How Does A Writer Distinguish A Movie Idea From A Television Idea? by John Truby Video Lecture | Screenwriting: From Beginner to a Pro - Career Development

John how does the writer distinguish
between a movie idea versus a television
idea that has changed over the years it
used to be a very clear distinction
between film and television film was the
big I deal with the big spectacle
massive numbers of characters the epic
scale so on television was the intimate
story very personal just a very few
characters typically a drama but because
TV has evolved over the last 10 to 15
years in such a radical way this
distinction is now gone and in fact the
biggest spectacle stories are now in
television not in film you have a
fantasy show like Game of Thrones which
is as big an epic and spectacle as you
can get far bigger even than say Lord of
the Rings in terms of the number of
characters the story weaves all the
different storylines that are going on
the literal scope of where this story
takes place I mean it's a it's a
continent essentially so and and it's
covering multiple seasons this was the
big game change which is that in
television up to about 10 to 15 years
ago when we had almost strictly what
were known as standalone shows detective
stories or standalone shows where we
introduced a problem in the opening
scene and we solve it by the final scene
and then next week we reset the whole
thing we do it again that meant that the
the story scope was about 45 minutes
long now about 10 to 15 years ago
writers began to realize the incredible
power of the TV medium for story because
they realized that instead of making the
single episode the
the way that we demarcate this the story
they realized it's the season that makes
the difference we're gonna try to tell a
story over an entire season and so we
had the introduction of these serial
shows as opposed to standalone shows it
meant that the scope of television
increased radically because a season is
approximately ten times longer than a
single feature film so that allowed us
many more characters it allowed us to
have a much more complex plot and this
changed everything in terms of the type
of story ideas that we would have an
television versus film
you