To pitch an idea or demo a product with a screen recording, show your deck, mood board or product while you talk through your thinking. Keep the presentation focused, break it into clear sections and finish with a specific ask. Share the recording ahead of a meeting or instead of one, so people can watch in their own time and come prepared with questions.
The short version
- Open with a brief, keep one part per chapter, and end with a clear ask.
- Open your deck, board or product, and record your screen and camera.
- Add a chapter for each part.
- Write a description with the one thing you need from them.
- Choose comments on or off, and send the link.
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When does a recorded pitch beat a meeting?
A recorded pitch beats a meeting when there's a lot of information to cover, when different people only need to see different parts of it, or when the people deciding are hard to get in one room.
- Time zones. The client watches at nine in the morning their time, not eleven at night yours.
- Busy decision makers. A short recording is easier to fit in than an hour's call.
- Pitches that get forwarded. Your contact passes it up the chain, and the person who signs off sees your pitch in your words, not a summary of it.
- Ideas that need to be seen. A mood board, a reference reel or a product works better shown than described in an email.
In post-production, that might be a director pitching a treatment over a mood board, an editor pitching a new structure for a documentary, or a production company pitching a series to a brand. Outside it, the same works for a product demo, a design walkthrough or an idea for your team.
A recorded pitch doesn't have to replace the meeting. Often it works best before one: people watch it in their own time, so everyone arrives on the same page, with their questions and comments ready. The meeting is shorter, and more productive. Whether you use it instead of a meeting or alongside one depends on the pitch. On its own, a live meeting is still better for a first conversation with a new client, or when you need to read the room.
How do you structure a recorded pitch?
There's no one right structure for a recorded pitch. It depends on what you're pitching and who to, so treat what follows as a starting point, not a rule. A few things help any pitch:
- Open with a short brief: what you're walking them through, and why.
- One idea or one part per chapter, so people can find their way back.
- Show it, don't just describe it: the references, the cut, or the product working.
- End with a clear ask: what you need from them, and by when.
What goes in between depends on the pitch. Here's how it might look for an idea and for a product demo:
| Part | Pitching an idea | Demoing a product |
|---|---|---|
| The brief | What you're pitching, and why now | What the product is, and who it's for |
| The need | What the client needs to say, and why the usual approach won't land | What's slow, costly or hard today |
| The core | The idea in a sentence, then how it plays out | The product doing the job, start to finish |
| The proof | The mood board, references and music | A real example of it in use |
| The ask | A yes to move ahead, a budget range and a date | A trial, a call or a decision |
Some pitches are about one thing, and some are a general walkthrough. Drop or add parts to fit.
How do you record and share it?
- Open your deck, mood board, product or project, ready on the first screen.
- In SceneNote, choose New project, then Record screen, and press Start recording.
- Share the window or tab you're presenting from. For sound from a reel or a product, record in Chrome or Edge and turn on the audio switch.
- Talk it through, part by part. Your camera shows in a bubble, so they see who's pitching.
- Trim it, add a chapter for each part, and write the description: what this is, and what you need from them by when.
- Choose comments on or off (below), and send the link.
On Pro, your logo shows on the review page and on the link preview when the link is pasted into a message, so the pitch arrives looking like yours.
Should comments be on or off for a pitch?
Turn comments on when you want people to chime in, the way they would in a meeting, which is most of the time. Leave them off when the pitch is one-way and you're not looking for feedback, because comments on can invite notes you don't need yet.
| Comments | Best for | What they see |
|---|---|---|
| On | Early ideas, a structure you want input on, a demo you want feedback on | A note box, so they react at the exact moment |
| Off | A polished pitch, or one that will be passed up the chain | The recording, the chapters and your description in the About tab |
You can switch either way at any time. One way to do it: comments off for the first watch, then on once they've seen it whole. How to share a video without inviting comments covers comments off in more detail.
What does this look like on a real project?
I wanted to pitch a video idea to a brand whose team was spread around the world, and getting everyone on the same call was hard. So I recorded the pitch instead: me talking through a deck and mood board.
The beauty of it is they could watch it in their own time, take it in and rewatch it, even at double speed, or watch half now and half later. I sent it a few days before our meeting, so everyone turned up already up to speed. They'd had time to think, and the questions were far more considered than if we'd done it all live. It made the meeting so much more productive.
I left comments off, because I didn't want the discussion happening there. I wanted everyone to watch it and bring their thoughts to the meeting, and I said so in the description.
If you're recording your first pitch, use the description to tell people what you want back from them and when.
How to handle common problems
It's turning into a long presentation
Cut it down to what they need to decide. Put the detail in a deck they can open later, and link to it in the description.
It gets forwarded to someone who wasn't expecting it
That's often the point. Make sure the description says who you are and what the pitch is, so it makes sense without your email around it.
The reference reel has no sound
Safari doesn't record computer sound. Record in Chrome or Edge, and turn on the audio switch when you choose what to share.
They don't reply
Ask for one specific thing, with a date, in the description and in your message. “Yes or no on the concept by Friday” gets a reply sooner than “let me know what you think”.
FAQ
Do they need an account to watch my pitch?
No. They open the link in any browser, on a computer or a phone.
Will my pitch show up in search engines?
No. Review links are never indexed by search engines. Anyone with the link can open it, so it still reaches the people your contact forwards it to.
Can I demo software instead of slides?
Yes. Share the app window or browser tab your product runs in, and talk through it the same way.
Can I change it after I've sent it?
Yes. Open Edit recording from the ••• menu to trim, cut or add chapters. The link stays the same.
How long should a recorded pitch be?
Short enough to watch in one sitting. Chapters let people jump to the part they care about.
What's the simplest way to pitch an idea on video?
Record yourself talking through your deck, board or product, one part per chapter, write one clear ask in the description, choose comments on or off, and send one link.
Pitch your idea. Show what you mean.
Record your screen and talk through a concept, mood board or product demo. Free with an account.
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Bryn North
Filmmaker and creative director · part of the team behind SceneNote
Bryn North is a filmmaker and creative director who has been making films since 2013, mostly documentaries and travel films, with a soft spot for stories about cultural heritage. He has directed, shot and edited launch films for DJI, worked with brands like Audi and Samsung and with a number of tourism boards, and some of his personal travel films have had millions of views. Working with a new client almost every month, he found that most of the job was communication, and that every client gave feedback differently. SceneNote is his answer: one simple way for clients to leave detailed notes and talk them through.
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