Currently Katie, written by Hannah Petosa, won Best Television Script of the Year at the 7th annual Top Shorts Film Festival. Here is the review from the judging team:
Concept
This story is a female-leading adult comedy that takes place in the workplace of TV show business with some self-reflexivity and meta-television elements. It portraits how the industry operates and highlights the way women are doing in workplaces. It deals with the unfairness and pressure given by the environment, and their dignity, courage and skill, which sends out a strong message about feminism in a light-hearted and fun way.
Structure
The story basically follows a linear narrative with a teaser, a tag and three acts. Nothing too fancy or innovated, yet quite solid, firm and easy to understand. It has an ordinary opening with the protagonist waking up and ends with a typical cliffhanger which leaves the audience wondering what could happen next.
Plot
The whole story mainly focuses on a specific female character, Katie, the various people she had to dealt with and her unique working experience within one single day. With the talk show host trapped in an accident, Katie was chosen to be the new host for the show. On one hand, the story explicitly depicted the overall working condition of female employee in the show business and the obstacles they have to overcome, including verbally sexual harassment, male supremacy (and female discrimination) on their appearance and working experience. On the other hand, it vividly constructed the dynamic of a woman’s inside world, showing her fear, joy, courage and principle through dialogues and actions. In addition, as a television show pilot, the plot also includes lots of interesting details about the show business in a self-parody way, making it even fun to read for outsiders of the business.
Dialogue
As a workplace comedy, this story contains a lot of of dialogues, which mostly happen between Katie, her bosses ,co-workers and her friends. The dialogues are the main source of comedic effect of the story. Some of the dialogues are a little bit sexually offensive, and some of them are a little bit excessive. But when they try to make a statement, they are natural, powerful and funny at the same time. Some internal monologues also help develop Kaite’s psychological world.
Character
As mentioned above, this story is about a group of people who work in the show business. While the main character is no-doubt Katie, a lovable, bold, occasionally scatterbrained and anxious protagonist. It also keeps the balance between her and other characters, such as her decisive boss Susan and her supportive co-worker Jimmy. The group portrait of characters is the main gateway for us to see and understand the ecology of the TV show industry.
Congratulations, Hannah!
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