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From Issue 1:
Subverting the Formula Pilot Episodes and Crime Drama By Matthew J Friday Conventional wisdom says that first or pilot episodes are so difficult to create that even experienced writers have a better chance of getting a deal if they submit episode three as a sample episode for a new series or serial proposal rather than the problematical pilot. Matthew J Friday looks behind the opening episodes of six police and crime series to find out why the pilot is such a pain. Running scared of structure Good writing, we are frequently told, is good structure. Inexperienced writers find it hard to believe that something as creative as scriptwriting has as many rigid rules as brick-laying. But, they say, then good scriptwriting is about building bricks on the foundations of a creative idea. Don’t like it? Fine. Stick to your, ‘I make it all up as I go along’ sessions and you’ll be lucky to create a primetime, original series. Finding the formula The drama you watch, love and even dismiss is usually painstakingly structured following tried and tested formulae. Networks need drama because drama pulls large audiences. How does it do that? It follows a formula that if it isn’t applied in the first episode, can kill the series before it has a chance to start. There is no way any career-conscious commissioner is going to pay you thousands of pounds if you don’t know what that golden formula is even if – or especially if - you are going to subvert it. Subverting the formula Using a formula doesn’t mean the death of creativity and great ideas. A bad idea using the formula may well have a better chance of working than if it were developed without it. With a good idea, however, the formula can be dynamite because it is not set in stone. Not every show follows every rule and not every rule will be applicable to your idea. Think of the formula as a selection of reasons and rules that can be identified in a wide cross-section of shows. Don’t fear the formula. The magic is what you do with it. Once you understand the formula you can begin to use it to your own ends, changing and subverting as you wish. A good script is the combination of your original creativity with a variation of the formula. The hardest episode to write Pilot episodes are generally agreed to be the hardest to write. Narrative and exposition fight against each other. You think that everything is new to the audience, the characters, the arena, the story and the set up. Or is it? Perhaps the trick to pilots is realising what really is and what isn’t new. By doing this you can play on audience expectations to such a degree that what you finally deliver is a drama that is not only reassuringly familiar, but also entertainingly different, like cheap lemonade with a twist of real lemon. To examine the nature of pilot episodes, I have chosen from seven popular drama series of the last five years. From the UK, BBC 1’s City Central, Harbour Lights and their latest offering, Mersey Beat, BBC 2’s The Cops and ITV’s The Knock. To test whether other countries use the same formula or if it’s just us anally-retentive Brits, I have used a Channel 5 import from Australia, Halifax, f.p. and a little-known American number called The X Files. CONT. in Issue 1. © Matthew J Friday 2001 Matthew J Friday: On leaving school Matthew spent three years in a general Hospital as a nurse and health care assistant. For the past three years he has been studying for a BA Hons in Scriptwriting at Bournemouth University.
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