Today's meeting and details for the next meeting.

At today's meeting we discussed Theo's 'Annoying Friend' idea further. Theo explained that he'd just had a thought about making a comedy involving a group of friends who have a 'tag along' friend that they're constantly trying to get rid of. The comedy element of the drama piece would be made through the 'tag along's' attempts at fitting in with the group of friends, their reactions to this, and the ways in which they try to get rid of him.

Initially we imagined the characters to be male school/college students, aged between 15 and 18 years old. However, we then considered making the piece about a group of freshers living in halls together. We haven't discussed the characters in too much detail, although I imagine that they will be predominantly male. We can discuss this further at the next meeting.

As a group we thought about our own, or friends', experiences of having an annoying friend that isn't necessarily welcome in the friendship group. We shared stories and all threw in ideas about what this 'tag along friend' could do to make us laugh. The fact that we were all putting ideas and experiences out there and having a good laugh about them made it clear to me that this idea could work. I don't think we'll be struggling for ideas.

Despite getting on with this idea, I do feel that rather than it being a series of 'gags' involving the friend trying to get involved, it needs a more serious storyline to it. I don't know what this could be yet as we haven't developed the characters enough up to now, but when we do develop our characters and make a protagonist, then we can start thinking about what else could be going on with this character that can form a deeper story.

For the next meeting we will all have a think about more ideas for the story and the characters and exchange/discuss notes on these thoughts. We have also agreed that we will all watch the following, in our own time, before the next meeting:

* Episode 1 of The Inbetweeners (Can be found on 4od) - When Theo first described the annoying character, I instantly thought of Will from The Inbetweeners in the first episode, where he's constantly trying to get in with a group of friends.

* Him & Her (Can be found on Iplayer)- This is a new series on BBC3. Verity pointed out that there is an annoying character in this programme who might be worth watching. She can't remember his name but he has a beard!

* An episode of Ideal (Theo will be posting a link to the specific episode) - There is an annoying character in this episode that rambles on and on about nothing.


Tom suggesting making a musical for our final piece and had a really nice, unique idea for a musical. He suggested there being a normal story about a character, but his thoughts would be in the form of song. Then jump cut back to reality. I'd really love to produce a musical for our final piece, but I don't think it's practical. Musicals are massive productions and I don't think we have the money, actors or facilities to do this at the moment. Though if anybody can think of a way around it, we can talk about it at the next meeting.

The next meeting will be on Wednesday 29th September at 12.15pm-1.45pm. Please don't be late because people have lessons up until 12pm and from 2pm onwards so we don't have much time. I know this only leaves us two days to think of some ideas and watch the clips but this is the only time all week that everybody's available. Bring any notes/ideas about our film and the TV episodes listed above, both in terms of the story itself and your individual specialisms.

Thank youuu.