12/1/2023 0 Comments New york tv pilot festival![]() If your show is about two people getting over a divorce, do not have them get remarried in the pilot. If you can have a B story, that’s great, but the most important thing, the holy grail, is that you cannot solve the main conceit of your show in the first episode. The story of any pilot can be really simple, since there are so many other things and introductions that you have to do. This will give a hint as to how those characters are going to interplay throughout the series. “You have to get your characters moving, put them out in the world and have them interact with both outside characters and in different groupings with the leads. More often than not, it just reads as stale. ![]() We receive pilots where the whole tape is one long scene, and that structure is really hard to pull off. Show, don’t tell - and one way to do that is to keep your scenes short. They need to see momentum on both the character and the story level. An audience needs to see more than a premise. One of the things that we see is that often pilot makers will worry that they’re not fully explaining things, so they’ll spend the entire pilot explaining the premise rather than giving an example of how an episode would play out. “No matter what, you have to always keep your story moving forward. There’s enough to accomplish in the pilot without having to spend a majority of the time introducing all of these new characters, which often can lead to stalling the momentum and confusing the audience.”ģ. An audience need something to focus on, and that’s difficult if there are too many things going on. One thing that’s going to help you set that tone is establishing a core group of characters, and even if your series has 40 characters in it, you don’t want to establish more than five to follow in the pilot. “Tone is incredibly important when you’re establishing a world, so whether you’re shooting something that’s super gritty or super goofy and surreal, make sure that the pilot is consistent throughout. Work with actors and have your script read out loud - it’s a great way for a writer and creator to get feedback before he or she goes into production.”Ģ. One way to do that is to have other people read your script. When you make pilots, the most expensive time will be when you’re shooting, so make sure your script and ideas are solid before you go into production. One of the real keys is spending as much time with your ideas as possible before the cameras start rolling. ![]() Same thing for online, know what online destination would be a good fit for your project. If you are going to broadcast television, you should know the audience and the marketplace and spend some time researching the network. i wouldn’t say get rid of those things or compromise your vision, but having adult content is going to limit the number of places you can take the pilot. “An artist should also know that the inclusion of adult material - whether it’s sex, extreme violence or language - cuts out about 95% of the eventual buyers. Having an eventual destination for a pilot can really help shape the idea from the very beginning of the concept. ![]() How would their projects fit into that network or a platform’s current lineup? Do your homework, see what the networks or platforms have in development. “Before an artist makes a pilot, they want to think about the destination, what networks or outlets they envision targeting. Keep in mind the networks to which you’d like to pitch your pilot as it’s being developed. “Here’s a great opportunity to use the skills that they’ve honed in storytelling and independent film and migrate to television - we’re happy to showcase their incredible talent.” The growing demand from cable channels for original series and the rise of online platforms has also made for more outlets for new projects, and Gray adds that “my hope is with places like Amazon and Microsoft specifically, that there really are opportunities for emerging artists to come in and create great series for them.” That said, an indie pilot requires a somewhat different approach from that of a film - Gray offered us five tips to keep in mind.Ĭhristopher Abbott Reveals He Made $3K Per ‘Girls’ Episode: ‘It Really Wasn’t Much’ġ. “I think if you look at the networks and premium cable, you see that a lot of very well-respected filmmakers and directors have entered the television marketplace and they’re doing great series,” Gray observed. NYTVF founder Terence Gray notes that the fest has been seeing many filmmakers with TV projects, in part because of their reaching out to IFP and Film Independent.
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