Clearly, this is a nice problem to have. Your show is in production but you’re worried it’s all going wrong. But that’s where we’ve reached in my Writing Your Sitcom ebook and audiobook.
New writers often ask me about how much say a writer gets in casting, what happens if the scene isn’t being played as you’d hoped, or what you do if a line is being delivered incorrectly. Essentially, they want to know how to stop the producer, the director and the cast from screwing up their idea. This is an understandable concern, but those kinds of questions start in the wrong place.
You, as the writer, are crucial. It’s pretty much your show since the show is your vision and your voice. But once the show is in production, you are not in charge. Not in Britain, anyway. Over here, the producer is in charge. They are the ones who have to deliver as good a version of the agreed programme as possible on time and on budget. They are spending over a million quid filming your TV series. They probably want to do this in partnership with you. Naturally there are many ways in which this can go wrong and anecdotes along these lines are often magnified in the stories that float around the industry or in showbiz fiction.
Blowing the Whistle on Extras
In Series 2 of Extras, we see, on screen, a breakdown in trust between the writer/performer, Andy Millman (Ricky Gervais), creator of the studio sitcom When The Whistle Blows, and the producer of the show. Seemingly at the last minute, the producer thinks some comedy glasses and a wig will make all the difference to the character Andy Millman is playing. Millman is disillusioned and now seems to despise the show that they’re making.
I always found this part of Extras hard to relate to. What sort of show did Millman think they were making? Millman’s written a big, broad audience comedy with catchphrases that’s being filmed in front of an audience. And surely these discussions have already been had? It didn't ring true for me.
Of course, things can go wrong between a producer and writer. But assuming they will is a mistake. And the key to a good relationship (in any sphere of life) is communication. Have you articulated your vision for the show in the script? And in person? There is naturally uncertainty at the beginning, and it continues right up until shooting and beyond.
In the development process on Bluestone 42, it felt like we were all roughly on the same page – especially as we spent a lot of time together with a pilot script and casting the show, which is crucial to establishing the tone. But it was only when we saw the first few scenes roughly cut together that we were sure we all saw the show the same way.
This Is Not What I Had in Mind
So how do things look when they feel like they are going wrong? And what can you do? Sometimes, when you’re actually shooting a scene on location – or watching a technical rehearsal in a studio, a scene ends up looking different from how you’d imagined. The director has made a choice or even changed the scene slightly to make it work. It happens, although it might not make any material difference. If it does, and you’re there, there’s normally a chance to talk about it. Briefly.
A decent producer will hopefully anticipate any problems by having the director talk through the script with the writer a few days or weeks in advance, to make sure that nothing crucial is changed, or if changes are made, the writer is alerted to make sure this doesn’t impact on anything else in the script.
So the scene isn’t how you imagined it. It’s all wrong. Before you go off on one, stop and think. The director has staged it in a certain way for a reason. It may be so that it looks awesome – which is a perfectly good reason to stage a scene a certain way. But it may look so awesome, or staged, that it makes it less funny. It’s odd that things looking cool, or like a TV commercial, can sometimes fight the comedy in a scene. It may look awkward and clunky – maybe because the logistics of the script dictate it happen this way and you’d not realised this in the way you wrote it.
Maybe the director has slavishly followed what you have written and your script is at fault. Occasionally, the director has a previous draft of the script in his head and hasn’t noticed the changes that you’ve made have profoundly altered the blocking of the scene. In which case that's unfortunate, but not the end of the world and probably fixable.
On Set
If you’re filming on location, after the cast have rehearsed the scene on set, there should be a rehearsal for the crew (including you) to watch. After that, there should be a quick huddle with the producer and director and you have a chance to make suggestions. Eg. ‘Barry is saying that line about the fence-post a bit weirdly. He should play it as if he’s angry rather than puzzled. Does that make sense?’ And the director will be able to convey that note to the actor if they think it’s going to help. Remember, as the writer, you know what motivates your characters in every moment of the script. The director knows how to bring the best out of the actors – so you do your job and let them do theirs.
If a problem develops once they start shooting the scene, it’s best not bowl up to the director and tell them they’ve got it all wrong. They’ve got lots of other things to worry about. Talk to the producer – who might say that they tried it a different way at first, but the cast felt it was very unnatural, or it proved not to be practical because, say, a prop turned out to be more fiddly on the day than expected and they needed a line to cover it. Complicated, isn’t it?
This is no Wrong Place
Sometimes, on the day, things don’t quite work out as you’d expect for reasons beyond the director’s or producer’s control. In the Christmas episode of Bluestone 42, there is a brief scene from a nativity play which takes place on a temporary stage erected in the base. When it came to shooting, the stage was built in a slightly different place from where we’d imagined it would go, which meant that one part of the scene wouldn’t quite work as planned. We wanted Rocket to be standing in one of the watchtowers behind the stage, but that wasn’t going to work now as he’d be too far away and it would seem odd. Moving the stage would have taken too long, and the reasons Rocket needed to be in the watchtower had largely been cut from the script. So we put a military vehicle behind the stage and had Rocket stand on that and it looked great. Perhaps better. There's usually more than one way to stage a scene and find the funny. Keep an open mind and work with what you have.
Casting
You’re watching a take of your scene in your show, and an actor keeps saying a line in a weird way, or the ‘wrong way’. This happens, quite a lot, but there are a number of things to consider before getting too cross.
You’ve probably been in on the casting of your show so hopefully you’re happy with the actor playing the part and what they bring to it. Bear in mind the actor is only really thinking about their character’s perspective which, at first, seems very narrow-minded or vain, but is both legitimate and very useful. They can, will and should question the logic of lines, whether their character would do or say the lines that you’ve written. The ‘What’s my motivation?’ is a cliché, but it’s true. Every line needs to be motivated by character, story and logic, rather than being a useful transition line or exposition.
It may be that the line they’re ‘saying wrong’ is inconsistent with the character this actor is playing. Maybe your line requires shouting, but the actor doesn’t think the character is very shouty – so either the line is indeed inconsistent, or the situation doesn’t seem to demand shouting. Or they think dropping their voice is more effective and shows greater anger. Or they haven’t noticed the exclamation mark at the end of the line.
There are times when the line isn’t ever going to be said right – in your opinion. It may work fine for other people. If it sounds weird and wrong, it might be cut in the edit. But don’t dwell on it. This actor who’s mangled one of your jokes has probably done something brilliant with a different line somewhere else in the script, turning a straight line into a joke with a tone of voice. Or reacted to a line in a really funny way. Let go of that line. In a half hour sitcom, you should really have about 100 jokes. There are others.
Page Direction
Maybe the line would have been fine – but the logic of it wasn’t clear from what's on the page, especially if it was a short line where the sense was quite hard to determine. Sometimes, a direction in the script will help eg. “NICK (like a sullen teenager) Just doing my best.” TV is made fast and there isn’t time to stop over every line and talk about it, so a bit of direction on the page can speed things along. But if you do it too much, it looks like you, as the writer, don’t trust the actors to find the line, or the director to direct the actors. So you need to find a balance. A few key directions will help, but if you have several in every scene, you’ll start to look paranoid. Of course, you are paranoid, as you’re a writer, but you have to try and act normal. See? Acting’s harder than it looks, isn’t it?
No ‘I’ in Team, (but there is ‘me’)
You are a team: You (the writer), the producer, the director, the cast and, well, everybody on set. That’s why you need to be careful who you work with in the first place. The key relationship is between the writer and the producer. It’s always flattering and exciting to have a producer interested in your idea, but if you feel they’re constantly pulling the show into a direction you’re not happy with, or you think they’re a jerk or incompetent, stop. Think. Do you really want to work with someone you don’t like or respect for hours, weeks, months, constantly making decisions together, the result of which will be broadcast on national television? Probably not. Although frankly, it still beats real work.
Bluestone 42 is still on iPlayer. All three series. Why not give it a try? Or bring back some memories?
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