Arts & Entertainment
You’ve Sold Your Script. Now What?
Lesson time 13:56 min
Matt and Ross share what they learned from developing "Stranger Things" after it was greenlit, including how they worked in writers’ rooms and created multiple seasons.
Students give MasterClass an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars
Topics include: The Writers's Room • Keep Things Fresh Each New Season • You Are Your Own Best Compass
Teach Developing an Original TV Series
Matt and Ross Duffer—the "Stranger Things" masterminds—teach you how they plotted the series from beginning to end, and how you can bring your own idea to life.
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[MUSIC PLAYING] - All right, so you've sold your script. If so, that's amazing. Now, with "Stranger Things" we were in a somewhat unique situation in that Netflix had greenlit the series. So we went straight into writing the rest of the series. A lot of times what's going to happen is a studio or a network is going to buy your script. And then they're going to continue to develop it. You're going to work with an executive there to continue to hone the script and hopefully get into a place that they feel comfortable with greenlighting that pilot. So it sort of depends. The situation is gonna depend on it. But the goal, of course, always is whether it's greenlit right away or later, as you want to get greenlit. You want them to obviously produce your story and produce your show. And when that happens, something really exciting happens, which is you're going to get a writers' room, which is something prior to "Stranger Things" we had never been in a writers' room. We didn't really know how a writers room worked. What's great about a writers' room is that doing a TV show can be overwhelming. That's a lot of hours and characters and storylines that you're tracking. And sometimes when you're just working by yourself, or in our case, a writing partner, you can get lost in the woods. And you get stuck. And what's amazing about having other people in the room and other voices is that they can help you get unstuck. And they can give you ideas that you never would have thought of in the first place. And so they can help you further blue sky and further develop your idea and help you with your outlines as you go and continue to develop the other episodes of your show beyond the pilot. - So stepping back for a second. So what is a writers' room exactly? So a writers' room is basically something-- if you have a television show, it's a room of writers, right? And they're going to be chosen by you. If you're show-running, you're going to be able to select who the writers are. It's not like Netflix is going to say you have to hire X, Y, Z, this person, this person, this person, and suddenly give you these writers. You're going to read a lot of scripts. - A lot of scripts. - A lot of scripts. A lot of scripts that aren't going to be so good. But every once in a while, you're going to read a script you like. You are going to then meet with that writer, and you're just gonna feel it out. It's like a-- kind of like a little first date or whatever. You're going to see if you get along. Does this person seem to like the same stuff you like? Do you share similar sensibilities? Do they bring something unique, something different than you to the room? Because you don't want to just hire a bunch of yous, a bunch of people who think like you. You already have yourself. Or in this case, there's already two of us. So we wanted to bring on people who had maybe a different perspective, a different point of view on eve...
About the Instructor
Before they turned our world upside down with "Stranger Things," Matt and Ross Duffer honed their scare tactics on Wayward Pines and their debut thriller, Hidden. Now, the acclaimed showrunners reveal the dark science of creating a monster hit. Craft gripping story arcs, conjure unforgettable characters—like Eleven or Jim Hopper—and turn your raw idea into a pitch for the next big thing to cross over from the other side.
Featured MasterClass Instructor
The Duffer Brothers
Matt and Ross Duffer—the "Stranger Things" masterminds—teach you how they plotted the series from beginning to end, and how you can bring your own idea to life.
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