television writing – The Story Department

A passionate, knowledgeable teacher will help take you from amateur to pro, and a hack teacher will take you nowhere and leave you running to outside sources to fill the gaping holes in your education. And from what I’ve heard from people who studied at USC and UCLA, even the best of courses have a mix of both.

In my frustration I have turned to podcasts, interviews, articles, and sometimes a good book leaves me wondering why I bother going to uni at all. In fact, I’ve skipped mediocre classes to stay home and read.

One such book I’ve devoured in my truancy is Emmy-nominated Ellen Sandler’s THE TV WRITER’S WORKBOOK. Ellen has a warm style, and invites you into her world of being a staff writer for Coach and Everybody Loves Raymond. Even if you don’t remotely like Raymond, this book is a little goldmine. The scripted introduction is twee, but once you get past that, you’re in for some tasty learning that will help you in all areas of your writing.

Dubbed as a TV comedy and drama book, I found it was really more a sitcom-writing book, as the examples were comedy focused, though it won’t teach you how to be funny. And it’s not even so much a book for creating original material, though that’s what I used it for.

Ellen has a warm style, and invites you into her world.

The real strengths of Ellen’s book are the sections showing you how to analyse scripts of a series in order to set forth writing a spec for it, as well as her insights into drawing story concepts from inside yourself (using the 7 Deadly Sins) – to write with authenticity and emotion rather than from amusing but impersonal plot concepts.

She explains the importance of premise lines, and shares her format of story structure (based on an original concept by Mark Ganzel), which is essentially the traditional Inciting Incident, First Turning Point, Mid-Point, Second Turning Point, Climax, Resolution structure, but not as clearly laid out or easy to use. I adapted her format and employed it to structure stories, and even used it to help me pitch in L.A.

The difference between plot and theme is nicely explained, and Ellen encourages writers to know their theme early so they may draw plot from it. She also drives home that all steps along the path of your screenplay must focus on your protagonist, which can often be an easy thing to forget while writing.

She explains the importance of premise lines.

After she’s taught you the process for moving between concept, to synopsis, to treatment, to outline, to script, Ellen shares invaluable tips on getting your foot in the door and paints in broad strokes a portrait of the industry.

There are books more in-depth on the workings of the American television system (like Chad Gervich’s Small Screen, Big Picture), and books better at explaining structure (Sheldon Bull’s Elephant Bucks for sitcom writing), but if you’re serious about working intelevision, The TV Writer’s Workbook will show you your craft from a different angle, clue you in on how to make your scenes as dynamic as possible, and most certainly shorten (and de-stress) your writing process.

And at a RRP of US $16, it’s a university course you can hold in your hands without making your wallet violently weep.

You can learn from Ellen Sandler in person! She’ll be in Melbourne (Feb 23-25) and Sydney (Feb 28-March 2) as a part of the 2013 Television Writers Studio, along with other U.S. television-writing experts like Steve Kaplan, and Walking Dead showrunner Glen Mazzara. Book your ticket at Epiphany.

-Ingrid Elkner

Ingrid Elkner exists in human form and as a finger-puppet.

She’s had fiction printed in anthologies, articles published on comedy sites, creates sketches and comics for her own comedy blog 10 Minutes Later, and is the writer of new short film, THE PROWLER, starring Colette O’Neil.

Ingrid studies screenwriting in Melbourne and shakes her fist at offensively-shaped clouds.

Photo Credits: Ingrid Elkner

Jamie Campbell

Jamie Campbell is an author, screenwriter, and television addict.

Jamie is proud to be an Editor for The Story Department.

Her latest series Project Integrate is out now.

jamiecampbell.com.au

Writing for Daily Drama (4)

Cleo Mees — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:15:58 +0000

Jan Ellis writes for South-African television as one of the team on “Binnelanders”. (Interestingly, he does this from Sydney in Australia.)

For us, Jan explores what it is that sets daily drama writing apart from other screenwriting genres.

Mapping out the Territory of the Dialogue Writer.

Most writing departments employ a larger number of dialogue writers on a part-time basis, leaving enough time for some consideration in the development of the meat of each episode.

A script that was written in a day or two will stand out like a sore thumb and rarely qualifies as anything more than a first draft. Part-time writers will have other work commitments and schedule their time accordingly.

For the Dialogue Writer, there is a fine line between creating dramatic reality and tinkering with actual story content.

They will spend somewhere between 20 and 25 hours completing a script at 3rd draft level, leaving breaks in between sessions or days of writing to revisit the text with fresh eyes.

These writers are the lucky ones, as everyone else in the writing department, technically, only has one day to do what they need to on an episode.

For the Dialogue Writer, there is a fine line between creating dramatic reality and tinkering with actual story content. The job is to develop the ‘who says what/does what to whom prose’ from a breakdown into real interactions between characters with each a unique personality, voice and motivation.

It is the very potential for misunderstanding and miscommunication that keeps the audience unnerved, anxious to see how characters are interpreted by others.

It is not about changing content into something seemingly more credible or exciting.

For actual changes they’ll need clearance from ‘the top’ and other subsequent scripts – many already in the process of being written- might need adjusting.

It sounds simple enough, but imagine how confusing it would get if ten writers all want to change content while simultaneously working on ten different episodes.

There is no list of golden rules to write by in this genre. As in all endeavours, practice makes perfect. Reading your scene drafts out loud to yourself or an objective ear often exposes glaring errors in rhythm or style.

TV dialogue is NOT natural. It is quite far removed from real-world dialogue, stage dialogue and even film dialogue. There is less repetition, fewer ‘ehms’ and ‘ahs’, it is less disjointed and much more economical than everyday-speak.

The Television audience is impatient, mainly because they have the option to choose an alternative if they are not completely engrossed. They see Television content as a right rather than a choice. If you’ve made the effort to go to the Theatre, chances are you’ll sit through the uninspiring bits and wait for the captivating bits.

TV dialogue is NOT natural. It is quite far removed from real-world dialogue, stage dialogue and even film dialogue.

At home, you’ll go and make coffee or flip to something else, even have a chat while the show is on if it doesn’t have you by the balls.

Therefore, in daily drama especially, the writer has to cater for a shorter, more predictable attention span. Long speeches are a rarity; long scenes are a rarity; scene length is more consistent.

The genre is driven by dialogue. The demand for content combined with budgetary restraints inevitably leads to minimal variation in visual setting.

It is the characters and their verbal interaction that keeps the audience engaged over an extended period of viewing.

Creating dialogue that allows actors to inject more value into what’s NOT being said, the subtext, the ‘lines’ between the lines, is a skill that is equally necessary in all forms of screenwriting.

The genre is driven by dialogue. The demand for content combined with budgetary restraints inevitably leads to minimal variation in visual setting.

The breakdown will often point to what a character aims to get across. The Dialogue Writer aims to use words that allude to that aim, with characters often not directly saying what they mean, even when being truthful.

It is the very potential for misunderstanding and miscommunication that keeps the audience unnerved, anxious to see how characters are interpreted by others.

There are many more areas in which writing for the daily genre will require a unique approach. This was a very wordy and drawn out debut-blog, more poop than pop, but I hope it stirs up some thought about the mechanics of the text-audience relationship in this deceptively challenging form of screenwriting.

Jan Ellis is a multi-media all-rounder with a glittering career in South African Film, Television and Theatre, who moved to Sydney in 2007 to train as a Video Editor and continues to write regular episodes for the popular South African daily drama, ‘Binnelanders’.

Cleo Mees

Cleo Mees is a Sydney-based writer, filmmaker and dancer. With a background across several disciplines, her interest is in finding out how these different disciplines can intersect and inform each other.

Writing for Daily Drama (3)

Cleo Mees — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:01:54 +0000

Jan Ellis writes for South-African television as one of the team on “Binnelanders”. (Interestingly, he does this from Sydney in Australia.)

For us, Jan explores what it is that sets daily drama writing apart from other screenwriting genres.

The writing/production environment

The practical implications of the production of daily drama seriously influence creativity in the process. Firstly, consider the structure of a typical writing department and the process through which each script is produced and realised on screen.

It generally breaks down like this: Producers, Head Writer, Script Coordinator, Script Editor, Storyline Writers, Dialogue Writers and possibly Box Producer and Director/s meet anywhere between once and four times a year. During an intense brainstorming session they propose and deliberate characters, depending on actors’ contracts and availability.

Storylines are proposed for the long term (six months to a year), mid-term (three to six months) and short term (two weeks to a month) and the appropriate primary story arcs are developed.

Similarly, on any given day, people in various departments will be dealing with episodes’ scripts each at a completely different stage of their individual evolution: one-line scene breakdowns; paragraph scene breakdowns, 3rd draft versions, edited versions, revised versions, approved versions, camera scripted versions.

A dialogue writer will be composing a draft for an episode that will be shot two months later and broadcast three months after that, while the script editor will be streamlining dialogue and checking continuity issues in an episode (with the preceding and following episodes very much in mind) that is six weeks from shoot.

On the same day a director will be planning camera shots and cutting points for an episode to be shot in three weeks or a month. An editor will be finalising an episode that is due for broadcast in a couple of weeks. And so it goes every day.

How many writers, did you say..?
The Head Writer – bless his/her soul – will deal with a number of episodes every single day, churning out a daily instalment’s worth of new content for the Storyline Writers who convert it into scene summaries (breakdowns). Episodes coming in from the Script Editor will need to be read for approval, then sending to the Producers for further approval.

The Head Writer also reads and approves previous breakdowns from Storyline Writers and deals with overall discrepancies in continuity, logic and character-consistency. Because of the domino-effect from already-written episodes, often solutions are needed to avoid collisions with others further down the production line, or in episodes yet to come.

The Dialogue Writer receives that blue print called the “breakdown” script. Their aim is to flesh out the prose style skeleton into a scene with beats, rhythm, dialogue which is character specific and consistent, dramatic tension or comedy where appropriate and, most importantly, authenticity.

Breakdowns vary on different productions from fairly detailed summaries of the interaction in each scene to a mere few sentences describing the overall aim of the scene and what the characters motivations are.

In our case, each breakdown is about 4,500 words in length, representing a standard of 13 to 14 scenes per episode. We have a team of about ten dialogue writers, each delivering an episode every two weeks on average.

The deadline for delivery is set five days after receipt of the breakdown. While not writing, each writer reads all other breakdowns, as well as all final scripts as they are approved to ensure they are up to date across all levels of content.

The Script-Coordinator – usually a mere shell of a human being due to exhaustion and stress – manages the scheduling, filing and archiving protocols of this web of rotating script-versions and keeps everyone in the Department (as well as Production and Art Dept.) informed of every single detail that may be changed, cut, replaced, reworked, etc.

Suffice it to say, for every pair of eyes and ears that are needed to make sure that screen content flows well in any other genre, daily drama needs five pairs… and still errors inevitably slip through the net.

Jan Ellis is a multimedia all-rounder with a glittering career in South African film, television and theatre, who moved to Sydney in 2007 to train as a video-editor and who continues to write regular episodes for the popular South African daily drama, “Binnelanders”.

18/06/07: $3,840.28
21/06/07: $3,207.32

Cleo Mees

Writing for Daily Drama (2)

Cleo Mees — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:01:15 +0000

Jan Ellis writes for South-African television as one of the team on “Binnelanders”. (Interestingly, he does this from Sydney in Australia.)

For us, Jan explores what it is that sets daily drama writing apart from other screenwriting genres.

Differences of space/time
The second aspect of daily drama writing that sets it apart from other screenwriting genres is the configuration of space and time. Weekly drama often transcends the boundaries of real time. An hour-long episode can represent a series of events that play out over weeks, even months or years and skip forward or backward in time with great effect.

Although flashbacks are used to an extent in daily drama, flashing forward is rare (unless the characters themselves have some clairvoyant skills). So is leaving out substantial periods of time, except when weekends are deliberately used to suggest breaks in continuity from a Friday episode to a Monday episode.

Daily drama scripts are largely bound by a day-by-episode format in order to parallel the viewer’s calendar. One of the consequences is that issues are often dwelled on much longer in terms of screen time.

Whereas a conflict and resolution (that say, plays out over a week) between two characters can quite easily be represented in a few key scenes in a single episode of a weekly drama, writers of daily drama are forced to use more scenes (meaning more interaction and more dialogue) to tell the same story, as they cannot afford to put too much distance between characters in space and time. If a certain issue is at hand between two or more characters, it needs daily attention in the show, whether those characters interact daily or not.

Because of the sheer volume of screen time that needs to be filled by daily drama and the limited time available to fill it, here are a few general time-space issues that probably create greater challenges to the writers of this genre than others:

1. A => B => A
Unlike most American dailies, those from Australia, the UK and South Africa avoid the classic ‘Cut from scene A to scene B and cut back to Scene A’ structure. By this I mean: cutting from Ridge and Eric arguing to Brook and Stephanie reconciling and then back to Ridge and Eric still arguing, a la The Bold and the Beautiful. New scenes generally mean new interactions, rather than continuing where the characters left off in previous scenes.

The challenge is to overcome the obvious choice of starting scenes with one or more characters present in a setting, and another character arriving to prompt interaction. The aim is to start scenes mid-interaction, presupposing dialogue that the audience is not privy to.

2. Left to ponder.

Another pitfall is to continuously end scenes with a character leaving another behind to ponder whatever they discussed. It can be used to great effect, but should be done sparingly. The idea is to get in after the start and get out before the end of an interaction (again implying off-screen dialogue), which keeps scenes less bookended and ensures better narrative flow.

A tactic to keep things dynamic is for a character to exit from a situation as another enters either to interact with the character left behind or approaching another character that happens to be in the same communal space as the first. The two-hander is the most frequently used character combination used in daily drama scenes. Under time constraints, it speeds up the writing process and often provides a more classic bipolar interaction for the viewer to absorb.

3. The never-ending story.

Daily drama is, by definition, perpetual, resembling a stream of consciousness with highs, lows and temporary resolutions. The aim is to keep going, not for a season, not for a year, not for a few, but for a lifetime.

In most weekly genres, a particular issue or event is dealt with in each episode. In CSI, this week’s murderer is caught (or gets away with it, rarely) and next week, a new case arrives.

Daily drama, on the other hand, consistently juggles three main storylines at various stages of their individual arcs at any given point in time, with cliffhangers being required every 24 hours. A story will almost never begin and end in the same episode. One storyline (which could play out in a month) might be in the infancy of its cycle, another (which has developed over three months) may be reaching a crisis point, whereas a much longer story-arc might be in that phase of the cycle where its effect on current events is marginal.

A healthy mix of two- and multi-character scenes (with more complex interactions), added to the odd scene where all or most of the characters in the story are present, e.g. the Christmas Party or Dance Competition, brings balance in terms of the audience’s view on the individuals and the communal world which they all inhabit.

Cleo Mees

Writing for Daily Drama (1)

Cleo Mees — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:45:41 +0000

Jan Ellis writes for South-African television as one of the team on “Binnelanders”. (Interestingly, he does this from Sydney in Australia.)

For us, Jan explores what it is that sets daily drama writing apart from other screenwriting genres.

This is my first blog post. Pop.

My briefing was to highlight some of the unique methods in writing text for daily drama as opposed to other genres of screenwriting. The differences between daily drama writing and film writing are more obvious, purely because films are mostly discreet units of narrative with a set-up, conflict and resolution (open-ended or not).

When it comes to writing for daily drama as opposed to weekly drama, the differences are more subtle. But they still have a profound effect on the way the respective scripts are conceived and produced.

1.The Role of Daily Television in our Psychology

In all genres of screenwriting, some basic methodology is valid across the board. Certain aspects, however, become accentuated when dealing with daily drama texts and its strictly formulaic structure.

As a starting point, it’s probably a good idea to consider the unique psychological relationship a daily drama audience has with the story and the characters.

The very routine and timeslot of the daily 30 minute ‘fix’ of voyeurism conveniently fits into the Monday to Friday pattern of either a housewife/husband’s mid-morning coffee break or the supper hour in which the household temporarily settles down and ‘mingles’ with their on-screen ‘family’.

The relationship with on-screen characters seems immediate; the soap reflects the viewer’s own routine more closely than film; the characters become partners in the daily grind.

It is not surprising that many hardcore fans cannot seem to dissociate the characters from the actors portraying them. When it comes to daily drama, viewers tend to refer to the character’s names without knowing the name of the actor playing the role — even after meeting the performer in person.

This is probably why producers of other screen genres are often reluctant to cast actors who have been playing a daily character for a substantial period of time.

For producers of daily drama in all departments – writers, directors, actors, editors and schedulers – the relentless pressure of delivering 22-24 minutes worth of dramatic content every day is an immense challenge – one very easily underestimated by those who produce drama formats regarded as ‘superior’.

In some ways, yes, the daily audience might be more forgiving when storylines or characters lack drastic development or change, as this often more accurately coincides with the seeming consistency of their own routines.

On the other hand, they may be even harder to please as they simultaneously demand to experience a world that superficially reflects their own, but which is infused with extraordinary events, scandal, high tension and extreme emotions.

After all, if a character has not been seriously ill, kidnapped, threatened at gun point or been shot, stabbed, been cheated on or cheated on someone, been on the precipice of financial disaster, nearly killed in a car accident or injured in some other way, been robbed, betrayed, psychologically scarred or brainwashed by a religious cult in the last six months, what are they doing on your TV screen?

-Jan Ellis

Cleo Mees

The best eggs come after Easter

Karel FG Segers — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 23:19:54 +0000

Stop press! Here is the next best thing to hit the blogosphere after the release of the Raiders Story Conference.

Jason Kottke was tipped off on some scripts of The Wire that are accessible through an online file server.

The Wire is to my taste (and many others) the best TV drama you will find.

Karel FG Segers

Karel Segers wrote his first produced screenplay at age 17. Today he is a story analyst with experience in acquisition, development and production. He has trained students worldwide, and worked with half a dozen Academy Award nominees. Karel speaks more European languages than he has fingers on his left hand, which he is still trying to find a use for in his hometown of Sydney, Australia. The languages, not the fingers.

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