Types of Television Writing, documentary, drama and comedy

Joyce Thierry, who conducted the second session of the first day, explored the anatomy of a TV programme, maintaining that on television, characters matter more than the personality of actors, unlike in movies, where the hero often overshadows his reel character.

Good research skills and an interesting point of view are, hence, an important component of any good script, she said. A veteran scriptwriter and instructor at the Vancouver Film School, Canada, Thierry said that unlike in India, teens form the biggest bulk of TV viewers in the US and Canada. Writers need to be sensitive to the peculiar requirements of each genre and treat it accordingly, she said. The story structure is as important as the novel point of view a writer can afford it, she added. She rued the absence of training institutes for writers in India and said that writers need to form a guild like their counterparts in Canada as well as in the US.