Hi everybody, this is Jaque Thay and I?m hijacking the Supermarket Matters blog for the day. I was fortunate to get involved with this project after a friend of mine put me in touch with Mark. After reading through his idea and having a brief discussion via email Mark asked if I would be able to write an episode for him. It?s proved a little tricky fitting it in as I have a generally busy schedule ? see this post on my blog for more information about that ? but things are finally quietening down now and I?ve got some time to breathe.
So what am I going to discuss? There are a number of topics that I could talk about, and time permitting I will write a series of follow up posts to address some of those. For today though I want to talk about some scripting issues I?ve faced.
Usually when I work on a project I am either the sole author, or I am working to improve an existing idea. In other words, I have full control of the creative process (within reason when working on other people?s documents) and I am aware of all the parameters involved. This is not so for Supermarket Matters. At last count there were five writers actively involved in scripting for this drama, each of whom is working on their own separate episodes.
Mark has managed to maintain control and stop us from diverging too far from his ideas by giving us freedom to invent our own plots for each episode as long as they fall within his rough guidelines for the arc of the first season (yes, first, not THE. We hope given time that there may be several seasons of Supermarket Matters). In that role he has been fantastic, approving plot ideas that fitted with his grand plan, tweaking those that didn?t, and allowing us to suggest plot hooks for episodes that aren?t ours to write in order to set up our own events. For example: as part of my episode?s setting Llanmorgan, the town where Supermarket Matters takes place, must have been caught in a heat-wave for a number of weeks. Now if I just announced that at the start of my episode then it would break continuity with other episodes if they featured people complaining of cold and wet weather; because of my suggestion a plot hook has been planted that prior to my episode people should mention how hot it is becoming.
Where the scripting process can really come unstuck though is writing to a certain style and tone. All of the writers have access to some background material detailing the common characters and their speech patterns. What we don?t know is the specific details that other writers have envisioned. For example as I?m writing an early draft of my episode, I know that there will be a phone conversation. If there are other similar situations in different episodes, how have the writers approached this? Have they written a monologue where one person recaps information so that only one speaker is needed, or have they written a true dialogue?
Another issue I?ve encountered involves introducing key elements; in my first draft I have opted not to use a narrator ? but this could change once I read through the scripts for other episodes. If a narrator has been used then it will be easier to incorporate that element into my own script by removing exposition from the speech of other characters than it would be to add that exposition to another person?s speech.
The final point that I?ll cover today will be the existence of secondary characters. As part of Mark?s initial work he detailed a number of important personas that exist within Llanmorgan. Those primary characters are people who will have important roles within the soap; among them are store workers at the Grab?n?Go and their nemesis. These characters will be covered in more depth in a later post. While the characters that Mark conceived work well as the core of the soap there are not enough of them to allow for an extended variety of interactions required for a continuing drama ? to make up for that many from the team of writers have written secondary characters to fulfil specific roles within their episodes. Until our initial drafts have been completed and the writers are able to see each other?s efforts none of us will know what roles these secondary characters play ? we may find that some are duplicated and can be amalgamated while others might be strong enough to become core characters in future episodes.
I suppose to sum up, working as part of a team where no one individual has total control requires a level of trust and interaction not normally found in a solo project, but it also opens up a number of possibilities for expanded thought and possibilities that could not otherwise have been conceived. I have no idea what others have written but when we do share notes we will likely found things we could never have come up with on our own ? and that is one of the strengths of this project; a reason why I am excited to be a part of it.
Now, I?d better give Mark his blog back ? I have a script to complete!
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