Screenwriting : Anna Henry's "How to Nail the First Act of Your Pilot" Webinar - What did you think??? by Harrison Glaser

This was such a great webinar. I can actually say there were certain devices she mentioned that shouldn't be used or is a tired trope like introducing your character waking up in the morning or running late. that I was considering. I'm scrapping those ideas now.

Several:

Discussion of Tone and importance of pacing, distinct visual and sound style

Establish the story engine, the unresolvable conflict early in Act I.

Key for conveying non-dialog emotion: give a character business, like pounding meat

Thanks, Anna

For me, the importance of focusing on character vs plot. Very useful to know esp since I'm writing something based on true events and I tend to get really caught up in the facts. I will take Anna's advice: do the research then throw it out the window!

Anna is an awesome instructor. I went from knowing zero about TV pilots to mach 1 in these 2 hours. Anna answered 2 of my burning questions I have wondered about for a long time. How can we be mentored by her! The other question I had was: when a writer submits a pilot but doesn't live in LA,, how does that work--can the writer write future episodes remotely, or does the writer generally turn over the bible of episodes and others write the episodes. What happens to us non-LA writers on a show for which we wrote the pilot and concept of the seasons?

P.S. That was awesome about dealing with a true story turned into a TV show (or even feature). Since I have true story scripts, I always wondered how much to keep to every event and how much leeway to dramatize and add fictional characters and dialogue for dramatic effect. Anna's answer was a breath of fresh air to relieve worries on this point!

I definitely look at how my character descriptions and actions reveal who they are based on the webinar.