Inspirations
As we completed the original VET-MAN, I wanted to expand upon it and change the character and move away from the mockumentary style to focus on my own comedic storytelling. As I began developing the initial treatment and character profiles for VET-MAN, I looked at what comedies I found funny and wanted to explore what it was about them that appealed to me. I started by looking at the work of Armando Iannucci, who is best known for creating political satire such as The Thick of It and The Death Of Stalin, but also co-creating the ‘Alan Partridge’ character, played by Steve Coogan. The Thick of It is one of my favourite comedy series’, and it stands out to me because of the absurd incompetence of the characters balancing with the believability that the series could be a fly-on-the-wall documentary of a real government department. Through the duration of the writing process I was also watching other comedy programmes for inspiration, such as Brooklyn Nine Nine, Big Train and The IT Crowd.
From the beginning I knew that I wanted to approach the comedy with a handheld, single camera style, utilising crash zooms and panning to keep the viewer engaged in the story. Therefore, Katie has been testing out these techniques and will be exploring this in her own section of the package. *From my research into single-camera style comedies, I have found that these camera techniques add another layer to the humour and work with the beats to bring out these comedic moments.
The title for our film ‘VET-MAN’ was inspired by the title of the Alan Partridge film Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa. The name ‘Alpha Papa’ is the codename that Partridge chooses for himself and completely summarises his view of himself in such a pitifully arrogant way: he sees himself as an alpha male. Our lead character, Tim, sees himself as VET-MAN; a vet and a masculine, heroic figure.
Characters
Tim is named after my music teacher from school who, whilst he knew a lot about music, was not very successful and very arrogant about his musical ability when in reality, he was not a very talented musician. I also looked to Alan Partridge for inspiration, as he is a character who is seeking to achieve his goals but is completely selfish and unlikeable as a person. I wanted my main character to share these traits as an unlikeable, arrogant and sociopathic character. I have found that inherently disagreeable characters work well for comedy, as the audience relishes in their failure as it is difficult to empathise with a person that they do not like.
The other main character, Luke, was inspired by a minor recurring character from Peep Show – ‘Barney’, who is completely desperate to win the attention and approval of main characters ‘Jeremy’ and ‘Super Hans’ for their band. I wanted Luke to be very impressionable and to appear to show a comical level of admiration and idolisation toward Tim. In a sense, they are similar as they both want to become vets except they seek to achieve their goals in different, misguided ways – which will eventually lead to their failure.
As the youngest member of my own family, I consider myself an expert in how to get through life with two older sisters. I wrote Tess’ characters with my own sisters in mind and the interactions between Tim and Tess were archetypal of a relationship between two siblings. Tess, as Tim’s older sister, truly cares for Tim, but she is also not afraid to tell him when he is wrong and she is willing to argue her case no matter how Tim may respond.
Writing the script
After the character profiles were complete, I went on to write the script itself. Writing comedy is still fairly new to me and I looked into other comedy writers that I admired, such as Jesse Armstrong, who worked on The Thick of It alongside Armando Iannucci. He is arguably more known for Peep Show which he worked on with his writing partner, Sam Bain – the two also wrote the satirical terrorism film, Four Lions, amongst a number of other successful films and television series’. One of the most successful aspects of the dialogue in these films is bluntness and ignorance of its characters, contrasting with the awareness of others. In an interview with the telegraph, the pair argue that your moments in comedy should not come about to be ‘shocking’, the shocking moments must add to the humour of the scene. I have taken this advice on board through how I have approached the ‘owl scene’ in particular, where the lead character, Tim, punches and kills an owl in a moment of panic. The absurdity of a vet that kills all the animals he is on screen with is a good foundation for humour and will come across as shocking to the viewer, but within the context of failing his degree and trying to live up to his father’s name, it still makes sense.
I really wanted to push the macabre humour and so dealing with death in harshly comical ways was a must for my script. I have grown up watching sketch shows such as That Mitchell and Webb Look and the League of Gentlemen which both deal with these matters very bluntly and graphically, which some shows may avoid. One of my favourite scenes from the League of Gentlemen features Mr Chinnery (a cursed vet – another inspiration for Tim) killing a tortoise by inserting pressurised oxygen into its head, causing it to explode. The imperfect practical effects here work to make this scene a lot funnier than it would be is we avoided showing the violence. It looks so absurd but by showing us exactly what happens, we are given the full payoff of the scene – I intend to do this for the owl scene by showing the punch in its entirety. By showing the entire build-up, it will be necessary to show the punch itself so the punchline is delivered.The script has undergone several stages of development through the pre-production process. The initial first draft came to 24 pages and needed a lot of work done before it was anywhere close to good enough for production. I found through my feedback and my own development, I needed to make my lines punchier, and ensure I was following the fundamental rule of screenwriting show and not tell. Using action to depict characters’ motivations and backstory over dialogue is vital – the audience is not foolish and they do not need their hand to be held through the story – as a screenwriter, I need to ensure that my script avoids too much exposition in favour of action.
I also learned through research and feedback that I must expect my script to change a lot throughout the process. In an interview with Prolifiko, Armando Iannucci, who works in a team to write a lot of his sitcoms, states that there should be no ego, and that a writer should be “non-proprietal about [their] writing”. So from the beginning, I was prepared that I must not take any negative criticism personally, and that I needed to take it on board in order for the script to turn out well.
Casting
When auditioning the actors, I carried out research into what I should be looking for in the actors, and what I need to be doing, as a director, to get the most out of their auditions. Along with our producer, Melissa, we planned how we would hold the auditions. She focused on the logistics of scheduling actors and advertising the project to potential actors on Mandy.com, whilst I aimed to establish what we would be looking for in their performances and ability to work under my direction. I read Nick Bamford's 'Directing Television: A professional survival guide' and a number of online sources which gave a useful insight into the auditioning and casting process. This allowed me to establish a basic set of criteria to keep in mind when meeting and auditioning the cast:
- Can they act?
- Can they take direction?
- Do you like them?
These seem like very straightforward aspects to look for in an actor but these points are vital to ensure, not only that they deliver a good performance, but also that they will be good to work with. Most of the sources I found agreed that good acting is truthful. If you can forget that you are watching an actor, and are instead seeing a character or real person, the actor has succeeded in portraying that through their performance.
It is a vital factor for myself and the quality of the finished film that the actors I cast can follow my direction - ultimately, I am the creative vision for the project and if an actor cannot take my direction for whatever reason, they are impeding on my ability to do that. Of course every good project has input from the cast but if they cannot follow what I say, this will get in the way of producing the film we want to. Throwing curveballs in the audition will allow me to see how well they can adapt their performance and their ability to do so will make my job a lot easier when it comes to shooting.
In a professional environment, you should be able to work with anyone, whether or not you like them. However, Bamford argues that if you can choose who you work with, why would you need to put yourself in a difficult position of disliking somebody you are working with? It is important to chat to the actors and get to know them a bit so I can determine whether I like them and whether it will be useful or a hindrance on the work I am directing.
During the auditions, I ensured that I ran through each scene several times, asking the actors to portray the scene as they initially interpreted it, then asked them how else they could perform it and observed how versatile their abilities were, how well they took the direction and how willing they were to accept my feedback. This worked effectively and quickly showed me the capabilities of my actors and allowed me to find who would work best for the roles we were auditioning for. I will delve into more detail with regards to casting later on in the package but I have summarised why I chose the cast I did.
I found that Ed, who will be playing Tim, was very good at portraying the sarcasm and condescension that I wanted, particularly toward Tess and Luke. I loved how Dan, who will be playing Luke, was able to perfectly accentuate Luke’s innocence and misguided attempts to please Tim. It was a difficult decision as to who would play Tess, and so I decided to develop Mollie’s character further so that she was more of a significant character. I really enjoyed Skevy’s portrayal of Tess as I felt she portrayed a troublesome, yet caring big sister very well so I decided to cast her as Tess. Becky also auditioned for Tess and I felt she portrayed the more authoritative and imposing side, so I developed Mollie’s character to heighten these features, and Becky was more than happy to go ahead with this idea. Sheila also delivered her lines well and since she has worked with UCA on a number of shoots, we were content that she would be good to work with.
Blocking and Test Shoots
As we draw ever closer to the production period, we began to test out certain aspects of the film that we would need to ensure we were actually capable of producing some of the scenes we planned. The ‘owl scene’ in particular was something that we absolutely had to practice before it came to production so that we could ensure it looked realistic. We were initially aiming to achieve this through editing (motion tracking and masking the different shots of the real/fake owl), however once we tested the ‘stunt’, it was considerably more practical and effective to cut between different angles. This highlighted the importance of test shoots and ensuring that we assess the viability of what is in the script before going into production.We also ran through different lighting and camera setups (which Katie will explore in her chapters), as well as the blocking out the scenes and camera positions. Blocking the scenes now would be imperative to the success of the shoot days so that we knew exactly where everyone needed to be and at what time. I went through each scene and determine where to position the actors and the cameras, so that we were prepared for production.
I have also considered the sound of the film. I feel that using music to influence the mood of the piece would force the comedy which would come across as cheesy. None of the series’ I have researched use music to influence the humour, and I feel that I will follow suit and avoid it at all costs. This will allow the humour to flow through the dialogue and the action which will feel a lot more natural.
Conclusion
At its heart, VET-MAN is the story of a man who is desperate to succeed and get out of his father’s shadow, but his ambition takes him on a dark path which he eventually pays the price for. As a comedy, it will take a blunt and macabre approach to explore the character of Tim Stewart and his attempts to achieve his dream. As a writer, I have and will continue to develop the script so that is strong enough to go into production, so that when I come to direct the film, we are able to create a confident piece and, most importantly, make people laugh.
*due to a printing error, the italicised text did not appear in the finished package.
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