Writing

Follow the links below to become familiar with terms used in script writing.

Read summaries of the 13 episodes, and a synopsis of episode 2, Being Popular.

See Being a writer for ideas that will give students an insight into writing for television and the practical activities encourage them to think about and analyse programmes like Being Eve.

Genre | Theme | Setting | Script

Genre

In simple terms the word genre means type or category.

In television, each programme is marked by its distinctive style, form, or content and as such will fall into a specific category.

There are lots of different categories and many programmes will fall into more than one. Some examples of the different television genres are soap opera, situation comedy, drama, action/adventure, game show, children's show, and news, but there are lots more.

In recent years, new television genres have emerged with new audiences and television networks. The types of programmes that were most popular 30 or 40 years ago are quite different from the types of programmes that people like to watch today.

Some programmes however, like soap operas, are just as popular today as they ever were. Perhaps this is because one of the distinctive styles of the soap opera is that it reflects, or represents, real life. Therefore the storylines, characters, and plot change with the times.

There are different genres within all art forms. In music the different genres include pop, classical, hip-hop, soul, dance, to name but a few. All the different bands, songs, and pieces of music fall into one of these categories if not more than one. In music shops the different genres are used to separate out the different CDs and tapes on sale.

In literature there are different genres in the different literary forms. For example, in the form of novels there are genres like science fiction, romance, suspense/thriller, comedy and so on.

Films are also categorised by different genres, for example, horror, comedy, thriller, romance and many more.

The television programme Being Eve is part of the teen drama genre.

In a soap opera, storylines arise from problems created by the writers and the characters have to solve them. There is no real end in sight and the storylines overlap.Classic television soap operas are composed of very moralistic stories, which were originally modelled on traditional Victorian theatre melodramas such as Maria Marten and the Red Barn, or Sweeney Todd the Barber.

There are a number of stock characters in these melodramas such as:

The heroine – a poor girl who is very good and very deserving.
The villain – usually an older man who is evil, wealthy, and heartless. He does his best to plot the downfall and ruin of the heroine.
The downtrodden mother, a good woman, who may be ill or widowed or unprotected in some other way. She is in danger of being thrown out of her home because she can no longer pay the rent. She wants to protect her daughter from the advances of the villain.
The poor brother, a good young man, who will do anything for his sister to protect her against the villain.
The hero, a good man, of low social status, who will battle through for the love of the heroine, no matter what. His motives are often misunderstood.

A television series doesn't have to follow this format. It can consist of a number of loosely connected stories or episodes, involving the lead characters in separate situations. There are many sitcoms, or situation comedies based on this format.

A serial has a continuous storyline, which is resolved, or worked out, in the final episode.

Theme

The word theme basically means subject or topic. A theme is often used for discussions or debates to enable people to know what issues are likely to be discussed. Parties are sometimes themed so that partygoers know what to wear, for example, a tropical island theme. And things are often referred to by theme; for example, his books are always on the theme of love.

Themes are often referred to as recurring motifs or ideas that are repeated. So, for example, a diary is something that is usually written on a daily basis with a different entry each day and therefore you would assume that there was no theme. However, the diary as a whole may have an overall theme of perhaps happiness or despair running through it.

In television, the theme tells us what the programme is going to be about. In the Being Eve series the theme is usually made clear in the title of each episode. For example, the episode entitled Being Beautiful questions what it means to be beautiful and explores the concept of the perfect human form. Issues related to beauty and to a desire to be beautiful are covered in the programme, for example, Sylvie's attempt to curb her junk food addiction by going on a fad diet.

Each episode in the Being Eve series has its own theme, but the series as a whole is on the theme of being a teenager.

Setting

The word setting means the context and environment in which something is set.

Context has two meanings. The first one being the circumstances in which an event occurs – its setting. The second one being the discourse that surrounds a language unit and helps to determine its interpretation. People are often heard to say, "my words have been taken out of context" to explain why something they have said may seem inappropriate or harsh. In the context of the conversation, discussion, debate, or whatever they were having, their words may not have been regarded in the same way.

The first meaning of context is the one that we are referring to when talking about setting in regard to television. The setting of a programme can be discussed in two ways. There is the literal setting of a scene in an episode, for example, Eve's bedroom or the school playground, and then there is the overall setting in which all the episodes are set – Eve's World.

The setting is important in helping the viewer draw meaning from the action. It wouldn't make sense to us to watch Eve discussing boys with Sylvie at school in front of the whole class. It's much more likely that she would do this in the privacy of her own bedroom. The viewer needs the characters to be placed in the appropriate setting in order to believe the action. The setting conveys a message to the viewer about what kind of scene they can expect to watch.

Script

The script is a written version of a play or other dramatic composition; used in preparing for a performance.

The actors and programme makers use the script in television in order that everyone knows what is happening at the same time. The actors learn their parts from the script. The lines for each character are written on the script with the character name at the side.

This means that everyone knows who is supposed to be talking in the scene and stops characters from talking over each other. The script will also contain stage directions, which means instructions for the actors about how their character is feeling or what they must do on set. For example,

Eve: (Walks into bathroom, walks up to mirror, looks in it and smiles to herself) Hi!

The technical crew and the production team have their own scripts, which include sound, lighting, and camera cues. The script must be followed by everyone to prevent an error being made.

The script is one of the most important elements of a television programme. The success or failure of a programme may depend upon a good script and programme makers will look to find top writers in order to get good scripts and stories for programmes.

The scriptwriters for Being Eve were Gavin Strawhan and Maxine Fleming (read an interview with Maxine).