Andrew Ellard: The Best Advice I Ever Received
Wednesday 3rd August 2016
Sometimes they ask you to write a character biography. And sometimes you have to do it.
Character biographies are boring. Boring boring boring. I could keep typing the word boring here and you'd still be more entertained than by reading a character biography. Interminable descriptions like 'witty' and 'likeable' that barely help at all when imagining how a character functions; whispers of jokes that would work better in a scene; and irrelevant details from childhood. They had their heart broken at 14? Wow, if it had been 15 the character would have been soooo different.
The best advice I ever received, from a producer who was going to make me write a set of these wretched things for a pilot I'd long since finished drafting, was this:
Have the show's characters write each other's biographies.
Isn't that immediately more interesting? Joey writing Chandler's character description pops right away - uncertain what his flatmate does for a living but knowing it's 'something in an office', baffled by his lack of success with women, oblivious to the fact that Chandler does all the washing up.
Showing how characters see each other tells you twice as much about them both. It's basically a sneaky way of writing a scene. Hell, why not write it as a scene? Mark from Peep Show being interviewed about Jez. The failure to pay rent, the dreadful music "career" (you can hear those quote marks), the drink-drug-curry experiment that left a streak of shit half way up the lounge wall.
'Have the show's characters write each other's biographies'. It's a great tip. And if, when you try it, it doesn't give you anything funny or interesting, you've immediately identified a problem with the show.
This thinking led me to the best bit of sitcom advice I can pass on: Characters are revealed most efficiently through difference.
Sure, you might be able to establish a main character as an affable loser with a scene at a checkout. But have five main characters argue over the restaurant bill and watch them fly. People say comedy is conflict, but that's not quite it - it's difference.
Difference, of course, creates conflict. The Trotters aren't in constant conflict, but they tend to see any given situation differently. Give them a lost wallet full of cash and see what they do.
I put this directly to the test in Outsiders, the three Blaps we've just made for Channel 4. Heavily improvised, and under five minutes per episode, we needed every character coming across clearly from the start.
So I gave them single topics. One thing to draw immediate attention to how they differ, and thus who they are. Muggings. A gun in the flat. An argument about nationality and ethnicity.
Wind them up and, if we've built the show right, they can run and run.
Outsiders episodes 1, 2 and 3 can be found on BCG and Channel4.com
Andrew Ellard is on Twitter and can be contacted via andrewellard.com