Quote: chipolata @ May 15 2009, 2:49 PM BSTYeah, sorry, I don't really put much thought into my posts.
It's okay. I am just feeling Yoda like today!
Script hijacked Page 5
Quote: Marc P @ May 15 2009, 2:48 PM BSTWhat I mean is that within the mechanics of your drama - you show their character rather than have them simply articulate it in the way you mean. We get to choose the exact moment we meet our characters after all - so it makes sense to organise that meeting and have them doing something that delineates them in the best way possible. Common sense really. And if it is a sitcom rather than a drama - make it funny too.
You'll get no argument from me there.
Quote: Griff @ May 15 2009, 2:51 PM BSTI thought you said you didn't see my Sitcom Trials.
Quote: Marc P @ May 15 2009, 2:50 PM BSTIt's okay. I am just feeling Yoda like today!
Let's keep your sexual urges out of it. 
Quote: chipolata @ May 15 2009, 2:52 PM BSTYou'll get no argument from me there.
Let's keep your sexual urges out of it.
This is my most ever quotes in one post.
Quote: Marc P @ May 15 2009, 2:37 PM BSTThey should know your characters as soon as we meet them.
I guess what I meant by 'invested' was 'fond of.' Although with good writing an audience can know and sympathise with a character quickly, everything gets ratcheted up a notch if the audience are genuinely fond of them too. I think that, just as in real life, a 'fondness' for a character takes longer and sometimes the writer can be ahead of the audience on this.
I'm not sure Rodney's scene in the lift would've been as poignant if that episode had been the first time we'd met him, for example.
Quote: clueless @ May 15 2009, 3:59 PM BSTI guess what I meant by 'invested' was 'fond of.' Although with good writing an audience can know and sympathise with a character quickly, everything gets ratcheted up a notch if the audience are genuinely fond of them too. I think that, just as in real life, a 'fondness' for a character takes longer and sometimes the writer can be ahead of the audience on this.
I'm not sure Rodney's scene in the lift would've been as poignant if that episode had been the first time we'd met him, for example.
I know what you mean Careless. I don't think I totally agree though.
I still think you can get an audience to 'cry' for a character within half an hour of meeting them in a story. It's just not easy. You have to create the three dimensional characters Chip was talking about, and put them in a cracking emotionally charged story that is told very well.
Quote: Marc P @ May 15 2009, 5:08 PM BSTI still think you can get an audience to 'cry' for a character within half an hour of meeting them in a story.
I agree with this in theory. Can't think of any sitcom examples, though.
Quote: Marc P @ May 15 2009, 11:27 AM BSTI've heard this a lot over the years and what a load of bollocks. Have you ever tried picking up a rock let alone throwing one at someone in a tree. The likelihood is it wouldnt go very far and maybe might even land on your own head. Pebbles I can go with, stones sure, but rocks.... come on! Who writes these rules?
Hah. Now throwing a load of bollocks up a tree would be some serious fun!
There's a load of bollocks on television so maybe that's true! And the expression get your rocks off, for example, puts the substitution of rocks for bollocks into common parlance!
Quote: Marc P @ May 15 2009, 5:08 PM BSTI still think you can get an audience to 'cry' for a character within half an hour of meeting them in a story.
You're helped considerably by the fact that the audience wants to be made to cry, or feel some sort of strong emotion. I know I do, which is why I tune inj in the first place. And films manage to make you care about the characters within ninety minutes or so.
Quote: hey_nonny @ May 14 2009, 2:44 PM BST"Should a sitcom be funny all the way through?"
Not if I don't want it to be, I can write anything I like, if the script is strong enough with plenty of laughs until the last scene it should be able to support the end.
Apologies to Def who's already said this, much more concisely than I.
True, but one of the saddest moments of all time in a sitcom - Last episode of BlackAdder 4 as they go over the top, shocked and doubtless made many viewers like me, cry when they watched it. That scene is played tragically, sensitively, with great pathos but above all it's has good laughs.
The answer is that you can, and really should, do both.
Quote: hey_nonny @ May 15 2009, 11:50 AM BSTthe Americans are great at bastardizing the English language.
*bastardising
One things that seems rarely mentioned in all this talk of how to write a sitcom is to write not just obviously funny, strong dialogue and visual funnies, but also keep in mind the acting of your script.
I really try to make sure that in a script I have given leeway for actors to be able to really improve it by 1) giving some lines where I know the laugh depends on the delivery as much as the line, 2) not writing them as stage directions, but knowing where a physical reaction by an actor might bring a laugh, or create a bittersweet moment, and 3) wherever a scene might be somewhat more serious, making sure there is enough of points 1) and 2) to keep it light-hearted.
Don't underestimate an experienced reader's ability to "act" the script in their head. And don't underestimate your actors - ie not being able to make a scene funny by their performance - and just using them as a vehicle to speak your hilarious lines.
I personally start out with a very rough idea of who my characters are and find as I write and rewrite, they somehow start to show their various traits and become three dimensional.
Apologies if this sounds poncey, but it works for me.
Quote: hey_nonny @ May 13 2009, 7:45 AM BSTthose bloody characters I created hijacked the script and started doing their own things.
Don't you just hate it when that happens? Best of luck with it though.