How to Pilot a TV Show LOST

Pilot episodes always stand out. TV shows thrive off the familiar. The core characters, setting, and ideas, they're all similar week to week. But a pilot doesn't have any of that weight behind it. We don't know any of those things, and it's a pilot's job to get us there. As you can see from the title, this video is going to be talking about the pilot of Lost. Now, Lost is one of the most polarizing shows of all time. Some people, like me, love it, and others hate it, which I get. But one thing I think both sides can agree on is that the show starts off really well. In its two-part pilot, creators Damon Lindelof and J.J. Abrams give us everything we need, hooking the audience, setting up the series, and teaching us how to watch their show. So that's what we're going to look at today, how the pilot of Lost executes a very high degree of difficulty, using every piece of equipment in its storytelling tool belt. Spoilers ahead, but only for this pilot episode. I'm Jackson, and this is Ideas at Play. So why Lost? There are plenty of shows that are more recent and have less baggage. And in doing research for this video, I actually found that Lost breaks a lot of the quote-unquote rules of writing a pilot. Conventional TV wisdom is that you have to set up a story in your pilot that can carry on indefinitely. In his 2011 book Writing the Pilot, screenwriter William Rapkin explicitly says, But that already feels dated just seven years later. Today, there are shows that start out with a beginning, middle, and end in mind. And I've even made videos about two of them, Mr. Robot and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Before, shows tried to reach syndication, to be played on multiple broadcast networks. But with streaming services more essential than ever to TV watchers, syndication doesn't matter nearly as much. And Lost kind of sits on the threshold between these two worlds, the new world of binging and the old world of syndication. The show didn't have a set beginning, middle, and end in mind when it started, but it did figure to have an intensely serialized story. So the pilot of Lost ends up being a really relevant episode for TV shows to learn from today, even though it aired nearly 15 years ago. Okay, so what's so great about it? Well, let's start with how it hooks its audience immediately. Now, tons of TV episodes, not just pilots, start with a scene that grabs you. And in screenwriting, it actually has a name, the teaser. By definition, the teaser comes before the four acts of an hour long drama and is meant to preview the central conflict of the episode, often by putting a main character in peril. But in a pilot, we don't care about any of these characters yet. So the show needs to create something novel, a combination of images and ideas that are both confusing and interesting. Think of two hugely successful pilots that will air after Lost, Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad. Breaking Bad gives us a man in a gas mask and tidy whiteys driving an RV with two dead bodies in it. Game of Thrones kills off a scouting group that finds some really creepy stuff. Both scenes are a combination of images that intrigue us. And here, Lost does the same thing. The show opens on Jack, a man in a suit in the middle of the jungle. He's out of place and we want to know what he's doing there. And when he hears a noise, we start to imagine all the things it could be before a yellow Labrador walks out. At first, we're relieved right along with Jack, but then we remember that that's pretty weird. And as he runs out of the grove, we see a sneaker hanging from a tree, which brings more questions. Over the next seven and a half minutes, Jack runs through the wreck trying to help whoever he can. While this sequence contains a ton of interesting images of different survivors, it draws us in more by withholding information. I counted 169 shots in this opening sequence, which means that they only average about 2.6 seconds each, moving the scene quickly and never showing us much at one time. There are only five sporadic shots of the wreckage without Jack running through it or it exploding, and they only total 11 seconds together. Add in heavy camera shake and we don't ever get a great look at what's going on in the background. We're intensely focused on what Jack is doing, and even though we can see an entire world starting to form beyond him, we only get glimpses of it in the background. While this teaser hook combines confusion, intrigue, and action, it's not the only hook in the episode. Lost places a completely different kind of second hook at the end. In this scene, a group of the survivors climb to high ground to get a signal on their radio and hear a French distress signal that's been playing for 16 years. Charlie looks up and delivers the iconic line, This scene isn't just a cliffhanger. Characters aren't left in danger on the edge of a cliff, and it's not the introduction of a brand new element. It's shedding light on the danger that's already present, in a way that somehow brings more mystery. These two different styles of hook represent the show's creative approach to reading the rules of writing a pilot. It takes the idea that a pilot should tell a self-contained story that gets us to come back for more, and focuses on the second part, coming back for more. Like all teasers, the first hook gets us to stick around for the whole episode. But the second hook is key here, it almost begs you to click on the next episode. But hooking the audience doesn't mean anything if you don't have a series to hook them to. And setting up that series is a lot of ground to cover. There's the setting, central conflicts, and each main character. And each one of these brings with it a new challenge. For example, the central conflict that drives the show hinges on the idea of working together to As Jack articulates in a later episode, the tension in the show is going to come from characters who otherwise might never have met, being forced to work together despite their considerable differences and suspicions. So great, we've got a conflict in mind. But, like storytelling Jenga, there's now less material to work with and new challenges. Namely, introducing a range of characters that are different enough to make this premise work, and some of the kinds of obstacles they'll have to overcome. And just introducing the characters in this show is going to be tough. There's Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Locke, Saeed, Jin, Sun, Michael, Wall, Boone, Shannon, Charlie, and Claire. That's a lot of different people who are going to be essential to this story. So Lost uses a combination of symbols, relationships, and editing to give us the shape of 14 distinct characters. I don't have time to go into detail on each character, so I'm just going to pick one example that uses all three. While he's a central character to the series, we don't see much of John Locke in this pilot. He's on screen for less than four minutes, but every second of that screen time is used well. This shot is the first real look we get at him. The orange slice not only emphasizes his out-of-place smile, but it's also a symbol of nature in the middle of wreckage. It shows us that he's the first character to embrace the island. And we see this willingness to embrace the island later with some really stellar editing. As Jack, Kate, and Charlie walk through the jungle on their way to the cockpit, the show cuts back to Locke alone. And it's a cut that stands out because it feels separate from the story, and from the group. When we return to Jack, Kate, and Charlie, it starts to rain. Now the show cuts back to the group scrambling for shelter, but not our main guy Locke. He embraces the rain, and that shot from earlier gains some weight and gives him a unique connection to the island. His mysticism is played up even more by a short conversation with Walt. Walt immediately looks up to him. He seems wise, giving some perspective to Walt's life, and sharing his extensive knowledge of backgammon, revealing it to be the oldest game in the world, and somewhat ominously describing it as a struggle between two sides. One is light, one is dark. Walt, do you want to know a secret? This combination of symbols, editing, and relationships gives us a lasting image of Locke, and serves to flesh out the rest of the cast, to show how different they all are, and how they contrast with each other. As for the setting, every obstacle they face is part of the island antagonist, from the monster in the jungle that attacks the group, to the climb for high ground. While we don't really understand the island yet, we do learn a lot about it, and we can tell that it's formidable, the perfect place for the series' conflict and characters to thrive. Which brings us to the final thing that the pilot of Lost does so well, teach us how to watch the show. Just by looking at the two hooks from earlier, we can tell that the show is prepping us to focus on its mysteries through the lens of character. Of the 169 shots in that opening teaser, 78 of them are framed this close, or closer. While we'd want to study the wreck in the background, Lost emphasizes the character first. Anything we learn is going to be with these people in mind. Later, as trees crash in the jungle, we see what the group sees, and turn away from it to see their reactions. It's this focus on character that leads Lost to use the flashbacks that will become the calling card of the series in seasons to come. After this pilot, episodes will tell two stories of a single character, one from their life on the island, and one from their life off, that weave together. Those interlocking stories give color to their current choices, by seeing the previous ones they've made. And while the pilot opts for the assorted flashbacks of Jack, Charlie, and Kate together, the basic idea is the same. Each flashback gives us some color to a character on the island. In Jack's flashback, we see him as a leader. In Charlie's, we learn of his heroin addiction. In Kate's, we learn that she's the prisoner, and that she tried to save the marshal. Each of these revelations gives light to the characters we see on the island and their choices. Jack's leadership as a coping mechanism, Charlie's cowardice in the cockpit, and Kate's inner conflict between running away and helping out. On top of that, each flashback crosses paths with the other. They introduce the idea of how their past not only influences their own decisions, but also the people around them. This is huge, because Lost is going to be about how these characters can work together to become greater, whether that's to survive, or to discover themselves. And we don't just get hints of this theme through the flashbacks. Jack tells Kate a story of how he dealt with fear that she uses to find courage later in the episode. Sawyer and Saeed find themselves at odds as an Iraqi and a redneck, but both prove valuable to the group, with Saeed fixing the radio and Sawyer shooting a polar bear. While neither becomes less suspicious of the other, it helps to reveal the layers beneath these characters, and how those layers will interact. That final hook scene we discussed earlier is a perfect microcosm for what the show will be. A group of strangers is going to have to work together, overcome their differences, survive, and move forward. And that moving forward might just bring as many new questions as it does answers. And if you're looking for the answers to the questions you have in your life, like how do I work photoshop, or how do I start my own freelance business, hop on over to Skillshare. I just started using it myself, and I think it's a really great place to learn, because they integrate projects for you to do, and a community for you to share your work, get feedback, and learn from people who are going through the same thing you are. Their course library is huge, with over 22,000 courses on everything from web design, to cooking, to productivity, and the best part is you can get free unlimited access to all of them for two months by following my link in the description. It's a great deal, and tons of the classes are easily digestible, so you don't have to slog through hours and hours to get to the one thing you were actually looking for. I recently watched a class on starting your own freelance business, and I picked up a ton of tips for things that I should be doing in my own editing work. By the way, if you're looking for a freelance editor, feel free to hit me up. And as always, thank you so much for watching. If you liked this video, like it, share it, subscribe it, throw a comment below on what show you'd love for me to break down next, and if you really liked this video, head over to my Patreon and throw in a buck to help the channel be the best it can be. You can get early access to my videos and other stuff like my storyboards, research notes, graphics, and more. You can also check out my blog where I write about more TV. Thanks again, and see you next time.