I checked back through Joss Whedon’s body of work. And guess what? The guy always writes in 4 acts, although usually with a teaser up front.
Here are some stats:
Buffy: teaser and 4 acts (pilot and regular episodes)
Angel: teaser and 4 acts (pilot and regular episodes)
Firefly pilot: teaser and 7 acts (2 hours)
Firefly episodes: […]
There’s a comment thread on Whedonesque – the Joss Whedon fan site — about my post about Dollhouse and the fact that the script is written in four acts. I’d leave a comment there but you have to sign on to do so. I tried to join but the site is not accepting […]
Joss Whedon’s pilot script for his new series Dollhouse is fabulous. I can’t wait to see the series and find out what happens next.
I’m not giving anything away — or at least I’m trying not to so I’m sorry if this reads cryptically. Dollhouse is genre — sci fi. As usual Whedon […]
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 […]
Monday, September 3, 2007
I’ve been a little light on the postings lately, for a variety of reasons.
One of the reasons is that there weren’t that many new pilots on television in August and I’ve been in the mood for fresh pilots as opposed to archival. Plus looking ahead to September and October, I’m going to have my work […]
Here are three more techniques to keep in mind:
Sub-plot Free First Acts
A teaser or first act of a pilot can follow a single story line without introducing a single subplot. The teaser of the CSI pilot is almost all about one of the mysteries of the week. The seven minute teaser for Burn Notice, on […]
I’m predisposed to love this show.
People I like tell me it’s great.
Plus, my dad was an ad man in the 50s and 60s. He wasn’t a Madison Avenue type. His office was on Peel Street in Montreal. He worked his way up from copywriter through the executive ranks until he was running […]
I finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and am now back to tv. I have decided to wait for the final episode of Jekyll before watching ep 5. I’m looking forward to the mini-binge and dreading saying good-bye to the show.
Meanwhile, so much is building up that I may have to […]
Filed in act breaks, curtains, Steven Moffat, tension, Jekyll, Teasers, structure, tv writing, pilot script, pilot scripts, pilots
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Perhaps I have sufficiently conveyed to you my admiration of Jekyll. Now down to business:
The pilot episode, written by Steven Moffat, is laid out in a teaser and four acts and as Anonymous pointed out, it’s the pilot for a short-lived miniseries and not for an ongoing series. For that reason it’s quite […]
Filed in television writing, screenwriting, act breaks, Steven Moffat, Canadian television, screenwriter, tv writing, pilot script, pilot scripts, Jekyll, structure
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I love Reaper. I love it. It’s written by Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters. What I read is an unnumbered draft dated in December and is clearly not a production draft. No scene numbers. I had to count them: 45ish (accounting for my margin of error). A fast fun […]
