bushbaby
Wednesday 20th August 2008 12:12am [Edited]
3,508 posts
Quote: simon wright @ August 19 2008, 8:57 PM BST
Griff is absolutely spot on. Of course lights down then up again indicates a passage of time, what we were getting (and was driving us nuts) was 'Lights down.'
'Lights up again. The same. Wednesday.' When there was absolutely nothing in the dialogue whatever to indicate how much time had passed. For logistical reasons the set will barely have changed (if it's changed significantly to indicate a substantial passage of time then you're taking liberties with the audience's patience)so how does the audience know, unless it's through explicit dialogue or a device like Griff's placards (which worked well) whether it's 5 minutes later or 5 weeks?
The advice about writing episode three (for example) was so that writers didn't waste their precious 15 minutes in clumsy (and usually unfunny) exposition. Don't spend 10 minutes explaining where we are when the compere can simply say; 'our next sitcom is set in a hotel in Torquay, and it's run by the kind of man who probably shouldn't be dealing with the public.'
The powers that be.
Simon, this is really driving me daft.
the example I gave...i.e Sondheim's Merrily We Go Along...has many scenes which go over about 40 years, we just know as an audience that time has passed, in addition to which, the story goes 'backwards' and forwards, with respect...we're not thick!!!
I can well understand your other reasons for rejection...i.e....an airoplane lands etc, but 'next day',....'same day'....purlease, your directors can't get their heads around that?
Well, you know the S bend in a toilet, I can't get my head round that either.