Apple TV pinball machineThe drama, based on Lee Min-jin’s 2017 novel, has received numerous accolades since its 2022 premiere, including a Peabody Award and a Critics’ Choice Award. The story begins in the North Korean occupation zone in 1915 and extends to New York City in 1989, telling the story of the hardships experienced by a Korean family.
Former AMC Horror Masterpiece showrunner Soo Hugh fear and killguiding this complex, multi-generational story from the beginning.
Following the show’s second season premiere, ScreenCraft sat down with Hugh to ask for her advice and her approach to creating this intricate, emotionally rich series.
Be flexible when adapting a novel
Hugh says the process of adapting the book wasn’t easy for her – writers might think having the material is like a shortcut, but when you sit down to write, you have to consider other challenges.
The original novel is quite vast, and Hugh’s version does overlap and combine parts of the storyline in new ways. But getting there is a process, she said.
In Hugh’s case, it’s a coming-of-age story written in a language that’s notoriously difficult to make, even when using popular intellectual property as a starting point. Hugh said one thing that helped her and her team was not to “overthink” and instead focus on their passion for the story.
“In your first draft, you might keep more of the book,” she says, “and then as you rewrite, rewrite, rewrite, it changes and evolves into something else.”
She added that when you adapt a book into another medium, it’s important to respect the “spirit and soul” of the source material. But don’t marry the source and think you have to follow its rules just because it’s there. Knowing that the book is a different experience than the TV show will allow you to be creative.
“You really need to break the spine of the book to successfully tell the story in new media,” Hugh said.
Read more: How We’re the Lucky Ones showrunner Erica Lipez masterfully adapted a complex narrative for TV
“Pachinko” (2022-)
Be prepared before committing
in a complex narrative pinball machineFor Hugh and her team, preparation is crucial.
They start by breaking down each character’s storyline and then move to different time periods. From there, they used a beat sheet to weave the plot lines together. This is where writers tend to follow traditional story structures to establish major story landmarks.
The beat sheet brings them into the outline stage. An outline can be more detailed and often fills in gaps in the narrative. When they’re ready to move on with the script, they’re more than ready.
Before writing your script, you may find it crucial to plan your story through an outline and a beat sheet, especially if you plan to eventually go non-linear. But as Hugh admits, that’s not the case for everyone.
“I’m a firm, firm, firm believer in not following the script unless absolutely necessary,” she said. “I have friends who can jump to a script very quickly, and I know people who don’t even outline it. It blows my mind. I can’t even imagine not having an outline for a script because I just need to be able to see how it works. .its structure, its form, its sound, before the final draft is finalized.
Especially in this case, for Hugh and her team, breaking down the characters and timelines first ensured that the complex narrative was crystal clear and emotionally resonant when weaved together.
Read more: How to Write a Screenplay: A Ten-Step Guide
Cover to find the emotion of the scene
When asked how he balances exposition and emotion in his scenes, Hugh had a unique answer.
“I’d rather rewrite and have the actors rewrite and then edit in post than over-edit the script,” Hugh said. “When we get to the editor after we shoot, these scenes are very long. You quickly realize, ‘Oh, we don’t need that line. Cut that line. Oh, we don’t need that line. Cut that line. That line. Or ‘We need that line, put it back.’
Of course, this was a unique situation and Hugh was free to shoot all the dialogue she and her team wanted and then restructure it in post-production. For her part, she said she was looking at redactions pinball machine As “the second form of program writing.”
If you’re a writer who’s early in your career and may not be able to shoot your work right away, it’s recommended that you keep your scenes as tight as possible, especially for future reps, producers, or competitions. Long, winding scenes with extra dialogue don’t always resonate with readers.
But the adage remains that you can always rewrite in your early drafts—go big, get dramatic, make your characters larger than life—and then scale back in revisions. It’s almost always more difficult to try to find great energy in rewriting a finished work. It will be easier to turn it down later.
“Pachinko” (2022-)
“Write something you know you’ll like”
Hugh advises aspiring TV writers to follow their passions rather than trying to guess what producers or networks want or cater to current trends.
“Even though the market is a little busy right now, we don’t know what the world will look like in two years,” Hugh said. “We don’t know what movies we’ll be watching in four years.”
it took pinball machine She noted that it took two years to go from season one to season two. You might spend the same amount of time working on a project you’re passionate about, but you can’t predict what the environment will look like after that time has passed.
“This was written two years ago,” she said. “When we started writing, the world became so different pinball machine Season 2. You don’t know what’s going to happen.
Read more: The literary manager’s process of selling a TV pilot
