General Update - At the end of the month

Admittedly coming back to the studios for my first day as a second year yesterday I didn’t have quite the same mix of nerves and excitement that I did at the same time last year.  However coming back and seeing the familiar faces of friends and knowing that this year’s work was already underway I am eager to push forward with both of the units for this semester. In myself I feel far more confident in my abilities, I think that I have a secure understanding of what I need and want to achieve in this semester.  

I personally enjoy beginning out and about with a camera shooting for a project, however, I am going to spend a majority of the first month of the new semester planning, planning and then planning some more for both the AS LIVE and fiction adaptation units. At present I am more interested in the fiction adaptation unit. Currently I am thinking about the potential locations and shoots that I would like to include in the short and more importantly if these two elements will work together or if components will have to be scrapped or altered to make them work practically and one screen. As it stands I don’t know of anyone else adapting ‘The Horses by Ted Hughes’ I personally hope that there is as I am interested to see someone else’s interpretation of the same poem.

After our short brainstorming session yesterday I am looking forward to hearing the ideas of my pears are for the As Live production. I am also interested to know what roles people will be applying for in four weeks time. At this point I feel that none of the ideas previously blogged by myself have enough originality or appeal to be commissioned and so the journey to the dusty areas of my mind is still underway. I am hoping that at some point soon inspiration will strike and the idea will unfold before me.

Well that’s it for this month and we’ve only just begun I can’t help but wonder how far my work will have progressed by this time next month.

AS LIVE - Quiz show idea

AS LIVE

Quiz

Title: Tipped for the top

Format: 30 minute AS LIVE

Channel: BBC1

Broadcaster:

Target Audience: 5 - 100

Schedule: 5:30 Weekdays

Tipped for the top is a swift 30 minute AS LIVE quiz show that is cheerful and bright throughout. Filled with laughs shared between the host, contestants and live studio audience the quiz rounds would be filled with excitement and pace rather than being dry, slow or dull as is the case in some existing quiz shows. The host for this show would ideally be a man of 30 plus due to the intention of making the show look professional and credible to a wider outside audience.

As Tipped for the top begins the host would introduce four teams each containing two members preferably with some form of relationship between them such as husband and wife, father and son, friends etc. The show will consist of four rounds with the completion of each round leading to the elimination of one team until the final round where the one remaining team attempt to win a ‘grand prize’.

The content of each rounds of the game will have start relatively broad leading inevitably to having to become narrower as teams are eliminated. Therefore at this early stage I would suggest that the rounds are something like the following:

Round 1 - Four teams remaining- Category  

The classic of all quiz shows is of course the quiz round. For Tipped for the top one member of the team is elected to individually answer questions on a specific subject. The category is dictated by the second member of the team either throwing a dart into a dart board with 8 categories written on it or a spinning arrow fixed on a disk of similar design. The categories should be vastly different from one another which could result in humours outcomes. The team with the lowest score at the end of the round are eliminated from the show.

Round 2 - Three teams remaining- What you’ve just seen -

The teams are shown a short scene on a video screen; they are then asked questions about the scene answers of which are written on small white boards.

(In a similar fashion to how people are voted off the weakest link)

Round 3 - Two teams - Name that film, song

A VT is shown where a memorable quote is spoken each team has to name either the film or song that the quote has come from.

If this round ends with a tie a long more abstract quote will be played the team that buzzes in first and answers correctly goes through to the final round.

Round 4 / the final round - One team -

With each correct answer in the previous rounds winning the team ten points they now have X amount of minutes to answer enough questions correctly to get their score above X amount of points. If they do they are awarded a “grand prize” if they fail they will be awarded a comical consolation prize.

Fiction Adaptation - Lighting test

Below is the first lighting test that I have done at the prospect of doing a night shoot for the fiction adaptation unit. 

AS LIVE - Talent/Variety show idea

AS LIVE

TALENT/ VARIETY SHOW

Title: Show Us What You Got

Format: 30 minute AS LIVE

Channel: BBC 1

Broadcaster:

Target Audience: 5 - 100

Schedule: 6:30 Saturday recurring over a six week period

Unlike the various series’ of talent shows that we as an audience have become accustomed to seeing on television with the same sorry format and unnecessarily long runs which are commonly followed by tabloid scandal and winners that quickly fade away into the background . Show us what you got comes as a source of relief as with its simple, welcoming, nostalgic and pleasant tone brings back the sense of fun found in the old school variety act shows.

Each week the recurring male and female hosts will introduce an ensemble of three to five variety acts of all shapes and sizes. These acts will perform to the best of their abilities to win over the live studio audience. Between acts the hosts of the program will have time to engage with members of the studio audience whilst other acts would be preparing on the stage segment of the studio set. Not to exclude the audience watching at home who will be able to decide who they think should win with a live online vote. All taking place within a 30 minute broadcast I would hope for the height of excitement that can be seen on as live children’s programming whilst keeping the level of entertainment to keep audiences of all ages wanting to see more. The winning variety act would be awarded a Show us what you got trophy by the hosts and would be put through to a fictional Show us what you got final.  This hypothetical final would take the winners of the first five shows to find the series champion. It would be here that the now common cash prize would be awarded and therefore could be mentioned during the pilot without having to account for it in the budget.

Over all Show us what you got would encourage and endorse the sense of playing in the show for the fun of it without any big search for the next big superstar mentioned anywhere during the show.

AS LIVE - Talk Show idea

This is my first idea that has accumulated in my head for the AS LIVE unit.

AS LIVE

TALK SHOW IDEA

Title: Chat about that

Format: 30 minute AS LIVE

Channel: E4

Broadcaster:

Target Audience: 16 - 25

Schedule: 10PM Tuesday recurring on a six week period

Chat about that is a light hearted, 30 minute as live television program. In a set that is designed to resemble an exaggerated version of a student flat. The host aged between 20 and 25 will be joined in each episode by two different guests that will be referred to as the hosts ‘friends’. There will also be a recurrent character that will engage in humours banter with the host. This character will be odd ball student that attempts to get into the flat and engage in the shows conversations.

From the commencement of the program the light, happy and humorous tone of the show will be established as the host engages with members of the audience and opens with a few topical jokes. During the show the host and guests will engage in conversation based on recent news stories, selected trending YouTube videos and/or humorous images. In amongst these conversation would be set points where the funny ‘odd ball student character’ would interrupt. During these discussions there will be a subject matter that links to a pre determined members of the audience. This will give a sense of audience participation and add to the layers of the program. There will also be a performance from either a band or stand up comedian which would lead to the climax of the show.

Fiction Adaptation - Early Designs

In my minds eye this is how the location for the final scene of my script for the fiction adaptation would look.

AS LIVE - Early Research

Just skimming over the bbc iplayer, itv player and from memory I thought that I would just list a few of the catorgoies of shows filmed in tv studios. I'm hoping that I can use this as a starting point in an attempt to get some ideas to form.

Panel Shows

·         Celebrity Juice

·         Never mind the buzzcocks

·         Shooting stars

·         QI

·         Mock the week

Game shows

·         Take me out

·         Who wants to be a millionaire?

·         Price is right

·         Don’t forget the lyrics

·         Bulls eye

·         Deal or no deal

Talent shows

·         Got to dance

·         Dancing on ice

·         X factor

·         Strictly come dancing

Talk shows

·         This morning

·         Loose women

·         Daybreak

·         Graham Norton

·         Jonathon Ross

·         Frank Skinner’s opinionated

Quiz shows

·         Family Fortunes

·         The chase

·         Eggheads

·         Mastermind

·         Pointless

Review shows

·         Life stories

·         This is your life

·         Film 2012