Course Number 434 (Spring Term)

SYLLABUS

USC

COMEDY WRITING (Sitcom)

Course Number 434 (Spring Term)

Section 23701D

Location: ?

Day and Time: Wednesdays, 10 am to 12:50 pm

Classes End: April 30

Holidays: January 18, Martin Luther King Day; February 15, Presidents’ Day; March 15-19 Spring Recess

Instructor: Anne Beatts

Contact: OR cell phone 213 308 5131 OR home phone 310 273 1676 OR Writing Department 213 740 3303 OR messages in mailbox.

Office Hours: By Appointment. Please call BEFORE Wednesday’s class or speak to the instructor after class to make an appointment for the following week.

COURSE GOALS: To learn the professional and creative requirements involved in pitching and writing a half-hour episode of a situation comedy. To learn appropriate writing techniques, structure, character development, and humor to fit the sitcom format.

Students will pitch story ideas, create beat sheets, write story outlines, and ultimately complete a half-hour sitcom “spec” script by the end of the class. The class will duplicate as much as possible the atmosphere of the “writers’ room” on a sitcom during production. Students will function as the equivalent of a professional writing staff, with the instructor filling the role of showrunner. As with a “real” sitcom staff, they will have the opportunity to offer criticism (preferably constructive) of each other’s work. They will also participate in group rewrites, where they will be expected to help “punch up” material submitted by their fellow students. A portion of each student’s script will be read aloud at least once during the course, in the equivalent of a sitcom “table read.”

Students will also be provided with insight into the workings of “the industry,” as applied to sitcoms. One class session will be replaced by attendance at the taping of a current network sitcom. Another class may be devoted to a guest speaker with professional standing in the television industry who will offer his/her own perspectives on the world of sitcom.

To assist in the process, the class will be able to view tapes and access materials from classic and current sitcoms.

COURSE OBJECTIVE: The objective of this course is to complete the first draft of a spec script for a CURRENT half-hour comedy show by the end of term. The completed first draft will count as the final for this course. It is expected that the script will be of a caliber to serve as a writing sample for those students hoping to gain future writing positions in the industry.

REQUIREMENTS: Participate in class discussion, read and critique your own and fellow students’ work, complete all in-class assignments, and complete all outside assignments. All assignments must be completed in a timely fashion.

CLASS SCHEDULE AND ASSIGNMENTS

All assignments should be delivered on time, in an appropriate and legible format. The delivery of late or incomplete assignments without an appropriate excuse will lower you one grade point per assignment. The completed First Draft script is the equivalent of the final exam. It is due on the date of the last class and must be delivered no later than midnight on Monday, May 3rd, to receive credit.

Week One: What Is A Sitcom Spec and Why Is It the Same, Only Different? Choice of existing shows for which specs will be written.

Week Two: A Martian Wouldn’t Say That, or Why Character Makes Comedy and Vice Versa. Commencement of Story Pitches, verbal pitches explaining the basic thread of stories that students propose to write.

Week Three: Advancing the Story in Stasis, or Maintaining Suspense at the Act Break Without Killing the Lead Character. Continuation of Story Pitches.

Week Four: Trouble Ensues: Pose the Problem, Complicate the Problem, Resolve the Problem in 22 Minutes. Beginning Delivery of Beat Sheets, written bullet-point enumeration of story “beats.”

Week Five: Story! Story! Story! A, B, & C Stories and How They Interact. Final Delivery of Beat Sheets.

Week Six: POV, or Who Is the Mary in the Show? Delivery of Revised Beat Sheets incorporating notes from Professor and fellow students.

Week Seven: You Forgot the “Hellooo,” or Beats, Blows, Buttons, Callbacks, and Catchphrases. Beginning Delivery of Story Outlines, written-through short treatment (8-12 pages)

Week Eight: Joke Structure: The Rule of Three, Why K-Sounds Are Funny and New Jersey is the JokeState. Final Delivery of Story Outlines.

Week Nine: Why Are Those Dead People Laughing? Or Learning to Live With the LCD. Delivery of Revised Story Outlines.

Week Ten: Spring Break!

Week Eleven: Narration is the Spackle of Narrative, or TV as Radio With Pictures. Beginning Delivery of First Draft Script, 1st Act.

Weeks Twelve-Fifteen:If It Ain’t Broke Don’t Fix It, or Why Writing Episodic Comedy Doesn’t Accord With the Auteur Theory. Students will turn in portions of scripts, on a schedule to be established, to be read aloud in class, bearing in mind that the completed scripts are due on the last day of class.

Week Sixteen: All Writing Is Rewriting. Delivery of Completed First Draft Script.

GRADES:

10% Attendance and Class Participation

Attendance is mandatory because of the workshop element of this class. The University has strict policies concerning unexcused absences. The only way an absence can be excused is with medical documentation. Excessive absences, excused or unexcused, will be cause to fail for the semester. More than three absences will be basis for failure for the course. Two unexcused absences will constitute a 10 percent reduction in grade. You are expected to be in class on time. Two late arrivals will equal one unexcused absence. This policy will be firmly enforced. If you are unable to attend class or anticipate being late, you MUST contact the instructor prior to the start of class.

10% Story Pitches: Verbal pitches of the story for the sitcom episode students propose to write, due no later than Week 3,January 27th.

20% Story Beat Sheet: Written bullet point enumeration of story “beats,” due no later than Week 5, February 10th.

25% Story Outline: Written-through short treatment of story, due no later than Week 8, March 3rd.

35% First Draft: completed first draft script, due on last day of class, April 28th, or by email no later thanmidnight Monday, May 3rd. Failure to deliver a first draft will result in failing the course.

First Drafts will be graded according to:

Success in replicating the tone, style, and character voices of the original sitcom for which this is a spec

Success in creating a workable story structure

Overall quality of the writing

MIDTERM GRADES will be sent out via email on or before March 15th.

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MISSING AN EXAM (IN THIS CASE, DELIVERY OF THE FULL FIRST DRAFT SCRIPT), INCOMPLETES: The only acceptable excuses for missing an exam, in this case delivery of the first draft script, or taking an incomplete in the course are personal illness or a family emergency. Students must inform the professor before the final assignment is due and present verifiable evidence in order for a makeup date for completion of the assignment to be scheduled. Students who wish to take incompletes must also present documentation of the problem to the instructor or teaching assistant before the final grades are due.

ASSIGNED READING:

At the start of the course, the students and the professor will determine which current half-hour television shows will be the subject of study, ie, for which shows the students will write spec scripts. No more than three shows will be studied in detail. The professor will obtain, and the students are expected to read and watch, scripts and DVDs or videos of these shows. Due to the collaborative nature of the course, all students are expected to familiarize themselves with all of the shows under consideration.

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES: Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be sure that the letter is delivered to the Professor as early in the semester as possible. DSP is located in STU 301 and is open 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. The phone number for DSP is (213) 740-0776. Should you have any questions, you may contact your Writing Advisor in the Writing Division office.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: The School of Cinema-Television expects the highest standards of academic excellence and ethical performance from USC students. It is particularly important that you are aware of and avoid plagiarism, cheating on exams, submitting a paper to more than one instructor, or submitting a paper authored by anyone other than yourself. Violations of this policy will result in a failing grade and be reported to the office of Student Judicial Affairs. If you have any doubts or questions about these policies, consult “SCAMPUS” and/or confer with the professor.