With the light hand of Scheherazade, mankind has loved endless stories. And with the advent of television, hobbies in multi-part tales have reached worldwide proportions. The proof of this is the fact that each of us at least once in his life, but definitely watched a television series. Moreover, not everyone is able to explain what the "pilot series of the series" is. If you refer to those who do not know, then this article is for you.
Pilot series - what is it?
Before starting a full-fledged shooting of a television project, the leadership of any channel shoots a test episode. It is he who is called a pilot or a pilot series.
What is it for?
The finished pilot is shown to a focus group consisting of selected average spectators of different ages, affluence and tastes.
The opinion of these people about the pilot series is what determines the fate of the project. Their reaction helps to predict his prospects and commercial success, to calculate the number of episodes and age rating. In addition, based on the feedback of the focus group, a potential target audience, future advertisers, and time of delivery are selected.
Also, based on the audience’s reaction to the pilot episode, certain changes are made in the plot and characters, and sometimes new characters are added.
If this probe does not live up to its expectations, it will be sent for re-shooting or the project will be closed altogether.
However, there may be another scenario. If the pilot makes a significantly better impression than predicted, additional test series may be ordered. And already on the basis of the reaction to them, the channel’s leadership will decide whether to withdraw the project, as planned, or to allocate more funding to it.
Is a pilot episode always included in the finished series?
It often happens that a pilot likes the focus group so much that practically nothing changes in its structure, and it is included in the finished series. This is what happened with the Smallville Secrets.
There are also cases where the pilot series, although it falls into the project (do not throw it away), however, in the future the plot develops according to a completely different scheme than planned.
A similar situation occurred with "Two and a half people." Attentive fans have long noticed how radically changed the character of Jake Harper after the pilot, in which he was quick-witted beyond his years and this is what Uncle Charlie fell in love with. However, in the future, the project management turned Jake into a typical American child - gluttonous and very near. Although such a change did not appeal to all viewers, this did not prevent the series from becoming very successful.
It is worth noting that far from all television companies are "too lazy" to re-shoot the pilot series. This is typical only for those who like to save money, while self-respecting channels prefer to reshoot the pilot if he does not meet expectations.
An example is the Game of Thrones, in which the sampler was almost completely redone, although it cost NVO a lot of money. But it was worth it, because for 7 years the project has been one of the most popular in the world.
Another successful project, which was re-shot a pilot series, is "The Big Bang Theory." The channel not only completely redid the test episode, but also changed the characters of the main characters, and also added new characters. This went to the project only for the benefit.
Unfortunately, for Russian and Ukrainian television world the habit of retaking unsuccessful pilots is not very characteristic. Many television channels in these countries seem to operate on the principle of "who is there in the eleventh episode will remember where it all started." Therefore (like Gogol's Nastasya Korobochka) they are afraid to make cheap and often continue to shoot projects even on the basis of frankly hopeless pilots, including them in the finished series.
As an example, we can consider the Russian-Ukrainian project "The Last Janissary". Pilot 5 episodes were filmed well and were able to interest the audience. However, the channel’s management postponed the shooting of further episodes for several months, and later changed the script and cut funding. At the same time, pilots were still included in the finished product. As a result, the characters somehow disappeared from the series (for example, Ataman Gavril performed by Anatoly Khostikoev) and amazing climate changes occurred (while one of the heroes was driving home, the sultry summer managed to go into late autumn, and after all, several hours passed in the story) .
So the inclusion of trial episodes in the finished project does not always work with impunity.
In what areas does this concept still apply?
In addition to series, pilots are used in the production of various television shows, comic book cycles or manga.
Also, this concept applies outside the entertainment industry.
Quite often, if a company plans to build a factory using the new technology, a small pilot is initially built. As a rule, this is a workshop or a small room in which a miniature copy of future production is created over the allotted time. Based on the results of work and profit, conclusions are drawn on the feasibility of further development of this project.