Matt and Ross Duffer loved making films growing up.

They went through the rite of passage many Hollywood writers do from assistant to director, they couldn’t get their own films financed by studios. To make ends meet, they wrote for other television shows. They were rejected a dozen times for their television show pitch, Montauk.

But one day their pitch landed on the desk of Netflix executives, and the executives wanted more.

The Duffer Brothers sent them a concept art of how a TV show and its characters should feel. They submitted a 25-page TV show bible containing the visual elements of their show. They ended up meeting with the network for 15 minutes.

The show was approved for production in Fall 2015 but with one change:
change the title from “Montauk” to “Stranger Things”.

How did The Duffer Brothers Pitch the Show?

TV and movie pitches are about selling imaginary products.

They don’t exist except within the artist’s head, so they needed to ground their idea in reality for the Netflix executives to buy it. Throughout their show bible, use Stephen King’s and Steven Spielberg’s work constantly.

There were 3 big points the Duffer Brothers hit to pitch Stranger Things:

1. Incorporating familiar references: They needed easy way to explain the three different storylines that would unfold, so they used pop culture nods to make it clear.

“We’re saying, ‘The adults are in a Spielberg movie; the teens are an ‘80s horror film, like Halloween or Nightmare on Elm Street; and the kids are in a Stephen King novel, like Stand by Me or It,’” Ross says. “There are references that we were assuming that they would be able to understand and relate to.”

2. Personalizing the pitch: You need to know your audience & focus on what they care about.

“We started to talk, make it a little personal immediately and talk about why we’re passionate about this material,” Matt says. “We say, ‘When we were growing up, we were just regular kids living in the suburbs of North Carolina playing Dungeons and Dragons with our nerdy friends.’”

3. Wrapping up with the strongest point: The children are at the core of Stranger Things, so the Duffer Brothers decided to leave them for last.

“It was [obviously a choice] by us to end with the kids last,” Matt says. “We knew that was [probably] our most interesting storyline, so we wanted to end on a high note. That’s why we structured it in the way that we did.”

When you're selling an imaginary product, you need to ground yourself in something existing.

• Find what's the closest thing to your idea and use it as a reference.

• Do the work & use the reference to guide your audience to the conclusion you want.

Stranger Things based their sci-fi horror show on Stephen Spielberg movies like the encounters of the 5th kind or Stephen King books, showing their idea is a mix of horror & sci-fi elements.

But how can we apply it to our lives?

How it improves your Relationships:

Valentine’s Day was a few days ago, do you have a clear idea of the other person or are you floating in the clouds?

We have assumptions & mental images of people we're around. use anchoring to ground yourself in reality.

• Does your mental image of the person match reality?

• Do their actions line up with their words or is there a disconnect?

American Writer, John Steinbeck, received a letter from his son who struggled with this when he fell in love, so Steinbeck replied with a tender letter explaining the nature of love.

How it improves your Career:

Each product you sell, presentation you do, and idea you discuss with others is an opportunity for anchoring.

Find what's closest to your idea & anchor to it.

Here's my experience of pitching an idea to a $6.2B company and trying to anchor it into something exists.

How it improves Mental Clarity:

Ships anchor themselves to weather storms, they aren’t made for harbor.

When you anchor yourself during a rough time, find what keeps you going. Find your why, find your small victories. As David Goggins would say, eat a mental cookie to keep going.

I keep a running list of small wins & go through them each time I weather a storm. I don’t need to look externally for support. I already have the skills for success, so look inward when the storm arrives.

Thanks for reading,

Mohammad Khan

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