Robert Popper
Robert Popper is British comedy producer, script editor, commissioning editor and writer. However, Popper didn't start his career in comedy straight away, as he went to university in Manchester and studied French and Italian. Once he left university he decided he wanted to pursue the career of being a musician. Though that isn't his professional career, he does have a range of original songs in which he has posted on sound cloud (https://soundcloud.com/robert-popper). He began his career in comedy when he started to write bizarre and unique letters in 2004, under the name of Robin Cooper, to trade groups, department stores, clubs and political parties. Aware that the imaginative letters he sent would receive some sort of response, he turned them into a book (https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=VSzdAgAAQBAJ&source=gbs_book_similarbooks).
Popper is known for script editing in Peep Show (2008-2015), The Inbetweeners (2008-2010) and South Park (2010). Furthermore, for producing the shows Friday Night Dinner (2011-2016) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMtMjZCAhHA), The Timewaster Phone Calls (2009) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFbuqM7AVBk), Peep Show (2005-2007) and Look Around You, which he stared in as well as Peter Serafinowicz (2002-2005).
For the TV series 'Friday Night Dinner', Popper said that went he was writing, he specifically wanted Simon Bird to play the character he had created as he felt that he would portray the character just the way he wanted. Popper found the inspiration to write Friday Night Dinner from true stories that occurred at home at dinner with his own family. Specifically in an episode called 'The Fox' (Season 3, episode 2), Popper's family found a frozen fox on their door step, they didn't know where to put it so his father attempted to throw it over the fence, but it ended up being stuck at the top of a tree. However, this isn't quite the story in Friday Night Dinner as he felt he had to alter the story slightly in order to make the story for believable for the audience of Friday Night Dinner.
From the discussion the group had with Popper about higher education, I went from completely ruleling out university to considering the option. I'm still not too sure about what I would take in university as there is no course in radio that I know of, but I might research further into what I want to do in university if I was certain on going.
Primary Research - Interview with Robert Popper over Skype
The interview with Popper himself was highly effective due to hearing his personal experiences and having the opportunity to create questions for him to answer. For example, a student in the class asked how much the comedy industry has changed since he began in 1995. He said that because he had no internet, he had to write letters to companies to companies he wanted to work with. In the modern day, students and other people that want to excel in the career they want to do can post their work to YouTube and as we have the internet, we have more of an advantage educate ourselves.
Secondary Research - Using the internet to research Robert Popper/ I also watched a number of episodes from Friday Night Dinner, The Inbetweeners and Look Around You.
Websites used:
- http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0691583/
- https://soundcloud.com/robert-popper
- http://www.robertpopper.com/
- https://www.youtube.com/user/Vanillapo
As I carried out secondary research before I interviewed Robert Popper, I did find it effective as it allowed me to watch a number of his shows that he's written or produced, however interviewing Robert Popper allowed me to find out a number of things that I would not have been able to find through secondary research. Secondary research didn't allow me to ask specific questions about Popper where as primary research did.
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