Friday, April 2, 2010

SitCom vs. Webisodes

So, I thought I was writing a sitcom. I thought it would be fun. I'm seriously in love with How I Met Your Mother right now and have watched a lot of it. 25 minutes. I can do that, right? Well, let's just face it when I say that, when it comes to scripts, I have NO experience. I think I could build a decent comic book script, because it's between visual and novelistic, but I don't know about stage, screen, small screen, or even mini-screen. I've never written scripts and the last two years in a row I have completely futzed out on them and lost steam less than a week into screnzy. How do I do this?!

I have a head start. I'm 10.5 pages into my first episode of this sitcom and already considering maybe going back and altering it a little bit into webisodes. Then they only need to be 5-10 pages long for any one webisode and I think it would be a format I could handle more easily. Season 2 of The Guild was about 79 minutes in length for the whole season. I have enough material, I think, to put together a handful of linked webisodes for In The Big Ring.

Wish me luck!

Thursday, April 1, 2010

In The Big Ring: Opening Scene

Episode One: The Gang's All Here
FADE IN:

EXT. Portland, Oregon Waterfront Park - MORNING

Early morning in Portland. The waterfront Park multi-use path is teeming with bikers, joggers, and people out for a morning with the kids. Clothing suggests a moderately warm morning and the beginning of what will probably be a beautiful day.

A young woman (Lydia Watts) wearing a bright green t-shirt and brother capri pants weaves expertly through the traffic on a blue single speed bicycle. She is smiling.

SOUND: Classical music is playing softly in the background

LYDIA

VO: This is Portland, Oregon. It's probably the best place in the entire world. Of course, most people don't really agree with that sentiment. They'll tell you it's New York, Paris, or maybe even Seattle. I'm going to tell you right now, though, that they're wrong.

Scene flashes to Vacation photographs of the woman on the bike in New York, Paris, and Seattle as she says those cities before coming back to Portland's bustling waterfront Park.

LYDIA

VO: Sure, it rains kind of a lot here, but you get used to it. Portland's that kind of place that you visit and then just never leave. That's how my housemate got here. And of course, nothing is ever as wonderful as Portland at the end of the summer. Like now! If you have a bike and an unfettered schedule, then you have the makings of the time of your life!

Lydia suddenly flips over the handlebars of her bike as the rear wheel locks up. Scene pauses with her in the air.

LYDIA

VO: Only trouble is, I don't really have a bike. At least, not one I can trust.