The Sitcom Project: Devil's Blurb Page 5

Hi Mate thats for having a look I'd like to make a few comments if I may on your post.

Quote: takeabow @ April 21, 2007, 2:22 PM

Here's some thoughts on team writing and process.
For bigger teams you need one person in charge, who coordinates the whole project and in the event of a consensus view not being reached, will make the decision. Everyone needs to buy into that agreement up front.
It should be made very clear upfront what the style, tone, premise of the show is and overall approach for working collectively. If people aren't 100% behind that at the beginning they should drop out now - trust me, it will only cause problems later!

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I totally agree with you on this point, we have currently got a deadline for the treatment to be finsihed tomorrow, I would like input from the other writers to iron any doubts they may have out and also incorperate prehaps better ideas making the whole thing stronger and merge together better.

Once you have your team agreed, you should agree who owns what - in % terms. Not talking about issuing contracts here, but just so everyone is clear on who gets what to avoid misunderstandings later.

As far as I'm concerned this is Charely's idea. So credit and ownership remains with her.

Looking at your structure thus far, one observation is you're carving everything up with individuals (or pair of individuals) writing stuff on their own(s). E.g. you have two different script editors, you should have one.

Finally, I would ask what is your (as a group) overall objective for this project?

Personally it's experience working with other writers.

takeabow please don't think I'm being off mate I do value your input and I'm not being funny...I should be trying right? I'm by no means a professional but having your input has definately given me food for thought so thank you. Maybe I'm suffer pig headed writer syndrome lol

We could all have our own characters and be responsible for them, that way we write with each other on scenes. Eg. If i were to be Elza Bob and Gavin was Dev Elson I would write with gav on those scenes. If say Leevil was the victims he would write with Gavin or I or whoever that sketch was with. That way the characters have individualness and structure. Writing styles will be the same throughout. Just a thought.

Maybe instead of trying to get the situation right, we should get the characters sorted first. How many many characters do we want? I think four normally works best.

A young innocent girl joins what appears to be a normal office, doing what appears to be an ordinary job. And at first nothing seems out of place. But as she settles in and becomes more entrusted into the company things start to be apparent to her that this is no ordinary office after all.

She's also not completely welcomed by everyone and normally someone like her wouldn't get a job there. But due to Equal Opportunities in employment this office must except at least one of her kind.

At first the viewer is lead to believe she is the one not to trust. But it's soon revealed that the office and all of it's workers are something more, something devilish.

And the reason she wouldn't realise the true nature of the office straight away is because everything would be disguised in some weird PR talk.

We need, Dev, Elza, 2 other workers and a newcomer first. Then if we are going for the good/evil workers we need a few of them. Then we need souls so that depends if it will be one per epo or more.We should also have 1 person who sets up scenes.

PS lurved your idea Leevil. We would have to make sure it wasnt to Devils Advocate but i liked it.

Quote: takeabow @ April 21, 2007, 2:53 PM

Finally, I would ask what is your (as a group) overall objective for this project?

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Quote: Gavin @ April 21, 2007, 2:53 PM

Personally it's experience working with other writers.

takeabow please don't think I'm being off mate I do value your input and I'm not being funny...I should be trying right? I'm by no means a professional but having your input has definately given me food for thought so thank you. Maybe I'm suffer pig headed writer syndrome lol

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Hi Gavin, sorry I should clarify, I wasn't saying you're wrong for 'having a go and seeing what happens' versus 'trying to get commissioned' Far far from it! I have the utmost respect for anybody that even tries! Because it is so hard.

The point I was trying to make is if you're having a real serious crack at a commission then that needs 100% commitment and focus. More commitment and focus than trying stuff out and gaining experience writing in a team - which in itself is a GREAT thing to be doing. But a different overall objective.

Another thing I learned from personal experience is that levels of commitment can vary within a team. This can leads to an inequitable situation developing later on as writer X becomes miffed that writer Y isn't pulling their weight. Whereas writer Y is quite happy to be pulling the weight he's pulling!

Best avoided with a clear statement at the start what the overall objective for the project is and clearly defined roles.

Apologies if this link is not new information, but here's Jon Plowman's advice to comedy writers.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/insight/facetoface_heads_jonplowman.shtml

This is all great advice IMO.

I think 5 is a nice number, the new girl personally I was thinking young blonde and a little cute...for the male demographic of course not for me at all Well why dont we go ahead and make one of the characters the villian Like Scott suggested a good soul collector but due to politics has to work with them

takeabow are you blowing your own trumpet or are you talking about Jon Plowman? Lol.

Guy's. What do you reckon to us having our own charaters. I mentioned it about 10 mins ago but a zillion other threads have come on since.
I was merely thinking that the writing style will then be the sxame throughout. We can also have maybe 1 main person in charge of the scene set up and we deal with the dialogue.

Say then the scene is a chocolate factory (for example)

Would it work then charely that we would in a word be ad libing the characters with each other?
I play one you play one Leevil plays one etc but it's threaded together?

Before this thread and the thread before was another thread and in that thread contained an idea similar.

The thread was called Sitcom Writing Idea. I later discovered it was a bad idea. But decide for yourself by digging out that old thread.

Here you go - https://www.comedy.co.uk/forums/thread/958

That was kind of what i was thinking. Ie lets say Dave was the scene setter which involved Dev and the newcomer say. Lets say Leevil was the newcomer and you were Dev. You and Lee work together on that. Be it by msn or individualy and emailed to each other. I dont quite know how that would go. I am just thinking that way the writing styles stay the same with each character and they have their own individualness. I know that in America where they have many writers on a programme they have their own characters to write. They have the added bonus of being in the same room tho right enough. Its just a suggestion and it may not work. I know that I am not great at setting scenes but dialogue is easier to me. Someone else can set the scene and put an overal aspect to it and then the dialogue is done between the two or 3 writers etc. We need 1 or 2 overall story tellers. (scene setter). I just think it may work better this way and stay consistent.
But saying that i have never done this before and dont realy know what the fook I am on about. LOL. I dont mind how we do it.

lol Leevil I read that thread I was in that one saying it would decend into madness LOL!!!

Charley I do think that is quite feasible answer due to the large number of writers we do have.

But guys we're getting ahead of our selves planning how to organise writing of episode the premise isnt even finished yet so come on huddle in lets get it done.

Quote: Leevil @ April 21, 2007, 3:46 PM

takeabow are you blowing your own trumpet or are you talking about Jon Plowman? Lol.

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Sorry Leevil, I don't understand what you're saying?

I agree Gavin. However if we do decide on that we can start writing sypnosis of our charaters. So much easier. I dont mind how the story goes. My way, Leevils way or your way or Joe Bloggs way. I would like my own charater. *stamps feet* LOL. Bagsy Elza Bob. She can be a bitch, and i am one. I am not experienced enough to have a main character, and i know my weakness and that is scene setting. I know I am jumping the gun but I honestly have no gripe with how the story goes so thats why i am jumping. I will shut up now and await the results. Keep up the good work Gavin.xx