Outnumbered IV – Episode 5 – Shooting Script – 17
th March 2011 1
EPISODE 5
1. EXT. HOUSE. DAY – D1
BEN (starts OOV)
I could be handcuffed and suspended from a crane, in a block of ice.
2. INT. KITCHEN. DAY – D1
Dad is clearing up breakfast stuff with a phone tucked under his chin.
DAD
That feels like a lot of work for a school talent competition
(He speaks into the phone with exaggerated pronunciation
you use when you are speaking to a machine) Y-e-s. But it’s
great you’re taking part, y-e-s…..(mutters) stupid machine.
BEN
I could do the magic trick I did with, Gran. Her face when
she thought I’d smashed her watch with that hammer.
DAD
Well….you had.
BEN
Yeh…..I still don’t know what went wrong there.
DAD (into phone)
Y-e-s
BEN
I think it was the wrong kind of hammer
DAD
No, I said y-e-s.
BEN
Still, Gran likes her new watch.
MUM enters shouting behind her.This script looks different than the others that i have seen, it is the first page and so would be the opening sequence that appears on the screen. Because it is an opening scene, it has a lot of fast dialougue to make you carry on watching the show. It makes it different to alternative scripts because it has more dialogue and conversations rather than stage directions and description of location. Also, because it's a comedy drama, there is more dialogue to try and fit in as much humour and originality as possible into the opening five minutes, to draw you in and make you watch more. The idea is also one that some people would class as being overused, so it is that much more important to make it differ from others like it in the first few minutes. As it would be shown usually at the 'prime time' which is from around 8-9pm usually, as you can imagine there is a lot of competition between the different television channels and the different television programs, all trying to get a lot of viewers. Even though this is a television series, the episodes will not directly follow on from eachother, and so you can just watch one as a oneoff, and not need to know the background information as you would in a more serious television series, such as the next example.
Example 2: http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scripts/sherlock-the-blind-banker
THE BLIND BANKER SHOOTING (DRAFT 8) GREEN 16-02-10
RAZ
I’ve got two minutes before a
Community Support Officer comes
round that corner. Can we maybe
talk whilst I’m working?
SHERLOCK offers him the phone. RAZ hands the spray can to
JOHN so he can look.
Flicks through the photographs. The images from the bank and
the library.
SHERLOCK
Know the author?
RAZ
I know the paint. Looks like
Michigan, hardcore propellant. I’d
say zinc.
SHERLOCK
And what about the symbols? Do you
recognise them?
RAZ
It’s not a tag. I’m not even sure
it’s a proper language.
SHERLOCK
Two men have been murdered, Raz.
Deciphering this - it’s the key to
finding who killed them.
RAZ
This is all you got? Not much to go
on.
SHERLOCK
You think you could help out?
RAZ
I can ask around.
SHERLOCK
Someone must recognise it.
Two COMMUNITY SUPPORT OFFICERS appear around the corner.
OFFICER
Oi.
JOHN forgets he is holding the paint can.
The OFFICERS come running. RAZ surreptitiously kicks the kit
bag along the floor. It is now at JOHN’S feet.This script looks different than the other one i have looked at, i chose it randomly from the middle of the script, and so supposedly, the middle of the action and the problem. What was different from the other script is that there is a lot more directions to show that it is a drama, they use a lot of props to create suspense, which will make people want to watch it because of the enigma codes put into place, it will spark peoples curiosity and so make people want to watch more. This, like the other script example, would be shown at the prime time, only this time a little later at maybe 9-10pm, because this is a series that would directly follow on from eachother, it is very important that it gets, and keeps viewers, more so than the likes of the first example.
I think that after comparing and contrasting the two scripts i will lean to writing more like the first- the opening scene used to draw you in and make you want to watch more. This will have more speech than description and therefore be maybe less in depth than maybe in the middle of all the action, as the second example was. But unlike the first example, it will be the type of series that you must sortof watch from the beginning, or at least know a bit of background information to get the gist of the program. This for a television drama could either be a help or a hindrence- people could get 'hooked' onto the program, watching it every week and getting really into it, or they could not be bothered to watch it because of the close proximity of the plotlines and the amount of information that is put into each episode that you may need to witness before fully understanding things that are happening in the later episodes. It wouldn't necessarily be something you could choose to just watch because there is nothing else really on t.v, which programs like the first example often exhibit themselves as being such a program, you would have to either be informed to the background information, which may be the case if it was recommended to you by a friend maybe, or have done some research by watching the earlier episodes yourself, or looking online perhaps to check out the fine details of the different plotlines.
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