THE PITT Free Script Breakdown

Learn from Amazon Studios’ Story Analyst, who covers every development submission and brokered the deal for GROUNDHOG DAY

Get a page-by-page breakdown of THE PITT pilot through a studio reader’s eyes, free, with lessons you can apply to your own pilot

You can read every screenwriting book on the shelf, but nothing sharpens your pilot like studying one that’s winning at the highest level — and right now, no drama on television is winning like THE PITT. Created by R. Scott Gemmill and starring Noah Wyle, the HBO Max series has taken home Outstanding Drama Series at back-to-back Emmys, and it all started with the pilot you’ll break down in this free webinar. Following our breakdown of Emmy Comedy winner WIDOW’S BAY, this is your chance to get inside the Drama winner’s script, page by page, alongside someone who reads pilots for a living at the studio level.

If you’re writing a pilot, you already know the pressure points. Maybe you lean on time jumps to move the story forward, only to find your momentum stalls every time the clock resets. Maybe your ensemble blurs together on the page, and readers can’t tell who’s who by page 15. Or maybe you’ve convinced yourself you need a wildly original premise to stand out, when what’s really holding you back is execution. THE PITT faced every one of these challenges — a real-time format with no time jumps to hide behind, a full hospital’s worth of characters introduced inside a single hour, and the most familiar genre on TV — and turned them into the most-awarded drama run on television.

Leading this breakdown is Michael Schulman, Story Analyst for Amazon Studios, where he covers all submissions for development. In other words, he isn’t breaking this script down as a fan — he’s reading it the way the buyer does. Before Amazon, he was a story analyst and script consultant for Netflix’s Original Independent Film division, head of development for Michael Mann’s company on THE AVIATOR and ALI, and worked at Barry Mendel Productions on THE SIXTH SENSE and MUNICH. He also served as VP of Development for Alec Baldwin’s company at Orion and Dennis Quaid’s company at TriStar, and as an ICM literary agent, he brokered the deal for GROUNDHOG DAY. If his record-breaking Ask Me Anything in the Screenwriting Lounge is any indication, you won’t want to miss this one.

In this free webinar, you’ll learn how a studio story analyst evaluates a pilot from the first 10 pages on, how the “one episode, one hour, one shift” engine creates structure, stakes, and momentum, and how the pilot makes a dozen-plus characters distinct and playable in a single hour. You’ll also see how a familiar genre became Emmy history through execution alone — and what earns a REQUEST from the person whose coverage decides it. You’ll walk away knowing exactly how to apply these lessons to your own pilot, whatever the genre, so your pages are ready for the reader who matters most.