Welcome back, everyone! Couple quick updates:
For those of you interested in TV & film writing fellowships, I’m putting together a guide to the 2023 fellowships and their submission requirements. This will be a google doc that I’ll keep up to date as new fellowship info gets released, since many of 2023 programs haven’t been updated yet. (If a Fellowship hasn’t released this year’s info, I’ll include last year’s info, so you can start planning ahead.)
I’ll email a link to the doc to all subscribers in January. And any new subscribers will get a link when they sign up.
I’ve added a section to the end of the newsletter called “Fellowships, Jobs, Etc.,” where I’ll post about any fellowship updates, workshops or open job submissions I’ve heard about through the grapevine.
For example, this week I’ve got info on:
The Circle of Confusion Writer Discovery Fellowship - Due 1/6/23
The Hillman Grad Mentorship Lab - Due 1/16/23
This is also where I’ll post about any updates to the fellowship google doc, so you don’t have to keep checking the doc for new info.
Oh, and if you have new fellowship or packet info you want to share, either post it in the comments or send it to angleonnewsletter@gmail.com. Thanks!
(I’m assuming you guys are interested in this stuff. Let me know if you’re not!)
And Now, Back To Your Usual Surprise
If you haven’t read my first newsletter (Comedy Writing As An A-Team Metaphor), I wrote about approaching joke writing as “taking something existing and building something surprising out of it,” using the metaphor of building an armored car out of a bunch of scraps, A-Team-style.
And while I said last time I’d be moving onto the topic of “logical surprise,” I wanted to first dig a little deeper about how “surprise” works in writing jokes.
Oh, and when I say “jokes,” I’m talking about any comedy beat, not just traditional monologue jokes or stand up. I just wanted to be clear about that, since comedy terminology can already be pretty confusing. (After all, one writer’s “angle” is another’s “transition.”)
For me, the principle of taking something existing (setup) and using it as a jumping off point to build something the audience didn’t see coming (punch) is a pretty universal approach to writing comedy, whether it’s written, verbal or Leslie Nielsen standing in front of an exploding fireworks factory.
You can see this idea best in late-night monologue jokes, which are essentially the host saying, “Here’s a fact. Can you guess where I’m going with it?”
Take this recent joke from Late Show With Stephen Colbert:
The Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum in Atlantic City is about to close. Apparently, the museum’s founders failed to anticipate how many people would choose “or not.”
First, you get the “something existing” (a piece of information about the Ripley’s museum closing). Then you get an implied question (“Why is it closing?”) which gets immediately answered in a surprising way.
Now, some of that surprise is based on the fact it’s just not an answer you’d normally expect. And some of that surprise is from the answer being directly from the setup. It’s like reading a good mystery. You were given all the clues you needed, but could you guess how it would end up? If you couldn’t guess, you get that “AHA!” moment of finally seeing how it all comes together.
The same basic principle works for narrative comedies like sitcoms or films, but the questions are more hidden. And it doesn’t help that these days, it’s easy to think of “narrative surprise” as just huge plot twists or reveals.
But just having huge, crazy things happen out of nowhere isn’t necessarily funny. (It can be, but that’s for the next newsletter.) There’s a whole range of comedic surprises you can use, from small character reactions and subtle subtext to big plot reveals. It all depends on what you build off of. And a good comedy typically embraces several different kinds of surprise before it’s done.
Think of every story as a series of questions of varying sizes. Sure there are the big story questions like “How will the main character defeat the bad guy?” And you can definitely answer those in a surprising way like, say, “distracting them by doing a galactic dance off.”
But each smaller part of a script also sets up questions. Every act has its own main question, usually a variation on “how will the main character achieve this smaller goal that’s related to the main goal?”
Likewise every sequence, scene and even every action beat sets up multiple questions in the mind of the audience, like: “How will the other characters react to that?”, “How will he dig himself out of this mess?” or even just “What now?” And you can build a joke by answering them.
I’m bringing this up because I’ve read scripts that focus all the surprise in one area. Maybe they concentrate entirely on dialogue jokes, but the story has a predictable ending. Or they focus so hard on building a twist into the end that they don’t bother layering in other jokes, depending entirely on a killer final gag that won’t land because readers have long since tuned out.
But a great script will have variety. And if an audience doesn’t know where the next surprise is coming from (say, from character reactions, dialogue, action, a background gag, etc.?), they’re going to pay attention.
Do you need to wring surprise from every beat? God no. But you should know that you can do that from every beat. And if you can’t figure out a way to get something out of a specific beat? Change it! You’re the writer, so you get to choose what you build from and what you build out of it.
It’s like answering a test where you get to decide the questions. It still can be scary. But it’s a lot easier than having to build something from nothing.
Next Time on Angle On:
Now, you may be saying, “But how does all this surprise talk help me write actual jokes?” After all, “just make something surprising” is frustratingly vague. And if every setup has a huge number of possible punchlines, don’t you need a way to narrow your choices?
And that’s where the idea of “logical surprise” comes in. And we’ll talk about that next time. I promise!
Fellowships, Jobs, Etc.
Open Fellowships/Writing Programs:
CIRCLE OF CONFUSION WRITERS DISCOVERY FELLOWSHIP
Management/production company offering a six-month fellowship for aspiring writers who haven’t made money from writing TV or films. The first four months are spent developing an original pilot script with a dedicated mentor, while the last two months are focused on one-on-on zoom meetings with producers and executives. Fellows are also given a stipend by way of a first look deal with Circle of Confusion Television Studios.
APPLICATIONS OPEN: Now
DEADLINE: Jan. 6, 2023
DATES: May 2023 - Oct. 2023.
LINKS: http://www.circleofconfusion.com/fellowship/
Coverfly Submission Site: https://writers.coverfly.com/competitions/view/circleofconfusion
COST: $0
ELIGIBILITY:
Must not have earned money writing narrative for film or TV. Can be a member of the WGA, if you haven’t earned money writing on a WGA project.
Open to applicants of all ethnicities, races, cultural backgrounds, gender identities, sexual orientations, and ages.
Open to all applicants, regardless of location, including international applicants. (Fellowship events take place virtually during business hours, pacific standard time.)
They don’t specifically say it on the website, but it looks like they don’t want you to have representation, as they say if you get representation after submitting, you should let them know. (After all, they are a management company doing this to look for new clients, natch.)
SUBMISSION PACKET:
One 30-minute or 60-minute television pilot to develop during the program.
HILLMAN GRAD MENTORSHIP LAB
Media/production company offering a tuition free 8-month program with personalized instructions from industry professionals to bring people from diverse backgrounds into the industry. Focuses on preparing writers for their first writers room. Mentees learn how to plan and write a pilot, participate in a simulated writers room, ending in a table read.
Note: There is also an “acting track” and an “exec track” lab through the same link.
APPLICATIONS OPEN: Now
DEADLINE: 1/16/23
DATES: March 2023 - October 2023. Weekly zoom meetings Sat 10AM - 1PM PT. Also in person attendance (LA) for kick-off weekend (March 2023), retreat weekend (July 2023), and capstone week (October 2023).
LINK: https://www.hillmangrad.com/foundation/mentorship-lab
COST: $0
ELIGIBILITY:
Must be 18 and not a minor in the state or country of your residence at time of submitting.
Must be sole owner of submission materials.
Additional submission agreement & requirements on website.
NOTE: Applicants currently enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program are discouraged from applying.
SUBMISSION PACKET:
Original Feature Screenplay or Television Pilot (preferred)
(Must be written solely by the applicant. No writing teams.)
Resume
Answers to a series of questions
Submission agreement