Great job, everyone. Excellent first class.
Let's look to do a show that requires only a couple of sets. We can include some location shooting, but focus on the interiors.
Here are the areas that we discussed tonight...
CHARACTERS:
1. Chef
2. Butcher (a la "Patch Adams")
3. Exterminator
4. Overweight Drag Queen
5. Hoarder
6. Political News Commentator
7. Larper (Live Action Role Player) looking to get out of the group
PREMISES:
1. Ken Lay (former Enron CEO) hiding out in a homeless shelter
2. Exterminator with Reality Show
3. Cancer Support Group
4. Character with Imaginary Friend
5. Father claiming to be dying (a la "Greed")
6. Larping
7. Working Class Couple
8. "Odd Couple" scenarios - (acupuncturist and chiropractor) - but there are plenty of other possibilities to explore
ARENAS:
1. Casting Agency
2. High School Drama Club
3. Day Care Center
4. Sharper Image Store
5. Cannabis Club
A show set in New Orleans
When you blog about your series ideas, be sure to include whether you see it as a show with a regular cast or as an anthology series - and if it's a comedy, drama, or dramedy.
We're not locked in to anything, so feel free to come up with entirely new ideas.
Check in on the blog every day. Bounce ideas off one another. I'll be checking in several times a day.
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It was a pleasure meeting all of you last night. I think we really have the potential for something hilarious, disturbing, and heartfelt all at once if we utilize the LARPER premise. It could be treated as serious as a Mafia and you could follow one character seeing what he has to go through in order to get out.
ReplyDeleteWhat would be his reasons for wanting to get out? What would the punishments/consequences be?
I also like the idea of the Exterminator with his own Reality Show to recruit a new partner, or find a wife?!
I thought all the ideas were great but these two stuck out for me the most.
What do you all think?
Gabriel
I agree with you, Gabriel. I really feel like we really have something with the premise of a LARPer trying to get out, mob style. If LARP is a secret part of this character's life, there would be a lot of opportunities for comedy, tension, drama and eventually the two worlds colliding.
ReplyDeleteWe'd have to think of a compelling enough reason though for him to want to leave though... maybe he's moving in with his girlfriend so it would be harder to hide his secret life from her? Or maybe he's into something else nerdy and is "cheating" on his LARPing group to go Poke-Battle with Pokemon trading cards or something and he needs to leave before they find out. Or even he's trying to get in with another LARPing group, one that's more elite, but first needs to sever ties with his smaller, terrible at LARPing group. Or like we talked about in class, parallel it to a drug addiction and he has to quit for his own health. People certainly do get like that with MMORPGs (online games like World of Warcraft).
The Exterminator finding a wife could be really fun too! Kind of like Dirty Jobs meets The Bachelor.
Okay I got another idea I'd like to just shoot out there and it kind of deals with the "odd couple" scenario, or it could.
ReplyDeleteIt's after a zombie apocalypse and a cure was found for all those infected and it was administered to them, but they are left with all these health issues because they had been walking around with decaying bodies for so long, also those nasty memories of eating people.
So our story would begin maybe with one of these ex-zombies who might be missing an extremity or two trying to get back into normal society and he becomes roommates with a regular guy, a "freshie" they might call them. It would definitely be comedy but would have very poignant character drama too, like maybe our "freshie" character's Dad or Brother or something was killed by zombies so he has issues with that....
This could be in one or two sets and could just have two or three characters...
Let me know what you guys think!
I'm wondering if it would be possible to look at the sets the school already has and write for those. I know they have 2 kitchens, 1 dinning room, 2 living rooms, 2 bars (though one is unusable in its current condition), 1 bedroom, and 1 empty space that could easily be turned into an office. I don't think planing around shoot outside is good idea, because it bring in a whole mess of obstacles outside of our control. I'm not sure but I also think to get a permit to shoot in the park it is around $200, I could be wrong but I'll double check.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of a character that Larps, but I think they would fit better as a supporting character. I also liked Robert's first suggestion about the guy that moves in with his grandmother. But wonder if it would be possible to simply insert the Larper into Robert's story. Maybe the guy's 30 something year old cousin has lived with the grandmother his whole life and is a larper. It would be like Grandma's Boy meets Role Models. Robert's guy would not only be taking care of his daughter but trying to teach his cousin how to be a man.
Since LARPS operate mainly outside in parks, it would be difficult to shoot everything inside as Ed says. I see your point about wanting to save money, but I think that's for next semester's class to worry about.
ReplyDeleteIf we do stay the course with the LARP idea, we could have a scene taking place in a basement or dark bedroom where the LARPS plan their next outing; time, costumes, who's Mom is going to drop off who, etc. That's where we could have one character suddenly blurt out, "Why don't we use all this energy and planning to try to get ourselves laid?"
Gabriel
If the parks setting is a problem then another option is convention spaces, like at hotels. I go to Anime Conventions (out comes my inner nerd) and I know that they usually have a convention room reserved for LARPing, especially if the weather isn't warm enough to be outside. So it could really be in any generic space, or a basement like Gabriel mentioned. Some of my friends even used to do it in their dorm. So I think we have some flexibility with location, even though a field would be pretty great to work with.
ReplyDelete