Writing a sitcom? Then STOP trying to write a MOVIE!
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- Опубликовано: 28 июл 2024
- You're trying to write a sitcom but the pilot script reads like a movie. And that's not good. Sitcoms and movie are surprising different.
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Starting in the middle is very much the mantra, as it should be. And I like the initial idea of them fleeing to a remote Scottish island without internet access. But how they can then set up a tech bunker in a warehouse and mine for crypto and run an IT business without internet access may be a stretch.
I think the real comedy here would be for these kids to lose everything they ever had - cybermobility - and have to learn to live with public phone boxes that don't work, go to a strange physical entity called "a shop", discover that alcohol can only be acquired in a place called a pub (but not on Sunday) - and even find out that food is stuff that can be pulled out of the ground. Deliveroo up here is the nickname of Mary, the island's only midwife.
Not to mention the weird, wonderful yet cynical characters called "local people" who have always lived perfectly well without tech. No - you can't call up Esteo in Brazil any more, but word has it that Jack Laurie a couple of miles down the road has a wireless room and transmitter.
And then perhaps at the end of episode six, there's a knock on the door from a very official and serious looking American...
Nicely done. The answer is in the title really : sitcom = situation comedy. The situation is everything, and it is the one constant. Events, and even characters, may change, but the situation - from the homes of the people in Love Thy Neighbour, Rising Damp, Dead Pixels or George & Mildred, the office in IT Crowd, the regular locations of Only Fools & Horses to the work locations of Brooklyn 99 or Superstore - stay the same. Situation, situation, situation.
What about Red Dwarf not being in Red Dwarf for 2 seasons?
@@experi-mentalproductions5358 That's actually a glitch in the matrix, and a pretty big one at that...
You really know your stuff! I learned so much. Lmk when you come out with a course !
Hello! Sorry I didn't spot this earlier. I do have a course: jamescary.samcart.com/products/writing-your-sitcom-video-course
You could also start reading my new blog on Sitcom Writing: thesitutationroom.substack.com
I ran into this problem earlier this year. Having the inciting incident be the setup for multiple ongoing episodes rather than a plot point in itself exposed how it could only work as a contained story.
can you suggest a book on writing sitcom
Yes! This one! jamescary.samcart.com/products/writing-that-sitcom
Also available for Kindle on Amazon.