A little bit late on my part, so I apologise, but we've had 5 glorious submissions this round. Please take your time to give these a look and feedback with some awesome comments!
Mature Content
Make the Customers PayThe interior of a women’s clothes shop aimed at the more mature woman. ISABEL (woman in early 30s) enters the shop hurriedly. There are signs up everywhere declaring this to be a “Loyalty Club Day—25% off if you sign up for the loyalty card”. ISABEL herself is wearing a T-shirt advertising the Loyalty Club. MARIA (woman about 30) is at the front door welcoming customers and attempting to sign them up. She is wearing the same T-shirt plus sash and badge, and is holding a clipboard. She looks somewhat despondent.<da:thumb id="457941728"/>
MARIA: Afternoon.
ISABEL: (She indicates the sash MARIA is wearing.) Sashes?
MARIA nods sadly. ISABEL continues in.
KAY (woman about 45) is putting clothes back out on the stands. She is wearing the T-shirt and sash, plus added hat. ISABEL comes up to her and points at her sash.
ISABEL: We’ve already got the T-shirts. Why do we need sashes too?
KAY: I d
The Gallery folder is now open for submissions!
Also have you guys seen the 30 play prompt contest? Same-side and I have discussed that if you want to use this workshop for that contest, then you are more than welcome!
I am very very excited about June’s workshop as this is an area that perhaps I have a stronger writing background in. and it’s a subject that often comes up that people want to workshop. It always amazes me how quick people are to forget how what we see on those telly-boxes are actually written by individuals (or a team of individuals). Every time you react whilst watching TV, you’re reacting to someone’s writing and you are that writers audience. It’s an everyday form of writing, appealing beyond literature lovers and enjoyed by many. To write a TV script is challenging, but fun and this workshop is all about having a go.
Did you read those examples?
HIMYM Friends Blackadder Miranda
For those who picked up the examples I left on the previous blog, you may have noticed a trend. All the scripts I selected were comedy scripts- 2 very American and 2 very British, but all four equally funny. (If anyone can link to some scripts from around the world to diversify this workshop, it would be much appreciated as I stuck to the familiar!). For those who read the scripts, what were your thoughts? What are you favourite comedy TV shows and why? Have you ever thought about how they are written?
For me, what strikes me the most is how easy the characters are conveyed in those opening scenes. We get snippets of real personality and identity between the characters and even on page we feel like we know who they are and their roles in these comedies. The humour in them is almost secondary to this- and even in farfetched comedy such as Blackadder, it is still full of realism and knowing these situations could really happen to anyone.
The Workshop Brief
Your task in this workshop is to write the opening scene(s) to a comedy show pilot.
What the real focus needs to be on is establishing characters, relationship and situation. It can be set in any time, place or world. There must be a minimum of two characters.
Remember this is a TV script. You can worry about format, camera angles and scene descriptions if you like, but you won’t be discredited if you don’t. The real focus is on the dialogue and showing us who those characters are. Think about your audience and how what is being written may be conveyed by actors on screen.
Worried about not being funny? Try not to let this overrule your writing. The best humour comes from the everyday- think about what’s made you laugh recently and why it made you laugh- can you exaggerate it or put it in an unconventional situation and make it funnier? Have a little bit of trust in yourself.
Workshop Rules
This workshop is a Script so please ensure you formalise it as a script and keep a clear distinction between what is said and what is directions etc (enter examples)
We are looking for a minimum of about 3-5 minutes worth of script. If you chose to continue, then fantastic, but the critique focus will be on the beginning.
One submission per person. Please also ensure when you do submit, you stipulate in your artists comments that this is for the workshop.
How to Submit
The gallery folder will be open for submission from June 7th, 1 week after the workshop has begun. You will be able to submit either via sta.sh or by going into the gallery folder and submit. Your piece will go through a voting system to check it is applicable to this workshop, so stating so in your artists comments really helps!
Please note that we ONLY accept submissions for the current workshop and only members can submit to our folders. If people submit works not for the workshop, we will communicate with you this is not acceptable and continuous submission attempts will resolve in your removal from our group.
What Happens Next?
You have between now and June 16th to submit your piece to the workshop. Late submissions will be accepted, however we cannot guarantee your piece will be read by others.
On June 16th, this journal will be refreshed with the submissions to this workshop. We would expect members, especially fellow participants to take some time to read the pieces and offer feedback and thoughts on their pieces.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in this journal!
