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BBC TV blog
 - 
Samantha Psyk
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<link>https://bbcbreakingnews.pages.dev/blogs/tv/</link>
<description>Get the views of BBC bosses, presenters, scriptwriters and cast from the inside of the shows. Read reviews and opinions and share yours on all things TV - your favourite episodes, live programmes, digital channels, the schedule and everything else.</description>
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	<title>EastEnders: I worked on the car crash scripts</title>
	<description><![CDATA[<p>I was lucky enough to spend three months working on <a href="https://bbcbreakingnews.pages.dev/programmes/b006m86d">EastEnders</a> as part of the <a href="https://bbcbreakingnews.pages.dev/jobs/pts/">BBC Production Trainee Scheme</a>. </p>

<p>I was working as their assistant script editor, and was also shadowing an experienced script editor to follow a week's worth of scripts from commissioning through to filming. </p>

<p>These episodes will just have gone out on TV, so I'm only allowed to talk about them now!</p>

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<p>EastEnders is a truly unique environment. It's hard to describe the atmosphere, but because the set and production offices are all in one location, there's a constant buzz about the place, and a real sense of community. </p>

<p>It becomes normal to pass the actors on the way to the canteen, or in the production office as you nip into a meeting.</p>

<p>There's a real sense of the EastEnders 'company'. It feels to me like an old-fashioned repertory theatre company - pretty distinctive in this day and age.</p>

<p>My job was to monitor character and story continuity across all scripts. This involved a lot of reading - at any one time I could be reading up to 20 new drafts each week, tracking each character's pick-up from their last appearance to make sure it all made sense. </p>

<p>Luckily, I absolutely love reading scripts and could quite often be found at my desk laughing out loud, gasping with shock or even shedding a tear. I felt privileged to be reading scripts from a show I've watched since I was a kid.</p>

<p>I also had to write long-term character and story trails, charting storylines across several months of scripts to help script editors and writers have as much context for storylines as possible. </p>

<p>Attention to detail is taken very seriously at EastEnders and all this work helps keep the richness to the scripts. </p>

<p>All the characters are treated as real people, so everything - from what their usual drink in the Vic is, to what hours they work - is recorded and tracked. This level of detail is what helps Albert Square feel vibrant and alive.</p>

<p>One of my favourite parts of the job was going along to the monthly long-term story meetings where everyone sits round a big table to discuss the upcoming stories and the Writers pitch new ideas. </p>

<p>It was amazing to see how passionately everyone would debate things, and to see storylines develop in front of me. </p>

<p>After this meeting the story team would go away and work on the ideas that had been given the go-ahead. </p>

<p>Then, once the writer delivers a draft of their script, this is discussed at a script meeting. </p>

<p>If anything isn't working these notes are fed back to the writer who then works on another draft. </p>

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<p>It might be that a particular character's voice isn't quite coming through, or that a storyline doesn't quite flow from the previous block of scripts, and the script editor's job is to work with the writer to help fix this sort of thing.</p>

<p>The scripts I was shadowing really started to come to life in the production meetings with the designer and director. </p>

<p>You will have seen that there is a dramatic stunt sequence when <a href="https://bbcbreakingnews.pages.dev/eastenders/characters/max-branning.shtml">Max</a> and <a href="https://bbcbreakingnews.pages.dev/eastenders/characters/abi-branning.shtml">Abi</a> are involved in a car crash. Hearing the director discuss how he intended to stage this was fascinating! </p>

<p>Everything, from what cars would be involved, to what Abi and Max's injuries would be, to how they were going to schedule the shoot around the stunt, was discussed. </p>

<p>These dramatic sequences really lift a script off the page and after hearing the director talk about it, I knew this episode was going to be memorable.</p>

<p>The filming of these episodes only began in my final week on EastEnders, but I made sure I got to go along and watch some!</p>

<p>It really was one of the highlights of my time on the show. I just couldn't believe I was on the EastEnders set! </p>

<p>Watching Jo Joyner, Jessie Wallace and the rest of the cast film a hen party scene was one of those surreal "pinch yourself" moments! </p>

<p>Reading these scripts for the first time gave me goosebumps, so I can only imagine how they came across on screen. By the time you read this, I'll know! How exciting is that...?</p>

<p><em>Samantha Psyk was a trainee assistant script editor on EastEnders.</p>

<p><a href="https://bbcbreakingnews.pages.dev/programmes/b006m86d">EastEnders</a> continues on <a href="https://bbcbreakingnews.pages.dev/bbcone">BBC One</a> and <a href="https://bbcbreakingnews.pages.dev/bbcone/hd/faq/">BBC One HD</a> on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, with an omnibus on Sundays. You can catch up with <a href="https://bbcbreakingnews.pages.dev/programmes/b006m86d">episodes on EastEnders website</a>.</p>

<p>More information about training for a career at the BBC is available on the <a href="https://bbcbreakingnews.pages.dev/jobs/pts/">BBC Production Trainee Scheme</a> website.</em></p>

<p><em><strong>Comments made by writers on the BBC TV blog are their own opinions and not necessarily those of the BBC.</strong></em></p>]]></description>
         <dc:creator>Samantha Psyk 
Samantha Psyk
</dc:creator>
	<link>https://bbcbreakingnews.pages.dev/blogs/tv/2011/04/eastenders-i-worked-on-the-car.shtml</link>
	<guid>https://bbcbreakingnews.pages.dev/blogs/tv/2011/04/eastenders-i-worked-on-the-car.shtml</guid>
	<category>eastenders</category>
	<pubDate>Mon, 18 Apr 2011 11:36:17 +0000</pubDate>
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