Writing the One-Hour Pilot I
Develop the world, characters, tone, and story engine for an original TV series before developing an outline and your script's first act.
What you can learn.
- Turn your pilot idea into a solid one-hour series with potential for many episodes
- Develop a cast of compelling characters that viewers will follow
- Write a full beat outline for the series's pilot episode
- Begin writing your original pilot script
About this course:
Anyone who wants to work as a professional television writer has to be able to submit top-notch original material to agents and showrunners. In this fast-paced course, you take your idea for a one-hour TV series and turn it into an outline, write intensively, and get feedback from the instructor and fellow participants every week. Throughout this process; you learn how to envision the world of your show; create characters and conflict; build a storytelling engine; and nail down your show's structure, tone, story, and act breaks. By the end of the course, you have strong act breaks, a full beat outline, and a critique of the first ten pages of your original one-hour pilot script.Winter 2021 Schedule
Available Format(s):
These courses are fully online and have no regular meeting times.
Enrollment limited to 15 students.
This course is taught asynchronously and fully online using Canvas. Sessions run weekly and there are no requirements to attend live, virtual meetings.
These courses have regular meeting times and are fully online, via remote instruction. Click “See Details” below for more information.
No meeting January 18; February 15, 2021.
Enrollment limited to 15 students.
This course uses remote instruction. As such, instructors use Zoom to offer live class meetings at the designated class meeting time. Students must be present at course meeting times as each student’s final grade may include scores for participation. Please inform your instructor if you will miss a class meeting. You are responsible for any class information you missed. We suggest you arrange with a fellow classmate to share their notes when feasible.
Contact Us
This course applies towards the following certificates & specializations…
Corporate Education
Learn how we can help your organization meet its professional development goals and corporate training needs.
Donate to UCLA Extension
Support our many efforts to reach communities in need.