Pitch Your Series

Truth is I never watched heroes. I randomly came up with the idea (Well, actually I came up with the twist and then built up off of that) sometime last year and it's been in the back of my mind since then.

Yar har har har har...

I liked Heroes back in the day and pretty much wanted to make something with the Serial Numbers Filed Off because the show couldn't sustain itself past one season. Course this was years ago, and I moved on. Mostly... */kringrage*

edited 26th Nov '11 5:18:57 AM by moocow1452

My webzone.

Actually, the style of the powers reminds me more of Alphas, which is like...brand new. I didn't mention it but that style of TV show is apparently becoming more popular.

And if I claim to be a wise man, well, it surely means that I don't know.

I love Alphas. I thought of the idea before the show started, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't probably influence me when I changed it from a movie to a tv show. But for the most part a lot of the similarities are coincidences (The one-power limit thing was part of the idea from the start, for instance...)

Yar har har har har...

Jason Heralds Keeps It Together sounds a bit like Wonderfalls, which I love. I'd watch it.

You're an ad hominem attack!

Gonna have to look that one up. Haven't seen it, but if it's another Bryan Fuller project, it can't be that bad.

My webzone.

Whoa, I totally missed Jason Heralds on my first run through this thread. That's an awesome idea, it's so open-ended. You'd do well to have him reluctantly pull his friends into the business over the course of the first season, but their knowledge of his job marks them for assassination... by Jason!

I'm sorry I missed this earlier. But I find it kinda silly if the characters were oblivious to the genre they specialise in. I don't like that kind of ignorance.

Everyone except Jon (who does anything as long as it's meta) has their own genre. They are aware of it and they are fine with it. Full stop.

Thanks. Would love if it took off, but it's too big a scope for anything I can pull off now unless I literally phoned it in with Skype. Better days, I guess.

Was going to work on a comic with my sister along the same lines, but with actual movie characters as the students, with classes like "How to Not Die" and "Driving Against Traffic 101." How meta are you looking to go?

edited 27th Nov '11 6:30:56 AM by moocow1452

My webzone.

An Adventure/Mystery series about A Dork Knight former Combat Medic named Dirk (I can't come up with a convincing last name.) who has been press-ganged by the international mystical community into traveling the world as their agent keeping the more chaotic mystical beings in check.

It would probably be animation and have a focus on Dirk building a network of allies.

• Characters

Dirk-our hero a nice guy who's been dragged into being "magic James Bond" as he calls it.

The Wandering Gentleman- a Mysterious,Cynical,mostly Neutral but altruistic young man who keeps meeting Dirk on his adventures and has a tendency to give him humorous advice. Is respected by even the most unruly of magical creatures as a wizard, but he'd tell you he "ain't no wizard". A major story-arc would be the reveal he's actually the youngest of a group of trickster demigods.

edited 27th Nov '11 4:38:05 PM by zam

I mean to go as Meta as possible as long as I can execute it well. The meta parts of it include Show Within a Show, Jon comparing and treating his life like a show/movie and so forth.

edited 27th Nov '11 2:49:25 PM by JRPictures

@JR Pictures: You're right not to make everyone too oblivious... I'm in total agreement that it would completely fuck up Willing Suspension of Disbelief if they specialize in and claim to "know" a certain genre, then are oblivious to it. Also, if you want to tell us which genres are being parodied then sure, go for it.

@moocow: I love the name of your series, especially considering how much a Star Trek Shout-Out actually fits in the genre you seem to be shooting for. It sounds like a pretty good idea for a show, too.

@zam: It's James Bond, not James Bonds. James Bond fans are going to tear you apart if you still don't have it right when the show airs, so I'm trying to save you some grief by pointing that out. As for the actual concept of your show, that's pretty awesome. I could easily see it being paired with my animated show with fantasy overtones idea, if they wind up on the same network around the same timeframe.

Jesus saves. Gretzky steals, he scores!

Thanks for agreeing with me.

And the genres for Season 1 include Comedy, Christmas, Psychological Thriller, Drama, Sci-Fi, Romance, Fantasy, Horror and Action (not in that order). There are 11 eps for Season 1 and the pilot focuses on no genre except for the concept of forming a team together.

Seasons 2 and 3 have Found Footage, Musical, Mystery, Western, B-Movie and Road Trip. I won't spoil the rest.

Hope that gets you guys excited.

Thanks Land Of Enchantment seems like something I would love to watch.

and : Awesome on both counts. Good luck developing your shows, I understand it's quite difficult once you get out of the script writing/early planning stages but I'm really hoping to actually see episodes of these programs hit the airwaves someday.

Jesus saves. Gretzky steals, he scores!

I'll revive my idea and answer those questions. Firstly, it was intended as a twelve episode show (I don't think this plot could carry over a full season without some more side stories or padding. Twelve works better for what I'd intended). Also, it's more of an ensemble rather than having Douglas as the absolute main character. I'd probably give him equal billing with James, Henry, Lily and Alex. His arc basically sees him showing up in the town because he senses some sort of threat to it (places of birth are hugely important to Wizards and the remain linked to them throughout their life). This threat is obviously the spirit. Initially, he's searching for the threat but also falls for James. His powers are revealed to James's family and Ruth early on when Elizabeth is attacked by the spirit's body at that time. Ruth (who gossips) spreads around that Douglas is a bit odd and as a couple more people show up dead, the town turns against him pretty quickly. James is on his side but Elizabeth and Lily are not and he winds up arrested (this is while Maddy is on her walkabout in the mountains). James kinda takes the reins here by setting out to prove Douglas' innocence while Douglas spends his time in prison conversing with Lily and eventually convincing her to trust him. With her help he manages to convince the town he can help them. By this point, the spirit has made it's way into Alex who, realising that Douglas is working with Arthur and Maddy, knows he's in trouble. He kidnaps James hoping to restore the mistrust of Douglas. This leads into the final two episodes where the characters converge on the cave where Alex is hiding out and succeed in destroying the spirit (which is done by the combined knowledge of Douglas and Arthur but also gives the magic-less characters a chance to shine and Maddy and Lily a chance to bond).

In terms of episodes, it would probably play out as: 1 First arrives, 2-4 Town slowly turns against him and culminates in his arrest, 5-6 prison and eventual release, 7-9 meets with Arthur and with Lily's help gets the town in his side. Finally able to get back to the search, 10-11 making plans. A confrontation with the spirit that reveals who it is possessing. James is kidnapped. The characters coming together for the big attack, 12 the finale. I'm tempted to put some flashbacks into the narrative, especially around 7-9 where there's not as much action his story but plenty of opportunity to expand on his background while talking with Arthur.

To expand on Douglas' character, he's a little like the Doctor. Absent-minded and a little quirky (not nearly as much as the Doctor though) but also deadly serious when it counts. He's easily distracted which fuels the friction between him and Maddy since she just wants to do what they need to and get out of the town but he's gallivanting around getting into trouble. He grew up in a very different time so he largely embraces the freedom he finds in modern society.

Thanks again to everyone who's asking questions/reading. This is a really interesting exercise.

No food for the beastmaster. He feeds on the blood of his prey.

I like the part where there aren't 5 episodes of calmness broken up by brief reminders of the supernatural world.

But seriously, it all seems good. I think this is the first time you've outright said that Douglas and James have a gay relationship though. I thought they were just friends. Anyway, the structure seems well-paced. You have to play to the audience, though. If you're targeting it at True Blood's fanbase, you'd be fine having "bottle episodes" or extended drama. With Sy Fy's viewers, though, you need some explosions.

Speaking of explosions, what kind of wizard is Douglas? You said each wizard has a "natural" magic. Is he a necromancer, pyromancer, hydromancer, terramancer, electromancer, tempomancer or other? How about a sorcerer, enchanter, alchemist, adept, bard, druid, mystic, shaman, summoner/conjurer, or cleric?

Oh yeah, I think I mentioned the gay thing way back. It was mostly meant to subvert the sort of typical submissive mundy girl meets dominant vampire/werewolf/supernatural creature that tends to come with the genre. Also, I didn't want the romance to just explode into true love (True Blood has it's main pairing consider marriage at the end of series two which technically sees them know each other less than about a month or so). There's elements of it and certainly there will be scenes where it's explicitly made clear but it's not a core part of the first series. An idea for somewhere down the line would be to have Maddy take the role of the aggressive supernatural with a mundy man being the wide-eyed innocent.

HBO would be ideal for the show but I'm not sure if the central romance would be a deal breaker in the US. Hopefully paring down the romance early on and pushing a wider ensemble would alleviate the problem.

Douglas is a pyromancer naturally although he's old enough that he's got a number of different magics in his toolkit. I've always been a fan of fire because it's a fairly simple effect that can look very convincing. Incidentally, Arthur has an empathy based magic*

that ties into his role as a spiritual guide to Maddy and Henry although since he's always kept it a secret, it's pretty untrained and his real magical strength is the books he's collected on the subject (which provide the solution for the final battle).

Thanks again for the feedback, the whole idea has been received pretty well. I'll see if I can get something written over Christmas and maybe throw up it's own thread at some time.

No food for the beastmaster. He feeds on the blood of his prey.

I don't think it'll be a deal breaker. But I don't really know, execs can get really weird about some things.

And if I claim to be a wise man, well, it surely means that I don't know.

It'll probably be a dealbreaker (or at least a controversy generator, though that's not always a bad thing) for many conservative/religious US viewers. But Americans are a diverse lot, and I'm sure a show with an all-male central romance can find a home. In fact, judging from how many people I know in Real Life that are into Torchwood, it could be said that one already has (even though the central romance is boy-girl now, since Anyone Can Die applies so only one half of the original central romance is still around).

Jesus saves. Gretzky steals, he scores!

But Torchwood is a British show, isn't it? Which I know is irrelevant to its popularity here, but it does make a difference in how the execs will act toward it. In short, it kind of depends on what network picks it up I think. If ABC Family gets it, they may ask you to can the romance. If (god forbid) Fox is in charge, they'll probably let it go. Before cruelly canceling it without any warning.

And if I claim to be a wise man, well, it surely means that I don't know.

Miracle Day was co-financed by Starz.

More Buscemi at http://forum.reelsociety.com/

Are you really going to try to pitch a show like that to ABC Family, though? I mean, it seems like kind of a moot point. The mountain lion pregnancy alone would be enough to scare off that particular channel.

Yep. And Jack was still gay on Miracle Day, so I guess Starz was okay with that. Might be the place to go, actually.

Jesus saves. Gretzky steals, he scores!

Miracle Day was also a big hit for Starz. In fact, their subscription base went up quite a bit because of it.

More Buscemi at http://forum.reelsociety.com/

That's true. Going for a network that wouldn't be okay with a gay couple would require the show to undergo a complete overhaul so yeah.

In short, I think it's pretty unanimous: an American market will be okay with James and Douglas.

And if I claim to be a wise man, well, it surely means that I don't know.