How to Get Work on a Tv Pilot
HOW TO WRITE THE PERFECT TV PILOT
The best series have the best beginnings
When it comes to television, the pilot is one of the most important things to take into account when writing the script. There is no single rule or one unique pattern to follow when writing a pilot. Each one can be very different, special and good for different reasons. However, there are certain elements that most pilots share because, ultimately, their goal is the same: create something that's really going to pull the audience in.
Now more than ever our audience's attention is being attacked constantly, between social media, multiple tabs opened on their laptops, and the almost infinite amount of shows, movies, and video games out there, it is practically impossible to capture their full concentration. So when they decide to read our watch YOUR story, you should hook them immediately. You may only have a few minutes to do so.
Entertainment! That's what we have to keep in mind as storytellers, let's try to entertain the first page of the script to the last, since the first second of the movie to the credits roll.
START YOUR STORY WITH A BANG
The fantasy and sci-fi genre depends a lot on the ability of its writers to develop worldbuilding and establish a rules of internal logic to give the universe a foundation on which to develop characters and events. However, the pilot episode of LOST is one of the best examples of a storytelling that overwhelms, arouses intrigue and catches the viewer's attention from minute one.
LOST is one of the most talked-about and also the most controversial series in history. Much has been said about the show's inability to respond to all the unknowns raised that led to the controversial decision of its final episode. But what is almost obligatory to acknowledge is the merit of its writers in writing a pilot episode that would present not only a group of characters so broad and varied, but the main structure narrative of the series based on flashback and a succession of mysterious and intrigues so fascinated that after just over an hour the viewer was exhausted, overwhelmed and trapped forever.
SUBVERT EXPECTATIONS
Was THE SOPRANOS going to be a comedy or a drama? Another story of violence set in the mafia world? If the pilot episode of THE SOPRANOS was helpful, it was to make it clear that this series was going to be something different from anything that had been done then. A series that has its references clearly identified but that came to become something unique and very special.
The conclusion that any viewer could draw from the first episode of THE SOPRANOS is that this was a very difficult series to label and classify into a single genre. David Chase laid the foundations of what he had imagined as a comedy of a very black humor about the mafia. However, in opposition to this, what the pilot revealed was that we were also facing a particularly violent series.
Perhaps the element that made her such a special and disconcerting series for the viewer was her psychological depth and her interest in exploring the tormented mind of a Mafia leader through those already unforgettable sessions at the consultation of psychologist Jennifer Melfi.
MAKE YOUR PROTAGONIST POWERFUL
There are more choral series without a clear protagonist and with a series of plots that intertwine and involve almost equally the different characters. However, there are others whose raison d'etre, functioning and success lies in a very high percentage in the construction of its protagonist, in the conflicts that arise from his actions and in the implications that this has on the characters around him.
Breaking Bad's real challenge was to underpin his history of drug trafficking in the figure of a petty-looking chemistry teacher. The series did not hide its letters; almost from the very first moment, we knew that Walter White was going to end up becoming much more than a high school teacher. His pilot episode was to sow the intrigue and seed in the viewer's brain to embrace the viewer's future evolution from a credible starting point and prepare for anything the series would show him on Walter's descent into hell.
Breaking Bad begins with a flash-forward of a naked Walter driving like a mad man down a desert road. The scene not only has a character with an objective and an obstacle, but it also has a mystery: How did they get here? Audiences are hooked immediately. Great opening.
MYSTERY IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS
David Lynch made the leap to television to radically change the way series were understood and written in the 1990s. Finding Laura Palmer's killer became the obsession of an entire generation. A question for which, knowing a little the idiosyncrasies of the Lynch universe, they would possibly never find an answer… Or at least not in the same way that any detective thriller would follow.
The only rule to keep in mind before entering Twin Peaks is that there are no rules in the Lynch universe. Under this award, the American filmmaker provided us with one of the most bewildering and enigmatic pilot episodes in history, as well as one of the most iconic and unforgettable.
KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE AND CONNECT WITH THEM
When it comes to writing generational fiction, which speaks and is directed directly at a specific segment of the population, it is very important that the viewer feels that the series really knows its audience and the theme it addresses. One of the biggest mistakes that can be made when it comes to scandalising a series about adolescence is falling into condescension and reducing the characters to a caricature or a stigma of reality.
That is why FREAKS AND GEEKS stands out with its own light among the many series of teenagers that have been made. A series that from the first episode managed to condense conflicts such as bullying, the pressure exerted by parents or teenage romances. All this through real characters, with problems, experiences and ways of being with which the audience feels identified and empathizes quickly. If you get your viewers to think that you are one of them and that your series makes an honest portrait of its reality, you will have much of the work done.
FREAKS AND GEEKS was not as lucky as it deserved at the time, but managed to earn a place in the heart of the audience. More than two decades later she is still remembered as one of the best of her kind and rediscovered by the new generations thanks to the great work of her scripts since the pilot episode.
As we have seen, there are many ways to write a good pilot using different techniques and adapting them to all kinds of stories, formats and genres. However, it is important to remember that every pilot needs to have compelling characters, a compelling story, compelling dialogue and, ultimately, a great opening.
You really need to feel like the opening is special. If you think you have something really special on your hands, our International TV Pilot Competition is your chance to prove it. A unique opportunity to demonstrate the quality of your script and for the industry to know it.
Source: https://medium.com/filmarket-hub-academy/how-to-write-the-perfect-tv-pilot-f9a8a5a22b68
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