"What feels like a drama can be a comedy: Co-author of Sex O'Clock in Brno"

Karolina Zalabáková was born in Zlín. She graduated in French language and Czech language at the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University.  

 At CME Content Academy, Karolina teaches students how to be a good showrunner in fiction. A showrunner is responsible for the project being a creator and manager at the same time. They are leading the entire project.  

 This course is crucial for students as many of them may become showrunners after completing their studies. 

 Zalabáková met students to give opinions of their creative projects to be presented to television executives in January 2025.  

 These students develop their projects with the help from their mentors, while Zalabáková is a mentor to two of them. 

 The producer was teaching at Television Institute while filming Sex O'Clock series' season 2. She often illustrated specific situations from that very filming, describing the challenges of filming in real locations, especially in Zlín. She added there was no local film crew available except for students, which means the production has to drive all crew members from Prague. 

 Today's lesson included writing specific dialogues. The producers sent students to the field to capture conversations on the street and involve them into a script.  

 The actual scenes coming from the street conversations were then presented to the producer, who showed how drama can easily turn into comedy.  

The students laughed at the captured discussions on the streets of Brno. In this example, Karolina Zalabáková demonstrated that at the very moment when the situations occur, it may not be funny. However, when the situation is presented to a third party in a different time, it may become comedic. 

 She also discussed with the students how to properly pitch story ideas to the executives. She stressed the importance of correct pitch parameters and mentioned that it is often important to hire a graphic designer to support the visual of the slide. She plans to meet with the students again in May. 

 -Matěj Škop-