Monday, August 20, 2007

Q. When writing a spec for a serialized drama, would it be unreasonable to start out with a "Last time on Heroes/Lost/24..." bit? And if one were to do that, would it be okay to use actual scenes from the produced show?

I've never seen that done. It's probably better to have a stand-alone episode that doesn't rely too heavily on its exact placement in the season timeline.

If you do need to place the episode, I think you could have a paragraph that says, in prose, "This episode takes place after Jimmy breaks his leg but before he finds out that Yersinia is really his evil twin disguised as a woman." The "Previously on" montages can be extremely terse because they're full of acting and music; on paper they'd carry too little information.

Labels: spec scripts

9:35 AM

2 Comments:

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By  Anonymous, at 3:45 PM  

Well, the 'Heroes' last-time snippets are absolutely horrid and long. They literally show 4-5 minutes of the previous episode (even full scenes from the previous episode).

However, Lost's last-time snippets are important for setting the concentration of the episode.
If the episode concentrates on something that was last shown 3-4 episodes ago, then they'll set the tone appropriately by, in a way, 'reminding' you.
In Season 2, if the episode was going to be about 'The Others', then (among others things) they may show us Locke's famous line "We're not the only ones on this island and we all know it!".
If it's about Charlie's struggle with his heroine avoidance, then - since such a concentration comes every now-and-then in a season (or series) - one of the things they'll show us when Charlie finds the Virgin Mary statue.
If the episode brings back the 'Michael looking for Walt' arc after 5-6 episodes of having Michael offscreen on a trek, they'll show us some of the more vital things what we need to know for the episode.
It's not just a tool for 'reminding' the audience, though. It also gives you a hint of what characters and elements of Lost you'll be watching this week.
If you see many Sawyer-central clips in the 'previously on Lost" snippet, then buckle up for some Sawyer!

Although, in doing this, Lost barely concentrates on reminding their viewers about much at all. The only time you'll be reminded about anything is during the 30-second ish 'previously on Lost' snippet. Because of this, Lost requires a good memory.

By  Anonymous, at 3:54 PM  

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