Blood Relations Brainstorm

Drama Proposal Presentation

Blood Relations Drama Proposal by Daryl Gilham

Script Proposal

In this unit we were asked to think up ideas for a dramatic script which we would then present to each other and vote on which ones we would do. The title of my story is called ‘Blood Relations’ this name is a reference to the murder of the main protagonist’s brother early in the episode.  The story begins with the scene in which Nigel’s brother is killed by the gang of smugglers he was trading with for drugs arms. This scene would be brief and would jump straight in to the narrative; the viewers are then drip-fed information about Nigel’s life and are left to draw their own conclusions on the character.

The USP of this show is that it shows the complications of living a life of crime for a young Caucasian adult, this topic is not often depicted on mainstream television. It also deals with the effect that loss can have on someone who never had much to begin with. The genre of the show would be an action-drama with the emphasis on the drama, the action scenes only serving to add to the drama that entails within the show.

The show would be a six-part series in which we watch as Nigel gets closer to exacting his revenge, we learn more about his family situation and his upbringing. The final episode would show Nigel struggling between his desires for revenge and his brother’s last wish for Nigel to give up the life of crime. By focusing on this narrative I hope to achieve an accurate, meaningful portrayal of the difficulties of life for the lower class of Britain. I would like the drama to be quite moving and to tackle some issues that everyone has to deal with as well as draw attention to a much misunderstood part of society and the human sides of the monsters society knows as ‘criminal’.

I think the general narrative of my story could be described as high concept; however I believe that certain unique elements of the story are more original. I think this balance will keep audiences engaged with the familiar concept and will interest them with the original narrative. I think the characters will be interesting to an audience of young adults, predominantly males as a lot of the characters will be relatable to their own lives. A lot of the dialogue will feature language that is popular in youth culture today so this will be another relatable feature for the demographic.

I think the intended message of the series would be one of peace and pacifism at the end of the series Nigel can’t bring himself to exact his revenge as he’s tired of the killing and decides he must make his own world a better place. I want to show that although this character is dealing with emotional pain he realises that the answers to his problems are not in murderous revenge and they are in fact in reformation. The end of the programme would show that Nigel now holds his destiny in his hands and he has the power to change his life for the better.

The main character is Nigel McManson a young adult who has to support his struggling family by engaging in drugs and arms deals, eventually this goes bad for him as he loses his brother Timmy McManson. Timmy idolises his older brother and one day follows Nigel to a meeting place where he is talking to the smugglers. When the deal goes wrong and weapons are drawn Timmy gets scared and runs to his older brother. Nigel, horrified by his brother’s presence is distracted and this allows the smugglers to shoot first. The smugglers manage to escape and Nigel manages to dodge the bullets but is racked with remorse as he witnesses his brother dying before his eyes. Timmy tells Nigel that he should get out of the world of crime before dying in Nigel’s arms.

Another character that appears in the first episode is ‘Schizo’ Pete who has been an acquaintance of Nigel’s for years going back to their childhood, initially Nigel contacts him for information on the location of the smugglers but Pete turns out to be working for them and attacks Nigel. The end of the episode is a cliff-hanger as the viewer does not see who gets shot at the end. The following episode would continue straight after the last scene of the first episode and would show Pete slumping to the ground.

Realistically for this story the cast would require a child to play the role of Timmy as he is younger than Nigel; however this is the only specific requirement in the whole story as all the other characters are around the same age group and therefore it wouldn’t be too hard to find actors matching those requirements.

Dramatic Sript Synopsis

Nigel “Big Mac” McManson is a young adult living with his family on the mean streets of Gorleston struggling to provide for his family including his little brother Timmy who idolises him. In the opening scene we see Nigel undergoing drugs and arms trades with some dangerous looking smugglers. Nigel and the smugglers begin to argue over the cash; and as the tension mounts and everyone arms themselves for a terrifying face-off Timmy unwittingly gets caught up in the crossfire. Nigel survives the ordeal; Timmy does not.

Next we see Nigel mourning the loss of his brother at home, looking through pictures teary-eyed. He knows in his heart that he must get revenge on the criminals that killed his little brother, now Nigel must use his illegal connections to trace the killers. This will be a journey spanning the distance of an entire town and surrounding villages as Nigel fights his way to justice.

Nigel first meets up with one of his local drug dealers, Schizo Pete who has some interesting Intel on the whereabouts of the smugglers. As it transpires Nigel realises the killers might be closer to home than he thinks. After Nigel thanks Pete and pays him, Pete pulls out a pistol and Nigel realises he’s been double-crossed.

Nigel manages to distract Pete and the two then struggle with the gun; eventually Nigel gets the gun away and the two youths begin to scrap in hand-to-hand combat whilst exchanging insults. Nigel gains the advantage but Pete brings out another gun, Nigel quickly tries to force the gun to Pete’s own head but Pete tries to do the same to Nigel.  In the end one gunshot rings out, but who did it hit?

Understand the requirements of working to a brief

In the media industry there are many times when people have to work towards a brief; a brief is a guideline direction commonly given to employees by the employer that details the nature of the work and what is and isn’t appropriate to make. A contractual brief is a brief that is handed to the employees for them to agree on and all the necessary legal details and other important information is presented; then the employee must sign the contract to say that they have agreed legally to all the terms.

The terms of a brief are not always set in stone and can sometimes be negotiated. This occurs when the employer and the employee have slightly different artistic ideas and the employee must persuade the employer to allow some liberties to be taken with the brief. The purpose of a formal brief is to give all the necessary information out to make the goals of the employer easy to read and understand; whereas an informal brief would be carried out in a group with several people present, these briefs tend to feature a less precise summation of the objectives. A commission is when a specific employee is asked to work for an employer by request and a contract is written. A tender brief is sent to different companies and intended to draw ideas out of prospective employees; they then propose their ideas and the one the employers like the best gets the job.

A competition brief is open to anyone and allows people to submit their ideas in hope of a prize in the form of exposure. This include briefs like the one given by E4 for their E-Stings competition; these briefs are quite open to the interpretation of the public but must pass certain guideline standards set by regulatory bodies.

The brief we were given didn’t bind us into any particular themes and gave us a lot of freedom to express our own original ideas; but there were certain restrictions such as a 10 second time limit that we had to be conscious of. The brief also gave some basic tips and this was obviously to encourage those at an amateur level; advising to put all your effort into one decent animation rather than 3 half-decent ones. Another restriction to be aware of that is implied in the brief is that you have to abide by the regulations imposed upon E4; obviously they couldn’t show anything that they would get in trouble for.

Consulting with my tutor was helpful for my animation as it allowed me to make appropriate changes to my work and develop it in the right direction. This was also helpful when my tutor encouraged me to re-shoot or film some additional material that helped to fine-tune my creation and make it more appealing visually. The tone of the brief did not feel strict; I felt that there were certain changes and loop-holes that could be reasonably negotiated as long as it could be reasonably justified. This shows that the competition is intended as a light-hearted affair. Due to the overall positive nature of my feedback I felt no need to amend my work after completing it as I decided I was ultimately happy with it.

Throughout this unit I have learnt a lot of valuable information about animation and the history of animation; this taught me lots of things I didn’t previously know and it introduced me to a lot of animation techniques I wasn’t previously aware of. As well as that I have learned a lot about clay-mation; including the incredible amount of hard work and effort that animators put into their work, this unit has made me appreciate animation in a way I didn’t before. I have learnt how frustrating it is to make an animation and how much planning has to go into it beforehand as well as how long it would take to make one as part of a solo project. I did learn some independent creative skill that allowed me to see the animation through to the end of the unit.

Evaluation

Evaluation

There are many ways of getting feedback on your work; some of the ways can be communicated online such as when my uploaded to YouTube that allowed other people to see my E-Sting and leave a comment so they can have their say. Another way you can collect feedback is by sharing links to Facebook to gather information that way; or sending out questionnaires via Email can be another very effective to quickly gather feedback from people.

My character’s appearance is similar to that of a sewer dwelling mutant; this image is reinforced by a matching sewer style set that gives my E-Sting a strange almost creepy feel. As my character is not a human he is not bound to the physical realities of human behaviour, this made it easy to be creative with what I could do with the character. His head rotates 360°and his forked tongue protrudes from his mouth; as well as his feet fully detach from his body and walk on their own.

When gathering the feedback from your work it is important to know what to improve on; if you receive feedback suggesting your animation is jumpy then you have to work on the technical and aesthetic qualities of your animation. If they find your storyline hard to follow then you need to improve the narrative qualities of your work.

Collecting responses for your work is absolutely vital if you want the feedback required to improve your work; thankfully there are quite a few different ways you can receive feedback from your audience. One way is through conducting a focus group; which is a method I used with my work, a focus group is where you gather feedback from a room of peers which can be very helpful to your work. Another method is as simple as submitting your work to a video website; I uploaded my video to YouTube and soon enough I had a wide selection of feedback from the various YouTube users.

Additionally there are also several different ways I can report my findings; I could make a written report or an oral presentation, writing a blog is also a way of reporting your findings. I am presenting my evaluation in the form of a blog.

There were several constraints on my work during the production stage; financial issues were a big obstacle as materials for my animation were limited, I often had to waste time making a colour that I needed for my piece. That said, regulatory issues such as those imposed by Ofcom were not a big constraint as I had not made anything that could be considered offensive. I was also aware of copyright issues that could be a constraint on my work but I avoided trouble by using some copyright-free material available on the college network.

Managing time was very important for this unit but I do feel that I managed to complete my animation in time for the deadline set; so my time management was good. I also felt that my animation was very suitable for the target demographic it was intended for; and my work has been praised for its surreal qualities.

My feedback was generally very positive; I was happy to see other people enjoying my animation and its unique appeal. My experience of animating has been interesting; I have always enjoyed animation but having worked on this unit I now know that I would not enjoy a career in stop-motion animation. I would still like to try some work on animation but not in the particular style we undertook for this unit

UNFINISHED

Estings Idea

I think my Estings idea would be suitable for the audience of E4; the character is surreal and unique which is a trait that viewers of E4 adore. I also think that as my idea is not overly complex it is an efficient and simplistic way to get the viewer's attention and act as a sturdy bridging point between broadcasts. I think my character is visually interesting; and this is important for any Esting as it will help to engage with the audience.