Step 1: Mastery of Drama and Sci-Fi

Broadly recognised as one of the best written shows in the English speaking world, BETTER CALL SAUL comes from the brains behind BREAKING BAD.

This is the type of show most writers can only dream of ever writing, as it really takes the sheer power of a large writers’ room to achieve the excellence and sophistication this show has on offer.

For today’s exercise we look at the opening moments of a flashback. We see the character of MIKE arrive by train at Albuquerque station. 

Like BREAKING BAD, BETTER CALL SAUL is beaten out in quite some detail before the writer – here Gordon Smith – drafts the screenplay. 

All scripts in the BREAKING BAD universe are written in a casual, let-me-tell-you-this-story kinda way, brimming with author’s intrusion. The puritans will label this as cheating, but it helps in imagining precisely how the characters and audience will feel.

For this final exercise, you may try to attempt the same, and later compare how close you are to the original – or you do it your way. Either is perfectly fine, provided the description is clear as to what is visible on the screen.

Science fiction poses at the same time an opportunity and a challenge. You may have to describe things that nobody has ever seen. In other words: there will be no direct external reference for the thing or image you describe.

Therefore, it is paramount that your description is accurate and evocative.

In the TV show BRAINDEAD, most of what we see is somehow familiar, but in a context or with a behaviour that is unusual.

Here is what you need to know to write this scene:

• The setting is a research lab at the SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE.
• The object is a METEOR.
• The researcher is DR. PITTMAN
• Telling him to leave is the MUSEUM DIRECTOR.
• We’ve seen Pittman before, but you may write an introductory description.
• We haven’t seen the Museum Director before.

Everything else is up to you.

Have fun!