Pamela Douglas, Author/Professor of Screenwriting: Generally writers need to write what hurts.
That doesn't mean everything is tragic but it means you are tapping into what you must say.
Film Courage: Does every writer need to know how to write a pilot?
Pamela: Yes, every writer needs to write a pilot.
First of all it's the coin of the realm that people who people meaning agents producers
even people who are not in the television business will read a pilot before before
they will read every anything else in a pilot they get the originality of your voice and your
ability to tell the story and how to write in a shorter amount of time than having to slog through
120 pages of a feature film so they get all of the same advantage in a shorter reading
time the other thing is that a pilot is likely to show a possible producer or fellowship or agent
that you really understand in a compact way how to deliver for today's audience
people watch television they are not looking at movies so unless you are your goal in life
is to write episode 900 of some blockbuster action fantasy adventure you really need to have a pilot
for an original show it doesn't mean that show will be made it will not be made but this is your
showpiece this is your masterwork that will then get you the chance to be on us on the staff of a
show at which point you can then come back to your pilot and maybe then it'll be made
but absolutely pilot writing is is the craft you need and I would tell any beginning writer
that they should have more than one pilot one pilot isn't enough for one thing you
learn from every script you write and you just get better and better the other is that
you may find that after your first pilot which you thought was the story you had to tell
that there's more to you than that there are more stories to tell generally shows that get bought
are built on underlying materials they are built on books or or movies or other
other underlying assets so the chance of selling your pilot and getting it made or slight but it's
the thing without which you can't work so not just one pilot but several pilots and expect them
never to be made this is your sort of calling card this is your almost resume that's right they might
I mean they might be made you can hope they'll be made
you never want to say to yourself this will never be made but they are evidence of craft
their evidence of voice they are who you are as a writer and and who you are should not be one thing
I mean you can do more than one and you should for one thing they'll get better
what questions should a writer be asking themselves when they're about to embark on a pilot
the question to not ask
is how can I imitate something that has already been successful that's what to not do
I know sometimes people say well let me game the business I thought this works I’ll do three
percent of that and five of that and here let me do all this and yeah I got it and I'm going to get
rich and famous this doesn't work what really works is is the story that only you can tell
and you whoever you are knows that generally writers need to write what hurts that doesn't mean
everything is tragic but it means you are tapping into what you must say because you have such a
great need to say it now that can be interpolated in a way that's not personal you could do that
through history for example or even through an imaginary character it doesn't have to be you
but it needs to be something that you need to convey emotionally and psychologically
and if once what that is you can see if there's a way to attach that to something broader than
just being your purely personal intimate tale and that can be as I say political social historical
it can be anything you'd like it to be you can have music it can have
visual material it can have all sorts of things but it really needs to come from honesty
and it's anybody who reads a lot of scripts can tell right away if something is dishonest that
is if something is just trying to make a sale and it's a turn off what if somebody doesn't want to
go there and they say well I don't want if you don't want to do that you shouldn't be a writer
go do some other job there are plenty of jobs where you don't have to be introspective or honest
in the world and there are plenty of jobs even in the industry where you don't have
to be introspective or honest but if you want to be a writer there's a reason you want to write
be it's because there's something you want to write about there's something you want to say
and I think that's your obligation to the universe as and to yourself how much of the world needs
to be created in the pilot all of the world and all of the characters are from the writer
you need to know everything nothing is for the director to figure out later
now that doesn't mean you don't have assets from the actors who will bring
depths and insight into the characters that are beyond what you may have imagined the director
may also be able to present a scene in a way that amplifies some elements that you only sketched in
the costumes might add something the location can add wonderful things so it's a collaborative field
but the writer is the first dreamer among many dreams and there are
there's a basis in in knowing what you are dealing with here and that means creating the entire world
by that I don't mean specifics of the location the scout will do that but you need to understand
all of the energies which are in this situation that you're that you're going for
and there is no difference between character and world there are characters that could only
exist in the situation where they are and worlds that will be different depending on the story
look at all the different medical shows that are not the same medical show grey's anatomy
does not look like house and neither of them looks like er they're all medical shows
but they are different worlds because the world comes from who the characters are
beyond that world building as an exercise is really not something I would suggest that writers
spend a lot of time dealing with I have seen people make a mistake of going off into fantasy
worlds and decorating characters with feathers and doing things that can only be done with
animatronic and maybe that'll work on some feature films I think it's a waste of time in television
sure I mean if we think back to the original blade runner that world was so unique right
and even if you watch the next blade runner it's still beautiful worlds but there was something
about that original world that just it was almost impossible to recreate well if you look at game
of thrones which has seven worlds actually seven locations very very different filmed in different
countries whether you're in northern Ireland or whether you're in some tropical place or a desert
there's absolutely unique and important locations and different sets of characters in each world
who express the sense of those worlds they're all coalesced within a certain time frame a certain
time in life a sort of medievalish time and a certain way that people deal with each other so
that was definitely an extreme case of world building but again what made game of thrones
the great success it is well it's because we really were caring about those characters
yeah they were great battle scenes and the worlds were gorgeous and the costumes were gorgeous
from George R.R. Martin who wrote the underlying novels the imagining of the worlds were there from
the beginning so the writer had that from minute one and then it was just up to everybody else
to express that but no writers have to have to do it all this is your world this is
your character this is your dream this is your story so nothing's off the hook of oh well the
actor will do that or the director will do that that's not the case you will do that.