Film Courage: How much of the world needs to be created in the [television] pilot?
Niceole R. Levy, Screenwriter/Author: That's an interesting question. I would
say it depends on the show. If you are writing a genre or a fantasy show I think
you need to have a sense of what rules need to absolutely be clear in the
pilot especially if it involves magic or it involves superpowers or anything like that,
executives tend to get a little mystified by that stuff so clear rules are very helpful to them.
Even if that you're going to build off on that and expand on that as you continue the writing
process if it becomes a show what's absolutely essential in the pilot that your audience knows.
That's part of your world building is like okay in this if you're writing a fantasy show let's say
that in this Kingdom there's this kind of magic and in this Kingdom there's this kind of magic
and here's what happens when that kind of magic bumps up against each other that might be all we
need to know in the pilot but make sure that the rules of all that are very clear if you're writing
more of a sort of let's say like a Grey's Anatomy kind of show it's you really want the characters
to pop you want to be sure that each character is incredibly distinct and that we understand what's
most important to you about those characters from the pilot now you're also creating a scenario
that's going to tell us how the show works so for instance using graze as an example interns in a
residency program all the stuff getting thrown at them and then also commiserating with each
other and building a relationship with each other to get through it easy to understand that's what
the show is but that's all set up in the pilot so a lot of times what you'll hear is what's
the engine and it really is about what is helping the audience understand what to expect every week
so if it's a cop show we understand that we get a case every week or if it's like say Bosch on
Amazon we maybe have multiple cases that we're going to follow through the season and every week
we're going to get more pieces of the puzzle and we're also going to get all this personal
stuff going on but you establish that in your pilot like this is kind of how the show works
so to me that's the most important stuff and you can always add more to the world later a lot of
times what will happen is exactly as I was telling you in that other pilot I had to clear some
characters out sometimes you're like I really want to introduce this character in The Pilot because
they're going to be in the entire show but there's just it just is taking up room in that pilot in a
way that's just a disservice to the story and you have to be brave enough to pull it out and hold it
for later in the series because what's most important is that what the show is is incredibly
clear by the time someone finishes reading that pilot they understand the show that you're trying
to make they definitely should have questions about like well like is this thing going to
pay off and is this character going to come back and they'll have all kinds of questions because
you want open-ended things you want there to be Mysteries and and wondering about how the
characters are going to interact with each other but how the show will work every single episode is
what you're really trying to get across on top of your cool characters and your awesome world
and all that stuff you're painting that picture for them how does a writer end a pilot so one
of the first things that I got taught when I started writing Pilots is certainly in a in a
I'm trying to break into the business I'm writing writing samples part of the pilot writing process
you you do not hold anything back story wise in the pilot so if you're like all this stuff's
going to happen in the pilot and then we're going to open episode two with like a the chase and a
crash and this character is going to die I'm going to tell you that's the end of your pilot
right because you want to go big emotionally or action wise or something you want it to be like
bam at the end of your pilot so I wrote one I wrote a pilot where it's about this political
family and it's it a hundred percent when you read it you're like oh this guy's going to die
he's going to die he's totally going to die and then he doesn't die someone else dies at the end
of Act five and everybody's so mad at me it's so mad at me when they read it but then act six is
telling you exactly where we're going it's like how this what where the family members are left
now now that this the anchor has fallen away and what's going to happen and it goes out on this
sense of like oh my God how are they going to survive this because you're like how are they
going to survive it that's what you want someone to say to you right at the end of that pilot if
you're doing a mystery pilot you can you can do that thing where we think we're at the end of
the episode it feels like we've had like this really exciting fulfilling hour and then like
the screen goes black and then you write but then a door opens and a figure walks through
and we know everything's about to change out it's like that kind of stuff that like really
makes them want to know what happens in the next episode so it can be very it can be description
it can be a line of dialogue it's whatever it is to you that says gotta come back next week
and and that's really really true when you're starting to write them people want to hold things
back because they're like but then later but then later but right now there's no later there's only
this if you sell this pilot you can say hey I'd really love to pull this out and hold it for later
but right now you just want them to be blown away by your writing so I've heard writers say this it
has not really been my experience but it does happen to a lot of writers that oftentimes how
you think your pilot ends is really how your pilot begins not a stance not a rule but sometimes if
people are telling you it just moves too slow or it just doesn't feel like it has enough momentum
that's a thing to try is pull the ending up and then right from that and see what happens
and that's not like bookending it where you okay that's different not book any that's literally
like that cool amazing moment that you think is the end of the pilot might actually be where we
need to start and then what's in your head is episode two is really the pilot right so you're
you're using the end of the pilot that you thought you needed and then kind of writing episode two
which sometimes really works sometimes it's like oh right because you were saving all that
cool stuff and you didn't realize it and now all the cool stuff from episode two is in your pilot
are there any other tips you have for writing a pilot
maybe we didn't cover I would say this if especially if you're new to television
learning to outline is a really important skill and so if you have not habitually
been a writer who outlines their material start with the pilots that you're writing at home and
sometimes you can find those examples again like at the writer's Guild library or places like that
I in my book The Writer's room Survival Guide have a couple of examples of what an outline can
look like to just help people start to figure out what is that what is this outline thing I
have to do because the more you practice it at home the less intimidating it's going to
be when a sure runners like great can you write me a 12-page outline by the end of the week like
you're going to be like sure I can because you've done it at home right so it'll be it won't be like
a new thing that's getting dropped on you and it also just is a good guide map once you have
that outline writing your pilot it's going to be so much easier because as you're loading in
like you're like okay and then like now this is the next scene in the outline sometimes you
can already be like oh wait I feel like it took us too long to get here let me go back really
quickly and change this or oh no actually I think this goes later I'm going to hold this scene and
do it later as opposed to you being on the fly trying to make it all up as you're going along
so it's a really good skill to have it's very necessary in television writing so I would start
practicing it now at home and and whatever your thing is that you love while you write I happen to
write to television because I'm a classic latchkey kid who did her homework with the TV on but music
quiet whatever it is embrace it love it just know that when you become a TV writer if you have a
boss who says please work in the office you're going to have to find a way to make that work for
you for me I was lucky because I came along when streaming existed so I could still put TV on and
just put my headphones in and have Friday Night Lights playing in the background while I wrote so
but whatever how however you're writing Jam works for you you will have to create a version of that
that works in an office where people can walk in your door and interrupt you and do all those
things so just remember that that it's it's a very different once you become a working TV writer.