Proof types — what counts as access, and how each desk weights it

A pitch can claim access in five different registers. Each one lands with a different desk at a different weight. Treat them as interchangeable and the pitch reads as someone who hasn't worked with the format before.

FIVE PROOFS.

Five things count as access proof in a commissioning read. In rough order of how much weight they carry across formats:

- Letter of intent. A signed page from the protagonist, the institution, the estate. Names a scope. Names a window. Conditional language is fine — "subject to commission" is the standard form. What it does: removes the negotiation risk from the commissioner's mental ledger. - Recorded interview already on tape. A transcript or a clip already in hand. Not "agreed to be interviewed." Not "willing to participate." On tape. What it does: proves the subject sits down. Proves the consent isn't theoretical. - Archive permission. A request filed with a named archive on a named date, plus the response — preliminary, conditional, or full. What it does: proves the visual material clears. For history slots this is half the pitch. - Named consultant or advisor on the team. A historian, a forensic accountant, a former insider — named, contracted, with a paragraph on what they bring. What it does: borrows their credibility into the production. Tells the desk a fact-checker won't break the film at month four. - Advisor-board membership or institutional affiliation. The producer or director sits on a body that the subject answers to. The film is being made from inside the room, not toward it. Rare. When it lands, it lands hard.

Each of these is a sentence. Each of these is verifiable. None of them are rhetoric.

SLOT WEIGHTS.

The same five proofs read differently by desk type. A pitch optimised for one slot can read thin for another with the same access list, just rearranged.

History slots. BBC Storyville's history strand, NHK's archive-led series, the European public-broadcaster history nights, ZDFinfo, the SVT documentary archive band — these desks live or die on archive permission. A protagonist letter without a Bundesarchiv response means a film that may never assemble its cutaways. Lead with the archive line. Letter of intent is secondary. Named historian on the team carries unusual weight here — they ratify the framing before legal does.

Investigative slots. Frontline, Panorama, Cutting Edge, the BR Story strand, NRK Brennpunkt — investigative desks weight recorded-interview proof above all else. The reason is legal exposure. A whistleblower who has agreed in principle is a film that gets pulled in pre-broadcast review. A whistleblower whose interview is already on tape, with the consent form attached, is a film that ships. Letter of intent matters less. Archive permission matters less. Source consent on file is the load-bearing line.

Character-driven slots. POV, ITVS Open Call, the SBS Australia documentary band, DR3 in Denmark, IDFA's mid-length window — these desks read the protagonist letter first and longest. The film is a person. If the person hasn't signed, there is no film. Recorded-interview material on top of the letter compounds the read — it shows the access isn't only signed but already producing. Archive matters only if the subject's past is part of the arc.

THE TEAM LINE.

A named consultant counts differently across formats too. Investigative desks want the legal-and-fact backstop — a forensic accountant, a former regulator, a beat reporter. History desks want the academic anchor — a tenured specialist whose name a research department recognises. Character desks rarely need a consultant at all; what they need is the protagonist's trust, and that gets proven through tape.

Listing a consultant whose expertise doesn't match the desk's risk model is worse than listing none. It signals the producer hasn't read the brief.

WHAT GETS RETURNED.

Pitches get returned for the wrong access mix more often than for thin ideas. A character-driven pitch that opens with the archive line. A history pitch with a lyrical protagonist letter and no archive response. An investigative pitch claiming "agreed access" with no consent form on file.

The desk reads the access section as a competence test. Wrong proof first means wrong film. Wrong proof first means wrong producer for this slot.

ORDER OF OPERATIONS.

Lead with the proof that matches the desk's primary risk. Cluster the rest after. Cut anything you can't verify in writing within forty-eight hours.

History: archive line, then named historian, then protagonist if relevant. Investigative: recorded-interview line with consent on file, then named consultant, then institutional cooperation if applicable. Character: protagonist letter, then any tape already shot, then access window with dates.

The pitch that reads as commissionable is the pitch that has already done the work the desk would otherwise have to imagine. Format fit gets the read started. Access proof, weighted to the slot, is what gets it finished.

The Pitch Doctor's pipeline routes access-proof to the slot it's pitching into. The Researcher surfaces what's reachable. The Composer orders the proof lines for the desk that's going to read them. Ten research agents. 98 broadcaster formats. Twelve minutes to a first draft with the right proof in the right order. Get it free: thepitchdoctor.io →