Pitches & Designs — John Gholson

The American Scream (2011)

Director/producer Michael Stevenson asked me to create a cover for the pitch packet he was using to get cable network Chiller interested in producing his documentary on the rise of neighborhood haunted house attractions. The packet worked, and the film was released in 2012, retitled The American Scream. It was warmly received by audiences and maintains a rare 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

All art for this project was done with pen and paper, except for the color and some letting, which was done in Adobe Photoshop.

These rough thumbs would let me get started with an overall composition.

This was the first pass at the chosen thumbnail.

This was getting closer to a finalized version of the selected thumbnail, before we decided to revise the concept and ditch the big skull.

This was the first pass on the revised concept, which showed a greater emphasis on the house itself and incorporated 100% hand-drawn fonts.

Rejected color pass 1. All color passes were sent at one time, so Stephenson could compare and contrast.

Final version as it appeared on the pitch packet cover.

Beasts (2017)

I worked from a series of character descriptions for a pitch deck for an unproduced animated series. This was a very fast-moving project, as the producer had meetings in place with the network they were working with at the time, and needed art for the packet ASAP.

Digital, iPad Pro & Procreate.

The lead character would transform into a monster, and needed to convey the same full range of emotions, while also being monstrous.

Jenny. This version was deemed too old for final and revised.

Dead Last (2015)

Dead Last is an “endless shooter” for iOS, developed by Rocksauce Studios. I designed all characters and scenarios.

Pen and paper. Colors with Adobe Photoshop.