You are a sitcom writer for a major television network. The network is once again in a slump and as their star writer its up to you to come up with a clever, new sitcom to boost their ratings. On a steep deadline (a week) you gather up some of your best co-workers and put together a short commercial that you hope will leave the network production panel (the olympics judges...) salivating! Your sitcom can be of any flavor. To help you along, we've provided a list of sitcom genres with examples:

 
                 
   

Super-Natural

  • Mork & Mindy
  • Bewitched
  • I Dream of Genie
  • Alf

Family

  • Cosby Show
  • Simsons
  • Brady Bunch
  • Full House

Workplace

  • Just Shoot Me
  • Cheers
  • WKPR

Group of Friends

  • Friends
  • Seinfeld
  • Drew Carry

Odd Couples

  • Will & Grace
  • Perfect Strangers
  • The Odd Couple

Non-Traditional Family

  • Punky Bruster
  • Different Strokes
  • Webster
  • Small Wonder
  • Mr. Belvedeer
  • Who's The Boss
  • Frasier
 

Awards and Scoring

Awards

   
Most Original Sitcom
*50 points
Most Entertaining
50 points
Best Writing
30 points
Best Music
20 points
Best Special Effects
20 points
Best Cinematography
20 points
Best Choreography
20 points
Best Female Actor
10 points
Best Male Actor
10 points
 

Participation

Five points will be awarded for each team member that participates.

Time Limit

Commercials that exceed the time limit will be penalized at the discretion of the judges.

Bonus

Twenty points will be award for a composed theme song.

* Points are relative to this event.

Details and Tips

  • Turn in the video on a cued DV tape to Mario Christoudias in NE43-V609 by 2pm on Friday, January 30.
  • Commercials have a time limit of 1 minute and a suggested length of 30 seconds.
  • Cameras and equipment will be discussed during the captains meeting.
  • Take lots of footage. You don't want to have to reshoot scenes the night before it is due.
  • Shoot the same scene from multiple camera angles, so you can cut between them.
  • Plan for two days of pure editing.

Resources

iMovie

CoolEdit

Cakewalk

Previous Olympics

   

 

I'd like to give special thanks to Neal Checka and Kevin Wilson for helping with the theme of this event and providing me with genres and examples. I'd also like to thank Jacob Eisenstein and Michael Siracusa for their ideas on scoring and Harold Fox for his tips on filming and editing.

Comments or Suggestions? Email: cmch at mit.edu