![]() The average time it takes to get a movie made is 5-7 years. Lastly, having a feature get made typically takes much longer than TV. If you are a diverse writer, your odds of staffing on a TV show, and/or selling a TV show are higher. At the time of this article, Summer 2021, Hollywood is incredibly diverse-thinking, and seeking new voices of young BIPOC writers – particularly in TV. While most projects, feature or tv, are first optioned by a Producer, whose job it is to attach those elements mentioned above, I would still put my money on a newer writer selling their first feature, before they sell their first pilot. ![]() In the feature world, directors are always looking for new scripts to make. They are WRITERS first and foremost after all. And for the most part, Showrunners would rather work on/create their own material. This is primarily because selling a TV show requires a Showrunner. In both cases, a newer writer will need attachments (actor, producer, director), but again, I would argue it’s easier to get one of those elements attached to feature than a pilot. With that in mind, we offer twenty-one TV series bibles that you can use as roadmaps to creating your own unique versions to accompany your TV pilot scripts. With features, newer writers can easily write a script that is under $5MM, and poses way less risk to a potential investor. In fact, to stand out, you may want to employ your own visual and informational presentations. With ten-episode seasons, that’s roughly $50MM a buyer (network/studio) has to commit to on someone who has never written a TV show! Yikes. An average episode of television costs 4-5 million per episode. Making a TV series is a much bigger commitment, both financially and timewise. Moreover, I strongly believe it is harder for a new writer to sell a pilot than a feature. Pilots are just so much harder to execute well. Relatively easy to follow structure/beats. Have you ever tried to write a series bible? It’s a lot like reading the bible! While there are certainly exceptions, I would encourage new writers to write a bunch of features before they write their first pilot.įeatures have a beginning, middle and end. Not to mention, a pilot is NOTHING without a pitch deck or series bible. I have found writing a pilot to be much more difficult than writing a feature – it requires more set-up and payoff, better and bigger world building, and you have LESS real estate to accomplish more. I have also found that newer writers tend to think writing a pilot is easier because it’s shorter. To start, whether your story (or idea) should be made into a feature or a pilot essentially revolves around one key question: is your story contained or does it (can it) evolve? Another way to think of this is: does it have a main character with one tangible goal, or does it have many characters (an ensemble) with conflicting beliefs, desires, goals etc? ![]() In this article, I want to break down those two questions and offer advice on how to handle. ![]() More than that though, from a selling standpoint, they haven’t considered pros and cons of trying to sell a feature versus a pilot. I get this question all the time from new writers, and often find that new writers pick the wrong format for the kind of story they are telling. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |