meeting 6th january

today we discussed ways to market this product and write the script. the class was split into two groups, in was part of the scripting group. we went to a seperate classroom and begin finalizing character profile. we had several different ideas for characters; each having a character concept that would work in a short comedy show. the only problem was we hadnt discussed names for everyone yet. the casting director made the point in the meeting that if there's going to be a new person in detention each episode, he'll need to know them in order to cast them. what me and the group did was we gave the class a rough outline as to which characters would appear, though we aren't completely sure which characters they'll be using. after the scripts finished they'll be able to see which characters appear. also, reading how they act could help casting. the script shouldn't take long. the first episode will be done in time definatly.

in the end, after discussing it, I chose the five regular characters in my group. I listed their names and their value to the sitcom.

characters:

keith:
caffiene addict, drinks coffee when ever he can
stressed, quite jumpy
occationally has anxiety attacks with cause him to rash out
talks to much and talks very quickly, hard to make out at times
doesn't have a main character they talk to or disscuss, talks to everyone
sonny doesn't like keith

sonny:
each episode contains a flashback of how sonny got the detention
the detention in the flashback is riciculous
can get agressive at times. very agressive
each episode has a rumour about him. each rumour will be ludicrous
each rumour will have it's own nickname which sonny will react to
sonny doesn't get on will anyone really, but doesn't get on with valerie at all


pier:
known as the great escape guy
draws up crazy schemes to escape detention, he'll always think his idea is better than going through the door
qoutes prison films: the great escape,
quotes a line from shawshank redemption each episode that bugs keith

valerie:
rotten punk character, trouble maker
doesn't respond well to others being around her
she doesn't enjoy sonny's company very much
likes getting people in trouble

vince:
vince is a paranoid pesemistic
he talks mostly to pier, he responds badly to pier's escape plans
dismissing them as dangerous
wears a strainer on his head with tin foil to protect himself
very calm with his approach
believes spies are after him

after I decided the main characters I came up with an idea for the first episode. i only had the ideas in note form so I wrote them out and put the episode in order to give the group an idea of the episode structure. it was very simple. we decided to base the first episode on the 5 regular characters so that the audience then know what the sitcom is souly about. this draws attention to what sells the sitcom, or gets the most views.

i managed to get several quotes from prison films that we could incorporate. I also wrote down other references we could make. we went round as a group and saw if we had any ideas that could work. an idea hayden came up with was that pier could explain that he found his gold watch that he lost. he then explains that it's been lodged up his arse for 5 years. the reference of course being to 'pulp fiction' when christopher walken talks to butch about him and his dad being in a POW camp during the war in vietnam. therefore the reference works because he qoutes prison films. matt's idea was for vince to have the collinder on his head. although it's such a simple thing, it changed the writing because we pictured him a different way. he looked completely more insane with it on.

I took our draft for a basic first episode, I began to write up the script with the dialogue. I didn't get very far when we as a group were called in for a meeting. what happened was that the meeting we had already had was pointless, because some people didn't vote and then have an oppinion afterwards. communication was a problem and we sorted it out by coming around and being blunt as to how we felt about the ideas. we then all came to a comprimise.

through out the lesson we were thinking for a title. after thinking we came up with 2 names for the title. the first was THE REGULARS and the second was DETENTION DEFICIT. when we voted there wasn't enough votes to sicure the winner. at the end we came on a comprimise. we took the THE out of the regulars and put it with the other title giving you THE DETENTION DEFICIT. i was happy with the title in the end put the meeting to frustrate me slightly because people werent voting fairly. people voted for a name when they didn't even know the meaning of the word deficit. to me, this seems slightly odd. anyway, thats the title we're sticking with. towards the end of the lesson the marketing team started to think og how they could approach this. i believe they're using facebook and other social sites to gain interest.