To all the writer out there, help me out:
What do you think/feel/experience to be that one factor that should be taken into consideration while distinguishing writing for a TV show from a movie screenplay?
I mean, at the end we are trying to tell a story right? But what should one keep in mind while writing for TV that makes it different from movie screenwriting? Are there some finer details that can help you write a better TV script?
Here’s a good starting reference point: TV has story and plot with time to focus on characters (because the story is being told over 12 or more episodes).Movies are focused more on story and plot.
TV shows have to have a story engine. It's the design of the show that keeps people coming back each episode. Movies don't have to have a story engine - they can be one single movie and be done with the story.
Police procedural shows are good examples of story engines - each episode has a new crime case or situation that has to be resolved. Shows that are more serial in nature, have an overarching story that takes several episodes to rap up, sometimes an entire season or more. People continue to watch because they want to see how the story ends. Some shows are in the middle like situational comedies. The characters have a family or friend drama to deal with each week and hopefully it's a funny bit.
here's a free webinar by someone who's done both, movies & tv series
https://collab.sundance.org/catalog/Webinar-Brit-Marling-on-the-Art-of-A...
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TV in the USA is usually based on 100 episodes. Movies are one story.
So movies are about a person with a problem, and TV tends to be about a person who solves other people's problems (doctors, detectives, firefighters, midwives, etc).
A movie is all one piece. A TV show - even something like GAME OF THRONES (single stories are still unusual on TV) are told in chapters - each with a beginning middle and end.
Movies tend to be single protagonist, TV often has teams of protagonists.
Movies are written by one writer (at a time) alone at wherever they write, TV is written by a team of writers who work together in a Writer's Room.
Movies are big stories meant to fill the huge screens of a cinema, TV are more intimate stories that we invite into our living rooms every week.