Description of characters in a TV pilot

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  • Description of characters in a TV pilot

    Is it necessary to describe a character's physical experience, aside from just their age, in a TV pilot? I realize this is crucial when writing a movies but of the TV pilots I've read I haven't seen much description when it comes to introducing a character. Is that what the show bible is for?
    "Someone shot me!" --Anonymous

  • #2
    Re: Description of characters in a TV pilot

    Originally posted by lawn59 View Post
    Is it necessary to describe a character's physical experience, aside from just their age, in a TV pilot? I realize this is crucial when writing a movies but of the TV pilots I've read I haven't seen much description when it comes to introducing a character. Is that what the show bible is for?
    A series bible is a document that outlines the plan for the show... characters, show goals, themes, and objectives... episode premises for the first season, general season arcs for the next few seasons. It can certainly include character descriptions, but so can pilots.

    In my experience, pilots are no different from features in that some describe their characters in detail, some don't. There's no hard and fast rule that I'm aware of which dictates how much character description you can use, so long as you don't overdo it.

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    • #3
      Re: Description of characters in a TV pilot

      After writing features for years, I did a deep dive study of TV last year and especially pilots. I've noticed that there's a SMALL tendency not to describe characters in as much physical detail as features. I don't now why? Maybe it's a casting thing. They tend to describe personality *traits*. Examples:

      DON'T TRUST THE B IN APT 23

      A WOMAN (mid-20's, big city beautiful) opens the door to her darkened apartment. [A few pages later, we get a little more intro...] It's CHLOE. Beautiful, confident, stylish... the kind of person you want to be around. She drinks a Cosmo as she talks to CAMERA.

      The other lead character in BITCH:

      He steps aside, REVEALING a wide-eyed June (cute, perky, smart but naive, easily underestimated), holding a suitcase and a lap-top bag.

      THE BIG C

      Cathy (prettier than she realizes, tendency to apologize for no reason, dry sense of humor) stands in her modest back yard with BRADLEY, a burly, early 40's contractor.

      MAD MEN

      Alone in a red corner booth is DON DRAPER, early 30's, handsome, conservative, and despite his third old fashioned, he is apparently sober. He is doodling on a cocktail napkin.

      But you can always find exceptions. The intro of Jax in the SONS OF ANARCHY pilot feels more feature-ish:

      THE FACE OF THE RIDER -- JAX TELLER. Handsome, in a broken cowboy kind of way. It's late, **** the helmet. A LUCKY in his mouth, **** the Surgeon General. Wind whips through him as he takes in the peaceful landscape. His coolness can't mask his feeling of satisfaction. Confidence and contentment of a prince. We wanna ride with this ****ing guy.

      So I'd just do what works.

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      • #4
        Re: Description of characters in a TV pilot

        Just got some contests notes/feedback on my first pilot - they seemed to want more character descriptions. I describe the three leads (but much more in terms of personality traits than physicality) - but I think they wanted secondary characters described more (including physically) so as to differentiate, make the characters clear in their mind (and maybe offer clues for a casting agent?).
        "Do just once what others say you can't do, and you will never pay attention to their limitations again." -[/SIZE] James R. Cook

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        • #5
          Re: Description of characters in a TV pilot

          Originally posted by lawn59 View Post
          Is it necessary to describe a character's physical experience, aside from just their age, in a TV pilot? I realize this is crucial when writing a movies but of the TV pilots I've read I haven't seen much description when it comes to introducing a character. Is that what the show bible is for?
          It's tempting to try and fully convey the character in your head to the reader when writing a pilot, but be mindful that any description, both character and scene, should be brief.

          I write comedy, and found looking at the Modern Family pilot extremely useful - not much character description is used, but it's the dialogue that rounds and differentiates the characters.

          http://myspecscript.files.wordpress....01_-_pilot.pdf

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