Creating an Independent TV Pilot: Writing the Script
When inspiration strikes, you listen.
Had someone asked me in 2020 whether or not I’d be creating a full-length television pilot in the near future, they might have received a look of bewilderment in response. At that point, the largest project I had ever produced ran for 25 minutes, not 45 minutes. I knew how hard it was to make serial independent content, and had gotten into the habit of making one short film (with a run time of less than 10 minutes) per year. I had found a decent balance of work life and creative pursuits, and didn’t aspire to take on a longer project with that level of a challenge anytime soon.
And yet here we are.
Birch Carlson in The Dinner Party
The Show’s Namesake
One of my favorite collaborators is actor extraordinaire Birch Carlson, who can be seen in several film projects I have written, directed, and produced, including Lady Parts and The Dinner Party. During writing brainstorms for Lady Parts, we often joked about the day when we would create our very own moody BBC-like crime procedural, with the age-old story of a detective trying to outrun a troubled past. With visions of Birch’s acting chops and characterization paralleling Olivia Colman in Broadchurch, combined with notes of humor, the project would be aptly titled DS Birch Carlson. And so this running joke continued for years as we worked together.
Inspiration in Isolation
When the 2020 pandemic hit, it brought the world to a standstill. One casualty of shelter-in-place included the musical theater production I was involved in, and I found myself bummed out and bored. I needed a creative outlet that worked while I was in isolation. A group of friends (many of whom were also involved in that doomed musical) began hosting readings of free scripts available online, and Zoom became our temporary stage.
One obstacle we encountered was our inability to find scripts with large ensemble casts — we had at least a dozen people wanting to join the fun in the Zoom room. Like an Orson Welles with his trusted cast of Mercury Theatre players, I set out to bring DS Birch Carlson to life, set in a fictional Northfield and surrounded by that group of online actors, my colleagues in creativity.
When I sat down to write, I was surprised at how quickly the first episode came together. DS Birch Carlson had been formed in my mind for years, and her world was tinged with the residue of great mystery series that had come before her, like Twin Peaks, Murder, She Wrote, and of course, Broadchurch. The plot lines were colored by real stories and characters were inspired by real citizens from our little Northfield, Minnesota community. I knew that I wanted bodies to pile up in this little town and leave the viewer wondering, “Geez, why are there so many murders there?”
After an email casting call consisting of a spreadsheet with short character synopses, the Zoom Troupe held a live reading of the DS Birch Carlson pilot for a few guests. Hilarity ensued, fun was had by all, and after 45 minutes, everyone said, “Great, when can we read the next one?”
After chafing for a moment and informing the cast that these take a while, I eventually created three episodes of the first season and held readings of them all with the Zoom Troupe. After that, things started to open up again, people’s schedules began to fill, folks had Zoom fatigue, and the troupe disbanded. And DS Birch Carlson was shelved.
Dusting Off the Script
2022 was a difficult year for me personally. My sister Amy was battling breast cancer and even though she was doing all the fighting, it took its toll on the family cheering her on. I was emotionally and physically exhausted, unable to bring myself to do much more than sit on the couch every night.
At that time, I had developed a “streak” of sorts in applying for grant funding each year to support my filmmaking. Each summer, I would develop an idea for a project, which, should it receive funding, could be completed the following year. There I was in June 2022, the July grant deadline approaching fast, and feeling a complete lack of inspiration. I considered letting the deadline pass me by, since I had no idea what to pitch and wondered if I would even have the energy to produce anything the next year. Yet, the deadline tugged at me, because I knew that I would struggle without a planned creative outlet.
Since I had no new ideas coming to me, I decided to take DS Birch Carlson off the shelf and propose to the Minnesota State Arts Board that I produce that script. For all of you grant writers out there, it was a strong case — I already had the script written, had cast members at the ready that had read the parts before, and I had made something with a pretty substantial run time in the past. I also had a trusted community of crew members and knew that I wanted to make a feature one day, so why not try to produce a bigger project? With a “what have I got to lose” mentality, I submitted my proposal and crossed my fingers, secretly thinking a rejection could result in a somewhat-welcome break.
Lights, Camera, Funding!
In February 2023, I received the news that DS Birch Carlson was funded. Receiving this kind of news always elicits a surge of excitement — it is so wonderful to receive support and validation for your work as an artist. This was the largest grant I had received in my history as a grant writer — nearly $10,000 to bring DS Birch Carlson to life. After a few joyous minutes and happy tears, the excitement melted into an anxious pit in my stomach. “I get to make this!” “I HAVE TO MAKE THIS?”
I knew what I could be getting myself into when I wrote the proposal because of the script’s unprecedented complexity. Dozens of characters, lots of locations, and not a thought to how I would secure them because in 2020, who knew if we would ever get to leave our homes again?
As reality set in, so did the need to adapt. Scenes once penned with abandon now required meticulous rewrites to fit within the constraints of budget and logistics. Yet, amidst the chaos of revisions and logistical puzzles, I knew in my heart that we could pull this thing off. It was time for production to begin.
Premiere Event
Interested in seeing the final product? Come to our public premiere party in-person and on Zoom on June 14, 2024.
