Writing a TV Pilot | Impacting Culture Speaker Series (Selects)
Published June 3, 2023, 7:20 p.m. by Jerald Waisoki
In this clip, David Greenwalt (showrunner of "Grimm", executive producer of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") discusses the most coveted piece of writing you can have as a writer in Hollywood -- an original TV Pilot. This talk was given as part of JPCatholic's Impacting Culture Speaker Series which is available now on JPCatholic Online. To watch the full lecture (and more) sign up for free at www.jpcatholic.edu/online
Learn more about JPCatholic's screenwriting degree at jpcatholic.edu/academics/degree/film/
-------------
John Paul the Great catholic university is the catholic university for Creative Arts and Business Innovation, located in San Diego county. We combine hands-on instruction in media and business with an enriching catholic liberal arts education. Experience small class sizes, mentorship from industry professionals, and a community of creative Catholics who believe in the power of beauty to transform culture.
Explore our programs in film, animation, Business, Advertising, acting, illustration, Game Development, Creative Writing, Graphic Design, screenwriting, theology, and more.
Visit https://jpcatholic.edu/
Subscribe to the Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/JPCatholic
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jpcatholic/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JPCatholic
You may also like to read about:
I want to see and everybody else wants to see an original pilot
because a pilot is the hardest thing to write
and-- oh and there's something else I want to say too which is the--
and we kept learning this over and over on "Grimm"
simple stories complex characters, right
and all plot has to come out of character.
Joss Whedon used to say "I'd rather have a moment than a move"
an emotional moment than a plot move
we were pretty crappy detectives on "Buffy" and "Angel" to be honest
but we had great emotional characters.
And so I'm looking for a pilot and in a pilot what's so-- uh, challenging
is that you have to first of all create a bunch of characters that I wanna see next week
you have to have an idea-- now in the old days an idea that there could be a hundred episodes in
nowadays it's you know with the streaming sometimes it's only eight episodes
and another thing I see is a lot of these eight episode series should be four hours
they start great and they end great and they're dull as dishwater in the middle
you know not every story is worthy of a hundred episodes
but the question you have to answer in a pilot is:
"why am i coming back next week?"
"why is this a series?"
and I have to do a little A story within that
anybody's seen the pilot of "Grimm" knows it has the simplest A story in history
little girl is kidnapped-- little kidnapped, a little girl is saved by our heroes
but this whole world is opening up to the character
so um-- and again since television is my métier
uh, an amazing pilot
and keep writing pilot-- people always think "how do I get in how do I get an agent?"
"how do i get all this stuff?" You get all that stuff by sitting at a desk
hopefully all day every day
or if you're making a living you're a waiter at night or maybe you got a PA job on a show
writing writing writing and it all comes back to the writing so that's what I look for.
![Virtual Dog TV! Videos for Dogs to Prevent Boredom [With ASMR Music] image](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/1q-BxESrbYI/default.jpg)
