Writing The Tunnel TV: Building a World One Scene at a Time
Devin Lockett on the origins of the series — the characters, the setting, and the decision to shoot an independent scripted drama on the streets of Los Angeles. Before a single frame was captured, the work was on the page: mapping who these people are, what they want, and how the neighborhoods around them shape those wants. Building a world one scene at a time means treating each location as a character in its own right, not just a backdrop.
Screenwriters often distinguish between story — the full chronological set of events — and plot, the deliberate arrangement of those events for dramatic effect. Much of the craft in The Tunnel TV lives in that gap: deciding what to reveal, what to withhold, and when. Classic narrative models such as the three-act structure offer a familiar spine, but an independent series can also bend chronology, open in the middle of the action, and let character drive the shape of the telling.
The goal throughout is authenticity over spectacle. Real characters and real neighborhoods, rendered scene by scene, so that the world feels lived-in rather than assembled — an approach rooted as much in observation as in formal screenwriting technique.
Sources: Ohio State University, Intro to Film; Oklahoma State University, Intro to Film & TV
