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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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So hopefully as you're
doing your blue skying,

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you're working on
your characters,

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you're working on
some setting, stuff

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is starting to become a
little bit more into focus.

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And we did talk about how your
characters go from A to B,

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especially your most
important characters.

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They have a little
arc from A to B.

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What we haven't
talked about as much

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is a story arc 'cause your
story arc is also going

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to want to go from A to B.

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Now if you have a very sort
of simple drive to your story

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as we did in "Stranger Things,"
which is Will's missing.

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We have to find Will.

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So all of our
characters in season one

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have the same drive,
which is to find Will.

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Hopper had it, the kids
had it, the teens have it,

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which and those are sort
of what we talk about as

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are each of those is a
different generation,

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a generational
storyline, which is

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one of the early ideas we had
that we were excited about.

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And they all have
the same drive,

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which was really
helpful on season one,

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and it helped really
unite the season.

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So we know that
everyone's going to go

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from A, which is Will disappears
and this thing happens

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and changes their lives.

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B, we're going to
find Will, right.

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So we know that, which is great.

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But within each of
those storylines,

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they're going to have sort
of an individual arc for how

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they get from A to B.

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And as we were
developing this season--

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and it's even in
our pitch to Netflix

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where we talk about each
of these generations

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and we talk very broadly
about their story arcs

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as in they start here on A
and they go to here on B.

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We did not have a lot of detail
about that journey from A to B.

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We put in a few ideas,
a few ideas we had,

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but we didn't put
a lot because what

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all we wanted to
communicate-- and all

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that was really
important is we knew

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where their starting point
was, which is in the pilot,

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and where their destination was.

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If you don't know
their destination,

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it's going to be
challenging because you

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don't know what to set up
at their starting point.

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So you really do need
to try to, if you can,

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have at least a broad sense
of where you want them to go.

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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You know, obviously so
we have this big story arc,

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but one thing we found
when we were blue skying

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is that we wanted to have three
groups of characters, right.

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We wanted to have kids,
we wanted to have teens,

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we want to have adults,
and that each of them

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was going to have
their own little mini

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arc within the big arc, the
big arc being find Will.

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So they would each
be kind of-- they

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would each be moving
towards that goal

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but in very different ways.

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And it was like, since they
all have the same drive,

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how do we differentiate
them, right?

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Like, it was like how do we--
they all have the same goal.

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How is that going to go?

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Find Will?

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Aren't they just going to
be colliding and overlapping

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the whole time?

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We're like, OK, so it's
just we thought about as

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one big puzzle, and
they're each going

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to be solving one big
piece of the puzzle that's

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necessary to find Will.

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So the kids are solving
one piece of the puzzle,

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the adults are solving
one piece of the puzzle,

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and the teens are solving
one piece of the puzzle.

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And then we thought in
the penultimate episode,

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so we were going to
have them all combined.

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So we're going to have all
three generations combine.

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They're going to share
their information,

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they're each going to have
a key piece of information

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vital to saving Will,
and then they're

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going to use that so join
forces and ultimately save Will.

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But if you removed one
storyline, it wouldn't work.

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They would be--
they would not have

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one key piece of information
that's necessary to save Will.

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He would get
eaten by Demogorg.

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He would get-- right.

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So we found this,
like, to be, like, kind

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of a really effective structure
for the show for "Stranger

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Things" and as much as it
changes from season to season,

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so as different
as two is from one

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and season three is from
one, they all kind of

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have that core
structure which we have.

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We splinter our
groups, and they're all

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in their own sort of
adventure or horror story.

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But every time they're
learning some essential piece

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of the puzzle, they
kind of come together

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and put all their
information in their brains

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together in order to
solve the greater mystery.

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That's a story arc that's very
specific to what we discovered

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in our blue sky process.

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But I'm hopefully as you're
doing your blue skying,

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you're also coming up with
a structure that works

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specifically for your story.

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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One thing that's going
to come up inevitably

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if you're developing
a television show

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is this idea of, OK, what is.

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Is this a one off?

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Is this a limited series?

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Is it multiple seasons?

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Do you need to start
figuring out what

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those multiple seasons are?

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Our opinion is that can get
really overwhelming if you

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start doing that right now.

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I think that when we were
developing "Stranger Things"

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specifically, it was
going to be a one off.

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It was going to be a season one.

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We knew we were going to
get asked the question of,

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OK, inevitably if this
thing is successful,

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you know, what does this
season two look like?

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Can this-- does this have
potential to continue?

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The answer seemed
pretty obvious.

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It came to us-- you know,
wasn't-- it wasn't hard it was.

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Like, OK, well, we knew
they were going to find Will

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and they were going
to rescue Will

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and they were going to
bring him back home.

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Will's been-- we don't know
what's happened with Will.

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Like, we knew he was
going to be off screen

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for the majority of the season,
that he was going to come back.

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So we knew if there
were going to be

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a continuation of
the story that we're

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going to have to focus on Will.

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He's been in this
alternate dimension.

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We don't know what the
hell happened to him.

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We knew that was a story
arc that we would pitch,

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and that's honestly
all we pitched

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when we went into
Netflix because I

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think the key is developing
a really great first season.

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I mean, we're all about just
taking it one step at a time

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because otherwise
you get overwhelmed.

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In our opinion, it's so
hard to just tell a story

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and tell a simple story well--

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That works.

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That works.

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Yeah, that just works.

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And certainly for
our first script,

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that was just the drive.

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Can we tell a story
that is very simple

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and that works that keeps
the reader turning the pages

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and then goes from A to
B. And I think that really

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should be the focus right now.

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Because guess what, if
you tell a great story,

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you're going to find a
way in to tell that sequel

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or the second season or
whatever it happens to be,

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but really I think
the goal right now

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should be to just focus on
let's tell a simple cool story.

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It has a goal, and
you achieve that goal

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at the end of this story.

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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As we're talking about
developing an arc-- in fact,

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this applies to everything
we've talked about right now,

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which is just stay
pretty zoomed out.

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It's overwhelming
enough, in my opinion,

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to just get a good pilot script.

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Don't start thinking about
your seventh season arc.

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Don't write a 30-page
world-building mythology book.

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Don't write a 20-page back
story for each character.

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I mean, listen, you can do that.

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I just worry you're never
going to finish your script,

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and, again, you're going
to get lost in the--

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I really think you're
going to get lost.

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It's so easy to get lost.

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I know Ross and I are
not the only writers

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who this happens to.

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We're just-- lose
sight of where you are.

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So to us-- and we've
made that mistake.

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I mean, I've lost years
of my life doing this.

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I'm trying to save you
years, which is just

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stay really zoomed out, keep it
really simple in terms of arcs,

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in terms of characters,
in terms of setting,

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in terms of everything
that we've talked about.

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As we go forward with this
class, what we're going to do

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is we're still
pretty wide, right,

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and then we're going
to just slowly start

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to do this until you have--
until you have your pilot

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script.

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And even from then, it's going
to continue to evolve and get

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more specific.

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Don't get overwhelmed.

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It's like the eye
doctor, you know,

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where they're putting
in different lenses,

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and it just, like, it's going
to start out really blurry

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and it's going to keep
getting more and more focused.

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And I think that
sometimes you're

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just like why can't I see.

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Why is it all blurry?

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That's [INAUDIBLE]--

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Or you're doing-- like,
I'm doing it's so blurry

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and unfocused.

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I'm doing something wrong.

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It doesn't look like
this finished movie

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that I just saw this weekend
or that finished show

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that I just saw and I loved.

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Why is it not that good?

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Why is it not that specific?

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My characters aren't that good.

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Like, they shouldn't
be at this point.

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[INTERPOSING VOICES]

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And I think what happens
in a lot of people

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then they get frustrated, and
they go, oh, well, whatever.

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I can't do this.

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And then-- and then they
abandon what they're working on.

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It's like--

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Or they give up.

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They don't want to--
they're like I can't write.

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I can't do it.

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But, like, we never saw
ourselves as writers,

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and I do think
that there's a way

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that you can take this
process and you take it slow.

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I mean, but even
now, even having

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done this for quite some
time now constantly,

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we start to see
ourselves get lost,

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and we go, oh, whoa,
whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

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Zoom out, zoom out, zoom out.

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We say that all the time
in the writers room, right.

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Zoom out, right.

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Zoom out.

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We take a step
back, take a breath,

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and go OK, what are
the big beats here.

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What's the A to B?

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Is that working because
we're going into details now

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in something's missing
from the bigger picture.

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So blurry is good right now.

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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OK, so at this point,
you know a little bit more

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about your setting.

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Hopefully a little bit
more about your characters,

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a little bit more about your
story, and your story arc.

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And I think it's
worth taking the time

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to sort of write
that down because

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right now, your
document, if it looks

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anything like our document, it's
going to be kind of messy or--

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Chaotic.

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Extremely chaotic and messy.

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So just-- I think
it's worth-- it's not

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going to be super time
consuming, this part

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of the process, but just carve
out the ideas that you don't

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need any more, focus in on
the ideas that are good,

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and just write a clean
organized one page

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description of your concept
and your idea including

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now some-- a little bit
more detail about characters

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and about the setting
that they exist in.

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And the antagonist.

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I mean, if you just think about
our Steve and Dustin example,

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now we haven't had a week
or so to blue sky that,

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but if we had,
imagine the details

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that we could start to add here.

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Who-- who is Dustin's dad?

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And where exactly was
he living, and who

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are these other thieves that
are going after this treasure?

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And what is it actually that
is lurking within those mines?

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There were so many things
in that initial paragraph

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that we're missing that if we
had had a week of blue skying,

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we would have been able to
start to fill in those details.

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And then we've got a pitch.

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Yeah, right, you have
easy, easy page, easy page.

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00:10:22,283 --> 00:10:23,953
You might have a
little bit over a page.

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Let's fine, a page
and a half, whatever.

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But try not to make it too
long because I think it's good

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to keep it, again, simple.

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Stay wide, stay zoomed out.