, scale and spectacle aren't upcharges here. They're the reason this exists.

We price to your needs

Every project quoted up front · priced to your project

Have a big idea?We're ready.

Need something small?We understand.

Tell us the story and what you're working with. We'll shape the project to fit, and you'll have a quote in writing before anything starts.

Ask now for a quote
The way in

Tone Reel

From$1,500
Includes key frames · type treatment · logline card Turnaround set with your needs

The look before the cut. The world, the palette and the faces, on one page a producer can scroll in thirty seconds.

Everything else, built to your project

Custom quote

Proof-of-Concept Trailer

A full cut. Made specifically to sell. Based on real experience.

Custom quote

Animatic

The whole story in motion before anyone commits to footage. Available entirely hand-drawn.

Custom quote

Concept Art

The monster, the hero, the one wide shot that makes the world real.

Custom quote

Storyboards

Every beat drawn by hand by a working storyboard artist, ready for the room or the shoot.

Custom quote

Also available: look books, previs, logo and key-art design, and series sizzles. Every project includes two revision rounds, is delivered as a private review link and a download master, and uses music licensed for your pitch.

Real experience. On real shows. For your project.

Every project is run the way a shoot is run. The beats come out of the script, chosen by someone who has directed episodic television and knows which sixty seconds sell a story. Shots are designed, not prompted. Hero frames are drawn by hand. The cut is made by a person with a point of view, and the dozens of takes that didn't earn their place get thrown out.

  • Direction and shot design by a working director
  • Boards and key frames drawn by a working storyboard artist and senior concept illustrator
  • Voice synthetic, with no real person's voice cloned
  • Titles and logos designed by hand, by a Guild graphic designer
  • Music licensed, never temp-tracked
  • The cut made by hand, by someone who has done it for broadcast

AI is one tool on the bench. The judgment is the product.

Michael Maher Jr. in a director's chair on a night set, wearing headphones, with a camera crew behind him
Directed by Michael
Maher Jr.

“Michael is our secret weapon.”

The Duffer Brothers · Creators of Stranger Things

Emmy winner for Special Visual Effects on Stranger Things season five, and a four-time nominee. Director, VFX supervisor, storyboard artist, writer and editor. Union senior concept illustrator and graphic designer, Art Directors Guild.

Fifteen years of making things look real for a living, now pointed at the part of the business that usually runs on a logline and a prayer. Pitch Machine exists so the next room you walk into sees the movie before you say a word.

Credits Stranger Things (four seasons) · The Conjuring · Sons of Anarchy · Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey Guilds DGA · Art Directors Guild, Local 800 Design Union graphic designer · ten years · all titles and logos by hand Awards Emmy, Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Season
The ask

Send your story.

We can't wait to get started. Put a title or logline in the subject and attach whatever you'd like. We're ready, and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.

[email protected]