Write the Damn Thing!

DAY 27

Standard welcome message engaged: Hello.

What comes after the culmination? The story is effectively over, right? In a movie, I’d say we have to wrap up unfinished storylines and show our hero in his new status quo. But we’re writing a TV Pilot here. Things are going to be slightly different.

It’s time for…

Key aspect of screenwriting: Final images and New Beginnings.

I think this is where ‘movie writing’ and ‘TV writing’ take a huge detour from one another. Especially if you are writing a TV Pilot.

In a film, we take our hero back home after his adventure. We show a new world order. In Zootopia we see Nick and Judy patrolling a new and better city. We are trying to close the story as neatly as we can.

In TV we are trying to close some aspects of the story, but leaving others open. Wide open, in fact. After all, the pilot is the catalyst for a new story we’ll be experimenting from now on. There will be a new status quo after the end of your pilot, but not a stable one. This new world should feel like it’s full of unexplored potential. Chaotic. Entropic. Fun.

Blake Snyder uses a visual key to inform the audience of the character’s change. He uses the opening image of the film to establish something, and then the closing image to reflect on what has happened. They are related but fundamentally different. There’s some sort of poetic resonance between them.

This is not a bad idea. If the spectator connects the dots between the first image and the final image he will feel good. As if the journey was worthwhile.

But remember, we don’t want to give it all away in our pilot. That’s why I think we should end with a question. A danger that’s coming. A sword that hangs above our hero’s head.

That’s what’s going to make the audience come back for more.

The TV pilot is just a very intricate 1st Act.

Day 27 task:

Keep writing that 4th Act. Start wrapping things up. Write 2 or 3 more pages.

Tomorrow we’ll look at great endings from TV and Film. See you then.

Happy writing!

And if you need to review the last post, you can do it here.