Creating a TV pilot

[shaftbond]

In film school, all we talked about was film. Preproduction, Production, Postproduction. A little bit about Marketing and Distribution.

We never touched television. My guess is that my professors didn't know anything about it. Recently I've become more interested in the possibilities, so I've decided to tap the REDUser collective:

How would you go about shooting a pilot episode for a television show? Do you propose the idea first to the networks or do you shoot it like an indie film and show them that? How and who exactly are you showing it to anyway? Do the networks have specific people/departments? How many episodes do you typically write before it is "picked up"? Do they accept unsolicited material? You know, all that good stuff. Any knowledge would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Bruce Allen]

If you want to go the big network route, the most surefire route is to become a writer. Then try to write for a show that will become a hit. After that, you'll get a chance to pitch your own stuff.

There are other ways though... a good pitch can work too. Write good scripts, try to get an agent based on your writing. That will get you in the door to pitch to the right people. Understand the world - whether your show will be single or multi-cam, learn about which show is right for which network, etc. But the writing has to be there! The idea has to have legs, the characters have depth, etc...

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com

[GlennChan]

Shaft, where do you live? Different markets work differently... here in Canada, out television is dominated by US programming but our industry is propped up by government support. So you have to have an idea on how to get your show financed, and there are multiple sources of financing and it's all competitive so your financing might fall through. In the US the network can (essentially) fully finance your show.

2- Shooting a pilot may not necessarily help since it can box your show in as to what you show. Also, poor production values can reflect poorly on you. Though there can be argument for shooting pilots.

3- The networks will shoot pilots for their shows... thousands of ideas get pitched... a few of them go into development... a few of those get pilots shot... and a few of those go into production... and a few of the shows don't get axed for poor ratings. But if your show becomes successful, then you can make a lot of money. So they can be worth pitching to (even though your chances are so small). And of course it's worth pitching to the smaller players.

4- You need to do some research about who you're pitching to. All broadcasters make their money (primarily) off advertising. Advertisers want to either reach a lot of people, or they want to reach a specific audience that will buy their products. So it's good for specialty broadcasters to hit a very specific demographic. If you pitch a show to them, it's gotta be something that appeals to that specific demographic. It should also fit in their network branding... though you have stuff like spelling bees and poker on sports channels.

5- Ideally, your concept is easy to market. You can explain it in one or two sentences. And it's something that's compelling. Sort of like:
http://www.wordplayer.com/columns/wp02.Strange.Attractor.html

Speaking of which, the wordplayer.com has lots of great info for feature film writing.

6-
How and who exactly are you showing it to anyway?
Ideally you get a meeting with their development executive (it's their job to listen to pitches and reject the majority of them). If you get a meeting with someone lower down the chain then that's not so good.

7- If you want to get work doing writing for television, then wrote some spec scripts for popular TV shows. It should be a script that people can't distinguish from a script that was produced. Preferably don't do a serialized show like 24 since your script will be weird as it doesn't follow their story arc.

But don't send your script to that particular show... you just don't do that.

7b- You need to practice to get good. And you also likely need to write several scripts (one will be better than the others).