As we are creating a pilot episode I have been looking into what makes that works and not work, I have watch so many series and they all start with that initial pilot which is the make or break, but what makes or break the pilot and keeps you watching. I have decided to look at the series that fit the most with our genre and type of show like the Inbetweeners although these guys are slightly younger than our cast, Friends which even though is American show is about the lives of people and how they stick by each other throughout and also the shot Sunday League series made just for Youtube.
The Inbetweeners -the pilot is based upon a young boy Will, who is joining high school for the first time as for until this point he has been in private education. The episode travels through Will's experience and the ups and downs of trying to fit in and makes friends, like normal school there is bullying, girls, alcohol and swearing, a lot of swearing.
The pilot starts with the title sequence which has the 4 boys which we haven't seen or met yet but we know these are going to be the sole focus, we then meet Will who in voice over is telling his story of how he got to this point and with also flashes of what going to happen in the future.
The first thing they have to do is to show us the characters along with their personalities in their 'natural habitats' so we get a better feel of who they are and what makes them tick, this then takes you up to the break just before the next adventure the character are about to have 'together'.
This episode does not consist of a lot of locations as the main ones are in fact the school in which I can image the rest of the season will evolve around and the pub in which the big event happens while Will tries to make friends and fails. To compare to our pilot we have a lot more locations and main locations but about the same amount of actors, the 4 main boys the girl crush and a big extras scene and they pulled it off and kept it neat and consistent, even though its only 21 minutes long there is no a lot that happens but it does keep you watching so the time goes quickly which is a bit different to ours as there is a lot that happens but the main story is friendship for the episode about the drift apart to the coming back together plus it set over more time than the Inbetweeners and Will's first day.
Friends - An American show based around the idea of friendship and what it entails to stay together along with the ups and downs, similar to the Ibetweeners and school life, how different people from different walks of life stay as one, this episode shows how even people who drift apart can come back together along with each character being unique in their character and loved.
Again it starts with the title sequence and the first camera shot is of the coffee shot "Central Perk" which tells us this is going to be the main location and for the guys to hover over this sofa, We see 4 people so in tern they each talk so we hear there voice and their judgement on the first girl 'Monica". Each in term we hear and learn more about them, introducing the characters as we don't know there names until about 3 minutes in which in when we meet the other 2 characters and the dramatic plot changer.
Even though this is an American show it is about the same length as the Inbetweeners and holds similar concepts such as the ups and downs of life and just trying to survive which is also what our pilot is about but they are all just adaptations on this with a different story and characters, Friends however is more like ours as its based on peoples life instead of school and the struggles they face to keep them together.
Steve Bracknall's Sunday League- this 3 part series is based upon a Sunday League team that are trying to win and make it big like every other team out there, this short pilot of only 7 minutes is set on a pitch and based on true events.
Starts straight into the episode where we are in a bush looking for the ball, which to me is a bit unclear to start with and confused why. Then a minute in we get a simple title sequence which is just a black screen with the title and music which cuts suddenly, the episode contains a lot of unsettling language and shouting form the coaches to the team, which we don't even get to see. After the title sequence all we see is the coach swearing and talking about football to the team for the rest of the episode which is not keeping the interest of the audience, the music is however consistent at the end there is also no credits and instead just this guys twitter name, this is a good example of how we don't want our pilot to be.
After watching this I can tell that the sound isn't that great especially the fades from music, there is no show of the boys except when looking for the ball at the start, in fact we don't even see a ball for the whole episode or anyone playing. The coach is however motivational through all the nasty language which we won't be using, this is a simple show but there isn't much Sunday League about it and at least we know that by showing more people and storyline that we should be able to keep the audience better and what not to do.
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