When researching genre and format, I found starting with the BBC writer’s room a great place to start asking myself important questions, such as where my programme would ideally be shown, how it would fit into that schedule, what type of story I wanted to tell and many more.
I looked at shows similar to mine – a university drama/comedy - to gauge an appropriate amount of episodes as well as what themes and storytelling usually featured. Channel 4’s ‘Fresh Meat’ was always a big inspiration for my show, not just as a uni-based show but the artful way it balances comedy and drama and tackled issues such as drug and alcohol abuse, homesickness and house relationships. Fresh Meat episodes were typically 40 minutes long and consisted of roughly 8 episodes a season, Skins (another major inspiration, especially when first developing the characters) varied it’s season lengths from 8-10 episodes and episodes were typically 40 minutes long. I initially planned to write 7x40 episodes but lowered this to 6x40, feeling this best reflected the story I was telling and hoping to better focus my attention with less episodes.
Where Skins was priary inspiration for original, college script - Fresh Meat was the initial push informing this script in what I wated to achieve. ENjoyed whole show but primarily later seasons, and Josie's story where she fails and has to consider and prepare for life without her established friends. Wanted to push this very human element into foreground, and focus less on typical aspects such as partying and looking at the more disruptive sides of these tropes when they do. Experiences tension over idea of house being a 'family' when living in own uni house and - as something kind of touched on in Fresh Meat and other such shows - was something I wanted to really explore with my show. Comparing their actual family with their 'constructed' family at university and whether it's as cemented as they think.
Heavily informed general language and tone - using idea of youth (not fragililt but something like it) FRAGILITY to combine drama and comedy, sometimes in dismissive ways, sometimes to highlight one.
The Television Genre Book was incredibly informative when detailing critical formal elements of youth drama as well as building my historical context of British youth programming. It explained how in 1979 the Gulbenkian Report found that there was no TV programming for teens or young people in Britain – leading to the development of two shows, ‘Going Out’ & ‘Maddie’ and eventually ‘llyoaks’, Britain’s first successful ongoing teen drama (that still runs today). This helped increase my appreciation for the now-iconic youth dramas I grew up with such as ‘Skins’, ‘Misfits’ as well as letting me appreciate Hollyoaks, which I had previously passed off as just another soap. From the beginning, British youth drama was issue based, often dealing with problems such as drugs/teen pregnancy/rape/abuse/illness (both physical and mental). Problems faced by the young people in these shows were dealt with as seriously as more ‘mature’ shows, representing young people as valid members of community with interesting, empathetic stories to tell. Channel 4 has long led the way for British youth drama, starting with Hollyoaks and Brookside and more recently, Skins, Misfts and My mad Fat Diary. Stories frequently question the ‘teen experience’, exploring sexuality, drug use and social context, directly and with explicit representation. Whilst the seriousness that these stories are told with is validating to young people, I wanted to take a more naturalistic, less intense approach with my script. Whilst the characters in my programme are dealing with issues typically attributed to young people, I also wanted to highlight that they’re trying to act like their perception of adults now that they’re living in a house together without parents for the first time in their lives. To do this, I also wanted to introduce aspects of family comedies such as Outnumbered and Grandma’s House. Popular music is a critical formal element I wanted to involve more than I was able to in my script. With music a large part of our culture and especially influential to young people – being a large part of their identity – I knew from early on I wanted to try and separate characters by the kind of music they listened to, showing how various tracks/artists were enjoyed by different characters for different reasons. However, I was informed that it is not typical to include direct songs into a script as that level of detail can prove expensive and counter-productive to a production, also taking away from the importance of a show’s musical producer and their vital input. Instead, I decided to make playlists for each of the main characters, helping me greatly when developing their characters as well as being very important to get into the headspace of that character.
Grandma’s House:
I watched Grandma’s House, the 2010-2012 BBC Three comedy that followed a semi-fictionalised version of Simon Amstell on regular visits to his family, all set within the location of his Grandma’s House. Grandma’s House subverts narrative expectations – using Simon’s inability to take responsibility by avoiding larger plot lines such as Grandad’s cancer as instead Simon tries to heal his family spiritually, by having long discussions. Uses sharp wit and focused characters to keep entertaining despite staying in family home, similar to shows like Royle Family and Him & Her. Personally I have always enjoyed this kind of show – the confined aspect can be both personal & intimate but also claustrophobic. Made me aware of the importance of well-tuned characters and re-assured setting in second year as prior history and understanding of each other could allow for ‘family’ banter. This show became very influential in the way the characters spoke to each other and in provoking the idea of the friends becoming more like a family, with Natalie as the mother figure and Beth as her level-headed confidante similar to a father figure in shows like Outnumbered.
The sitcom written by Dan Swimer with Simon Amstell, wholly set within Simon's grandma's house, with the majority of the action taking place in the living room, following conversations from the gathering family. Because of the limited locations, the drama and comedy all comes from the characters and their relationships. Much of the show is based on Simon's own life, with some lines coming straight from his stand-up comedy, and perhaps the responsibility for the 'realness' of the character of his mother comes from the fact Amstell admits his own mother was the original inspiration for the show.
Because of the limited options of locations, living room, kitchen, bedroom and sometimes even bathroom - each room almost serves a specific function: the living room is for the large, family conversations and the majority of the episode, the kitchen is usually for private asides with his mother, grandmother or the pair together, the bedroom is usually where he's confronted or thrown from his usual place of comfort by a male family member like his grandpa or cousin and the bathroom is where his mother's boyfriend drags him for a private 'word'. Want to try and step away from this comfort, mixing intimacy of scenes and locations - hoping to reflect instability of student identities and idea that they're not completely at home or comfortable living away from parent structures.
During one of my tutorial's Simon told me to really focu on giving my scripts more of an arching story to tie each episode together. A included small ones but he prompted for more which started to feel a bit unnatural and against my hope for the boring, domestic side of student life. An interview with Simon Amstell and Dan Swimer informed me they were told the same thing by BBC execs and mostly ignored it too.
((Clive had long-time been inspiration behind Paul, liking idea of mum - becoming obsessed about age settling for INCREDIBLY boring, safe opposite to Rotten johnny. As writing progressed, his boringness became how Sarah saw him. With him showing his more rebellious, less 'whipped' side when he sends Sarah the letter from her dad - against her mother's wishes - because he knows shes looking for answers and feels she deserves to make her own, informed decision.
No comments:
Post a Comment