What Is A 3 Camera Sitcom
Here in the WGF Library, our aim is to help you hone your power to study Telly shows (and their scripts). After all, information technology'due south through this rigorous study that i hopefully becomes a better, more than thoughtful author. With this in mind, we offer a new blog series that explores the background, elements and way of a handful of scripted TV formats. Welcome to Tv set Format Fundamentals!
To foster a deeper agreement and appreciation for Telly writing craft, with each new post we'll take a glance at a new TV format, delving into its peculiarities on the page.
Beginning up: The multi-cam sitcom.
While multi-cam sitcoms are a rare sighting on Television set today, they stand for some of the most popular shows in American television history. The Deoxyribonucleic acid of even the most electric current telly comedy can be institute in I Dear Lucy, The Honeymooners, Good Times… Having a solid grasp on the origins and architecture of the multi-cam in your writerly toolbox volition merely make yous a more than feasible storyteller… no matter your preferred format or genre.
Permit'southward brainstorm with a question you might already know the answer to:
What is a situation comedy?
Let's define sitcoms equally shows in which a specific grouping of characters detect themselves in a new, ridiculous situation with each episode. The sense of humor occurs as they struggle to get out of that situation.
When we refer to a sitcom as "multi-cam" we mean that this particular sitcom is captured—commonly over the course of i evening—in front end of a live audition (like a play) using multiple cameras. It's useful to annotation that while a single cam sitcom can be filmed using multiple cameras at a time, it'southward the live studio audience that makes a show "multi-cam."
What we now know equally the "multi-cam sitcom" became codification in the 1950s with I Honey Lucy, the first television show to exist shot on 35mm film in front end of a alive studio audience with multiple cameras.
Over the years the format hasn't evolved much. Why tinker with something that works?
Lucy'due south scheming for fame gets her (and usually Ethel) into trouble… and she spends the rest of the episode trying to go herself out of information technology, much to the chagrin of her sensible hubby Ricky.
Much similar radio scripts/shows of the era (the purpose of which was to sell sponsors' products),I Love Lucy delineates in its scripts a place for a middle commercial and a closing commercial.
Over fourth dimension, the commercial breaks became human activity breaks. Multi-cam sitcoms have more or less kept the same two-human activity format over the years. The characters get into problem in the get-go human action and struggle to become out of it in the 2d act.
Some shows adhere strictly to the two-act structure, similar All in the Family unit (and many of the Norman Lear-produced shows from the 1970s-80s), Designing Women, Diff'rent Strokes, Married… with Children…
The Honeymooners uses 3 acts….
Some shows add a cold opening to the 2 acts, i.e. - Thank you, A Different World, Ellen, Mad Near You….
Some shows add a tag, like The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Family Ties…
Some shows add a common cold opening AND a tag, i.e. - Girlfriends, How I Met Your Mother, The Nanny, Friends, Everybody Loves Raymond, The George Lopez Show…
Some shows add a common cold opening AND a tag to the Honeymooners three-human action structure. Afterwards all, on network television there are many more commercial breaks these days! (Examples include: One Solar day at a Time on Popular! and the new seasons of Will & Grace)
The nature of filming in front of a live studio audience necessitates certain things of a multi-cam sitcom script.
The more than multi-cam shows you watch (or scripts you read), you'll notice that most shows rely on one or ii centralized locations, where frequent "situations" are likely to arise. Also, with i or two locations, the set doesn't have to be changed out very often. These primary locations are oftentimes homes or places of piece of work.
Within the centralized location is i cadre group of people — family, co-workers, friends, institute family — who occupy the space.
Much like a play, multi-cam sitcom scripts are very, very lean and economic in terms of description, which is always CAPITALIZED. The dialogue is always double spaced, making the script 2 times longer than a single-cam comedy script.
Let's take a await at how all of the elements coalesce in a classic sitcom script. Nosotros'll wait at a first-season episode of Living Single.
CASE Written report:
LIVING Single "BURGLAR IN THE Firm"
Written by Becky Hartman & Yvette Lee Bowser
Whenever we hand this detail script to a patron, without fail a few minutes after, we hear them trying to stifle giggles in the silent library as they read.
After all, Living Single has a peachy sitcom world: Iii roommates in a Brooklyn brownstone, their guy neighbors who occupy the second flat, and their lawyer friend Max. The latter three enjoy coming over uninvited.
New, comedic situations are endless — arising from everyday flat crises to petty roommate spats and much, much more than.
Like all the bully sitcoms, Living Unmarried gets infrequent mileage and effortless laughs from the outrageousness of its characters. Archetypes and stock characters have been at the root of comedy for millennia. Here, Khadijah is the level-headed eye, trying to go along peace and stay sane with her guileless cousin Synclaire, materialistic Regine, advised Max, pompous Kyle and sugariness, simple Overton.
"Infiltrator in the House" is a particularly effective sitcom episode in that it utilizes simply the i main location and no big guest stars, relying on the friction between roommates and friends to generate story and laughs. In general, Living Single utilizes the teaser, act 1, deed two, tag format.
Allow'southward wait at how this 42-page gets its characters into trouble in the first deed and gets them out of information technology in the 2d.
TEASER (1.5 pages)
The teaser sets up the ordinary world. The girls are at home, eating nutrition food… every bit Kyle and Overton sit with them and watch. Note the formatting: every scene lists the characters nowadays with a parenthetical. Virtually all multi-cam sitcoms do this.
This teaser ends with a catalyst. Regine comes home wearing one shoe to announce that someone snatched her bag on the subway.
Act ONE / SCENE A (4 pages)
Different sitcoms put their ain spin on the traditional formatting. Note how Living Single underlines its human action and scene headings and always reminds the reader of the human action number up well-nigh the folio number.
At the terminate of this commencement scene, the situation presents itself. The person that mugged Regine now has her wallet, knows where she lives and could track her down. Only put: The girls get into trouble at the offset of deed one.
Deed ONE / SCENE B (five.5 pages)
The one-act arises from Khadijah trying to find a reasonable solution to this trouble…. and everyone getting in her mode.
At the stop of the scene, the girls determine all they can afford for security is imitation alarm stickers and "Doberman in a can" to scare off any potential burglars.
ACT ONE / SCENE C (v pages)
Considering they're scared, Synclaire and Regine insist on sleeping in Khadijah'southward room. While they're all trying to sleep, they hear someone suspension in downstairs.
Notation the joke: Khadijah is the logical one, but asks for her NUNCHUCKS to protect herself… where Synclaire grabs a shoe and Regine grabs a bible. The thought of the women taking on a burglar with these items is hilarious.
Act ONE / SCENE D (1.5 pages)
Here, at the end of act one, the girls are fully in trouble. Someone has just burgled their apartment… and they weren't able to terminate them.
ACT TWO / SCENE E (4.v pages)
At present, at the top of act two, the roommates try to become out of their state of affairs… Poor Synclaire and her Spoons of the World drove!
Equally the level-headed one, Khadijah not only must deal with the antics of her roommates and neighbors, only also with the complete ineptitude of the police detectives looking into the case. Note: the hilarity of Kyle referring to Max as a gargoyle.
Human activity TWO / SCENE H (2 pages)
The roommates complaining their inability to observe a solution to their problem. Note: Regine's rejecting the idea of getting a gun is a perfect triple.
Setup: "…1 of us could get injure."
Setup #2: "I could get hurt."
Pay-off: "We live with Synclaire."
Human activity TWO / SCENE J (three pages)
Overton tries to help the girls by installing an alarm… this, too, isn't very constructive.
Human activity Ii / SCENE K (4 pages)
Because this is Living Unmarried and it'southward a show about how this group of friends takes care of each other like family, Kyle and Overton stay with the girls despite existence scared. In that location'southward a sense of having and gaining something despite the material losses — and it's a nice, warm feeling to have as a viewer/reader.
Deed TWO / SCENE L (6.5 pages)
The warmth and sweetness dissipates as THE BURGLARS ARE Dorsum! Annotation: the joke pay-off of Khadijah asking for her nunchucks again!
As it turns out, this time the "burglar" is just Regine in the kitchen, eating a snack. The girls realize they are scaring each other and decide they can't alive similar this… and thus resolve their situation. Like every great sitcom episode, the reaction to the trouble is ALWAYS bigger than the problem itself. That's where the humor comes from.
TAG (ane.5 pages)
Living Single has a fun gimmick for a lot of its tags, wherein the characters are heard off-camera while we come across a particular visual. In this case, Synclaire gets her assault pig afterward all.
Learning to place and clear this episodic construction and why it's funny might help you in building your ain comedic and script-drafting muscles… No matter what you write!
Knowing the big tenets of multi-cam comedy can also aid you if you lot decide to spec a evidence down the road. Every bit we e'er say, you can't build a car unless you offset have a solid agreement of how a automobile runs. The same matter goes with scripts.
Until next time, happy writing!
Source: https://www.wgfoundation.org/blog/2021/10/12/multi-cam-sitcoms
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