P2- Initial ideas

 Interpretation of the brief.

I have been asked to produce a drama sequence between 10 and 15 minutes to promote my pitched drama series "afoot". This will serve as a teaser for the show to try and raise public interest and investment. I will develop the ideas for multiple possible sequences before deciding on one and producing a full screenplay for the scene. This will be created for the shows target audience of young teens and early twenties, and so it will try to be written in a style that appeals to these groups, despite the historical setting.

When creating the screenplay i will have multiple things i will need to consider. I will have to consider the pros and cons oof using a spec script or a shooting script as a shooting script involves more technical details, whilst a spec script is written before and meant to more emphasise story. Ill also have to consider which part of the story I would like to produce, such as weather i am going to choose to focus on set up and establishing the characters and world to a potential audience, or a more dramatic or climactic scene to leave the audiences on a cliffhanger and get them invested more in the wider story and plot. All of these are things which i will have to carefully consider and choose as production continues.

Ideas for extracts.

1.  This scene shows Flynn and Dawson solving a standard crime, establishing their personalities and the status quo, which can later be subverted. This would be good for investing people and quickly showcasing the main characters and their dynamics, but may seem derivative as there are not many twists to the formula yet to help differentiate it from other mystery stories. 

2.  Similar to the first extract, except we also see the conductor planning and executing the crime, with the scene focusing more on the intellectual game between all of the players in the scene. Similar pros and cons to the previous extract, but would probably be more engaging due to focusing more on the moving pieces and outsmarting than standard fictional detective work.

3. Shows Dawson close to the end of the series unravelling and becoming more and more corrupted, before ultimately deducing the identity of the conductor and going out to arrest her. Although it is a very dramatic scene, i am not sure if it will retain the same weight without the setup of the rest of the series to accompany it.

4. Shows the beginning of the final confrontation, with Flynn and Dawson talking and arguing about the case, and ultimately their dynamic as a whole, eventually setting them both into the stereotypical hero and villain roles. Able to establish a lot of character drama and tension for the seasons climax, but i am again concerned of how well it would work as an introduction for someone who has never heard of the show before.

5. This extract focuses on Dawson, as he solves a case on his own for the first time, with his skills improving throughout. However after solving the case he ends up stealing a piece of evidence, foreshadowing that he may be more sinister than we've been led to believe. This is a good scene as it features a complete character arc, ending with an interesting hook, but i am unsure if it would be a good introduction to the show, with it only introducing one of the three primary characters.

6.  In this extract, Flynn attempts to solve a case, but is distracted by his new relationship with Phillips and is more careless than normal, ultimately needing assistance to put the pieces of the case together. Although this scene is good for establishing character relationships and showing how the characters have changed by the halfway point in the show, it works best when contrasted with other scenes in the show, and probably wouldn't work as well being a solo extract.