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The Recipe to Writing Soap Opera Scenarios
release 2
by Burnin' of UNKNOWN Prez
Oct 16th, 2001
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Dear reader, today we will have a look at the basics of creating soap opera
scenarios. There are, as by everything, several different ways to accomplish
this task. We shall describe only one of them: customizing an already existing
good scenario. This variant is more preferred over others because good scripts
aren't too hard to find and the whole process is relatively painless. For
starters you need a good scenario, a script which has enough action, funny
humor, a good story, deep characters, interesting situations. You know the
saying: the better the building material the better the result, so choose
carefully. Probably best would be the scenario of a late 90's action series,
mainly because they have all the needed ingredients. But let's go on, next you
take the amount of humor that occurs in one, ONE, episode of that good show
and minimize it to 64,4 per cent. Now you take the action and repeat the
minimizing on it. Then take the thrill, story and the count of different
backgrounds (often referred to as the places where the show will be shot) and
minimize them too. Multiply the amount of text with twelve hundred and tripple
the amount of main characters. Put this all in a pot and mix well. Let it stay
for a month or so. Share then the mix between all 1233 episodes. Done? Good,
there you have it: your average soap opera scenario which can be marketed in
every part of the world. If you want more success to the script then you
should change the amount of some ingredients according to the country. For
example, if the target is Mexican TV then following steps should be taken:
take at least one of the show's dominating families/groups and add about 4
zeroes (plus/minus a zeroe) to the sum they have on their bank account or
change their money's currency from the native to US dollars. After that
multiply the jealousy with eleven and the fighting between female characters
with six, include an amnesia by a main (preferably male) character and if
most characters are over 24 then include also a rape or two. If you on the
other hand are thinking about the American market then forget the rape and
half of the fights, add those zeroes to everyone's money, include about 3
psychos and let at least one of them develop into a complete nutcase. Extra
spice can be added by letting that last psycho kill a couple not so often
occurring characters. You can also use a clever trick which is known from
Spelling's shows: triple the amount of backgrounds. Additionally a little
kidnapping and/or a twin brother/sister can be quite successful. By the way,
twins and psychos can be combined. For Australian market take the original
average script and make sure that one third of the action takes place outside.
Also take care that every 4th scene in that one third is filmed in a beach.
That's it. As you can see, it's very easy. So the next time you have a free
afternoon why not sit down and write a soap opera scenario.