How do you plan before writing a sitcom pilot?
Just interested to see how people do things on here
Personally, i find it very boring and it takes me forever
Sitcom Planning
Hi Brian
Are you talking about planning from the VERY beginning ie; formation of characters, idea for main premise through to plot and finished script or do you mean just the plot of an episode?
Def.
I find it as dull as ditch water. So at the moment, I'm having a go at just banging one out. I'll leave the others who follow to make the joke.
haha
you're wanking
oh...
Quote: Deferenz @ April 2 2008, 1:50 PM BSTHi Brian
Are you talking about planning from the VERY beginning ie; formation of characters, idea for main premise through to plot and finished script or do you mean just the plot of an episode?
Def.
From the very beginning
I find it fairly daunting at first but with flashes of excitement along the way, quite a bit of 'ooh, that's a good idea' a smattering of 'aaaah, yessss!' quite a few 'oh, f**k's and the whole thing bound together with lots of trips to the toilet/kettle/fridge/various message boards/auction sites
Is this the mist innnuendo laden thread. I persoanlly prepare for ages, before having a major literarty climax.
The beginning is the part of the process I really enjoy. I like to create a world from the ground up, which means travelling to some pretty far corners of the internet for research - particularly if you're writing about freak shows and the porn industry. I spend ages working on this part before I ever write a line of dialogue. It can be quite seductive - often I'll find myself immersed in something I know full well won't contribute to the sitcom. I might use it elsewhere though, so I never see it as wasted time.
Blocking out the scenes and piecing together the structure - that's where the headache begins. It's an infernal jigsaw - a puzzle made of sky - a pube in my creme brule.
Then comes the dialogue, and that's when I start taking an interest again. It's just as hard to write, but when you find that perfect quip it's a feeling all of its own.
Start to think about characters and then deliberately building them towards conflicts with other characters, then start to think of situations where they'd conflict and from there the storylines usually fall out quite easily.
Gone as far as writing character profiles and back stories before writing any storylines with the latest one. About six- or seventeen quality potential stories fell out without much thought.
Dan
my first script pretty much wrote itself, I knew the characters and I knew the location because it was somewhere I used to work. My second was just an idea when it got optioned, and because I didn't know these people I've had to do pages of character, stories, areas of conflict, needs and wants. I have them on computer, in notebooks on text messages to myself. I wrote a first draft before I did any of this and it kind of hung together but the characters didn't really come alive. I've just started writing it properly this week. Which is why I'm on here now.
I decided to trim this reply down.
Def.
Quote: David Bussell @ April 2 2008, 2:36 PM BSTThe beginning is the part of the process I really enjoy. I like to create a world from the ground up, which means travelling to some pretty far corners of the internet for research - particularly if you're writing about freak shows and the porn industry. I spend ages working on this part before I ever write a line of dialogue. It can be quite seductive - often I'll find myself immersed in something I know full well won't contribute to the sitcom. I might use it elsewhere though, so I never see it as wasted time.
Blocking out the scenes and piecing together the structure - that's where the headache begins. It's an infernal jigsaw - a puzzle made of sky - a pube in my creme brule.
Then comes the dialogue, and that's when I start taking an interest again. It's just as hard to write, but when you find that perfect quip it's a feeling all of its own.
You sound just like me. I love going to sites like Wikipedia, to find all sorts of weird info, about the most random of subjects. My favourite thing at the moment, is coming up with back stories, for my characters. Most of it probably won't even be mentioned in the sitcom, but I just love coming up with it all.
Quote: catskillz @ April 2 2008, 3:48 PM BSTYou sound just like me. I love going to sites like Wikipedia, to find all sorts of weird info, about the most random of subjects. My favourite thing at the moment, is coming up with back stories, for my characters. Most of it probably won't even be mentioned in the sitcom, but I just love coming up with it all.
Too true. All the crazy carny stories I've read and they've packed the job in by page 10!
Have you ever gone to a completely random site, which has come up by pure chance, after a Google search, and ended up coming up with a really good idea? I recently clicked on a link for what turned out to be a forum for fans of Leyton Orient F.C., after it came up by chance, and ended up coming up with an idea for a great flashback scene.
On many occassions yes, but the ideas lend themselves better to standalone sketches. Sometimes I find really fascinating areas of human interest I can't wait use, like sex fetishes for centaurs and Japanese Zentai bondage. Go Google, I'll wait...