Pitch Your Series

As someone who comes from a small town, and has gone to sleepaway camps and other intercommunity activities mostly inclusive of people in small towns, I have to say I meet more "quirky, strange" people any time I take a subway into the city than I ever have anywhere else. I'm getting a bit sick of this stereotype that small towns are more conductive to oddballs than other places. It's the reason why I hear so many assholes in school (or did, before college started) complaining that "nothing ever happens here", as though our lives were supposed to be Green friggin Acres. (Heh. Like anyone in my school had ever seen an episode of Green Acres.)

That aside, I can't say I've seen the shows you're talking about, but I think focusing on light drama with jokes sprinkled in would probably be the best approach for what sounds like a very interesting show.

edited 19th Oct '12 11:16:18 AM by Wackd

Maybe you'd be less disappointed if you stopped expecting things to be Carmen Sandiego movies.

Does anyone know a good script template? I've never seriously tried to write a script of any kind before but I don't want to try but all of the ones on Word frankly suck and manually formatting is a slow tedious process.

"You are never taller then when standing up for yourself"

Celtx!

Celtx Celtx Celtx.

Normally I'd call derail but Celtx is awesome so I'll let it slide.

Maybe you'd be less disappointed if you stopped expecting things to be Carmen Sandiego movies.

...That's...wow. Thank you. I didn't mean to derail but I am trying to write out a pilot for my pitch and this seemed like the most logical place to ask for help with that. Thank you.

"You are never taller then when standing up for yourself"

No prob! And I look forward to seeing it!

Maybe you'd be less disappointed if you stopped expecting things to be Carmen Sandiego movies.

Sorry for resurrecting this thread but I recently adapted my pitch of Film School to the Unpublished Works under DarthWiki.Film School with Characters.Film School, any feedback on the discussion page would be a fine thing thanks. just keep in mind the page isn't completely done. When I said I planned this show out, I PLANNED THIS SHOW OUT. Yeah I'm that kinda guy.

Title: Game Masters

Summary: A witty comedy/drama about the weekly meeting of six college/higschool friends who keep in touch by playing a Table Top RPG called Shadows Of Albion. The show uses a combination of flashbacks (often unreliable as they are from the perspective of the characters) and second-hand tellings to describes and tell the story of the character's personal lives, often with jokes, gags, and running humor. This is the "Comedy" aspects. The "drama" is when the show transitions (sometimes smoothly, sometimes not) into the "game"- a Fantasy High Adventure all on it's own taking place in a mythical world. The player's game is told like a separate show and story- though occasionally intersecting by serving as an allegory to the troubles in the player's real world lives, and often sharing themes in their "adventure of the week". Things bounce back and forth between the two settings and their each running plot lines. The idea is a show split down the middle evenly- a High Fantasy alongside Modern Sitcom with relative seriousness and realism in both. The "Fantasy" world isn't a joke or a parody, it's a real adventure and a plot line.

"You are never taller then when standing up for yourself"

Would the same actors portray the characters in the real world and in the game, or would it be different actors, in order to further the illusion (not to mention that lots of gamers play characters of different races, genders, or even species)?

In theory it would be different actors, but many characters would share traits, quirks, and other details with their players.

"You are never taller then when standing up for yourself"

I posted the plot for Power Surge under a different account a long while ago. I'm back with a new idea.

Title: Beta Crew

Background: X number of years into the future, humanity is working to expand out of their galaxy. Warp drives and teleportation remain science fiction, so what's to be done is the crew will be in stasis for the duration of the trip. Years ago they set their sights on a planet some twenty-five lightyears away. The plan was set to send a ship out every five years (The time gap largely due to budget reasons) each ship filled with a crew who would be beneficial toward helping to settle the planet.

Plot: The story follows the eponymous Beta Crew as they arrive at their destination. They were the second ship sent out, so as their all waking up they're eager to see the advancements that the Alpha Crew made in the five years interim. But when they arrive on the planet, they find the compound that the Alpha crew set up to be completely abandoned, overridden with plant life. It's been abandoned for years. Without a clue what happened to their predecessors, not enough fuel to make it back, and no way of contacting Earth, our characters have to learn to survive.

Notes:

• The plot is largely centered on what happens on the planet, the only view we get of Earth is mainly through the flashbacks of the characters.
• While there will be action-oriented moments, the series is largely character driven and mainly focuses on the struggle to work with the environment and the mystery going on around them.
• The way the expedition is set up, the time that would be lost, and the purpose of it, certain crew members were allowed to bring their families along with them. This results in roughly fifteen to thirty people, of the five hundred brought, being under twenty-one.
• Five ships in total are being sent. More will be sent if further budget can be approved.
• The crew occasionally mentions that they just need to last until the third ship arrives in five years time.
• They have a number of robots, all look vaguely like they're out of science fiction. Certain machines have a limited AI.
• Anyone can die.
• Currently list of main characters not fully accurate. My plan is to shift the focus of "main" characters from time to time, to keep the show from getting too centered, and to make it have an impact when someone dies.

Characters: Main:

• Director Arthur Sharpe: Director of the Beta Crew, has to work to keep everyone organized even as he's fighting his own fear of what's happening. He was unprepared for the circumstances, but he forces himself to put on a strong face for the rest of the crew. The stress wears on him, leading to him getting increasingly short-tempered as the expedition goes on. His wife is with him, but their daughter (In her mid twenties at the time the expedition left) elected to stay on Earth.
• Dr. Sawyer Robinson: One of the fifteen doctors who was a part of the Beta Crew. She finds herself selected as the CMO (after the death of the highest ranking doctor in Beta Crew in the second episode) due to the fact that she's managed to keep from completely panicking in the situation that presents itself. She considers herself completely unfit for the position, but doesn't contest it. Very acerbic personality, and not willing to tolerate any crap, but considers her most important duty to be keeping everyone alive. She avoids social interactions, preferring to spend her free time somewhere where she can be alone with a stiff drink.
• Dr. Ellis Wayne: One of the many scientists selected, his insistence on coming on the expedition subsequently dragged his husband into it. His top science is largely physics and math, and he has very basic knowledge of mechanics. He often refuses to admit when he doesn't know something, and can easily lose himself in his work. It isn't so much that he doesn't like people, it is more that he doesn't see the point of bothering with niceties when there's work to be done. Does not have a good sense of self-preservation.
• Maj. Daniel Lawrence: Finds himself on the expedition because his idiot husband couldn't turn down the offer to come. Finds himself put on the security team, and is often 'volunteered' to help with exploring the planet. Sincerely wishes that they were back on Earth, but knows that he can't change it so he doesn't complain too often. He puts his all into making sure that the people of the Beta Crew is safe. The stress of the unfamiliar situation gets to him.
• Isaac: Joins the show somewhere around mid-season 2. He's a robot/android of some sort who appears fully human externally. He is far beyond the technology that humanity is capable of, leading to his existence to be a mystery in and of itself. The Crew doesn't trust him fully, especially not Sawyer, but some members warm up to him well enough, at least enough to give him a name. As time goes on he earns his place among the crew.

Supporting:

• Danielle Sharpe: Arthur's wife and head of security. Trained martial artist and marksman. She can often butt heads with other members of the crew if they're causing trouble in some form. As time goes on, she begins to feel resentment toward her husband for not only agreeing to come but talking her into it.
• Dr. Ursa Finnegan: Botanist. One of the few people who isn't at odds with their situation in any way. If anything, she's enjoying it.
• Tracy Hansen: Nurse, works most frequently with Sawyer because she's the only one who's unfazed by Sawyer's typical attitude. On the expedition with her husband and their daughters.
• Doris: Sawyer's pet leech that she starts keeping after it almost kills her early season one. Its saliva has a property that, when it bites someone, it induces fever and hallucinations. Extremely carnivorous.

I have more details of it, but it's mostly working out smaller details and further details of the characters that I didn't include here because I didn't want this to get too long.

Grandmasters.

Set in the Cold War, it follows chess prodigy (and anti-semitic nutcase) Bobby Fischer as, at age 29, he defeats Boris Spassky in the 1972 Chess World Championship, singlehandedly beating the Soviet chess machine.

edited 9th Aug '13 11:48:20 AM by Pannic

A few more questions then, if you don't mind:

1) Is there any sort of actual magical connection between the players and their characters (that is, is the game "real") or are we actually watching people play D&D (with presumably some of the action being a metaphor for real life)?

2) Most D&D games end up as High Fantasy, yet such a topic is a) difficult to get to work on television, and b) not currently in vogue. Is the game going to be High Fantasy anyway for a sense of authenticity, or are you going for something else?

3) Gender split. Your typical gamer group is largely male (at least traditionally, and within my own experience). Yet at the same time, you probably want some female characters involved in the game. What's the cast split?

4) What demographic is this aimed at? I also can't help but feel that this might work better animated than live, if only so that it doesn't require a truly over-the-top budget.

As I'm fond of history, most of my ideas are historical dramas. One I particularly liked:

The Iron Chancellor - A Government Procedural (with large chunks of drama) focused on the life and times of Otto Von Bismarck (the eponymus Iron Chancellor, of course) and on the overall political game required to unify germany under one flag and the confliicts this unified germany faced (though one assumes, the series would end before WWI).

Main Cast (I'm very loose with the actor's nationalities):

Otto Von Bismarck - Suggested actor: Ian Mc Shane. Protagonist.

Von Moltke, The Elder - Suggested actor: David Bradley. Deuteragonist (really one of the most important characters).

King/Emperor Wilhelm The First - Suggested actor: Kevin McNally. Tritagonist.

Albretch Von Roon - Suggested actor: Julian Glover. Tetragonist.

Recurring Characters: Pope Pius IX - Suggested actor:Brendan Gleeson. A Hero Antagonist.

Well, this took longer than expected.

edited 9th Aug '13 6:34:41 PM by Gaon

"All you Fascists bound to lose."

1) The "Realness" of the fantasy world is left ambiguous. It's clear that the player's game is the fantasy world featured, and that the story they are telling is the story of the fantsy world. To help sort of furhter the lines of illusion between the two, the show would start in the fantasy world and then transition back and forth between the real world over the course of the first episode, sharing certain conventions and themes but otherwise appearing to be two separate shows, until the end where the friends make their way to the meet up (To which the episode has been making veiled references to, but nothing concrete) which is "revealed" to be a table top set in the "other world", and each friend is revealed as a player of particular character (Some of them wildly different from each other) by the GM referring to them by their charter's name.

On the other hand, most episodes will instead go something like this: In the "Real world" action never leaves the room in which the players are gaming, except for flashbacks or some such, the players relating their last week to their friends as second hand stories, with the typical Sitcom style of humor and situations. The "real world" is also fairly episodic and self contained week to week, again like a regular sitcom. Meanwhile the "Fantasy" world is far more arc driven and serious, elements and themes that are joked about and dealt with in the "real" world are Incorporated into the story more seriously into the fantasy world, and taken with overall more deep and serious tone. The Fantasy world is also more arc driven- there is a clear plot developing from week to week, and though each episode has it's own issues and problems to overcome, there is solid direction and a building conflict, like most fantasy shows.

2) That's always going to be an issue, I would shoot for High Fantasy, just for that "Classic" table top feel, but there are plenty of other genres of that could work. One theoretical plan is to have each campaign "conclude" at the end of a season and switch genres (but keep the same actors for the "game" world, just give them new characters to play). So it might be that Season 1 is High Fantasy and season 2 is urban fantasy and so on.

3) In theory the genders are fairly even, if I shoot for around Six players I would come out to roughly a 3/3 split, wit the actual game having a 2/3 spit (Minus the GM) with at least one guy playing a girl, or vice verse.

4) Well all the "players" are in theory former college/high school buddies that are using the weekly game to stay in touch, and that's the same sort of demographic it's aimed at. The "grown up nerds" who can see themselves in these characters and their interests, that nostalgic-for-a-simpler-time-before-taxes-and-insurance-and-adult-life types. Of course, each "half" of the show can appeal to another base- being a sitcom and high fantasy themselves, which have their own sort of niche.

The general idea is to take two vastly different narrative and genres, and see what it takes to combine them in a effective and entertaining way.

edited 9th Aug '13 7:56:58 PM by LMage

"You are never taller then when standing up for yourself"

This is pretty much a weird dream I had, and I would totally watch it if it was a tv show:

Basically, there's this teenager*

and he sleepwalks. One day Greg wakes up covered in bruises and is later attacked by some random guy (or so he thinks). It turns out that Greg's been sleep fighting, and the dude that attacked him has powers(?)*

this part of my dream was rather vague...

. Greg manages to get away from the guy, and he runs home. He calls his friend*

for the sake of this summary, we'll call her...Loraine?

, who has narcolepsy, and tells her what happened. Loraine decides to stay over at Greg's, to make sure nothing bad happens. Shit gets real. Greg begins to sleepwalk out of his house and Loraine follows him. That guy shows up again and kicks both of their asses. He leaves and they are left bleeding on the ground... But then a mysterious old woman with a little boy arrive at the scene. She and the boy take Loraine and Greg to her creepy house in the woods, where the woman decides to tell them some "bedtime stories." The stories are, unbeknownst to them, about Loraine and Greg, whose families have a history with the guy that attacked them.

And then I woke up.

I would love to make this into an actual story. If anyone has any suggestions, or hell, wants to actually write this, please tell me.

"With hard work and dedication, I will become a splendid ninja!"

I quite like this idea (though I think that given the quirky nature of the show, budget could be an issue), so if you don't mind, I'll throw a few more ideas and questions at you.

One way to combat the cliches of High Fantasy would be to have a multiethnic gaming group and party in-story, and have the DM be the type to want to do something with that. You can use all the conventions of the genre, but in a setting that mixes Medieval European Fantasy with various other cultures and time periods. Even if the story is your standard "the Dark Lord is rising" D&D campaign (and part of me almost thinks it has to be) it'll feel quite different if the cast has a samurai instead of a knight, or a Native American shaman in place of the usual wizard. Alternately, your standard wizards, knights, and so forth may feel quite different if they aren't all white men. Heck, make The Paladin (the ultimate Knight In Shining Armour) female and, I don't know, black or Asian. That'll mix it up a bit (as well as letting someone other than a white guy be the most classically heroic character).

I was wondering how you'd handle different seasons and campaigns. Having each season be a different campaign and different world could be neat. That said, I'd honestly wait and see what the reaction to the first season is. If people seem really attached to your current cast run with it. On the other end of things, you could change the real world cast every season along with the in-game cast. There's certainly lots of gamers all over the place. Maybe they all have a favourite meeting spot, so you could keep the same background? I was just thinking it was a way to keep things fresh, and prevent yourself from having to undo settled relationships etc in the name of drama.

Oh, and if the first episode of the season shows everyone biking/walking/etc in, the last episode should show them all leaving the meeting place. Book Ends you know.

RE: Iron Chancellor

As a big Bismarck fan I'd be very much in favour of such a project, though I can't quite see Ian McShane as Bismarck. You would need the most annoying little prick in the world to play a young Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Sounds sort of interesting.

edited 10th Aug '13 11:47:06 PM by AmbarSonofDeshar

A cryptid/Paranormal series that travels around the world studying them as they live in their natural environments. Sort of a mix of Steve Irwin/Jeff Corwin with Supernatural. Each week, the host would talk about a new creature such as the Cupacabre, vampires(Of different varieties).

edited 10th Aug '13 11:49:03 PM by GethKnight

Well, it's more because Ian Mc Shane has that air of fearsome authority and chessmastery to him that suits someone like Otto Von Bismarck perfectly, and it helps he bears some physical resemblance to him.

I suppose it would last some five or six seasons, the first basically setting up Bismarck's rise in politics, and Moltke and Roon's revolution of the Prussian military system, the second about the Second-Schleg War and its surrounding politics, the third about the Austro-Prussian War and its surrounding politics, a fourth and possibly fifth (because I just like this war) the set up, aftermath and politics of the Franco-Prussian War and a sixth/fifth (depending on how things go) showing Roon's bed-ridden death, Moltke's retirement (and subsequent illness and death), Wilhelm II's rise and ultimately Bismarck's political anihilation.

Would be a fun show (though with a massive Downer Ending for Bismarck foreshadowing WWI).

"All you Fascists bound to lose."

Some other players to include would, of course, be the leaders of the other nation-states in the area. Queen Victoria, as the mother of Princess Victoria, mother-in-law of Crown Prince Friedrich, and grandmother of Wilhelm II should show up at some point, especially given that she was the one person Bismarck was ever nervous about meeting (they ended up getting along famously). Cavour, in Italy, is almost as big an MB as Bismarck himself, and if Pius IX is going to play a big role, than Cavour, (and his King Victor Emmanuel II) as his worst enemy in Italy, is likely to require at least a mention. And of course, Napoleon III is likely to be The Big Bad of the season(s) that includes the Franco-Prussian War (on a sidenote—if ratings aren't great, ending the show with the creation of Germany is not a terrible place to do it). The lead up to the Franco-Prussian War, which has Bismarck, Victor Emmanuel II, Napoleon III, and the Pope all manouvering for position would be truly awesome to see if done well. Am now trying to think of a good actor for Napoleon III. His failures in the Franco-Prussian War cause a lot of people to think of him as a weasel, but if you look at his record beforehand, he actually had some success, what with reviving France and making her a major military power again. You might want to play him up as something of a counterpart to Bismarck (their careers even begin at around the same time).

Actually, a show on the German Imperial Court would be interesting, even post-Bismarck. Holstein, Tirpitz, Bulow, Bethmann-Hollweg and the other men who shape German policy after Bismarck are a similarly fascinating collection of neuroses.

edited 12th Aug '13 10:31:46 PM by AmbarSonofDeshar

It would require, however, quite a writing team to be able to get all those different nations, politics, people and gambits in one show without making the story utterly schizophrenic.

Italian's business could be infered via some Hero of Another Story cuts and mentions (and perhaps, in any occasion Pius gets to be the focus of some episode?) but nothing too direct or the show would veer off its rails. Italy's tale of unification is enough to make a spin-off show just as big as "The Iron Chancellor", I think (which, incidentally, gives me another idea for a tv-show). Though if I were to make a show about Italy's unification, I'd make Garibaldi the main lead, with Cavour as a deuteragonist.

As for Napoleon III, he presumably would be played up as an Arch-Enemy to Bismarck even before the Franco-Prussian War (because Foreshadowing, also for dramatic purposes). I think a good actor for him would be Jeremy Irons. A man known for being able to convince even the most cynic of filmgoers of his Magnificent Basterdery with a single line.

As for a series about the german royalty, it would be fun (again, Downer Ending aside), but I doubt anyone would even make that. The Iron Chancellor has draw because Bismarck is a reasonably famous historical character, the german royalty less so.

"All you Fascists bound to lose."

The Squared Circle; one hour drama about the backstage lives of various professional wrestlers circa the mid-90s. The show follows the promoter, older veterans, rookies, and crew through the tumultuous changes pro wrestling went through in that period, going from a family friendly all ages event to a more adult themed with the sex, language, and violence all becoming much more extreme. The long term arc of the series is the promotions attempt to keep up with the changes, avoid bankruptcy, and deal with the internal problems of drug abuse, backstage politics, and various intimate relationships between the members of the roster and crew.

I was actually thinking the same thing about Italian unification. While the key players aren't as well known as Bismarck, you could probably use the popularity of The Iron Chancellor (assuming its success) to get it off the ground, especially if you make them sister shows, and have some crossover elements (there's certainly going to be enemies in common, since Napoleon III and Franz-Josef of Austria are in both Bismarck and Cavour and Garibaldi's way).

On the subject of Napoleon III, I think he makes an effective archenemy; I think also that you could even play him up as something of an Evil Counterpart to Bismarck, given that his goal of transforming France into a superpower again isn't that different from Bismarck's goal of German unification (which of course created a superpower), and he certainly used similar methods to go about it. I don't know about Irons' though. It's not that I think he'd do a bad job (far from it), it's just that it doesn't quite feel right to me. Then again, I know that part of my problem is that I want to cast a French-speaking actor like Gerard Depardieu or Roy Dupuis, so don't pay me too much heed there.

One potential hitch I do see if the show runs as long as you want it to is that for the first part it's going to be a lot of warfare and violence, with Bismarck and the likes of Franz-Josef and Napoleon III struggling for dominance. And then after the Franco-Prussian War that all ends, and the rest of the show is Bismarck trying to keep the peace. I'm wondering if you'd lose some of your audience there or not.

Am now contemplating historical dramas I'd like to see...

edited 16th Aug '13 3:22:26 PM by AmbarSonofDeshar

Sorry for the Necro thread, but I had an idea I wanted to posit:

Title: Black Box/Flight Down

Summary: This show follows a team of investigators with the NTSB as they investigate plane crashes. Each investigation would last the entire season and would focus as much on the human drama as on the mystery. Although the team would stay constant throughout the series, each season would have an alternating cast of survivors, airline executives, family, culprits (if there are any) and ATC personnel central to the investigation. I would also use the L&O "ripped from the headlines" method of plot, but more on an inspired-by basis. I can think of many shocking and unusual real crashes that could inspire fantastic seasons. Cases about cost-cutting measures that lead to catastrophe, bizarre pilot-error, etc. I wouldn't outright copy specific cases like L&O tends to do, but I would definitely pick and choose aspects of certain investigations to incorporate or to use as a kind of muse for a season's plot, like how Michael Crichton wrote his book Airframe.

Well, here is a quick pitch I thought up.

Title: (no idea yet.. :P)

Plot Summary: The general pitch is like Baccano meets a Humongous Mecha show. In 2300 A.D., an experimental program creates the Votom-esque Soldier Frames. Several war veterans from NATO are chosen to test the Soldier Frame in live combat tests. In 2365 A.D., the Victory Gundam-esque Psychic Frames are used in space combat, controlled by the pilots minds. A trade embargo is formed around the Saturn space colonies, blocking them from the inner solar system. A group of Space Pirates tries to run the blockade, and disaster strikes. In 2500, all war is conducted using Diebuster-esque Super Frames. These Super Frames are piloted by enhanced AI, based off of scans of the minds of famous Frame pilots. One of these Super Frames, the Yggdrasil, is the first to use a wholly original AI. This timeline follows this AI's life.

It would be animated. The time period would switch after each story arc, with some arc following two timelines.

hi

Title: American Gothic

Once Upon a Time meets Elementary meets The Originals

Suave and cultured Dracula, sexy and fierce Carmilla, and hot blooded and debouched "Lord" Ruthven all live under one roof in modern day San Francisco, dealing with dating, business, and the varied social scenes of San Francisco- from the rich elite, to the wild rave, to the in between.

Oh, and they might take over the world. Maybe.

The show has two threads the modern thread- which deals with their lives, handling the duel supernatural and "normal" aspects of their lives, and the "past" thread, which told through flashbacks fallows the path the three great literary villains took from their homes throughout Europe to modern day America under the same roof- including how they survived and what drove them to the new world. Undoubtedly their versions are a little....different....from those told by the "winners". In the "Modern" thread and "Past" threads alike they often stumble into or encounter other famous Victorian Gothic literature figures- heroes and villains alike, with more then a few twists on the classical stories.

Possible twists: Carmilla isn't actually Carmilla, but Laura- who became a vampire after infection and took her old friend's name in her memory, Dracula's brides sacrificed themselves in his place and died taking down Harker, Ruthven was actually in love with Audrey's sister and she died unable to survive the full transformation- not from murder. All of this would be aimed to explain and "sympathize" the vampires without making them nicer or more human- they are still cunning ruthless and deadly- they just have motives and some human moments.

edited 6th Jan '14 8:39:52 PM by LMage

"You are never taller then when standing up for yourself"