Episode 2: Phil Kellard
Current Town: I am currently residing in Studio City, CA.
What are you working on now?: I’m dusting off a script I wrote years ago about a civil rights case that I hope to retool and turn it into a limited series.
I’m also working on an adaptation of another true story from a book I just received.
What are you working on now?: I’m dusting off a script I wrote years ago about a civil rights case that I hope to retool and turn it into a limited series.
I’m also working on an adaptation of another true story from a book I just received.
Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person: As kids, my brother and I wrote comic books constantly. We drove my mother crazy, because she had to sew all the pages of this junk together every day to make them look like comic books. It was this early appetite for telling stories that eventually grew into the desire to write my own stories professionally.
What started me writing also was watching reruns after school of the Marx Brothers movies and the films of Preston Sturges. Sullivan’s Travels, Hail the Conquering Hero, The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek. I loved the dialogue and the characters. Eventually I wanted to write like that.
What has your experience been like teaching at UCLA Extension?: I have loved coming from my experience and teaching my craft to students who are excited about writing. As excited as I was when I started my career and still am that excited to write every day. The UCLA extension Writer’s Program is one of the best in the country. I have had incredible success with many of my students who have gone on to be on staff on various shows, write movies, get into writer’s programs at networks and studios and win writing contests. I get the thank you emails all the time and it is incredibly gratifying and heartwarming. I also continue to learn from my teaching experience.
Who are or were your television heroes?: My television heroes are Norman Lear, The Charles Brothers, who I worked with, David Milch, Steven Bochco, who I worked with for five years, Brandon Tartekoff, to name a few.
Television is so exciting right now. It truly is the golden age again. The narrative keeps changing and evolving in great ways. I am watching and excited about CALL MY AGENT (French series), just finished the last season of BOSCH, I hope PEAKY BLINDERS returns, BARRY, TED LASSO of course, WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS, BIG MOUTH, etc.
What advice do you have for TV writers just starting out?: After you learn the fundamentals of television writing – structure, story and character, dialogue and scenes, etc. Write a spec script of a show that’s on the air that you love, so you know you can write in the existing playing field and then ---
Write pilots and go from writer to writer/creator. Then when you finish a pilot, take a break and then write another one.
And when you write your pilots, your heavy lifting is going to be on character.
More Character, Less Plot
Concepts for shows can be high concept or low concept, of every type and genre, but believe me; they’ve all been done in one form or another. You have to have a strong concept, but what makes the concept work?
What started me writing also was watching reruns after school of the Marx Brothers movies and the films of Preston Sturges. Sullivan’s Travels, Hail the Conquering Hero, The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek. I loved the dialogue and the characters. Eventually I wanted to write like that.
What has your experience been like teaching at UCLA Extension?: I have loved coming from my experience and teaching my craft to students who are excited about writing. As excited as I was when I started my career and still am that excited to write every day. The UCLA extension Writer’s Program is one of the best in the country. I have had incredible success with many of my students who have gone on to be on staff on various shows, write movies, get into writer’s programs at networks and studios and win writing contests. I get the thank you emails all the time and it is incredibly gratifying and heartwarming. I also continue to learn from my teaching experience.
Who are or were your television heroes?: My television heroes are Norman Lear, The Charles Brothers, who I worked with, David Milch, Steven Bochco, who I worked with for five years, Brandon Tartekoff, to name a few.
Television is so exciting right now. It truly is the golden age again. The narrative keeps changing and evolving in great ways. I am watching and excited about CALL MY AGENT (French series), just finished the last season of BOSCH, I hope PEAKY BLINDERS returns, BARRY, TED LASSO of course, WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS, BIG MOUTH, etc.
What advice do you have for TV writers just starting out?: After you learn the fundamentals of television writing – structure, story and character, dialogue and scenes, etc. Write a spec script of a show that’s on the air that you love, so you know you can write in the existing playing field and then ---
Write pilots and go from writer to writer/creator. Then when you finish a pilot, take a break and then write another one.
And when you write your pilots, your heavy lifting is going to be on character.
More Character, Less Plot
Concepts for shows can be high concept or low concept, of every type and genre, but believe me; they’ve all been done in one form or another. You have to have a strong concept, but what makes the concept work?
Character! Character is what makes a television series work over and above a strong premise.
Movies are plot driven, television is character driven.
Before I write a word of the script, or outline or even beat sheet, I generate reams of information on each of my characters.
I spend a lot of time building and fleshing out my characters and start seeing them as living, breathing human beings.
As a writer, if you have a deep insight into the characters you’re writing, their backstories and present life, it will inform dialogue and they’ll start writing themselves. It will give you other characters to populate your series. It will give you locations to play out scenes in an interesting way and possibly ideas for other episodes in your bible and pitch.
You have to know everything about your characters and everything that makes them funny or dramatic or conflicted in an episode. I mean everything. What we see on the page or on the screen is only the tip of the iceberg. But those characters are made up of the whole iceberg. The bottom of the iceberg informs what you see on the screen.
Characters have to have some kind of history or backstory that helps to drive their actions and shapes who they are.
I spend a lot of time building and fleshing out my characters and start seeing them as living, breathing human beings.
As a writer, if you have a deep insight into the characters you’re writing, their backstories and present life, it will inform dialogue and they’ll start writing themselves. It will give you other characters to populate your series. It will give you locations to play out scenes in an interesting way and possibly ideas for other episodes in your bible and pitch.
You have to know everything about your characters and everything that makes them funny or dramatic or conflicted in an episode. I mean everything. What we see on the page or on the screen is only the tip of the iceberg. But those characters are made up of the whole iceberg. The bottom of the iceberg informs what you see on the screen.
Characters have to have some kind of history or backstory that helps to drive their actions and shapes who they are.
Look deep. Keep asking questions until you have a full character history, past and present.
Characters’ psyches, their flaws, attitudes, idiosyncrasies, complexes, and dreams that drive them through a story.
A character’s behavior drives the story. You have to create that behavior from a character’s personal history.
What are their goals, fears, frustrations, mind sets and idiosyncrasies. Layers and layers.
The more you build and shape a background for your characters, the more believable they’re going to be.
You’ve got to hear them speak as you write them.
You’ve got to give them, religion, race, politics, values, beliefs and morals. You are creating personalities for them.
Everything that drives their interactions in their world and with the other characters in your script.
If you do this kind of character work –you can use them to get you where you need to go in your story and therefore in the series you’re creating.
So spend days not hours developing your characters and you’re way ahead of the game as a writer/creator.
Another piece of advice –
There’s a lot of television being done out there right now. A lot of new marketplaces with more and more opportunities for writers. You have to be ready when those opportunities present themselves. Build your portfolio. A spec script, at least two pilots, a screenplay and ideas for other series. Everything in this business is just a ‘yes’ away. You have to have the material and confidence in it to present yourself when the call comes so you can take advantage and hear that ‘yes’.
Characters’ psyches, their flaws, attitudes, idiosyncrasies, complexes, and dreams that drive them through a story.
A character’s behavior drives the story. You have to create that behavior from a character’s personal history.
What are their goals, fears, frustrations, mind sets and idiosyncrasies. Layers and layers.
The more you build and shape a background for your characters, the more believable they’re going to be.
You’ve got to hear them speak as you write them.
You’ve got to give them, religion, race, politics, values, beliefs and morals. You are creating personalities for them.
Everything that drives their interactions in their world and with the other characters in your script.
If you do this kind of character work –you can use them to get you where you need to go in your story and therefore in the series you’re creating.
So spend days not hours developing your characters and you’re way ahead of the game as a writer/creator.
Another piece of advice –
There’s a lot of television being done out there right now. A lot of new marketplaces with more and more opportunities for writers. You have to be ready when those opportunities present themselves. Build your portfolio. A spec script, at least two pilots, a screenplay and ideas for other series. Everything in this business is just a ‘yes’ away. You have to have the material and confidence in it to present yourself when the call comes so you can take advantage and hear that ‘yes’.
PHIL KELLARD successful executive producer/writer, with a long list of credits, which includes THE WAYANS BROTHERS, MARTIN, DOOGIE HOWSWE M.D., MY TWO DADS, DREXEL'S CLASS, THE TORTELLI'S, THE RED FOXX SHOW, HOOPERMA starring John Ritter and THE WRONG COAST. He has written pilots for The Disney Channel, SyFy Channel, Fox, CBS, ABC, NBC and Showtime.He has directed various theatrical productions as well as episodic television. Nominations include four Daytime Emmy Awards, the Humanitas Award, Prism Award, and he was the recipient of the prestigious Nancy Susan Reynolds Award. Mr. Kellard received an regional Emmy Award for writing and the UCLA Outstanding Instructor Award in Screenwriting, and is a contributing author to Inside the Room (Gotham Books/Penguin). He most recently served as a consulting producer on the CBS series THE INSPECTORS.
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