TV-pilot query

[Enzo]

I'm preparing to query a production company about a TV-pilot script I wrote.

What should be in the query apart from the obvious, i.e. the plot of the pilot, the characters, and an overview of the evolution in the next episodes ?


PS I know there is a lot about queries in the SYW section; I just had a look and I couldn't find anything specific about TV.

[wordmonkey]

This might help get you started...

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3446252&postcount=4

[Enzo]

Hey, thanks, wordmonkey. Useful advice.

[Team 2012]

Downer, but true.

TV is very hard to penetrate. Believe us...and we already write for TV. It's even less than books and screenplays a matter of seek and find, sorting submissions. It works almost entirely by human contact, industry ins, incest, and skullduggery.

The suggestion of doing a two hour film from your pilot is a good one.

It there is a thin, illusive sliver of hope (and that's a BIG if) it's the People's Pilot competition run by the tvwriter.com outfit (Larry Brody and entourage). It's the only contest we know of for pilots.
There are prizes, you can pay twenty bucks extra for commentary by Brody.
If you win will they beat a path to your door? Or even pay any attention to your query?
Probably not.

But it's something. And there's this. If you come in 135th in a field of 137, that's information. Not fun information, but worth knowing.

We don't really believe in script contests, except the Nicholl. But for a red hot TV aspirant, this one is kind of unique and just putting together an entry can be a good exercise.