The Research Blog

Key Takeaways from The Comic Toolbox by John Vorhaus Comedy is truth and pain. The truth must speak directly to the audience while the pain is an exaggeration of it that will make it comedic. Comic premise is the gap between comic reality and real reality. Think of what is expected and then insert the opposite. Comedy deals with people's expectations, disrupting them. Three levels of comic conflict: 1. Man versus nature (Global conflict) 2. Man versus man (interpersonal or local conflict). Comic character versus normal character or comic characters in opposition. 3. Man versus himself (inner conflict) COMIC CHARACTERS: 1. Comic perspective: Unique way of looking at his world. 2. Flaws: distance the character from the audience. 3. Humanity: Closeness between the character and the audience. 4. Exaggeration: On all three: the comic perspective, flaws and humanity. COMIC TOOLS: - Clash of context: Takes something out of its usual place and sticks it where it doesn...

TV BIBLE: A bible is the blueprint for a TV series. It is important to distinguish between a proper paper format bible, a writer’s guide bible and a sale bible: Paper format bible consists of all elements needed to create the TV series, including production timelines, set decorations, budgets, etc. You can advance it as much as possible, the key is that the most advance it is the easier it will be for the crew to successfully create the show. Paper format bibles are confidential and to be used internally. Paper formats are an asset and could be sold as is to a production company to develop. The writer’s guide bible only includes elements relevant to the screenwriters. So basically character bios, theme, storylines, synopsis, etc. The sale bible is a reduced version of the paper format bible which you use to sell the TV show. It is kind of like the pitch deck of the show. It should have enough to give a feel for what the show will be like but not too much. The bibles ar...