How to Create a TV Series: Part 3 – Story Analysis and Development Notes

Explore episodic structure, series throughlines, how to give development notes and how to budget script development.

About this session

Part 3 explores episodic structure for television series: how to break a season into three-act structure using the tentpole method, Gulino’s eight-sequence approach to writing, and the conventions of contemporary four-act and five-act episodes. It also introduces series throughlines, including the “A” story and subplots.

You will learn how to communicate development notes through a critical assessment of a project, how to assign development strategies to explore the issues you identify, and how to budget the script development process.

What you will explore

• Breaking a season into three-act structure
• The tentpole method and Gulino’s eight-sequence approach to writing
• Conventions for four-act and five-act television episodes
• Series throughlines: the A story and subplots
• Communicating development notes through a critical assessment of a project
• Assigning development strategies and budgeting script development

About the series

How to Create a TV Series is a four-part webinar series that introduces the fundamentals of creating an original TV series, such as narrative drama, docu-drama or dramedy. It takes you from the first idea, through development, to presenting the concept. Along the way, you will learn about the Asia-Pacific TV landscape, including SVOD, and gain international market awareness. Each session focuses on a different topic, so we encourage you to register for each one and join live.

Webinar details

Date: Thursday, 3 December 2026
Time: 2:00 PM (Kuala Lumpur Time)
Platform: Zoom Webinar
Speaker: Dr Pieter (Pia) Aquilia, Discipline Lead, Creative Projects, Masters of Screen Business, AFTRS

Registered participants will receive the webinar access link at least three (3) days before the session.