Screenwriter Research - Jesse Armstrong

As my research continues I decide to pick Jesse Armstrong as my other screenwriter to do some digging up on. I decide to choose him as he may not have a major relevance to my work as it's mainly comedy he does however I've watched a variety of his work and love his screenwriting so I thought i'd like to get to know and understand it all a bit more.

(Jesse Armstrong)

Jesse Armstrong is a British comedy writer, best known for Peep Show and the BBC political satire The Thick of it. He's from Oswestry in Shropshire, and attended comprehensive school there before reading American Studies at Manchester University, where he met his writing partner Sam Bain. Before Jesse actually went into comedy writing in the late 1990s, Armstrong worked as a researcher for the Labour MP Doug Henderson. 

Jesse Armstrong has also written films such as Four Lions and The Magicians, these were collaborations with the writer Sam Bain. 

KEY WORK

Peep Show  - 9 Wins & 34 Nominations, 1 Win for best writer from Royal Television Society, UK in 2006.

Another win for Writers' Guid of Great Britain. obviously both written by Jesse Armstrong in collaboration with Sam Bain in 2006.

Some of Jesse Armstrong's work within Peep Show had been based on real life events, obviously changed ever so slightly but here in a quote we see -

"Taking other people's pain, juicing it and using it verbatim in your script is even better. We're very lucky to have had a boss at Channel 4 who led an interesting life and had a wealth of terrible experiences which we put in the show. Like the time he did a shit into a McDonald's bag because he was on the telephone and couldn't get to the toilet. He tried to flush the bag down the loo but it got blocked and for the next three weeks he had to go to the pub every time he needed the toilet. We put something very similar in series three."

To see where the concepts and ideas come from is extremely interesting, to know that these events have occurred in real life with real people with only slight changes happening once put on screen is intriguing to say the least. It is also probably why the show gets such a popular following as well though, as some scenes clearly more can relate to than others and as we have here for example, it's something that has actually happened. 

We also get to hear what Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain have to say about the way Peep Show is shot, quote - "We like the point of view filming style and internal monologues in Peep Show but very occasionally we wonder what it would be like if we shot the whole thing normally. Perhaps it would have more mainstream appeal and be considered less of a cult. The style makes the show appear edgy even when we're writing quite traditional comedy. We could probably write a scene in which a vicar was coming round for tea and a character was struggling to get his trousers on but still retain a sense of reality to the situation because of the camerawork!"

In many respects the way it's shot completely cuts itself off from being able to be compared to any other Comedy series in the UK, it makes the show more intimate, at times uncomfortable but always a sense of reality to the situation which I find extremely captivating.

FRESH MEAT -  4 Wins & 16 Nominations - Won RTS Television Award for Best Writer in 2012, Also won British Comedy Award for Best New Comedy in 2011 - Again collaboration work with Sam Bain.

Once again, the same story with Peep Show really, is that this series is also based on life events, and events which took place in the writers life, for this show is based in Manchester where Jesse Armstrong studied and also met writing partner Sam Bain, quote - ' It's quite simply a time when people leave home and start a new life and often don't know what the hell they are doing. That fundamental time of transition is a brilliant area for comedy. Also, Manchester was a great place for us to set it because you find an interesting mix of people; a great clash of backgrounds. For instance I went to public school in London and Jesse went to a comprehensive in Shropshire so we had our own stories to tell."

Says Jesse: "It's that classic scenario when people who may be very different are trapped together. You can get that in the work place, in flat shares like Peep Show and you get that in colleges and universities where people who wouldn't normally even say hello to each other are forced into close proximity."

This gives the comedy series already a much more richer feel to it as it's loosely based on the lives on the writers and  their experiences. Not only this but that the writers can empathise with the characters, they can at any moment associate themselves with a character, Quote - "I think it's fair to say I could associate with all of the characters; the fun of writing anything is you can put bits of yourself in everyone. I went to public school so I knew a lot of JPs, there is probably quite a bit of JP in me in a way. But I was also a sensitive, anxious guy so that's Kingsley, and I was desperate to be cool and make a mark and impress people Oregon style. There was probably a bit of wanting to be a rebel like Vod, same as Josie I wanted to get involved and do everything, be positive, and like Howard sometimes I wanted to sit in my room and avoid talking to people. To me the joy of writing is that you can be all the characters; you don't have to just pick one." - Sam Bain. 

I found this interesting as i'm sure the very skilled screenwriters can do this with everything they write, to be able to see some part of them-self within a character, to make  the character come to life. 

In some ways thinking about it now, screenwriting is all relative and relevant as a lot of it is based on life experiences and manipulating it, creating out of it new drama, comedy, thrilling TV to entertain the masses. 

I look forward to hearing on whether Fresh Meat gets the green light for making a 5th series!