Quote: Seefacts @ June 16 2008, 11:50 PM BSTI re-plotted, put in a couple of nice call backs and finished my tentative re-draft of my pilot.
Call backs are great - and not often discussed here.
Writing for a commercial channel Page 6
Quote: David H @ June 17 2008, 10:06 AM BSTDon't mean to be rude, Seefacts, but how could you write a sitcom with no plot? People bantering away for half an hour with no substance you can get down the pub.
"Not going out" comes to mind.
Quote: David Chapman @ June 19 2008, 10:29 PM BST"Not going out" comes to mind.
That has plot, but you forget that it does due to the high gag count.
Quote: Seefacts @ June 19 2008, 11:42 PM BSTThat has plot, but you forget that it does due to the high gag count.
Are you sure? I've never noticed one!
Quote: David Chapman @ June 19 2008, 11:43 PM BSTAre you sure? I've never noticed one!
Noticed a plot?
Yeah, it does, but it's never got any great depth it's just a vague skeleton to hang as many gags as possible off.
Quote: Seefacts @ June 19 2008, 11:54 PM BSTNoticed a plot?
Yeah, it does, but it's never got any great depth it's just a vague skeleton to hang as many gags as possible off.
I haven't missed anything then.
A plot doesn't have to be complicated. Dad's Army - quite simple plots - still my favourite sitcom.
Just has to have three acts.
Some say ITV and american sitcoms have two acts - getting into trouble getting out of trouble but I don't believe them. Three acts for a sitcom plot I say.
Quote: JohnnyD @ June 19 2008, 7:31 PM BSTCall backs are great - and not often discussed here.
What are Call backs?
Discuss....
Def.
In sitcoms it can be done just with dialogue too - like Seinfeld. It's a great tool to use, and makes the episode nicely self-contained.
It's called a running gag.
Quote: Marc P @ June 20 2008, 10:47 AM BSTIt's called a running gag.
I'd say that was slightly different though.
A running gag get mentioned, maybe, three or four times maybe but a call back might get set up at the start, and then brought up at the end - Seinfeld stylee!
In a sense any well constructed story should link the end to the beginning.
Sometimes the end is a very good place to start.
Quote: Marc P @ June 20 2008, 1:13 PM BSTIn a sense any well constructed story should link the end to the beginning.
Sometimes the end is a very good place to start.
Story, yeah, of course. In fact working backwards is a brilliant way of making yourself look like a master of plots!
But I'm talking about smaller aspects of a script.
I don't have any small aspects to my scripts. If you have watched Blazing Saddles you will know what I mean when I say I am from Havana.
Quote: Marc P @ June 21 2008, 7:51 PM BSTI don't have any small aspects to my scripts. If you have watched Blazing Saddles you will know what I mean when I say I am from Havana.
Are you trying to tell me you've got a massive knob?