Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/569837
dga quarterly 47 "It was like shooting two pilots— the backdoor pilot, and then the first episode of the order," he says. "I had to make that backdoor pilot for fans of Vampire Diaries, and the second pilot, episode one of the series, for people who had never seen Vampire Diaries." The Direct-to-Series Pilot What determines if a network will take a traditional pilot route with a show or go direct-to-series pickup? There's not one answer, but timing, advance preparation, and budgetary matters are all part of the equation. Salke explains: "Pitches that come in during the traditional pilot season are most often on the traditional script-to-pilot-to-series track. That being said, we are open to pitches all year long and often are presented with projects off-season. Many of those projects are presented with full series bibles and sometimes multiple episodes. It's easier to get a sense of the producers' vision for the show and often there may be co-financing in place. All these fac- tors can motivate a series order." She continues, "Sometimes the creative lends itself to a limited- episode approach. When the model is 13 or fewer episodes a year and we have a sense of the entire season and producers who we know can deliver, we may lean into the direct-to-series approach. It's always a leap of faith. It's usually all about the creators and their vision, no mat- ter what the financials look like." But FX's Schrier is skeptical of the direct-to-series model. "It's very sexy to go straight to series, but if you look at the longevity of the great shows on TV, very few would be shows that went straight to series. They aren't in the top echelon of shows." Perhaps part of this is due to perception: Direct-to-series shows tend to have smaller budgets and shorter production schedules. Andrew Fleming, who took Bravo's first scripted comedy, Odd Mom Out, di- rectly to series shot three episodes in 12 days, about the time a single pilot episode is allotted. But directors of direct-to-series programs could also argue that more groundwork has been covered before production begins. Scripts for an entire season have often been written before a single scene is shot, giving a director a better idea of the show's sensibility and narrative thrust. Additionally, logistical constraints can often result in more cre- ative freedom. "I kind of prefer straight-to-series," admits Jonas Pate, director-pro- ducer of NBC's summer direct-to-series '60s drama Aquarius, who also directed the traditional pilot for the upcoming ABC drama Blood and Oil. "A lot of times you hire people for pilots for more money, and then when you're picked up, they won't do the series and you're start- PHOTO: ANNETTE BROWN/THE CW ing over looking for crew five months later. I like the crew to be consistent. I prefer the mindset that this is our team, we're committed, let's do it." But by no means was Aquarius a walk in the park. "You get none of those pilot luxuries when you're working straight- to-series," says Pate. "It was all a sprint. When you land at the location, you feel you're already two hours behind at call. You don't really sleep the whole time— you sleep when it's over." Aquarius shot in Los Angeles, which was expensive, but a day was shaved from each episode to keep costs down. "Once we got the rhythm down, we managed," Pate reports. And since the story was a pe- riod piece, "Pulling locations was a big challenge. We had to find slices of L.A. to sell as the '60s—you'd point the cam- eras this way, but not that way." Pate credits the extensive preproduction as "a blessing. They'd al- ready written the scripts, which helps you get up to speed. And the style was less formal than on Blood and Oil. There was not so much camera cutting; it was more handheld, more improvisational." Having multiple scripts in hand before shooting a single frame also helped Fleming on Odd Mom Out, produced by and starring novel- ist Jill Kargman based on her books about affluent mothers on New York's Upper East Side. "The 10 episodes were already written when we went into produc- tion on episode one, which helped us overall," says Fleming, who has also directed network pilots, including NBC's Bad Judge. "It actually helps doing three episodes at one time, so they have a consistency "When you get a series purchase, there's more at stake, the pres- sure is higher. You don't want to screw up an episode. It's just being part of something from beginning to end." —CHRIS GRISMER