Im sorry about last week. yes very sorry. i brought in some hay bale for the set stage and some red curtains for the front.... maybe we should paint the box instead of covering it entirely in fabric. anyways, to the bird group, i apologize. so now about the script. is there someone that wants to help me write it? who likes writing stories and developing character plots? am i being too quiet about this whole thing? anyways, anyone willing hit me back on the post.

We worked on the puppets some more. I have to remind myself to stop missing class due to oversleeping - but the alarm (that didn't go off on Tues) has been fixed. So this shouldn't be happening anymore. Anyways, we were working on the bird puppets. Actually I spent about the first hour and half to figure out some more of the script and write it down (again, not very successful). Farrell worked on the mother bird and got some pretty good mechanics going on there, with the bird beak and the movement for the eyes using wires. On the latter half of the class period I worked on getting the bird son's body molded and plastered. Unfortunately I forgot to bring a camera to class, so currently I have no pictures to show. Arturo also suggested that we not actually show the mother bird regurgitating her food, but rather have her mouth move and the children birds catch the food in their mouth. And use sound to emphasize her actions. I think sound would be very necessary and would also help facilitate the scenes.

But with the script I think maybe some of us need to get together or correspond via e-mail and get a script going. We were reminded again of the 4 or so weeks left till the final showing. I was wondering if maybe for some of the script we could use a narrative voiceover to cover some of the actions. Hopefully I can get some more written this weekend.

scriptwriting

Just to get a feel for scriptwriting/coming up with a dialogue etc, i printed out one of The Family guy's episodes. The show is just so hilarious and you know that their hilarity is based off their strong script. But it plays a lot on each of the characters on the set. I mean you expect each of them to say something that is in line with the personality of the character. And also, a lot of random humor. Sometimes reeaally random humor. You could say our vomiting cue is a really random bit, humorous? hmm... well it might play off just fine.

Anyways, what we have today was more of the general idea. We do have direction.

Kids arrive home from school. Dad is on the couch, Mom is the kitchen window. So the kid son has been suspended from school for flying. Dad warns the kid about the dangers of flying [ brother died flying into window bit]
[more chirping chatter]

[argument]

TV with natural disaster [what - hurricanes, blizzards, earthquakes, industrialization, wildfires ??]

dad doesn't want to leave - but family convinces dad to evacuate

---ending ---

screen with shadow puppets indicating their flight away.

--- also egg cracks on the nest couch ---

--- dim lights---

---the end---

and we all know that because our scenes are basically the family setting. our dialogue needs to be really strong and drawn out - but not dragged out.

So here are some of the components of sitcoms:

There's:
1) act (sitcoms are usually broken into 3 acts)
2) scenes - could be one long scene or several short scenes
3) A & B stories - main plot (A) and also possible subplots (B)
4) climax - usually in a sitcom there are two climaxes - the first at the end of ACT 1 and ACT 2 another climax- this one is usually the worst "I would never want to be in that situation"
5) lastly is the resolution, ACT 3.

some more points to remember about creating a story... (for writing a comedy script--advice from BBC New Writing Initiative)

1. REMAIN TRUE TO THE CHARACTERS. the characters should sound like the characters and act like the characters.
2. CHARACTERS SHOULD BE ACTIVE. not necessarily "active" meaning that they should continually be moving, but that the characters should not be passive and reactive. Make situations arise out of stuff the characters do instead of stuff that happens to them.
Generally, the BEST STORIES ARE CHARACTER-DRIVEN. There's a funny situation, but the situation should be especially uncomfortable for the main character. An instructor says: "If it's a situation you wouldn't want to be in, it's worth writing"
One way is to generate storiesby MAKING A LIST OF THE CHARACTERS AND THEIR FLAWS.

Now this is for comedy sitcoms and generally they run for 25-30 min or so. However, I think this can be helpful for our development. I don't think we're straying away from any of these points anyways. Plus, our characters are birds. Personified? yes, but people? not entirely.

At some point, I will bring in a microcassette so we can record our written script or storyboard and see how long it actually is, who's voice should go to what, etc etc.

Have a good weekend folks.

general things to remember

We continued to build sets today.
The main stage is made out of cardboard and we have wood for the frame stability and the top part for the shadow puppetry. (the flying away at the end)
Also built some furniture pieces - couch and beginnings of chair and lamp (little details)
I guess what i mean to say is that we don't have a storyboard yet.
Cecilia suggested we watch a sitcom and really get all the details and jokes whatnot from it. -Take notes.
We should at least hit for 5min at a minimum and probably 20 min maximum. (for the entire show)
I will post more for things I've found applicable to our project.
Also I am bringing some paints, hay, and other bird useable things (like sticks and leaves) for Thurs.

so Tuesday we worked on making the bird puppets out of clay and using plaster bandages, make plaster puppets. The bird puppets are a cross between the zebra finch and the gouldian finch, with a leaning toward the gouldian ;)

our storyboard is still the same. ah the anti-fly birds.