Story-telling | Contextual Research: Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain (Screenwriters 2)

Jess Armstrong and Sam Bain are a team of comedy writers, best known for That Mitchell and Webb Look, Peep Show and The Thick of It (Armstrong only).  Despite being a comedy writer, I have chosen to look at these writers because of their use of realistic settings to comment on society, despite focusing on a different genre to what I am for my film, which is a drama.  Armstrong is also known for writing the controversial Film4 production, Four Lions.  What stands out in their writing, other than the comedy elements, is the realistic (yet highly satirised) situations and settings used by Armstrong and Bain, which is what stood out to me to research them both.

In an interview with The Mancunion, Armstrong and Bain describe the uncertainty of writing during the turn of the century, and Bain describes getting the first season of Peep Show made and recommissioned was a “life-changing moment”, yet Peep Show remains Channel 4’s longest-running sitcom.  The two also allude to several characters and events of their series ‘Fresh Meat’ being inspired by real life experiences of university life, which gives light into their thought process when writing to achieve realism.  Therefore, it makes sense for me to draw from real life events and experiences when writing my screenplay, to add to the genuine feel I want to create for ‘The Way’.

Armstrong and Bain also create a distinction between writing plot and dialogue as a group – they write dialogue separately, but create plot together, which makes sense from a logical perspective, as they can plan what is happening, but they can each add their own spin to the dialogue.  They highlight the importance of teamwork in the production process, which is something I picked up on through my research into Bryan Cogman as well, and so it is key that I ensure my screenplay is workable for both the actors and the production team.

When discussing characters, Armstrong highlights the importance of casting, describing the process of handing over characters to actors as a “joy […] rather than a pain because that’s when they come alive […] they’re on the page and can be a little bit archetypal or stereotypical but when you see an actor doing it that can change.”  This emphasises how important the script is so the actors can rely on something to build up their own characters, and from there, the acting talent can flourish in bringing those characters to life.

Again, whilst Armstrong and Bain are mainly satirical writers, satire derives from reality, and so researching them has given me an insight into how to create realism through real experiences as well as allowing me to delve into how my screenplay could develop as it translates onto the frame.  What I have found particularly prevalent in their work through watching Peep Show, The Thick of It and Four Lions is the lack of non-diegetic sounds - by only showing us what the characters in the frame can hear, the action on screen has a sort of raw feeling to it, as it does not rely on any musical accompaniment to establish the tone, they rely solely on dialogue and action, and so I feel this would be a vital reason not to use any music in my film, so the action feels more real in this sense.

Bibliography:

Evans, J.C. (2015) Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain: A peep behind the writing. Available at: http://mancunion.com/2015/11/16/jesse-armstrong-sam-bain-peep-behind-writing/ (Accessed: 27th October 2016).