hey people,

i just read a couple of screenplays for a local film school contest. the subject of the contest was:

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- imagine you write the pilot for a returning TV show

- the shows basic subject: all humans on earth turn into animals, just a couple of people don´t.

- how do you establish this situation within the first ten pages?
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i found this question to be extremely interesting - do you jump right into the middle? do you establish how it was before and do a time jump? voice-over? something different?

there were quite a few interesting approaches, and i´ll post some later. what would your ideas be?

greetings - charles!

I would just jump right into the story.  Establish the scenario and main characters quickly and get the main story going.  The origin can be briefly told (as if in passing) and later explained in detail.


Phil

I would also jump right in to the middle. That way you establish the world fairly queickly through the interactions of the remaining characters and their interactions with the world at large. Exposition would trickle out until they meet someone who does know the whole story. That way, the characters and audience would be in similar positions, knowledge-wise.