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Category Archives: Act One

The Border

Monday, January 7, 2008

The Border pilot, written by Janet McLean, has a complicated feel to it. At first I didn’t think I’d be able to break it down. There are so many quick cuts, so many characters, I felt bewildered.
But MacLean is building a bewildering world; a world in which nothing is as it seems and […]

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The Shield

Monday, September 10, 2007

This post is dedicated to my agent, Glenn, who love The Shield and always points to it as an example of a great television pilot. And I agree.
I’m all about first acts these days, so most of my comments will be about the first act structure and scene construction. (Which leads to a fair […]

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A Tour of Teasers

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Let’s take a quick tour through the opening acts of some of the pilots that aired thus far this year.Traveler is a summer replacement series with a pilot written by David Diglio. It opened with the main titled followed by ten minutes of drama before the first commercial break. These ten minutes are […]

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Don’t Let ‘Em Go

Monday, June 18, 2007

I have a bunch of scripts for the pilots that got picked up by the US nets for the fall. I’m still working my way through the reading. But leafing through I’ve noticed a trend toward the beefy opening act.
Sometimes the script labels this section Teaser, sometimes Act One, but by and large […]

Filed in Pushing Daisies, Act One, Teasers, pilot scripts, pilots | Comments (2)