Here we are, three days later, and we received not one but seven scripts! Again, not what we were expecting, and again, somewhat frustrated that we’re not getting what we were told to expect. At the end of the day, I can deal with however many scripts we get. It is just exasperating when we initially campaigned to work in smaller groups on multiple scripts, but we were told No, the idea of the studio (for the writers) was to work in a writer’s room on one script. Which is totally fine! Except now we are getting seven scripts. If there was some form of cohesion and continuity in this dialogue it would help us all out a lot. I also don’t understand how it has taken this long to get a script. I do realise it’s not an inherently speedy process, but it is week 5, meaning we’re almost half way through the semester and we’re only getting something tangible to potentially film, now.
The scripts were all obviously written around a set of guidelines or basic plot structure- and maybe that was what was meant by one script, a unifying plot line or things to “tick off” within the individual scripts. So, they were all similar but written in different styles, with different dialogue and slight differences in character. There was often a sub storyline involving a stapler, which multiple times did not make sense to me. We later found out that these subplots were included as a “B” story, the secondary storyline that complements the A line. While I respect the need to write structurally and include such a secondary plot, it seemed forced to me and consequently detracted from the episode(s).
We read all the scripts in class, which took a long time given there were some over the required 3-5 (I think) page limit (17 pages, to be specific). I’m not sure why someone would bother submitting and getting us to read 17 pages of a script when we specifically said we won’t shoot episodes over 5 minutes.
We gave feedback to the writers after each script and then in two separate groups. I did really enjoy elements of each script and thought some were great. They were funny and I did really love the characters. I still think they lend themselves towards a silly yet loveable humour more than the dark humour the writers had intended. I think dark comedy will also be more difficult to achieve in filming.
We discussed how we would move forward. Robin suggested picking one script per group and developing it or tweaking it for filming. Stayci more or less said that wouldn’t be nice to the other writers, but in reality it was going to be a much more efficient process if we did that (and we could merge other elements or dialogue from the other scripts), and so we chose Cam’s script, and gave more specific feedback. The writers said they would re-write it over the weekend and that we will have it for the following Tuesday, so we can start filming ASAP.
Finally, we asked about getting a general document with synopsis, solidified characters, notes about the world, etc as we needed it if we were to try and cast external actors, and just generally prepare for shooting. We were told that they had been working on that all along, which we thought was curious as we have been left in the dark for the past few weeks regarding all of these details. It’s all happening now (or will start to happen next week)!