Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/760821
DGA QUARTERLY 45 PHOTOGRAPHED BY DUSTIN SNIPES; MARCOS SIEGA PHOTOGRAPHED BY MARCIE REVENS PILOTING TV'S FUTURE W S I X D I R ECT O R S S OU N D O F F O N FO R G I N G A S E R I E S T E M P L AT E I N T H E P L AT I N U M AG E O F T E L E V I S I O N B Y PA U L B R O W N F I E L D HAT MAKES A PILOT WORK? The question has never been so wide open and by extension harder to quantify. Technology is not done revolutionizing the way television is made, nor consumed; even as you read this sentence, a blizzard of new series is making its way toward a wide array of platforms. As FX president John Landgraf re- cently forecast, the number of scripted original series on broadcast, cable and streaming services will swell to more than 500 in 2017. If he was sounding the alarm that too much content is bad for business, tell that to someone who gobbled up all eight episodes of Stranger Things five minutes after it hit the serv- er—or, more to the point, DGA members seeking opportunities in their areas of expertise. In the Platinum Age of television, certain op- erating theories about the pilot hold: It should declare its narrative forcefully while serving as an amuse-bouche of juicier courses to come. It should feel as instantly transporting as the first chapter of a novel without getting ahead of itself, literally. Also, it should fit with a network's latest branding strategy or fall in line with a sales agen- da (the "right" actor, pitchable source material, a certain target demo). "The thing everybody wants in the pilot as far as story is, what is the best way to set up the series? What's going to say, 'I need to come back and see that?'" says Marcos Siega, who directed the pilot of Time After Time, an upcoming se- ries on ABC about a time-traveling H.G. Wells. "I don't think you need a lot of huge bells and whistles to accomplish that. It really is charac- ter- and story-driven." But if story starts on the page, it increasingly needs directorial vision to reach fruition in all of its layers and complexity. "Ultimately, a pilot—and this is one of the