Imogen Polycarpou TV Production Blog

Writing the final versions of the script was fun, exciting but also a long process. Having a clear idea of what directions my episodes where going I wrote skeleton drafts to begin with and worked like that. With each new draft,  added new jokes, stories lines. With guidance from Simon and his suggestions for certain characters I did make a few changes to some story lines and slightly changed my characters personality. In the first few drafts of each episode Hara was becoming somewhat annoying and lacked a lot of humour. Therefore I decided to make her into a bit of a spiritual person who gives herself a pep talk in each episode but also one of those people who believes in positive thinking and constantly carries a positive thinking book with her, sage and incense.  Kotchy, didn't have much of a story, if you got rid of him you wouldn't even notice. Therefore I made him so that each time his family does something humiliating he captures it on camera or Sebastian does and he...

During my research on both terms I realised there was a lack of female screenwriters in comedy/sitcoms. Therefore, I decided to do research on female screenwriters and if any opportunities are available for us to come into the lime light. Since the hit show 'Girls' debuted there has been a surge of female driven TV shows. Channel 4 commissioned Phoebe Waller-Bridges show "Crashing" and its described as "one of the most sophisticated debut scripts". Waller-Bridge stated that she became a screenwriter because of the lack of interesting and diverse female characters. Also Julia Davi's "Morning has broken", Roisin Conaty's "Game Face", Caitlin and Caroline Moran's "Raised by Wolves" and Michaela Coel's "Chewing Gum". Sky Atlantic has another Julia Davis show, "Robin's Test". Sky has shows like Ruth Jones's "Stella", "Mount Pleasant" and "Dunham's Girls...

Scene 1: Location: Kitchen Characters: Yiayia Maria, Hara, Pappou Andrea Yiayia Maria is in  the kitchen frantically cooking while Hara is studying at the table. Yiayia Maria mentions to Hara that she should think about buying a new outfit for the night, to impress some people and she admits that she is trying to set her up with a guy. Hara gets mad and agrees to buy new clothes but Yiayia Maria doesn't know she's planning on buying gothic clothes. Pappou Andrea comes into the kitchen hoping that maybe he can convince Yiayia Maria to make the souvla instead of him. Scene 2: Location: Hallway Characters: Hara, Chantelle and Sebastian Hara bumps into them as she is leaving and explains that she is going Camden to shop. Chantelle asks her to get some weed from the back streets of Camden market Scene 3: Location: Andy and Stav's room Characters: Andy and Stav In their bedroom, they are both dressed as police officers because their therapists told them role playing ...

Scene 1: Location: Kitchen Characters: Hara, Chantelle, Sebastian, Andy, Stav, Kotchy and Yiayia Maria Andy and Stav are peacefully enjoying their coffee while Yiayia Maria is cooking. Hara is doing yoga to try and calm herself down and prepare herself for the day. She explains to everyone that she has to be at uni early because Mr Conrad has a talk about environment and she wants to show him support. Kotchy is once again playing on his phone instead of going to school and Yiayia Maria tells him off. Scene 2: Location: Bathroom Characters: Uncle Panny and Pappou Andrea Uncle Panny and Pappou Andrea are in the bathroom debating if they can change the toilet seat on their own. As they are drinking the Zivania, Pappou Andrea comes up with the idea that they should just renovate the whole bathroom. Scene 3-5: Location: Car Characters: Chantelle, Sebastian, Hara and Stav Stuck in traffic, Hara is freaking out that Mr Conrad is not going to know how much she cares about him. As ...

Scene 1 Location: Kitchen Characters: Andy, Yiayia Maria, Hara, Sebastian and Chantelle Yiayia Maria is cooking in the kitchen while Andy relaxes doing her crossword puzzle and Hara is stressing out over her lecture. As Chantelle and Sebastian come into the kitchen, Andy is explaining that she is going ti see a Love Guru with Stav Scene 2: Location: Hara's bedroom Characters: Hara and Kotchy As Hara is rushing bout to get her things gathered, Kotchy witnesses her tripping over her shoes. He watches Hara give her self pep talk and copies her. Scene 3: Location: Kicthen Characters: Andy, Yiayia Maria, Pappou Andrea, Sebastian and Chantelle In this short scene, Sebastian and Chantelle are saying bye to everyone as they leave. Also, Pappou Andrea wants to know if there is a way he can join the lecture on online sex. Scene 4: Location: Hallway Characters: Kotchy, Yiayia Maria and Pappou Andrea Kotchy is going through Andy's handbag and finds the sex cards, he also ...

Scene 1: Location: Kitchen Characters: Pappou Andrea, Yiayia Maria, Hara, Kotchy, Andy, Stav and Uncle Panny Yiayia Maria is putting food into a suitcase as Pappou Andrea is shouting at her to hurry up or they will be late. Scene 2: Location: Hallway Character: Hara Hara is giving herself her pep talk as she clutches her positive thinking book to her chest Scene 3: Location: Kitchen Character: Hara, Andy, Kotchy, Pappou Andrea, Yiayia Maria and Uncle Panny Kotchy is laying on the floor as he prepares for his first sleepover at a friends house. Meanwhile Hara is trying to get Andy's attention to help her decide which eyelashes to wear to the uni talent show. Scene 4: Location: Outside the house Characters: Andy, Pappou Andrea, Yiayia Maria Yiayia Maria and Pappou Andrea are saying goodbye to everyone. As they are driving off, Andy is waving at them as they drive off and park at the house down the road and Kotchy films them on his new camera. Scene 5: Location: ...

Scene 1: Location: Kitchen Character: Yiayia Maria, Pappou Andrea, Andy, Hara, Kotchy, Stav The episode opens with Yiayia Maria and Pappou Andrea in the kitchen reminiscing their days in Cyprus about homemade Zivania. Andy is the third character who comes into the kitchen in her carefree manner as Hara follows her in a state of panic for her first of uni. After the women enter, Kotchy is revealed to be sitting at the table playing his game. Scene 2: Location: Hallway Character: Hara Hara is giving herself a pep talk in the mirror. Scene 3: Location: Kitchen Characters: Uncle Panny, Pappou Andrea, Yiayia Maria and Stav Uncle Panny barges into the room holding a bottle of Zivania which he saved for Pappou Andrea. As they discuss the alcohol, they come up with the idea to make their own homemade Zivania. As they are discussing this, Stav strolls in a pours some into his coffee before walking out. Scene 4: Location: Yoga lesson Character: Andy, Yoga Instructor, Yoga Woman ...

The way I have timed my scenes is looking at the length of each scene and working with the fact that 1 page = 1 minute During my research, it is evident that scenes are max 2-2.30 minutes long. Although 2 or 3 scenes of mine exceed that to 3 minutes I feel that the story still flows and that it doesn't drag on. Episode 2 Dionysus Sc1 Kitchen - 1m 30s, Sc 2 Hallway - 1m, Sc3 Kitchen - 1m, Sc4 yoga lesson - 1m, Sc5 Uni lecture room - 40s, Sc6 Yoga lesson - 40s, Sc7 uni lecture room - 40s, Sc8 Mr Conrad's Desk - 30s, Sc9 Basement of house - 10s, Sc10 Swingers party  - 1m 10s, Sc11 Hara's room - 30s, Sc12 Mr Conrad's house - 40s, Sc13 Swingers party - 30s, Sc14  Mr Conrad's house  - 40s, Sc15 Swingers party - 1m 10s, Sc16 Mr Conrad's house - 50s, Sc17 Swingers Party- 30s, Sc18 Mr Conrad's house- 30s, Sc19 Mr Conrad's house- 1m 30s, Sc20 Kitchen - 20s, Sc21 Door  -20s, Sc22 Kitchen - 2m, Sc23 House - 30s, Sc24  Mr Conrad's ...

After the changes that were done to the scripts after the read through (look at Blog post 'Read Through') and after my last tutorial with Simon on 24.04.18, we discusses how it is still sometimes too chunky, long scenes and that Hara still has too little and it actually a bit of an annoying person with her screeching. Simon suggested that in each episode she should be on a mission that sign posts what it is that she is doing in the episode e.g. she has an addictive personality. After thinking about it, I decided that Hara will give herself a pep talk in the beginning in each episode; "I am beautiful, I am smart, I am sexy, I am one of a kind and ....." . After the "and" she will say what her goal is for the day e.g. get a date with Mr Conrad, show him how smart she is, talented and so forth. Likewise, I've added that she believes in positive thinking and what goes around comes around, and carries her positive thinking book with her.  In episode 2...

EPISODES 2-6  Thoughts on episode after read through: (drafts number in brackets is the draft that was read during read through) After the read through, I was able to get a much better understanding of how the script flowed and what it actually sounds like. Even though, I read the description, Hara's bits and some minor characters, I still got an understanding of what it was like. Truthfully some dialogue for characters was too long and the episodes where not as risky as episode 6, therefore in all episodes I added more risky description and dialogue to other characters. Likewise, I added easter eggs that hinted Mr Conrad was the guy Hara was going to meet. As you will see below, I got rid of chunks of dialogue as well as some scenes that is because they were not benefitting the story in any way, and weren't particularly funny either. For my older characters, there reading was not so good as English is not their strongest point, so there were chun...

Episode 2 3 Stories: 1. Hara things she gets a date with Mr Conrad but makes a fool of herself 2. Andy goes yoga and ends up being invited to a swingers party 3. Uncle Panny and Pappou Andrea make home made Zivania, sell it at Swingers party but everyone reacts badly to it Structure of Stories: Issue 1: Hara wants to get a date with Mr Conrad Event: Ends up over dressing for the house gathering and humiliates herself by getting drunk Conclusion: Hara ends up getting drunk and throws up on Mr Conrad as she confesses her love for him Issue 2: Andy goes to a swingers party to reignite her love life Event: whilst there they sell the home made Zivania where they all begin to hallucinate Conclusion: They run away from the party before people release what is happening Issue 3: Pappou Andrea and Uncle Panny want to make proper Zivania Event: They set up a 'lab' in the basement to make it Conclusion: They sell it at the swingers party Episode 3 3 stories:  1. Yiayi...

To prepare for my script read through, I research a bit on what it is that has to be done and how you do it. Please scrolls to the bottom to see what I did to prepare for my read through.                                                                                                                                                                     With my research I understood that a read through should be done when you are in the final stages of writing. "If you've tackled structure, plot and character issues in earlier drafts then your table read will be an ideal environment...

One of the obstacles writing my scripts was the length of my scenes. To get a better understanding of how long a scene should be and when is a good time to cut a scene off. My method of doing this is watching the episode with a stopwatch and each time a scene changes/a location I, time it. * (Please scroll to the bottom of this blog post to see what I have understood and how my research has effected my script). Friday Night Diner Season 1 Episode 5 - 21 minutes Sc Hallway - 1m 9s , Sc Dining Room - 1m 48s , Sc Hallway - 11s , Sc Kitchen - 11s , Sc Hallway - 26s , Sc Dining Room - 1m 55s , Sc Hallway - 12s , Sc at door - 2m 10s , Sc Dining Room - 1m 31s , Sc Pavement - 24s , Sc Chinese - 30s , Sc Outside Chinese - 1s , Sc Chinese - 2m 9s , Sc outside house- 1s , Sc in car - 1m 23s , Sc outside house - 47s , Sc in car - 50s , Sc hallway - 39s , Sc kitchen - 5s , Sc stairs - 4s , Sc car 9s , Sc stairs -  8s , Sc living room - 8s , Sc door - 11s What happens in this epis...

Needing some inspirations for writing my scenes I decided to do some research into movie or sitcom scenes, to get an understanding of how they presented their humour and comedy. Below are a few scenes which inspired me and I will discuss why I chose them.  Ben Stiller's character, Tommy, is introduced at the theatre when Ross and his girlfriend, and Rachel and Tommy go to watch Joe's play. At first glance, Tommy seems like your normal, average guy. When Ross and Tommy go to grab their seats at the theatre there is an older couple sitting in their seats. the contrast is shown when Ross politely asks them to get them because they are sitting in their seats, then Tommy begins to shout at them and call them 'idiots'. It's humorous and makes this character stand and create a moment. It's also funny because Ross is the only one who witnesses it, but also Tommy goes back to behaving as if nothing ever happened. When Ross tries to warn Rachel about Tomm...

Cougar Town  IMDB Rating: 7.0/10 Creator: Kevin Biegel and Bill Lawrence Brief Synopsis: Follows the escapades and relationships of a group of neighbours living in Florida. How are characters introduced (Pilot Episode)? The first character we are introduced to is Jules as she come out of the shower and checks her reflection in the mirror and plays with the 'flabby' bits on her body. Next we are introduced to her friend Laurie who is portrayed as her younger tart of a friend, where they play a game judging people, whilst Jules son, Travis keeps track of their score. The next character that is introduced is Grayson who in the beginning is portrayed as your typical playboy but by the end of the season is perceived as a sweet, guitar playing man. Next is Jules best friend, Ellie, who is her neighbour. Ellie and her husband, Andy, are going to have sex and Ellie is acting mean and lazy while Andy is over excited. The last main character introduced is Bobby, who is Jules...

In this blog post I will highlight the changes to the story lines and the general feedback received from Simon as well as the choices I made regarding to feedback. General feedback on Scripts up to 23.03.2018:  Episode 2 --> actions don't need to be in brackets (even if they are small) --> be harshier with my humour, especially Uncle Panny --> ending should be bigger Episode 3 --> didn't have a clear sense of where it was going in first draft --> balance is off; too much time on Birmingham scenes (what are we getting out of these scenes? make it obvious on the amount of food Yiayia Maria has) --> emphasise the ridiculousness of it --> so far it feels more like a drama --> make the taxi driver more interesting (maybe he is Turkish Cypriot) --> the script over all could be funnier --> Kotchy - make more of him, he's supposed to be the smart one. Scene at the friends house is not funny --> night out: Gina and Stella don't r...

Melissa and Joey IMDB Rating: 7.0/10 Creator: David Kendall and Bob Young  Brief Synopsis: After a family scandal leaves Mel, a local political, alone with her niece and nephew, she hires a man named Joe to become the family's male nanny or manny.  How are characters introduced (pilot episode)? Quick and simple, Melissa is the first person to be introduced as she is getting ready for a date she has. Her assistant puts a news channel on which shows a speech Melissa had done earlier that day and we are introduced to Joe who disrupts the speech asking her questions about her brother in law stealing his money. Next is Lennox who comes into Melissa's room and is seen as a shy, not so confident teenage girl, who feels out of place. Last main character introduced is Ryder who is playing basketball and isn't afraid to express himself and just says what he is thinking.  What is the style of humour?  It is your typical family style sitcom, with multi-cam and a l...

Scrubs IMDB Rating: 8.4/10 Creator: Bill Lawrence   Brief Synopsis: In the unreal world or Sacred Heart Hospital, intern J.D. learns the ways of medicine, friendship and life. How are characters introduced (Pilot Episode)? The main character is introduced through voice over from JD who is seen lying in bed nervous for his first day as an intern. We are then introduced to Turk who is JD's best friend and is the 'cool' guy. Next is Elliot who is the sexy blonde intern and Carla who is a nurse at the hospital and helps the interns adjust. We see a relationship forming between Turk and Carla. Next is Dr Perry who is the doctor assigned to JD. Todd is introduced as Turk's surgical friend and is portrayed as your typical jok with cut sleeves and muscles.  and seems like and evil man but in reality he is nice but has doesn't like to show it and lastly is Dr Bob Kelso who in the beginning is seen as a nice kind caring doctor but is revealed to be an evil man,...