We all know how wonderful the actors on Ros na Rún are. But without the folks on the other side of the camera, there would be no show: without the lighting crew, it would be quite dark; without the wardrobe team, everybody would be naked; without the writers, there'd be a whole lot of the actors standing around looking at each other and blinking.
But what goes into coming up with the stories that keep the characters -- and the viewers -- occupied each season? Here's the fascinating inside story from Cian Taaffe, one of the Ros na Rún storyliners!
There’s a huge number of
people involved in getting an episode of Ros na Rún from its inception to what
the audience finally sees when it goes out on air, between the Scripting and
Production Departments. Even within the Scripting Department there are several
different stages along the way and plenty of people working in various roles to
make the magic happen, which includes storyliners, scriptwriters, structure
editors, script editors, researchers, continuity supervisors, as well as one or
two superhumans who keep us all on track and oversee everything.
My own role is as a storyliner
(alternatively known as a story writer, but it means the same thing), and our
job is to come up with the stories and decide what awful things we’ll be
subjecting the characters to on any given week. Each episode consists of 4
storylines (give or take) and we work on blocks of 14 episodes at a time, breaking
down exactly what will fall out in each episode. Once we’ve written those
stories up for all 14 episodes the torch is passed on to the scriptwriters who
will put their own stamp on their individual episodes and literally put the
words in the characters’ mouths with that trademark Ros na Rún dialogue.
How
long have you been working on Ros na Rún
and how did your job there come about?
It’s been a bit over a year and a half since I
began puppeteering the lives of Tadhg Ó Direáin and the other unfortunate
residents of Ros na Rún, having first stepped into the story room back in
January of 2016. Mostly luck and being in the right place at the right time is
how I landed the job. I’d been a fan of the show since it first began airing in
1996, even though I was only 9 at the time, and that’s really where the story
of how I got this job begins…
Just kidding obviously, it’s not that long a story,
but I had grown up with Ros na Rún
and have always been a fan of soaps, so towards the latter half of 2014 I
started writing my own soap blog, making several industry contacts along the
way, Ros na Rún included. The
following July, Ros na Rún were
holding some focus groups to get feedback from the viewers, and because I was
on their radar thanks to my blog, I was asked to come along. Clearly I made a
good impression because a few months later, in November 2015, I was invited
down for a 3-day storylining workshop run by Ros na Rún and Gréasán na Meán Skillnet. I started officially a
month and a half later, and the rest, as they say, is history.
What's
your background and what other kinds of things have you done professionally?
As far back as I can remember, I always had a
passion for consuming stories, whether it was through books, film, television,
or theatre, and all I ever wanted to do when I grew up was to be involved in something
creative, so at every opportunity throughout my school years I’d be doing some
sort of creative writing workshop, acting class, or film production course in
my free time.
Once I was at college in UCD, I was involved in a
lot of societies and clubs, including the radio station, newspaper, and An
Cumann Dramaíochta, while also managing to pick up an arts degree in English
& Irish, and a postgrad in Media through Irish along the way. Since
graduating I’ve had a few different positions, including some work at 98FM, as
an editor for Oxygen.ie, a tour guide in The National Leprechaun Museum, and
several years as a stand-up comedian, before ending up at Ros na Rún.
How
does the storylining process for the show work? Does the team come up with
ideas for the entire season all at once, or is it a continuous process
throughout the season?
The biggest point I should make about the
storylining process is that we’re always about a year ahead of what is
currently going out on air when we start working on the stories, so as an
example, we’ve already finished writing our stories for Season 22 and are about
to sit down in a few weeks and begin work on Season 23 (which won’t start
airing until September 2018).
The first thing to happen when work begins on a new
season is that the producers, storyliners, and scriptwriters, and a few others,
will sit down and talk through all of the characters individually, discuss what
direction we might like to take them in, and throw out some broad ideas for the
season. After that happens and there’s a few ideas of where we might be heading
with our characters, we start working on everything in more detail at story conferences
a couple of weeks later, where we work on blocks of 14 episodes of a time, and
there are 6 blocks per year/season.
The story conferences consist of 4 or 5 storyliners
essentially locked together in a room for a week with a blank canvas and 14
episodes to fill, picking up where we last left off, creating stories and
breaking down the episodes. At the end of that week, once the stories have been
approved by the producers, the stories are divided up between the storyliners,
and we go away and write them up in detail, individually, over the following 3 weeks.
Those storylines are then put together linearly into one lengthy document,
which is sent on to the scriptwriters who begin their part of the process,
while the storyliners regroup and start work on the next block of episodes.
That’s a very general gist of how it works anyway;
the process is a little more intricate and detailed than that, but certainly
stories are constantly being discussed and worked on all season long both at
the story conferences and outside of them.
Are
there any storylines you've worked on that you've been particularly proud
of/really enjoyed?
Season 21, which just aired its finale in June, was
the first season I was involved in, and there were some great stories
throughout the year, but the most memorable one for me was Adam’s storyline and
the massive journey he went on throughout the season. For a character who was
initially introduced as the “bad egg” who didn’t have many redeeming qualities,
it was interesting exploring this year why he acted that way, and getting to
see his endearing side first through his relationship with Fia, and then
through his struggle in coming to terms with his sexuality.
By the end of the season Adam had certainly become
a character that the audience want to root for, and that the other characters
in Ros na Rún had started to welcome
into the community. My favourite part of the storyline was when Fia found out
that Adam was gay and was raging that she had been made a fool of, but when
Adam started spiralling out of control and began heading down a dark path after
being rejected by his mother, it was Fia’s forgiveness and empathy that made
Adam see there were still people who cared for him. So those were a
particularly memorable few episodes that I was proud to have played a part in,
and I thought Seán Ó Baoill and Muireann Ní Raghallaigh were especially
brilliant as Adam and Fia in those episodes.
There are a lot of stories coming up in Season 22
which I’m quite excited about too and dying to see play out onscreen, but
especially interested to see what the audience reaction will be to those
stories. Unfortunately I can’t tell you about any of those stories though,
because they’re top secret, and I wouldn’t want to ruin any of the surprises we
have in store.
Do you
have a funny/interesting/weird anecdote about working on the show you'd be
willing to share with us?
Something that people may not realise, because
we’re a year ahead in storylining from what’s going out on air, is that when we
create a new character we often end up discussing and writing that character
many months before anyone is even cast in the role. So when we’re talking about
that character in the story room, we’ll usually have an idea of what they look
like in our own heads, or more often than not, as a group, we’ll imagine what
A-list Hollywood celebrity would be perfect for the role and just start writing
stories with that Hollywood A-lister in mind.
Ultimately, they always end up casting great actors
in each of the parts, and once that actor starts appearing on screen, it’s hard
to imagine anyone else as that character because they do such a fantastic job
making the role their own. Although I do sometimes wonder if there’s an
alternate universe out there where Ros na
Rún is a huge Hollywood production with the likes of Liam Neeson playing
Eric, Saoirse Ronan cast as Fia, or Jamie Dornan as Colm, because that would be
hilarious (yet obviously nowhere near as good as the actual version we all know
and love).
What's
your favorite part about working on Ros na
Rún?
The staff hoodies are really comfortable, so I’d
have to say the hoodies.
My serious answer, though, is simply that I really
love having such a large cast of characters to write stories for, especially given
that some have been onscreen for over 20 years and it’s still possible to find
new ways to keep them fresh and interesting. The best thing about having that
many main characters to choose from is the ability to couple new and sometimes
odd combinations of characters together who may not necessarily have had many
storylines together in the past, because sometimes when you try those
combinations you end up striking gold…
One of the best examples of this was last season
when Mo and Bobbi-Lee were thrown into the pub working with Tadhg, because the
three of them ended up bouncing off one another so well. Macdara Ó Fátharta,
Marie Breathnach, and Annamaria Nic Dhonnacha all have great comic timing, and
the chemistry between the three of them onscreen together was just a joy to
watch. Getting to try out different characters together like that in various circumstances,
whether it works out or not, is a lot of fun, so just having that opportunity
is by far my favourite thing about working in Ros na Rún.
Also, the hoodies…
If you
could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you be and what would you
be doing?
Backpacking around Europe moving from hostel to
hostel. If money was no object, I’d love to just travel around indefinitely and
live in a different city each week, meeting new people all the time, and having
various misadventures singing karaoke along the way.
And that's the inside scoop on where the stories that keep us entertained each year come from! Thanks to Cian for taking the time to reveal some of the inner workings of our favorite show! And remember, readers, Cian and I demonstrate the variety of places blogging about soaps can lead. In his case, to amazing job opportunities and hoodies; in my case, to carpal tunnel syndrome and the inability to tolerate fresh air and daylight.
Watch for more "8 Questions with..." features coming soon, including one with a truly iconic Ros na Rún star the beginning of next week, and don't forget to leave comments telling me whom you'd like to hear from and what you'd like to know about them!
Excellent work. And I got to play an extra which top it all off and was the highlight of my career.
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