Imogen Polycarpou TV Production Blog

Characters are the most important aspect of story telling. Characters bring the story to life, allowing recognisable actions and emotional connection with story, and so should be the first thought in bringing a story to script. The story and the character intertwined and are inseparable. The character is also built to serve both the story purpose and constructional purposes. The screenwriter should go on a journey of discovery with their characters to find out what drives them, and how they respond to situations. Action is often about establishing character early in a screenplay and simultaneously setting up story elements for later in the screenplay. It is worth to note the distinction between description and action.  Description: a written or spoken account of an event, person, or object  Action: the act or process of doing something  Types of Characters:  Protagonist: 'hero', the main character  Adjuster: help adjust or modify the ...

  Full Name: Anotnia Eugenia Vardalos  D.OB: 24.09.1962 Most Famous for: My Big Fat Greek Wedding 1 + 2 and I Hate Valentines Day   - I will be focusing on My Big Fat Greek Wedding and her as a writer  Her first screenplay she ever wrote was My Big Fat Greek Wedding which was based on her real life marriage (originally it was a one women show). Writing the film she was drawing it from her one man show. It was done like that because she didn't want any one to still her idea so she quickly wrote and got the rights to it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwSQrak793w The way she writes: - she performs it in her head whilst writing it - She just applies the simple rules of story telling: beginning, middle and end - doesn't pay attention to the 'rules' of screenwriting; that format doesn't work for her - a writer should use their own process feel their way life - doesn't use an outline for her writing and doesn't think too much of the ...

Family: Family is very important in Greek society; either by blood or even marriage - when a relative marries someone that person becomes your koumbaro (for men) or koumbara (for women). Also, businesses are usually family run.  Food:  One of the most important things in Greek culture; famous Mediterranean food. Greek love to use fresh ingredients such as garlic, onions, fennel, zucchini, grapes, dates, figs and herbs (dill, mint and oregano). Meat is also a very important part of their diet; every Sunday families gather together for Souvla (basically a barbecue)  Food in tavernas are usually meze based meaning a variety of small portions of different types of food is served (usually over 20 different dishes) or there is also the famous Ouzeri where you are brought typically light food such as greek sasuges (pastourma) and halloumi to eat as you drink Ouzo.  Typical Greek Cypriot food:  tzantziki octopus dolmades (which is grape leaves f...

Church  The Greek O rtho dox church plays a big part in people s liv es. The majority of holidays are religious based an d the religion is practiced by the majority of the Gree k and Cy priot population . Religion is very much present in the education system (bot h in private and public schools) where children are forced to take religi ous education classes which teaches them about the re religion . Religion is also very much present in the politics of the country . Whether a person is religious or not, they usually tend to respect but also still attend church on Sunday out of respect f or their grandparent or any other family member , but also are force d sometimes to attend ch urch because most of the national holidays are religion based and we are forced to attend church out of the respect for ou r fallen heroes.    Easter  Tsoureki Easter is the most celebration for the Gre eks. The ce lebrati ons for easter begin almost two months...

One of the ways in which I did research on how to write a good sitcom was too watch interviews from sitcom writers and experts. Below are links to the interviews that I watched and the key factors on how to write a sitcom. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7ZMzglhjOg The interview was with Mark Roberts who was one of the head writers for Two and a Half Men and also one of the writers for Mike and Molly.  - He says that a TV show lives and breathes on the characters. They should be three dimensional and lovable so people should want to keep seeing them - It should be emotionally based rather than situational - Also a good skill to have as writer is to have a good ear for creating voices https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTl_xjOyZsc - He believes that there is a difference between comedy and a sense of humour  - a joke should make the person think about it: why is it funny?  - comedy is about empathy. People want to see humanity and struggle. PE...

Below are words which have been made up by Cypriots living in England. They are a mixture of english words and cyrpiots words. Experiotita : experience Chainezika: Chinese food to kettlo: the kettle hoteli: hotel  baso: the bus  baseri: bus driver  boxi: box  naughtissa: naughty  daspieris: dustbin man  slippoues: slippers  sosinja: sausage  pos toffy: post office  postaji: post man  ishouries: insurance  facklikia: swear words  chigay boila or boila: boiled chicken  berminghamniotis: person from Birmingham  paketaro: package something  crafftissa: crafty  toileta: toilet  tostiera: toaster  anddressa: address  to fishadiko or chipiko: fish and chips  salavinegar: salt and vinegar  ta carka: curry  chargaro: charge you 

Doing research for my script I stumbled upon a book about an english/cypriot family leaving in Nottingham and thought I would give it a go and see what it talks about. It was absolutely amazing and very relatable to my script.  Below is some general background information on the book and the author. And further on in the blog post I will discuss why I liked it and how it affected my work.   Eve Makis is Greek Cypriot who was raised in England. Her parents were Greek Cypriot immigrants who worked unreasonable amount of hours in their fish & chips show. Her parents did not have much of an education because their parents could not afford the bus fare to send them to school. Eve studied at Leicester University and during her spare time she would write, jot down notes from her personal experiences and experiences form her relatives. She had a typical strict Cypriot upbringing where she was not really allowed to go to university and study as a Cypriot girl only left the...