Writing, Arts & Entertainment

Writing a Script: The Pilot

Lesson time 12:21 min

When it comes to television, the pilot is everything. Shonda discusses the key ingredients to what makes a great pilot, including discussing her alternative opening scenes for the show Scandal.

Students give MasterClass an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars

Topics include: Opening and Ending Scenes • Choices for a Pilot • Case Study: The Opening Scene of Scandal

Shonda Rhimes

Teaches Writing for Television

In 6+ hours of video lessons, Shonda teaches you her playbook for writing and creating hit television.

Preview

Every pilot is different. Every pilot has incredibly different elements. Every pilot, especially now with so many shows on the air, there is no one pilot, which is really amazing and great. You can do almost anything. All bets are off. However, I think every pilot needs to have compelling characters, a compelling story, compelling dialogue, a great opening, something that's really going to pull the audience in. Attention spans are shorter these days than ever. You can turn and watch anything. So you want an opening that's going to make somebody say, you know what, I'm going to sit here and I'm going to watch this. Not for any reason other than it's good. So in order for that to work, you really need to feel like the opening is special. And you need an ending that suggests that what's to come is going to be interesting as well. And you really need to think about those things when you're doing it. [MUSIC PLAYING] I used to think that there were mistakes that could be made in a pilot. You know, really-- and I think a lot of people think that there are these big mistakes that can be made in a pilot like killing off a character or having someone move completely. I think that there are expensive choices that people can make. I don't necessarily know that they continue to be mistakes. Killing off one of your main characters in a pilot used to be something that was never done. I think you can do it now and I think it's interesting. I think, famously, Lost had a character that was supposed to die really early on and-- in the pilot- and they didn't kill him and-- because you're not supposed to kill somebody-- and the pilot was still great either way. But that was a pilot in which that character was engineered to die in the pilot and I think it would've been cool to see what would happen if he had. Now you could probably kill that character and get away with it. I think doing something where you use a really expensive set, and a really expensive location for your pilot that then, you somehow transport everybody someplace else for the next episode, is a problem unless money is not an issue. So there are expensive choices. Are there choices that are just wrong? Maybe not anymore. [MUSIC PLAYING] What I think is interesting about the shows, even the ones that are in-- Grey's is in a setting that people know. People-- everybody thinks they know what a hospital is like. But I feel like we're doing what I call back of the house work at Grey's. Nobody knows really what it's like to be in an OR. Nobody knows what the doctors are talking about while you're out and under the knife. That's what we're showing. We're showing this stuff that you're not supposed to see. And Scandal is basically based on the premise that all of this stuff is the stuff you're never supposed to know about Washington. One of the things that we try to do in or...

About the Instructor

When Shonda Rhimes pitched Grey’s Anatomy she got so nervous she had to start over. Twice. Since then, she has created and produced TV’s biggest hits. In her screenwriting class, Shonda teaches you how to create compelling characters, write a pilot, pitch your idea, and stand out in the writers’ room. You’ll also get original pilot scripts, pitch notes, and series bibles from her shows. Welcome to Shondaland.

Featured MasterClass Instructor

Shonda Rhimes

In 6+ hours of video lessons, Shonda teaches you her playbook for writing and creating hit television.

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