Marx and Venus: The Lowdown
Notes from Wednesday 15 March with Geoffrey Atherden

On Wednesday 15 March, Geoffrey Atherden presented a discussion with NSW members on the SBS initiative Marx and Venus.
The following is a compilation from notes taken by a number of people at the session.

Background on the Project
Glenys Rowe, Head of SBS Television had the idea of commissioning a short drama series. To provide an avenue for all writers, professional and promising, she decided to call for submission scripts from around Australia. The working title for the series was “Mars and Venus”, an allusion to the best selling book about the differences between men and women.

Background on Marx and Venus
The idea for the series is simple. Two characters, one male, one female, sharing a two bedroom flat.

Geoffrey Atherden was asked to develop the characters and to produce a series bible. Instead, Geoffrey suggested that, in keeping with the spirit of SBS’s experiment, he would develop a series of character monologues for a website, allowing greater access for writers to the initial project material. Geoffrey wrote test scenes and a lengthy casting process took place. Emma Lung and Bryce Youngman were chosen to play the two characters Venus Hoy and John Marx. For writers to gain a real feel for the concept Geoffrey stressed that it is essential that they visit the website, watch the video clips and read the information relating to the project.

All 25 episodes will be made in Perth, with five episodes written by Western Australian writers. Five Western Australian directors will be chosen to direct five episode blocks in a week and the series will be wholly produced in Perth by a Perth-based production company (Taylor Media). Screenwest is a partner in this project with SBS.

The shooting schedule of one episode a day (4 mins and 40 seconds per day) will allow the actors and the director plenty of time to perfect each piece. Television is usually shot at a rate of 8 to 12 minutes per day, while feature films, with much larger casts and sets, average 3 minutes a day.

This means that writers should write as subtly as they can because there will be time to get great moments right and the actors are capable of a very high level of performance. Writers will be able to get every nuance out of each word and SBS hopes that something exciting to comes out of the project.

The Flat
The two-bedroom flat is being constructed in a studio in Perth. There will only be one set.

The budget is limited and there will be no other actors employed. This means, for writers, that there are no other voices, other than Marx’s or Venus’s, no voices on the phone, no extras knocking on the door, no reveal of the view outside the windows of the flat. It is literally two people in a box – their flat.

The flat has two bedrooms, a living room, dining room, kitchen and bathroom. There will be a small vestibule built out the front door but only to provide the illusion of a corridor outside the flat. The front door can be opened with the characters entering and exiting and writers can include sound effects as appropriate to the telling of their script.

Assume you can go anywhere in the flat continuously.

The windows can imply time of day and writers need to remember that the characters have real lives outside the flat. This means that bad days, the weather, work issues, friends and family issues, traffic can all be ‘brought home’ by the characters.

The ‘flat’ is a city flat but the city won’t ever be identified.

Fantasy scenes or dream sequences are fine but the set cannot be altered.

The Characters and Story Considerations
In your episode you cannot change the character’s lives irreversibly. This means that neither can die. They can’t move out of the flat. They can’t have a pet that then has to exist in every episode. They can’t suffer an injury which then needs to be explained or carried through into every episode.

Telling backstory is fine but find interesting ways of revealing backstory. Don’t feel limited to trivial subject matters. If you want to deal with big issues or ideas such as death, find a way of introducing it into the flat. Perhaps they have just come back from a funeral.

In the developing and casting of the series Glenys and Geoffrey asked these two questions:

• Are we going to like these people?
• Are we going to hope they get/stay together?

‘Like’ doesn’t mean: never oppose, never argue, always comply.

SBS want to see the stresses and difficulties of daily life.

In regards to the Unresolved Sexual Tension (URST) – as this is the first series (and SBS are hoping to produce 25 episodes a year in coming years) don’t let them do it!

Sure, hint it, write around it, make them physically aware of each other in the flat BUT DON’T LET THEM DO IT! In a way, this is the heart of what the series is about.

Explore the weekends, days off, sickies. Don’t just think of the time that we see them as only before and after work.

Remember: Each episode is to be self contained with no overflows to the next episode.

Venus’s family background is there to be explored if it makes for a good story. But don't go off into details of Chinese culture if it is not an essential part of the story.

Is it a comedy or a drama?
SBS would love it if the series is funny, but, they also want good television which explores a range of emotions. They're hoping for something which is generally witty and amusing because this will fit well into the timeslot straight after the late news.

TIPS:

• You must access the Marx and Venus website at: www.marxandvenus.com.au as there is a great deal of information available online and you will need it to have a clear idea of the whole series.
• Remember that the characters have real lives outside their flat. Each episode should be as real as possible – not theatrical.
• Venus usually calls John Marx by his surname which has become his nickname at work too.
• If sight gags are to be used it is important to remember that the actors are not acrobats.
• It is early days in their sharing the flat.
• Each episode must be transportable. The producers will decide the sequence so you need to write as if no other scene had been viewed by the audience.
• Bryce is moderately tall, and Emma is tallish, but shorter than Bryce.
• Put on paper everything you think you need to communicate your story, what you want to see on screen.
• There is no need to worry about different writing styles – there will be one script editor who will shape the series. Don’t try to second guess the producers – write the story you want to write.
• Great writing often comes from personal experience. Draw on personal experience but don’t just replicate an incident or a situation. Use your experience as a well to draw from.
• The language used by Marx and Venus in the show will be much broader than the language in the monologues on the website as the internet has a ‘G’ Rating.
• The British short series Marion and Geoff, 9 minute monologues of a London cab driver, is a good example of this type of project.
• Time your script before submitting. Try to get it to 4minutes and 40 seconds in length. To time it, read the script aloud and act out the action at a measured pace.
• About a page a minute is a rough (but unreliable) industry guide to length. A 1 or 2 page script is certain to be too short and a 20 page script is way too long.

Geoffrey Atherden is best known for his comedy series Mother and Son for which he received many awards in Australia and an international award from the Writers' Guild of America West, Foundation. His comedy drama series, Grass Roots received a total of seven AFI awards including best screenplay awards in 2000 and 2003.

Thanks to Lyn Chick and Larry Woldenberg for their notes!