Attendees: FB, JW, JH, HR, SC
Read: Static (HR sitcom pilot)
Hannah kindly let us give a reading of the opening episode for her sitcom, Static. She'd written it in a bit of a hurry for a BBC competition but was now revisiting the piece to see if it had any worth and whether she should toil on with brushing it up and generally making it shipshape. She should, as we heartily told her. Even with our rather dubious reading (and failure at accents entirely - apologies), it was clear that the characters in this piece, as well as the setting (Penrith, of course, HR's home), were well observed and delightfully brought to life.
Some of the problems in any writing, but particularly sitcoms, were present: there was a certain closeness to her characters that blinded Hannah to some of the details an audience would crave; plotpoints that seemed obvious to the writer were missing for the audience. But the general impression was that dialogue and action worked well together to provide a realistic, engaging setting, and all that was needed was further spit and polish.
I was reminder of two sitcom recommendations (I shy away from 'rules' deliberately) I had read recently:
- Avoid opening with your main character waking up and closing with them heading to bed. So many sitcoms do this already - stand out from the crowd.
- Every line should be one of set-up, punchline or furthering the narrative. There's no need to have characters giving exposition or just chatting if it's not funny or is not moving along the story.
The challenges that so many sitcoms face are there for Hannah too; it's difficult to get a fully fleshed out main character when s/he is plunged into all sorts of complicated, humorous situations from the get-go. The temptation is to write some kind of prologue to let the audience get a handle on the character. I'd be tempted to suggest that's not the way to do it. Actions speak louder than words, and showing rather than telling us about character is obviously the better route to take.
And fortunately, Hannah's on the right track. The rest of Fas agreed that she must work further on Static, that the characters and setting are entirely excellent, and we look forward to episode 2. Thank you, Hannah!
