360° Festival 2010, Report 2: Writing Sitcom

After Paul Ashton's great introduction, Humphrey Barclay and Vanessa Haynes were next up with a session on writing sitcom.

Humphrey is a comedy legend who directed The Cambridge Footlights (John Cleese et al) and lots of radio and TV sitcoms, including Doctor in the House, A Fine Romance, Desmond’s, Spaced, etc. He is now, bizzarely, a Chief in Ghana!

Anyhoo, his Q & A was with Vanessa Haynes, who he worked with during the nineties. Vanessa has worked as a script editor on The Bill and now develops comedy and drama for Kudos Generator in the new office they have set up in Belfast, with the hope of finding new writing talent to take to network television and the nation. So, that’s all right then.

So, how did Humphrey start out?

He went to Cambridge, where he joined the drama groups, got lots of comedy parts, and was picked to do The Footlights. It was at about that time that the Monty Python lot came along and they all worked together, with Humphrey taking on the role of director. BBC radio, looking for new comedy talent, turned up and offered them all loads of work. Oh, the good old days! As a result, Humphrey developed and produced a lot of radio comedy. When Rediffusion was setting up (for you youngun’s, Redifussion was one of the original ITV contract holders for London) they offered him a job. Once there, Humphrey helped create shows such as “Do Not Adjust Your Set”. He also got Eric Idle from Monty Python to come up with ideas and people – Terry Jones, Michael Palin, Denise Coffey, David Jason.

Sitcom –there are some great ones and some truly awful ones. What is sitcom? What defines it?

Humphrey came up with a great definition of what makes a sitcom a sitcom. He really nailed it. Except our hero (me) didn’t manage to write it down in time. But it went something like this:

“An open-ended thirty minute TV series of comedy in narrative form, with some characters, in some setting, in some episodes. It’s called comedy because it’s primary intention is to amuse. And situation because it is always held/set in a permanent situation – occupational, familial, etc.”

And there you have it. Now, didn’t you think you knew that already. More to the point, could you write one? There were a few more words of wisdom Humphrey had to impart, which may help you on the way to sitcom heaven.

• The audience has a deep desire for the familiar. Like chess, like Wimbledon. Now, keep with me on this one, cause Humphrey had a good point here. What he meant was that we all know the rules of chess (errr…) and Wimbledon (err…) and, more to the point, we know what to expect from a game. At the same time, each game is different. So, great desire for the familiar, but surprise them.
• It has to be enclosed, so that we don’t waste time with setting and setting up. Compare the amount of sets and settings for something like My Family or Gavin and Stacey and dramas like Spooks.

VARIETIES OF SITCOM

Character based – Fawlty Towers

Relationship – Men Behaving Badly

Team – Doctor in the House

Romantic – Gavin and Stacey

Satire – The Thick Of It

Family – My Family

Occupational – The Vicar of Dibley

Star-based – The Cosby Show

Sci-Fi – Red Dwarf

What do they all have in common? They are all comic stories, featuring funny, original, interesting characters in conflicting relationships, built around a strong central idea that inexhaustibly generates comedy. That’s another sitcom definition in my book!

WHERE DO YOU START?

Humphrey gave the example of Desmonds (have a look at this pronto, young whipper-hipper-snappers). It’s basically a barber-shop comedy, but the barber-shop is West-Indian. It’s a family setup. It’s also a work comedy. And in the tradition of West-Indian barber shops, it’s the local drop-in centre for all and sundry. So far, so great, in terms of having a setting which allows for inexhaustible comedy ideas. A couple of other important points:

• Universal: you could take that show and set it anywhere. It was universal. And that is another important factor that you should have if you want a hit on your hands and lots of money in the bank – your concept has to be universal. However…
• Don’t try to appeal to everyone, or it won’t have a voice.
• Find your producer. They’re all different, and they all like different things. This is a good thing. The producer is out there who is gonna love your idea as much as you do, even when no-one else gets it.

And what makes a bad sitcom?

· Too long.

· Lack of focus.

It really comes down to characters in the end, and the two most important things to realize about character are:

• When they walk on we should know who and what they are.
• You, as a writer, walk all around them, and see all the other sides of them. Yes, you have to write types, but not stereotypes. Archetypes. And if you don’t know the difference between the two, don’t worry, that’s why I’m here. Well, that’s why wikipedia’s here. Have a gander at this.

PITFALLS

15 page introductions to ideas and scripts are NO GOOD and NO USE. It has to be on ONE (count ‘em…) ONE page.

Look at American sitcoms. They don’t have long speeches. Ours do. Which is better?

What makes the sitcom work has to be in Episode One. ie we have to know why we love it in episode one, and also what we are getting, so avoid making episode one all set up and not funny. It has to be the funniest episode. We will get the premise as it goes along, just give us a typically funny episode.

DON’T put things in brackets that the viewer doesn’t know and can’t see (ie character description). However, write things in the order they are seen. Ie. In the order you want the shots to pan out.

MULTI-CAMERA SITCOM

Played like theatre in front of a studio audience, with sets across a stage. There is ONE week of rehearsal and it is played out in real time, like a play, usually with 4 cameras in front of the stage to pick everything up and to move between sets, and then everything is mixed in the control room upstairs. Well, it used to be. Nowadays, it tends to be all recorded at this point and then mixed together later, which allows the director to choose the best shots. There are no LAUGHTER TRACKS, contrary to popular belief. Although, Humphrey did admit that the laughter was sometimes “augmented”.

Studio sitcoms also tend to have more jokes, which you should consider when deciding whether to write multi-camera with an audience or single camera. An audience-based sitcom usually has about 3 jokes to the page – if you have an audience sitting there, you have to keep the laughter coming.

When they were deciding on Spaced they decided NOT to go for a studio audience as the texture of the script was so reverential to film that it had to be cinematic in the way it was shot.

SINGLE CAMERA SITCOM

Shot like drama. Often on location. No audience. Not so many jokes.

Last minute advice from Humphrey?

Make page 1 fly!

Make sure your idea is open-ended, so don’t change or develop the situation too much. Surf your franchise – don’t change it!

The ideal pitch? 1 line, followed by a 3 line, followed by a paragraph.

And that's it! Thanks to Humphrey and Vanessa.

360° Festival 2010, Report 1: BBC Writersroom Paul Ashton - "The Perfect 10"

Right, so apparently everyone's gone off to Leeds to hob-nob with the great and the good, leaving the rest of us here to... to....

well, gnash our teeth in jealously.

But! Not to be outdone! I thought it might be a good time to post the reports from the BBC NI/Tinderbox Theatre Company 360° Writing Festival held this year (and, by the way, isn't that just the snappiest blog title you've just about ever read up there? Go on, have another look... Back? Classy stuff, eh?) They've already appeared elsewhere, but if you haven't seen them, or you're slogging away on the first 10 pages for your entry to this year's Red Planet Prize (you are entering, aren't you?), these pearls of wisdom from Mr Ashton might just be what you've been waiting for...

For those of you who didn't see the reports from last time (have a look down the sidebar of the blog and you'll find the links), it's four fun-packed days of talks, workshops and mingling with other writers on Film, Theatre, TV and Radio. And lots of BBC tea. And biscuits. Lots of biscuits.

So, without further ado (I’ve never written “ado” before. Is that how it’s spelt? Call myself a writer…) here’s the report from Day 1.

Paul Ashton – BBC Writersroom: The Perfect 10

Paul is the Development Producer at the Writersroom and a very nice bloke he is too. He started off by giving us an overview of their work, and revealing a recent success story for the writersroom.

Jo Ho had never been commissioned as a writer before sending in a script to the Writersroom. That script was read and she was discussed at a regular meeting the Writersroom has with drama department heads, etc . Even though they didn't commission the script, they liked the characters she had created. So Jo was called in, met some producers from CBBC and was commissioned to write a new series, “Spirit Warriors”, which is one of the most expensive series CBBC have ever produced.

So it does happen!! Paul did point out though that this is quite unusual...

There is an interview with Jo on the Writersroom, here.

Paul then went on to “The Perfect 10”. Even though this was based on the same talk Kate Rowland gave last year, Paul came at it slightly differently, and there was loads of great stuff in what he was saying.

A few opening facts/advice....

• 15% of what gets sent to the Writersroom gets past the 10 page sift.
• The first 10 pages have to grab the audience. Theatre and television have the luxury of a captive audience. Television and radio don’t, so get them hooked quickly! The first 10 pages have to do a lot! Even if it is a multi-character, multi-strand story. Even if it is a “slow-burner” story, it HAS to grab us immediately.
• DON’T send your script to them in a decorated box, with a hose inside and a poem on the lid. He then showed us a pic of someone who had done just that… And no, the script wasn’t very good.
• Very often the best letters they get with scripts are very simple. “Hello. This is me. Here’s my script. Hope you like it.” Let the script speak for you.

And on to the Perfect 10…

1. MEDIUM AND FORMAT

Choose the right medium/form and then challenge and subvert it. By form, Paul was talking about the form of television writing and the rules that go with that. You don’t need to re-invent the wheel. KNOW the wheel and then you can worry about trying to improve on it, but you can’t do it the other way round. There is a reason that tv writing works in a certain way and has certain rules – because it works. TV writing doesn’t come naturally to anyone. You have to master the form. To give a simple example, the more white on the page the better. Not to do so doesn’t mean that you are being clever, it means you have not mastered the form.

Say what you mean and mean what you say. Quite often they find with scripts that people think they know what they are saying, or that they are saying something, when in fact they’re not. Your theme needs to be stated early on, and stated clearly, and then followed through. It’s no use sending a script through saying “this is about loss” if that isn’t stated and followed through.

You have to write things that actors can do/show and you have to show in the script not tell. And by the way, there is a n actor on the Writersroom reading team.

In relation to putting camera angles, etc in your script (which has come up often on this site!), Paul said something which I thought was quite interesting. As a writer your job is to be in control of the character, story, plot and dialogue (and everything else that conveying the story might mean), so you don’t need to be in control of camera angles too! Don’t direct the camera. Mmmm… That’s gonna ruffle feathers…

2. GET THE STORY GOING

Hamlet. Act 1. Scene 1. A ghost turns up. Something’s wrong…! Shakespeare gets straight in there. There is no time to warm up. Hook the attention and hit the ground running. This does NOT necessarily mean an action sequence, but it does mean that the story should have already started when we come in. If the writer is using the beginning to work out the story and where it is going, fine, but that is a first draft. Don’t include it in the script you send in. Your story should have:-

• Momentum, purpose and direction
• Show characters in action
• Scenes should be the middle of a moment or near the end, not before the moment
• Don’t preface, set up, introduce – show, show, show!
• Beware of exposition and backstory

3. COHERENCE

• · Know your world and story.
• · Don’t try to do too much.
• · Know your genre and tone.
• · Give us a focused way in.

It works for Paul if he reads a script and he DOESN’T take notes, because he’s caught up in the script and in the world of the story.

A lot of writers want to be ambiguous. Be careful of this! It often means the writer doesn’t know what they want to say. Having said that, complex is brilliant! But ambiguous is tricky. To do either needs clarity in the writing.

Genre is not a bad word. It guides you and the audience. This comes back to that idea of some writers wanting to re-invent the wheel. Take something like “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” It is incredibly complex, but it is still, at the end of the day, a rom-com. So, you don’t need to be slavish to the genre, but you do need to use it, know it, and know how to use it.

Have a focused way into the script. This comes back to the first 10 pages. Take Shameless. It’s the story of a whole family of complex, mad characters in a very particular world, all of which needs to be set up. The usual way of doing that would be to open episode 1 with them all around the breakfast table. We meet them all. They all get to show who they are and where the live. What does Paul Abbot do? He takes the daughter (the driving character in series one) and opens with her in a disco far from the estate. She meets a guy and they have a bit of a run around over a stolen handbag, his gallant effort to get it back, etc. Their relationship will drive the opening episodes in many ways so this is what he opens with. Then they go back to the house, trip over a drunk dad and wake up the next day to… that breakfast scene with everyone. Seen through the eyes of an outsider – the boyfriend (for us the audience). So, he still sets up everyone, but it’s focused.

4. CHARACTER

This is the one thing you CAN’T get wrong, in the sense that, if you get this right, people (meaning the Writersroom and all those prodcos out there) will forgive you a lot. In fact, Paul said that it is really distressing to see a script that is perfect in every other way, in form and content, and yet you feel nothing for the characters. If you are going to get anything right and everything else wrong, get the characters right!

Definition and Definitions: Character comes from Greek and means a stick which makes a mark, an indelible mark you can’t rub out. What is it that is DISTINCT about your characters? There have been hundreds of characters on EastEnders over the years. How many do you remember? Those are the ones you need to create. And its HARD!

Vivid and Compelling on an Emotional Level: If you don’t make the audience FEEL something for the character, you’re in trouble. The audience has to want to spend time with them.

Desire/Need/Problem/Obstacle/Journey: If your characters don’t REALLY need anything or have a journey then you are in trouble. We want to watch people trying to get something, and trying hard, and having lots of problems getting there, or not getting there.

Individual, not cliché, distinctive: What makes your characters not like characters we have already seen. Your characters individuality is shown by action, by what they do. In Robert McKee’s ‘Story’ he gives the example of a group of characters at a bus stop when suddenly there is an explosion. What each person does after that – runs away, helps, leaves their friend to help someone else – REVEALS character.

See the world from their point of view: Everyone sees things ever so slightly differently. How does your character see things differently?

5. EMOTION

Stories matter on a human level: Why tell your story? And why does it MATTER? Your story should not be a distraction, it should be ESSENTIAL.

Explore concepts via characters: It’s easy to get lost in concepts, but they have to be coherent. Always pull yourself back to the character.

Empathy/connection/vulnerability/fear: You have to feel something for the characters. How will the audience connect with them?

Emotion = the universal element: They Full Monty was a story which was VERY particular to a time and place in recent history and yet the emotion of a disenfranchised man who has lost his job is told well, so it works.

Physical Effect: A good script should have a physical effect on the reader. It should make you laugh, cry, sweat, have palpitations, and hopefully all of them. What is the physical effect that you are hoping each of your scenes will have on your reader? Every scene. That’s a good test of the worth of a scene! Make sure you have this in your plans for each scene. If the effect is “That’s okay”, well, that’s not good enough. And that works for all genres.

6. SURPISE

What have you done in your script that no other writer would do? Remember:

• · Cliché and predictability kills story.
• · There are a finite number of archetypes
• · You need to have a fresh take, a unique perspective, an original touch.

In “Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou?” the writers told the story of Odysseus by Homer. It has all the elements of the Homer telling, but it is totally different. Take the archetype and do something surprising with it. What are YOU going to bring to the story? Which is of course linked to your voice as a writer.

7. STRUCTURE

Unfortunately, Paul began to run out of time at this point and had a plane to catch (!), so the rest of the perfect 10 were summarized, but…

Story IS structure.

Beginnings, Middle and Ends – know the beginning and the end and then get your characters as lost and all over the place as you possibly can in the middle.

The story must be going somewhere, even if as an audience we are not aware of it, so that we get to the end and we think “ah, that was where it was going. Of course, it makes so much sense now.”

Make sure the structure has lots of peaks and troughs and is not just a flat line.

Make sure there is a dynamic purpose for EVERY story beat, sequence, scene, moment.

8. EXPRESSION

People don’t tell each other things they already know in an obvious way, so don’t have characters do it in your script for the sake of exposition.

Good dialogue expresses character.

Bad dialogue relates/explains.

Don’t write on the nose – subtext is key! However, you can’t write subtext, but with good writing and characters it will be there.

9. PASSION

Does your story keep you up at night?

Are you compelled to write it?

Expedience = Dilution and Second Guessing is Pointless i.e. don’t write what you think you should be writing to get on, or what you think Writersroom or anyone else wants.

10. YOU

Have an individual, distinct, original writer’s “voice”

Write a script that no other writer could have written the WAY you have written it.

And that’s it. Easy!

Oh, and one final piece of advice from Paul…

Send us a script, but not before it’s READY!!!

Paul gave a great session, full of lots of useful advice, a lot of which we may have heard before, but sitting there mentally ticking off whether I was including everything he was talking about in my latest script, I realized there is always something you need to go back to, something you’ve missed, something you can improve on.

So, get writing!

Actually, that was the first part of day 1, but I think that’s enough for now. And I’m falling asleep. And the cat’s trying to catch the cursor on my screen, stupid animal, so I’m going to bed. The second part of Day 1, Humphrey Barclay on Comedy Writing for TV, will come tomorrow. As will the lowdown on the networking session. Bet you can’t wait…

Episode Breakdown to scene...

Update: Just noticed the dodgy formating. Fixed! Sorry about that!

Right, so having had my little Carrigstown tour, I was sent off with my Episode Breakdowns and given a week to write up my scenes.

So, what is an Episode Breakdown, John?

I'm glad you asked that. Basically, the Scene Breakdown Document (to give it it's full title) is a (roughly) 10 page document which describes/breaks down the episode in question for the writer to then write up in to the full episode. It starts off with a cover page detailing general info - the episode number, transmission date, the time it takes place in that day (from 8:30 to 20:30 for example), what the daylight is for that day (so you know if the sun sets at 20:00, anything you set after that will have to be a night scene). There's then a list of the studio sets available that week and the scenes due to take place in each one:

THE PUB - scenes 2, 5, 7, 10, for example.

There is also a similar list for the lot:

OUTSIDE THE PUB - scenes 3, 8, 11.

Next there's a list of the characters due to appear that week, again with a list of scenes they are due to appear in for that episode. As I said last time, you do have the option of putting extra (available) characters in scenes, if it fits with the story.

Next, the SCENE LIST. In Fair City, the episode breakdown lays out the A, B and C stories, already worked out and in the order they should appear. Generally, there are between 18-20 scenes per episode, with half before the commercial break and half after. Obviously, more scenes are given to the A story, then the B and finally the C. There may also be a bit of a D story in some episode. The balance of scenes between A, B and C really depends on how important each story is in that episode. If you have two very important story strands coming to a head in one episode, your A and B stories may well be fairly equally balanced. The A story tends to open the episode in scene 1. We will then come back to it throughout the episode but it usually also includes the scene before the commercial break, the scene immediately after, and the last scene leading into the cliff.

So, the scene list will have something like:

SCENE 1: LOUIE TELLS YVONNE THAT HE DOESN'T THINK

THEY HAVE A FUTURE

LOCATION: LOT X BEER GARDEN

CHARS: LOUIE, YVONNE

and so on. The scene list provides a brief overview of the episode. Next up, we have the breakdown proper, which takes the Scene List and adds a bit more detail for the writer. So, taking the same scene as above, we'd also have:

TIME: 8:45

Louie and Yvonne are setting up for the day. Louie

doesn’t feel he can trust Yvonne and doubts their future

together. Yvonne tries to convice Louie that nothing

happened with her ex. Yvonne becomes irritated when

Louie wont believe her.

And that's it.

So, how did you choose the scenes, John?

Well, now. Therein lies the rub. For the trial, the task is to take 4 episode breakdowns, choose one and then choose 4 scenes from that episode to write them up. And, to be honest, for me that was the most difficult bit. Choosing the scenes. I read the breakdowns and saw loads of potential scenes and storylines and nice character moments all over the place - some nice comedy, lots of drama, good stuff. And so it should be. That's the point. The episode treatments should be full of drama and intrigue and comedy and character. But it doesn't make that choice very easy. Basically, with 20 scenes per episode and 4 episodes, that's 80 scenes to choose from. Too much choice! Aaarrgh!

In the end... well, in the end, I just chose. I didn't apply some scientific rationale, or process of elimination, or... anything. The main decision to make is do you take one story from an episode and follow it through? Thereby showing you can tell a story over an episode, follow the arc, develop the characters sufficiently, know the characters sufficiently to do it and keep up the pace/interest. OR, do you choose a mix of scenes? Showing that you can do comedy and drama. And that you know a whole host of the show's characters well enough to write them.

And the answer is... I have no bloody idea. I just went for it, chose an A story from one episode and wrote it up. That did mean I'd restricted my characters to only three because of the story, but there you go. What can I say? I liked it, I wrote it. If I'd thought about it any more, my head was going to explode. The only thing I did do was that the last scene before the cliff was set in the pub, so I took loads of other characters from the episode, looked at their storylines during that week, and then added loads of little moments in for them in that last scene, in and around the core scene from the breakdown. It wasn't much (and made the scene much longer than it needed to be) but I hoped it showed that I could (and wasn't scared of) writing for the other characters. Or it showed that I was incredibly stupid, had no clue what I was doing, didn't understand how the show worked, and didn't get the characters. But hey, at least there'd be no sitting on the fence!

So, how did you approach writing the scenes, John?

My, you are asking very intelligent questions, if I do say so myself. Ok, so, without stating the obvious (which I'm going to do anyway), how do you write scenes when you already know what is going to happen, you don't have to invent the plot, someone else has decided what is going to happen, where and with which characters? So, you just have to write the dialogue, right? Easy. Well, not quite.

First off, the script editor had given me the 4 episode breakdowns and the corresponding scripts for the week following "mine". So, I sat down and read the breakdowns and then the scripts. And boy am I glad I did that. It was a real eye-opener. The writers had taken those scene descriptions, completely respected them, but then added loads to them. How? It depended. Sometimes they'd added characters to the scene, which just gave it a different dynamic. Or they added little character moments before the scene breakdown bit, just to contrast with the main scene, or create humour, or to give the scene more of an arc. Sometimes they even changed what was in the breakdown which is fine, as long as the characters get to the same point by the end of the episode (and you don't invent a new family member for them in your "change"). And sometimes they just... enriched the scenes. Which I think was a combination of all the above, combined with really knowing the characters and the show. I've read many times that the key to working on a soap is to know the show, know the characters. Now, I was beginning to see why that was so important.

Right, having had the pants impressed off me by what the show's writers had done, how was I going to make my scenes sing? I went back to my notes from my meeting with the script editor of how to approach the scenes. I then combined these with things I'd picked up from various blogs, websites, books and real live people on scene structure and approach. And came up with a list:

Dynamic?

How do characters arc through the scene? e.g. starts off happy and content, then confused, then angry, then shocked and broken. How does this dynamic contribute to the characters dynamic through the episode? What could you add to the scene to increase the difference between a character's dynamic at the beginning to the end of a scene? You should be able to draw this dynamic as a line on a graph. The position of the line should be different for each character at the end of the scene than it was at the beginning. The same for the beginning and end of the episode. The more ups and down in the graphs, the more dynamic the scenes, the better the episode.

Other chars?

Could you add other characters to the scene? Who is available? How would various characters change the scene? Do they add anything worthwhile to the story of the scene?

Who Gains?

Who gains in the scene? What do the gain?

Who loses?

Who loses? What?

Conflict?

Where is the conflict in the scene? Are you starting the scene as the conflict starts? Are you ending it before it is resolved? Do you want to resolved it here? Is there inner conflict for char(s)?

NOTE: Conflict is NOT always arguing!

What do chars want?

What do they actively want in the scene? Do they achieve it?

What do chars need?

What do the characters need to learn/know/realise (they may have no idea that they need to learn/know/realise anything)? Do they? Why? Why not?

How do chars change by the end of the scene?

In mood, dynamic, resolve, character. They ALL should change in some way.

Jeopardy?

What is at jeopardy for each of the characters? What are they fighting to save?

Choices they make?

What character-revealing choice does each character make? Is this choice forced on them? Could it be?

Where is the truth of the scene/char/situation?

Take a step back and look at the situation these characters are in. What is the truth of that situation? What does/could it tell us about human nature? What does it tell us about them? This doesn't need to be something huge. It could be something fairly banal, but revealing the truth of a banal situation. The scene is set in the morning? How can you make it less generic than the "morning" scenes we usually see on the telly? What do you do in the morning that you've never seen on telly? Keep it clean, now! Remeber that 8 yr old viewer.

What does the scene reveal about the chars?

Where is the potential in the set up/scene to show the truth of that character? What would they really be like in the morning? What would be so them to do? Or where can you show their insecurities, secrets, inner self in this situation?

What is the thing that we relate to as an audience?

Where is the universal truth in this little morning scene? Again, pulling it out of the generic, what will draw the audience in because they recognize and relate to how you are presenting these characters in this situation.

Ideas?

Anything else that I think might add to the scene?

References?

Any references to previous storylines, character traits that might add to the scene.

Physical/Visual?

Is there any way of using anything other than dialogue to tell the story and change the dynamic of the scene?

Cliff? Hook?

So, there's the cliff at the end of the episode. And another half-way through for the commercial break. But could you have a little cliff at the end of your scene? Can you make your scene end with a question, reveal, doubt that will make the audience decide they want to sit through the next couple of scenes because they want to see what happens next?

Of course, you don't have to answer ALL these questions for ALL the characters in all the scenes. Some of them just won't be relevant. But I found that asking these questions and writing down the answers forced me to push the scenes and characters in different directions. I started coming up with loads of different ways of looking at the scenes, making them more/less dramatic, seeing how those characters would really deal with that situation. I probably spent an hour or so on each scene going through this stuff, but it added so much. Most importantly, I got to the end and felt that I wasn't just joining someone else's dots in the episode breakdown.

Then I wrote the scenes and changed everything.

But that's cool. Going through the scenes, looking at the possibilities was what allowed me to come up with the scenes that I did.

Anything else, John?

Now, let me see.

If the show is 20 scenes on average and 23 minutes (or thereabouts) then you are talking about 2 pages a scene. Not much when you are trying to show conflict, character reveal, arcs, truth, what the chars want/need, and the rest. But hey, who said it was easy?

Having chosen my scenes, I realised that they depended on knowing what happened during the story in the previous week. That created a bit of a dilemma - call the script editor and risk annoying her by asking lots of questions? Or find a way of writing around those story elements?

I really liked the scenes I'd chosen, but if you'd asked me which characters I would have chosen to write about for my trial, I would never have chosen the characters in that plot. I didn't feel as if I knew them particularly well. Or that they had very distinctive voices. How wrong I was! Going through the scenes, exploring the characters, I got to know them much better and realised how much watching the show for the past year was paying off. It goes back to the same thing I was saying earlier - you suddenly realise that knowing the show and the characters is key to writing soap.

And that was it. Except to say that I absolutely and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'd always felt that I'd love to write for soap. I'd always felt that I'd enjoy it. And it was a great kick to have that confirmed. I had a ball. And going back to that whole "where's the fun in writing when you can't make up what happens?" thing, it really wasn't an issue. There were other challenges, other ways to be creative, other satisfactions in feeling I was getting the voices right or knowing how a character would behave.

So, what next, John?

I'm glad you asked that, faithful reader. So, I finished the scenes, did a bit a re-writing and cutting, decided they were still too long but to hell with it. So, I hit "send" and off whizzed my email and my scenes.

I sat in front of the computer, staring at the inbox. I'd heard that an answer could take between 4 and 6 months. Having spend a week thinking about nothing but the ups and downs of Carrigstown life, the thought of a 6 month wait wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear. Still, that's the way it goes. It's always the waiting game. So, I decided not to stare at the inbox any more. 6 months of that was going to do my head in. And off I went to make a cup of tea and think about what was next. Finish that script I'd been writing...? Still enough time to do Red Planet...?

I sat down in front of the computer to make decisions.

And an email in my inbox.

From the script editor.

Oh, Jesus...!

She'd had a quick read and liked the scenes! Wey-hey! And she'd be back in a few weeks to discuss the edits.

Eh?

Edits?

No idea what that means, but I don't care. Looks like I got past the first post!

Now, for passing all the others. Posts, that is.

Whatever.

Loving this...

A stroll around Carrigstown...

Right, so where were we?

As I posted here, a few weeks ago I got an invite to come and meet a script editor from Fair City, see the sets, meet the team and talk a bit more about the trial scenes process. So, a couple of weeks ago I headed down to Dublin on the good old Enterprise. No, not that one, this one.

[We like our cross-border ideas big in Ireland… I love it though. Chugging along through the Mournes and down the coast to Dublin couldn’t be more different from Star Trek. Still, if you’ve never done it, parts of it are absolutely beautiful. And rainy. Obviously.]

I arrived at Connolly Station and took the Dart out to Sandymount – suburban and leafy and all rather nice – and with plenty of time to spare to find RTE HQ.

I then got completely lost.

Which wasn’t helped by the fact that four different Dubliners sent me in completely different directions. And to put this in context, this is like asking where the BBC is when you’re in standing in White City. Or arriving at Wembley and asking where the stadium is. Ok, so you can’t see it from the station, but it’s big, famous and close and these are locals, and… well, let's just say that as I stamped back down a road I’d just walked down for 10 minutes, I was not best pleased. It was hot. I had a rucksack on my back. And I had images of me arriving at an air-conditioned RTE and having to wait for the script editor to arrive with just enough time for me to soak my t-shirt through in sweat and develop a nice film on my forehead.

And now I was late! Doing that thing of trying to keep calm. Cause it won’t help to panic. And people are nice. And they’ll understand. But… I. WAS. LATE.

Anyway, I found it eventually (cause it’s freaking huge and how could anyone who lived there not know how to find it, and… ok, it’s over. Let go… Breathe…) and waited in reception. Sweating. Did I mention it was air-conditioned?

The script editor arrived and was lovely and fab and funny and interesting and interested. She didn’t even screw up her face when she shook my clammy, sweaty hand. Instead, she took me to the canteen. Which was full of actors from the show hanging out and… well, not doing much really. Drinking coffee and having a fag. Still, I was impressed.

We found a table and she took me through what they are looking for in the show and how to approach the trial scenes. This is the point where I give you lots of insight into the process, invaluable to your scriptwriting and your future television career. But to be honest, a lot of it was the kind of stuff that we see and read about all the time. Common sense stuff about writing scenes which are true for all scriptwriting, not just developing soap episode treatments into scripts. So, the usual suspects - turning points, conflict, character arcs across the episode and the scene. Who gains in the scene? Who loses? How have the characters changed by the end of the scene? What’s the dynamic of the scene for each character? Make sure each character ends the scene in a different place from where they started. What do the chars want? What do they need? What is the difference? Where’s the jeopardy? What choices are they forced to make?

Which is not to say that this stuff wasn’t useful. It was great to sit down with her and go over it. And it was even better to know what the hell she was talking about, which I may not have done a few years ago. At least I felt I should be there. And there were a couple of things that were new or that I didn’t necessarily expect to be on her list, or that she made me think about in a different way. And so I shall repeat them for your benefit. Cause I’m good like that.

What’s the truth of the situation?

Ok, so we should always be looking at this in any scene or story we are developing. But what struck me here was that you’re being given the story. It’s not yours. You have to then find the truth for you in that story. That’s what will make your take on that scene different from everyone else’s, even if they’ve been given the same treatment. So, dig deep for the truth of the situation for the characters.

Other characters.

At the beginning of the Scene Treatment is a list of the characters who are available to appear that week and the scenes they are due to appear in for that episode. Now, you may have a scene breakdown which says, “Scene 1: Char A tells Char B that their relationship is over. Char B says that they never loved A in the first place.” So far, so good. But what you can do is look through the character list and see who else is available and add them in to change the dynamic of the scene. If it makes sense. And doesn’t impact on other episodes. So don't have Char C come in and say that they are glad the relationship is ending cause they have always secretly fancied A and now want to propose to them, even though they’ve been having an affair with B for the past year.

Format

She actually went on about this quite a lot – spelling, punctuation, etc. For Fair City, the script has to be in a certain format, as it is then taken and “read” but a program which creates scripts and documents for the various departments. I didn’t really understand the ins and outs of it, but basically you have to get it right and not leave out punctuation or put it in the wrong place or it messes up the system and someone has to go through your script and fix the problems. And that’s annoying. Very Important Rule: Don’t be annoying!

What can the audience relate to in the scene?

Soaps are slated for being melodramatic and silly. But when they work well, they reflect the audience’s lives back to them. This can we in huge plots and experiences that the characters go through, which the audience can relate to. But it can also be in tiny little moments. Again, this goes back to finding the truth in the characters and the situation.

What’s the hook?

Ideally, every scene should have a hook at the end, not just the scene before the ads or the end scene. Find a little hook for the scene that makes the audience want to wait for the follow up scene later in the episode which comes back to that thread.

Remember the eight year old.

It’s a family audience. That means there are lots of eight year olds out there watching with their parents (or on their own). Keep that in mind in terms of content and language.

After all that, it was on to the exciting bit – onto the sets! The script editor took me around the standing (permanent) sets, which are all in one studio. These are mostly the community “meeting” sets – McCoy’s pub, Vino’s, Phelan’s shop, the Community Centre, etc. and are all together in one studio. Then there is another studio with sets needed for that week, and which relate to that week's stories. So, the way the stories are told for that week are dictated to a large extent by the sets. But on Fair City you don’t really need to worry about that as the story team set out where each individual scene takes place in the Episode Treatment. So, it’s all done for you. With other soaps, they give you the stories for the episode – A story, B story, C story and a list of possible locations, and you have to match them up. That’s how Emmerdale works, and I think EastEnders does the same. Anyway, the most striking thing about seeing the sets is realizing how small they are. Incredible. Next up, it was off to the lot!

We headed out the back of RTE and to the Fair City lot. This is where they’ve build streets of the fictional Carrigstown. It’s amazing. There’s the run of shops and pubs along one side, a row of houses, the garage. It all looks fab. And everything ends half way back. So the roof extends up and… nothing. They were filming the day we were there, so there were lots of extras at each end of the street and cars piled up, ready to stream past in the background of the scene. Makes you realise how complicated it all is, but great fun to see.

And… that was it. The script editor gave me a week’s worth of episodes to read for July (ooh, spoilers!) and the relevant episode breakdowns, so that I could see how the writer had developed what was in the treatment to the final script. She also sent me the scene breakdowns from the week before. I had to choose four scenes from one episode and write them up. Fabulously. And I had a week.

Which is loads of time, right?

Eek!

Next time, I’ll go through the Episode Breakdowns and writing the scenes. And believe me, it ain’t nearly as easy as it sounds…

Red Planet Prize 2010 Announcement.... Update...

So, it's finally arrived...

The Red Planet Prize 2010 launches tomorrow - 4th June.

Details...

This year the competition is being run by Red Planet Pictures and Kudos Film and Television.

This year’s competition is for an original 60 minute television script, either a single play or a pilot for a new series.

You are initially required to submit the first ten pages along with a short synopsis. The full script should be available on request, you may be required to submit this within a month of the final closing date.

As before, the winner will receive £5000, a script commission and the option of representation if required.

Red Planet and Kudos will also mentor finalists for the Prize.The competition is open to anyone within the UK. The RED PLANET PRIZE with close to new entrants at midnight on 31st July.

Here's the link:

http://www.redplanetpictures.co.uk/prize.php

There is also some additional info and rules here

http://www.redplanetpictures.co.uk/competition

which is where you can also upload your entry.

So.

There you go.

Who's going for it, then?

UPDATE!!

Couple if things which people have asked about, are talking about, don't seem to have noticed in the rules. As far as I can work out...

1. Only ONE submission per person.

2. You can't re-submit something that has already been rejected in previous years.

3. I could of course be wrong, but the's what the rules says from what I sees.

I have nothing more to add.

The Marvellous Sally Brockway...

My mate just won a competition.

BBC Writersroom announced a competition just after the election for 5-10 minute "quick reaction" plays to post online. And my old mate Sally Brockway from Sharpshooters got shortlisted and a good old mention here. Which I think is all rather marvellous. The divine Ms Brockway was also a runner up in the last Red Planet Prize. Talent oozing from her. She's one to watch, I tell you...

What a star!