Sunday, January 08, 2006

I'm reading scripts in the Comedy/Variety division for the Canadian Screenwriting Awards. It's an interesting exercise because I haven't necessarily seen every show that's submitting; and the scripts, of course, don't stop to explain who the characters are.

Is it true that in a well-crafted script you get who the characters are from their distinctive style of speaking, even if you don't know the show? Or do you need to have seen the show -- or be reading the pilot -- to get who they are?

In a few cases where I felt there might be something I really wasn't getting, I went back and checked out the show. And what wasn't funny when I didn't know the show, still wasn't funny. If the show's well written, you get who the characters are, even if you haven't seen it. Funny is funny.

I remember reading my friend Heidi's Roseanne spec and laughing out loud, even though I hadn't seen the show in years, and I couldn't remember who Jackie was.

So that's the standard, then. Someone should be able to read your script even if they don't know the show, and get (at least by the end of the read) what that character's about.

I don't know how you do that for a CSI, but that's one reason I'm not speccing a CSI.

Technorati tags: screenwriting; TV

Labels: spec pilots

12:00 PM

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