View Full Version : Writing for Television...
TylerGred
06-28-2004, 11:11 AM
I have no idea how to write for television. Anybody have any good books and websites that have TV scripts and so forth. How many pages go into a 1 hour show? Or 30 min? If you use the "1 min=1 page" rule in film you would think it would be anywhere from 47-57 pages, but I heard Gilmore Girls is up wards of 70-80 pages. I guess they cut a lot of it out when it hits TV, but I'm still lost when it comes into writing for TV. They say money is in TV and not film....
David Jimerson
06-28-2004, 11:32 AM
A one-hour TV script is usually 65-70 pages, divided (generally) into as many acts as there are anticipated to be commercial breaks (though every show is different).
Counterintuitively, if you're trying to write for a specific TV show (or get invited to pitch a story to one), you're better off having your agent submit a script you wrote for a different show. If you do well with that script, they may want to see what ideas you have for them.
Josh_Boelter
06-28-2004, 11:36 AM
Final Draft incldues templates for televison script formatting. I'm sure you could do some Google searches to find some examples of actual scripts.
TylerGred
06-28-2004, 01:05 PM
What about for HBO? What do there scripts generally run at? Like Deadwood, Sopranos, etc...
try www.script-o-rama.com. Great site for film and tv scripts. Plus it offers a lot of links to other good sites.
TylerGred
07-06-2004, 07:29 AM
Was the HBO show Carnivale 30 min or 1 hour per episode? I just found a script for the pilot and it was 34 pages long. I could have sworn the show was an hour long. Why is this so short when a normal hour long show runs up wards of 70 pages?
cdbourbon
07-07-2004, 11:26 AM
"Television Writing from the Inside Out: Your Channel to Success," by TV writer-producer Larry Brody, is recently out. It is an exceptional book that covers pretty much all you want to know about writing & selling television, from episodic drama to long-form cable.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1557835012/qid=1089224574/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-5084141-6894500?v=glance&s=books
--msg
TylerGred
07-07-2004, 11:30 AM
Thanks for that link. I just bought Successful Television Writing which is pretty good.
cdbourbon
07-07-2004, 02:58 PM
You're welcome. And check out TVwriter.com for all sorts of related stuff.
--msg
Stas_Tagios
07-14-2004, 03:01 AM
There are many books containing properly formatted fascimiles of tv scripts, including a series of "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" script books, a "Sopranos" script book, and others.
The Buffy ones I know for sure contain exact duplicates of the actual scripts, unlike other script books that simply reprint the script in some other pseudo-screenplay or teleplay format.
That should give you an idea of act breaks and page counts. Final Draft and Movie Magic also include various tv show templates.