Being a writer

Genre

What genre is Being Eve? Gather evidence on four big pieces of paper headed up with, Soap Opera, Sitcom, Series, and Serial. Discuss the evidence for and against each style of programme.

Brainstorm a list of television programmes that use the genres of comedy, farce, and parody.

Does everyone have the same sense of humour in your class? Look at the first ten minutes of episode 2, Being Popular. What sorts of jokes are being created here? Can you identify jokes that:

use visual gags (for example, somebody's face, body, or clothes have something wrong with them)?
use mistaken identity?
are caused by misunderstanding?
use verbal humour, for example, accents?
use a difference in race or social class?
use physical humour (often called buffoonery)?
use disappearing or appearing jokes (either people or objects)?
use humiliation (being made to look ridiculous)?
use bodily function (sound effects)?
use incongruous jokes (unusual ideas that don't belong together are put next to each other)?
use clowns versus straight men (or women) also known as white-faced clowns?
use exaggerated characters drawn from melodrama?

Take one of the themes in the storylines and with your group either create your own "action replay" of an episode you have seen including at least three types of humour – one of which needs to be a physical joke – or create a new play to present to the class including at least three types of humour and one of which needs to be a physical joke. You need to start and end your piece on a frozen moment.

Appoint a group director to keep you on track.
Improvise and rehearse your scene in groups.
Decide on costumes you might want to bring for your presentation.
If you have access to an electronic keyboard you might find some sound effects you can use to emphasise jokes, for example, crashes on cymbals for a falling down joke.
If possible, use improvised stage lighting to enhance your presentation.
Perform your scene to the class.
Watch each other's performances observing the courtesies of listening and responding appropriately.
Rather than using real props mime what you need as much as possible.
Think about timing, that is, coming in on cue during your rehearsals.

Theme

Questions about theme:

What do you think the purpose of this series is?
What television shows do you watch which have people your own age as leading characters?
What do you think they are mostly about? In other words what themes do they portray?
What do you think these themes say about us as New Zealanders?
If this series were filmed in a non-Western society such as China would the themes be very different?
This series will be seen by young people in Australia, Britain, and the US. What do you think they will find interesting about us?
Will they find anything difficult to understand?

Look at some clips of the programme and think about the possible themes of this episode.

Explore the ideas or themes of Being Eve.

Choose one of the themes to work on as a group, for example, divorce or popularity.
Individually decide which character from Being Eve you want to represent.
Number off each person in the group.
When your number is called by the teacher, or when he or she calls for a drum roll (a rapid clap on the thighs followed by three claps of the hands), move into a space and form a tableau or frozen sculpture. This should show your chosen character's attitude towards your chosen theme.
Your teacher will then "thought tap" each person in the group by tapping them lightly on the shoulder in turn. When it is your turn you should express aloud in a sentence your feelings as one of the characters of the series. (If you don't know the series you can be another character.) You have to speak the truth because like Eve, this is your soliloquy. You will probably have contrasting ideas from each other and your position in relation to each other should show this clearly, for example, "I'm Eve, and I think this divorce business made life difficult for Mum."
When the thought tapping has finished title your overall theme by speaking as a chorus, for example, "Being popular!"

Setting

Look at some clips of the programme. How would you know this is set in New Zealand?

Questions about setting:

Can you think of another television series aimed at New Zealanders in your age group from either the past or the present?
Could you tell they were set in New Zealand? How?
Where are the shows you watch mostly set? (Which country? Urban or rural? Past or present?)
Is it important that we see ourselves as New Zealanders on television?

Script

Read the interview with writer Maxine Fleming and discuss the following questions:

How did Being Eve come to be written?
How does it differ from other previous series aimed at young people?
How long has the show been in development?
How did the writer get inside the mind of a "teenage anthropologist"?
Who was the teenage writer who sat at the storylining table with the "big guns" and what school was she at?
How long do you get to rehearse a 13-part series?
So, just how do two writers work together?
How important is the producer in terms of realising the writer's vision?
Did any young writers get to work on the series?
Is the series all drama or are there some documentary elements?
If you're a writer, do you ever get to have a say in who plays the roles you've written?
How have people worked together in this series?
What does Maxine Fleming mean when she says: "I really wanted my kids to watch a show that wasn't centred around navel-gazing American teenagers."
How easy is it to get a television series up and running?

Look back over the episode summaries for the first 13 episodes and see if you can come up with some new two word titles beginning with the word Being... The title should be positively rather than negatively worded. It should always represent what the central character, Eve, wants to happen, but fears will not. For example: "Being Popular" is a better title than "Being Unpopular". In groups of four or five, take one of your new titles of "Being...", as approved by your teacher, and devise a plot line for a programme using a variety of the characters found in the episode summaries. Now think about how you would create the first five minutes of that programme as a group.