tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10831518.post7349128638483974659..comments2023-08-17T11:47:11.821+01:00Comments on James and the Blue Cat: 'Tone' part 4 - a BBC script editor speaksJames Henryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16604261370633794445noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10831518.post-74519872578572041812011-10-06T14:27:11.644+01:002011-10-06T14:27:11.644+01:00Hi James
Just to let you know that the London Scr...Hi James<br /><br />Just to let you know that the London Screenwriters' Festival 2011 kicks off on October 28th for a three day festival like no other - http://www.londonscreenwritersfestival.com. Television screenwriters, producers and commissioners are amongst top speakers. <br /><br />Best wishes,<br />MonicaMonicahttp://www.londonscreenwritersfestival.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10831518.post-47278045356744359052011-07-11T07:32:43.654+01:002011-07-11T07:32:43.654+01:00Rob: glad these are proving helpful.
S. Monkey: ch...Rob: glad these are proving helpful.<br />S. Monkey: cheers for this, will put in another post.James Henryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16604261370633794445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10831518.post-86244218620474944002011-07-10T01:04:21.833+01:002011-07-10T01:04:21.833+01:00Isn't it also somehow a kind of CONTRACT betwe...Isn't it also somehow a kind of CONTRACT between the writer and the audience? You set up in the first few scenes the kinds of flavours and emotional notes you're going to be playing with - like the emotional DNA of the piece - and then the audience know "where they are" with it. It's like setting out your stall - people know what they're signing up for. <br /><br />And then, while people want and expect to be "surprised" in terms of the actual Things What Happen, they DON'T, as a rule, want to be surprised by a sudden change of "tone". It's like changing the RULES of the thing - the emotional equivalent of gravity suddenly working in the wrong direction, or people whipping out blaster guns in the middle of a historical scene. If you've set that up as part of the "rules" up top, people are fine with it - but not if it's late enough to cause a disjunct.<br /><br />For me the prime exemplar of how to lay down tone swiftly and elegantly is the pre-credits tease of the first ep of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Boy and girl break into school at night - some sexual goofing around - he's pretending to scare her, it's funny but with an edge that there MIGHT be menace lurking there somewhere - then boom, switcheroo, she bares her fangs and it turns out she's the vamp and kills him. Pretty much all the flavours of the next seven seasons of it are right there in those first few minutes, so we trust it whenever it cleaves to them, and when it doesn't - it requires work to win our trust again (cf. the Spike/Buffy rape stuff).<br /><br />You CAN do jolting things with tone, but it tends to put you in the territory of arthouse stuff - eg. the end of There Will Be Blood, where it all comes down to *SPOILER ALERT* a guy smacking another guy's head in with a bowling ball. For me that's a gear shift - like going from 2001: A Space Odyssey to A Clockwork Orange - but it kind of works because it's a self-consciously arty film, and the THEME (violence and power) holds it together.<br /><br />And now to bed!spacemonkeynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10831518.post-78409748928616653352011-07-08T09:03:07.611+01:002011-07-08T09:03:07.611+01:00That's great from Madeleine.
I'm working...That's great from Madeleine. <br /><br />I'm working on a script with a friend at the moment - a familiar idea with a new twist. A lot of that twist needs to come from the tone. That's what we're making sure we've got right. Not easy, but good fun.<br /><br />Thanks, James. These posts offering advice are always very useful.Rob Self-Piersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01915536613093646652noreply@blogger.com