Wednesday, 24 September 2014

Major Project: Research into Comedy Writers

I have been looking into different comedy writers which have had their programmes featured on BBC 3. For this I have taken a look into different scripts from different types of writers, one if from British comedy writer Adrian Poynton most famous for writing White Van Man (BBC 3) and Trollied (Sky). The other is from David Zuckerman who is famous for writing American comedy shows such as Wilfred (BBC 3 and FX), Family Guy (BBC 3 and FOX) and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (BBC 2 originally and NBC).

I have chosen these two writers to research because of many different reasons. Firstly I know each of their works really well, I have watched the majority of both of their series and find it easy to incorporate their styles into my work, even to go as far as inspirational. Secondly they are both quite different writers, where Poynton is more of a realistic, British comedy writer, Zuckerman's writing style is more surreal. Poynton's comedy White Van Man is about Ollie who takes over his father's handyman business and pretty much makes a pigs ear with it, not to mention the trouble that he gets from his assistant Darren, a lazy good for nothing who doesn't complete the tasks he is given. Zuckerman's comedy Wilfred is very surreal in comparison. Wilfred is about a young man named Ryan who after failing to commit suicide via a drug cocktail starts to see and hear his neighbours dog (Wilfred) as a man dressed in a dog costume and is asked by his neighbour who he has a crush on to look after the dog.

My aim by looking into both of these series is to find a balance between the surreal and the realistic. Tennis Club aims to be realistic but with surreal overtones. This may prove to be difficult, as it may be hard to find such a balance however if I continue to take inspiration from shows like these, they may be able to give me a better understanding of what I need to include in my script to make it work.


Trailer for White Van Man series 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG6aEs6Fj_0

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