First and foremost, the WGA strongly recommends writers do NOT do extra work or give people you pitch to say written materials... but of course, if you're out there pitching, you know it's almost become expected whether we like it or not. So to that, here's a few things to keep in mind that will give you more professional-looking results.
FIRST, know what kind of document you're creating, which is be prompted by what you are pitching and to who. You wouldn't pitch on an OWA with attachments the same way you'd pitch one of your own spec scripts. Think of it as tailoring your resume for the job you're applying for.
If you're tryin to SELL your project you're going to want to add in comparison films, demographics, and maybe even financial info. Try to know what your audience is looking for so you don't do too much work or give them info they do not want. ASK THEM why they like to see.
SECOND, make sure your brain clicks that a deck is not a script. Even if it is a synopsis telling the same story, you are now relying more on visuals than words. Don't over-pack your page with type. Keep it brief, and rely on images. At the same time, don't overload with images as well. Think in terms of a comic book, you don't want one to six images per page. You can do one big vibe image. You can do a handful of images that tell parts of a story in panels.
Either way, make sure the words on the page are relevant to what images they are with. While mood and vibe are important, do you best to marry the text and visuals so they are thematically or narratively on the same page (literally).
THIRD, again, decks are not scripts. It used to be you had to plan for people to print then out. Odds are far more likely in this day and age that it will be viewed on a screen, so take advantage of that. Black text on a predominantly white page? Meh!
You can literally make page sizes anything. Until the post Gen Z jerks take over, movies are still a horizontal format-- you know, like our eyes. So make your decks wide screen. Flip the letter doc size to landscape mode, or get creative and use your favorite film ratio.
Try a black or colored background instead of what and watch everything suddenly pop. Go back to my art on covers and look at what I said about basic color theory, those rules can apply here. To that--
FOURTH, make sure your design elements are consistent page to page. Again, go back and look at the basics I mentioned for cover images. Use a grid, use a color palette, all that stuff— but when you have more than one page, you want these things to be consistent. That doesn’t mean every page needs the exact same layout (though it can)… but your margins, colors, basic layout grid, and any sort of visual theme you decide to lean into, SHOULD be consistent.
Margins is a huge detail people don't pay enough attention to. Keep type or floating elements well away from your document edges. Randomly placed text too close to an edge is the first thing that makes people feel as though something is amateurish, even though they likely won’t be able to vocalize it.
LASTLY, on the topic of text, this bears repeating from the cover tips. Make proper font choices and be consistent with how you present text. Fancy type can be great for page/section headers, but do NOT use fancy or overly affect types as body copy. Even the punk rock zines made in Kinkos in the 80s would rely on old school times or Helvetica for body copy. If people have to work to read your text, they won't. Make it legible. Make sure your text boxes, letter spacing, and line spacing are consistent page to page.
If you have the ability, learn a bit about word spacing and kerning. Right justified text works fine, but justified text looks best, but odds are when you drop your text inn, you will have a lot of hyphenated words. If your design platform allows it, go in line by line to adjust the space between words.
It's a tiny minute detail that actually has a huge impact on by readability, and giving something a pro vs amateur feel.
I had been planning to do a little workshop for more of this type of stuff, but I suspect the business is to pressed in general and the pay the mastermind/guru for the zoom session moment may be behind us. Instead, I may put together a little survival kit of guidelines, templates, sample files, etc. if people seem interested. Stay tuned!