These are my notes from Luke Ryan's talk on Writing for TV at Willamette Writers Conference 2013.
Luke Ryan
Writing for TV
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Started as screenwriters
·
Turned studio exec
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Still writing pseudonymously
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Having the most fun creatively is in the world
of television
·
Feature film has become more about concept and
spectacle
·
We’re making movies more for the people outside
the united states, because of the economics of the industry.
o
That’s why we’re seeing more big action movies,
and less comedy.
o
That’s because comedy doesn’t travel well, but
action does.
·
So the best writing right now is in television,
especially one hour cable shows
·
Television is all about character, character,
character
·
Three homes for television
o
Network
o
Free cable
o
Premium cable
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Network
o
ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CW
o
Driven by advertising and ratings. Bigger stage,
bigger money.
o
Networks think in terms of big movie studios:
concept driven.
o
Procedurals
§
Cop shows
§
They’re about collecting information about the
resolution
§
Primary content consumed by American TV watchers
o
A season finale of Mad Men while do less than a
quarter of what a rerun of NCI will do.
o
Broadcast television is an older audience.
o
Q: Are they going to crumble [in the context of
no young people watching broadcast shows]
§
Total viewership of something like Castle is
very high, even though they have nothing in the prime demographic of 18-35.
§
The thing that’s keeping TV afloat is sports.
·
Basic Cable
o
FX, AMC, USA, Lifetime, MTV, etc.
o
Driven by advertising and ratings, but less so.
Have figured out how to have interesting programming at lower costs.
o
They think like interesting indie producers in
the feature film world.
o
Very character driven…
o
Can be very formula: breaking bad, dexter, etc:
take ordinary person, give them a secret that forces them to try to live a
normal life, but creates an conflict
o
FX: the bad-asser network.
o
Each has their own specific branding – certain
kinds of shows they’ll look at.
o
Luke had a big board of all the places he could
sell a show. When he’s got a specific show, he’ll only consider writing it if
there’s at least 3 places to pitch it.
·
Premium Cable
o
HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, Starz
o
Have no advertising – you pay for them as part
of the cable bill. Therefore they have no ratings. Therefore they…
o
Operate like rich film investors who do whatever
the hell they want.
o
They’ll do risky stuff, like Game of Thrones.
o
You can do whatever you like…no advertisers to
offend.
·
Three Kinds of Shows
o
One hour drama
o
Half hour comedy
o
Game shows/reality shows (no writers required.)
·
Cable wants serialized shows…one story told over
13 shows.
·
Network wants stand-alone stories…with maybe a
small story arc that goes across the season.
·
Serialization makes syndication harder.
·
Hybrids:
o
X Files good example:
§
16 episodes are monster of the week.
§
The other six episodes are ongoing story line.
·
One Hour Drama
o
Approximately 60 page script
o
4-6 acts w/ cold open for network
o
Write without acts for cable/premium
o
Tend to be procedural on network (cop, lawyer,
medical shows)
o
Mostly sold:
§
on pitch at networks
§
pitch or spec at cable/premium.
§
Often with valuable talent attachments.
o
Cold Open: The body is lying there, the
detectives walk in, “Oh my god”, cut to credits.
o
Each act has to be a cliffhanger, to get the
audience to come back.
o
But on cable, no need for act breaks.
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Executives
o
Will order 60 pitches
o
Get 25 pilots
o
Shoot 6 pilots
o
Get 1 show
·
Timeline
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Buying season is the summer
o
Pilots are shot in October
o
Shoot show in spring
o
Show introduces in September
o
---
o
this is changes over time.
·
“spec script” vs “pitch”
o
most things in tv are bought on pitch
·
getting paid
o
you get paid when they want to buy it
o
you get paid when they do the pilot
o
you get paid when they produce it
o
you when the TV show earns money
o
--
o
you get paid as the creator, on every show that
is created, regardless of who writes it
o
you get paid as the executive producer, if you
are involved in the actual writing.
o
if you write the episodes, you get paid as the
writer.
§
This is basically a day job. You’re showing up
at the office every day, probably in LA.
§
Each show has a lead writer who will lay out the
episode, do the main writing, but then all the writers will collaborate on the
details.
o
You can get paid as all three.
·
Sample One Hour Structure
o
Cold Open (2-3 minutes, episode problem)
o
Act One (to 15m, end w/ cliffhanger)
o
Act Two (to 25m, end w/ cliffhanger)
o
Act Three (to 35m, end w/ cliffhanger)
o
Act four (to 45m, end w/ cliffhanger)
o
Act Five (to 55m, w/ episode climax/solution)
o
Tag
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Formats:
o
Use anything you want
o
Final Draft was long the standard, but as long
as it looks correct, it’s fine
o
Send as a PDF
o
If something is formatted incorrectly, it makes
it easy to say no
·
Half Hour Comedy
o
Approximately 30 page script
o
3 acts w/ cold open for network.
o
Write without acts for cable/premium
o
Either multicam (cheers) or single camera (the
office)
o
Mostly sold on pitch at networks, pitch or spec
at cable/premium. Often with valuable talent attachments.
·
Story Threads
o
A Story: Your Main Story Line/Concern
o
B Story: Secondary characters and secondary
concerns to your main character, but tied has cause/effect with “A” Story
o
C Story: Often a disconnected adventure with a
secondary character
·
Network Seasons
o
Buying is July 4th through late fall
o
Pilots due at end of the year
o
Pilots are ordered, shot at the beginning of the
new year
o
Upfronts happen in the late spring where shows
are picked up
o
Buying season begins again
o
New shows debut in the fall starting in September
(while another buying season is in full swing)
·
Netflix, Hulu, Amazon
o
Netflix noticed that people are binging: people
watch the whole season at once.
§
So they did House of Cards.
§
Specifically engineered to apply to their core
audience based on the extensive data they have.
o
But we start to lose the cultural conversation:
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“Did you see episode 10 of X”?
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“Yeah, like two years ago”
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“Let’s watch the pilot honey.”
·
Next morning she’s on episode 5. No reason to
stay in sync anymore.
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