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‘About The Show’

Synopses of each webisode in series 1

Ep 1- The Audition. Julian and Sicily welcome you to their shambolic world of The Leaky Tap Amateur Dramatics. Aspiring actress, Anna auditions for their next showcase.

Ep 2- Casting call. Julian and Sicily cast each member of Leaky Tap. Anna researches her role into the ground. A new girl is introduced to the company and takes the main role.

Ep 3- You Give Me Fever. Anna and new girl, Maddie rehearse their duo part together. Julian’s “glandular fever” (tickly cough) gets too much for him and leaves the rehearsal process in Sicily’s hands.

Ep 4- The Calm Before The Storm. Julian is back and sees the complete transformation of the show which Sicily had created. Anna starts to become sick of the things Maddie is making her do.

Ep 5- Boiling Point. Only a week away from the final show, and Julian and Sicily are at breaking point which starts to affect the production. Meanwhile, Anna and Maddie’s conflict reaches its pinnacle which gives Julian a creative idea.

Ep 6- My Job Is Done; This Is Your Show Now. It’s the final show and there’s chaos. Will Julian and Sicily find common ground just in time, or is that it for Leaky Tap Amateur Dramatics?

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(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uPGBv-Fsa0)

About the Show- Web Series Trailer

Using conventional methods, we have crafted a series trailer demonstrating our mockumentary style genre and sub-genre within it. Along with an introduction of characters with our brand new upcoming webisode series ‘About The Show’. The trailer denotes various shots of footage throughout the entire series however only illustrates the main protagonists as we as producers didn’t want to give the plot of the series away too much. This is so they have a restricted ideas of what the story will entail before watching the programme and will want to carry on watching.

We followed convention of camera angles for a mockumentary including:

‘Rule of Thirds’ for an interview

Hand held camera so the viewers are in the action with us

direct address (looking into the camera and addressing the fact we are there)

Zoom in to capture even the slightest facial expressions and to keep the naturalism of the characters

Conventions for the overall trailer were met and followed as we conformed to:

Fast paced editing to keep the audience engaged

Upbeat music running throughout which matches the genre of the mockumentary

Introduction of character

Introduction of genre

Graphic design to help assist the genre and add background context (e.g. “starring”)

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About the Show- The Audition 

click on the link to read the Pilot webisode

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Finished Treatment for the Pilot

THE AUDITION

THE AUDITION- TREATMENT

Opening- Julian and Sicily on screen, their characters are trying to introduce the film crew to their theatre company but cracks in their relationship are showing as they keep making mistakes/bickering and several takes have to be done. As each take is done it gets quicker and quicker, building the tension until it is just the clapper board in front of the camera building in speed and take numbers. Cuts suddenly to Anna in the waiting room ready for her audition looking nervous.

Interview with Anna. Meanwhile, cuts to inside Anna’s house where we see her mum and dad in the kitchen, dad sat watching TV, mum making a cup of tea. They are discussing Anna’s future with Leaky Tap.

Cuts to Julian’s entrance and Interview. At the end of his interview he gives some details about what he is looking for.

Meanwhile, there is a montage of fellow Leaky Tap auditionees with Julian and Sicily continuously dismissing them repeating the word “next”. When he says the line ‘I’m looking for a star’, we cut to Anna walking into the interview room; we think she is the star.

Anna gives a really good and professional audition.

Cuts to Julian and Sicily’s face. Julian looks bored, rolls his eyes, Sicily is trying to be polite and encouraging but obviously not enjoying it. Julian has had enough, stands, opens the door to let Anna out. Julian and Sicily talking/bickering as usual as we follow Anna out the door. Sicily goes after her to comfort her

Cut to Anna looking upset and confused. Small interview about her audition, wondering what she did wrong.

Interview with Sicily. She talks about people she has worked with in the past. Non-stop name dropping.

Anna finishes interview with a hopeful attitude about today’s audition as she walks over to her mum waiting for her in the car outside.

 Cut to black.

End.

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Interview with BAFTA award winning web series producer of TryLife, Paul Irwin

This interview was really useful as Paul Irwin discussed with us how he started his process into creating webisodes. From finding inspiration from children's books and video gaming, and implementing the current popularity of today’s world of social media, mobile phones, and the internet, Paul’s original concept of TryLife combines all the elements to create a revolutionary interactive webisode series which allows the viewer to choose what happens to the character. This keeps viewers engaged and involved, unlike anything they’ve ever experienced through a TV series. 

The characters are relatable and live through real life situations. For example, as demonstrated in the video above, he talks about one of this webisodes titled “Sophie” needs to study, but there is a part happening near her house. The viewers would then decide her fate by clicking on the multiple choices. This goes on throughout which then comes to a conclusion depending on what the viewer has decided for Sophie to opt with.

With this concept, they have had to write several endings and pathways for the character and so the scripts could end up summing to near about 450 pages long. This demonstrated to me the passion and patience he has for this series along with the ample time he spends on just the one episode alone.

After the interview, he kindly invited us, as Unhinged Theatre Company, to work with him on set and perhaps create a collaborative series with his crew. We all enthusiastically accepted his offer, and will be meeting up with him in the near future.

He gave us some great advice with many aspects of the process in which we are getting into and developing. How to market our webisode so people are aware its abut to be released. “You can see when the most people are online”, that’s when it’s best to publish your project on social media. He told us to manage time by listing our tasks in order of urgency and priority.

Mainly to enjoy doing and creating, as the patience required is vast and so the enjoyment will allow the process to become fun and much easier to maintain.

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Character Profiles

ABOUT THE SHOW- Character Profiles

Anna Noble – Ambitious. Humble. Grounded. Sweet. She is a 17 year old aspiring actress. Comes from a working class background. Works part time at the chip shop across the road. All she dreams about is being on stage in the theatre.

Julian Fenwick- Extravagant. Boisterous. Particular. Self-Absorbed. Director/Producer of Leaky Tap. He is a 54 year old one hit wonder form an 80’s show performed London West End and has been an extra in Andrew Lloyds Webber’s Cats. He’s now gripping onto his past by creating his own Amateur Dramatics Theatre Company, Leaky Tap. Believes he’s more famous than he actually is.

Sicily- Spiritual. Colourful. Eccentric. Scatty. Facilitator of Leaky Tap. Age is unknown, she doesn’t believe in it age is simply a number. She gives an eclectic mixture of advice to her performers and works holistically. The use of ‘the body’ is most important in her work with performance. Believes her art form is unique and that she is the guru of modern performance, despite not actually having taught anyone of notoriety.

Maddie Kerr – Diva. Pretentious. Over-bearing. Entitled. She is an 18 year old aspiring actress and the ‘bitch’ of the group. She is the essence of everything that is unlikable in a stereotypical theatre child with pushy and self-assured stage parents.

Ms. Noble – Attention seeker. Megalomaniac. Pushes her daughter, Anna, to become part of the Leaky Tap Amateur Dramatics under the premise of wanting her to do well. But in reality, she wants fame and fortune for herself and get closer to Julian Fenwick, her crush since she was a teen.

Mr Noble- Quiet. Introvert. Busy with his job as a construction worker and doesn’t really understand into depth about the theatre as much as his wife or daughter. However when needs be, he is supportive and understanding of Anna.

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This is our first draft of the treatment and the script combined and a working progress. With this however being a naturalistic and sarcastic sub genre of mockumentary, the actors will tend to ad lib and so we will go back to this to incorporate the lines into the script which work for a final draft when this has been read through and acted out a few times so we can see what the actors like to do during the lines as the character. 

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If you keep your head, keep disciplined and work hard, you might be able to succeed.

12 Essentials for Writing a Film or TV treatment 

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Friends

TREATMENT FOR PILOT

TV Show: Friends

Year: 1994

‘The One Where It All Began’

Before a date with Paul the "wine guy", Monica is teased by her friends, Chandler and Joey, at The Central Perk coffee shop. Ross, Monica's older brother, arrives at the coffee shop, upset after discovering his ex-wife, a recently out lesbian, has moved out of his apartment to begin a new relationship with her partner. A young woman suddenly arrives wearing a wet wedding dress, whom Monica recognizes as her high school best friend, Rachel. Monica introduces her to the others as Rachel reveals she left her fiancé at the altar. After Rachel's father denies her financial assistance, Monica reluctantly takes Rachel in as a new roommate.

Meanwhile, Joey and Chandler console Ross while helping him assemble new furniture. Ross begins to wonder if any woman would be "the right one" for him. Monica goes on her first date with Paul, and while he seems decent and respectful, she discovers from a colleague that he has a bad reputation as a womanizer, ending her hopes that she will find a mate. Ross realizes that Rachel could be the beginning of a new hope for him. He successfully brings up the idea to Rachel of asking her out sometime, and later confesses to Monica about the potential relationship.

In the final scene, the entire group are in Central Perk having coffee with Rachel, who begins a new career as a coffee shop waitress.

The treatment is short and simple, yet still manages to collate a clear understanding of what the pilot entails. Plus, this entire episode’s duration is 25 minutes and therefore is much longer than the webisodes we hope to produce. Consequently, our pilot treatment could afford to be much shorter than this whilst still being able to encapsulate the core plot of the webisode. This could be a challenge for us, trying not to write too much and make the treatment too long winded or detailed.

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The Thick of It

In order to write a successful treatment, we will need to find existing treatments for influential purposes. One which we came across is from the pilot series ofThe Thick Of It. This is a television show and not a webisode however these treatments will be very similar to our webisode pilot treatment in regards to detail and step by step within the plot.

TREATMENT

The Thick Of It

Category: TV Entertainment; BBC TWO

Date: 08.12.2005

Printable version

Episode Four

Junior Policy Advisor, Ollie Reeder, arrives sheepishly at the office after a one-night stand with his opposition shadow researcher, making him the butt of all jokes – "How the hell did this spread so quickly?"

Senior Policy Advisor, Glenn Cullen, and Hugh Abbot are preparing for a factory visit; Ollie announces he won't be around to help as he's been seconded to work at No 10 with Malcolm.

Glenn and Hugh try to undermine the reason Number 10 would want Ollie – "Because he makes great cappuccinos!"

Their parting gesture is to "happy slap' him and photograph it on Ollie's new phone.

Ollie arrives at Number 10 only to realize that Malcolm is not in the slightest bit interested in his policies and brain but in the fact that he has an insider view of the opposition after his one-night stand.

He's been seconded to spy on the opposition to aid Malcolm's team, who are trying to keep the lid on a MOD overspend.

It would seem that as he's not Scottish, he'll need to sleep his way to the top - he knows his political career depends on it.

Meanwhile over at the factory visit, an angry woman begins complaining about the treatment of her mother at the hands of the NHS.

Ollie flags this up as possible bad press to Malcolm. His response: NMFP - Not My F****** Problem... and has he got any 'dirt' from his girlfriend yet.

The pressure is on for Ollie: does he choose an allegiance to Malcolm or Hugh? Does he make a decision for his long-term career or a short term alliance?

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This was an interesting discovery as we will need to consider this process once we get our web series finalised in the future to allow it to be published onto the internet for the public to watch. Reading all of the legal obligations allow this process to become for realistic in terms of professionalism with the industry.

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Summer Heights High Trailer

The conventions of more broadcasted trailer, like this one for example, are slightly different in comparison to a webisode trailer. One main reason being the fact it is produced with a higher budget for television and for the general popularity with audiences. Observing and analysing this trailer, it is demonstrated that this trailer has:

More advanced editing with both filming and graphics (e.g. title)

Sound is clearer (e.g. dialogue and more music throughout)

More cast is introduced due to the higher budget in TV industry

More locations are demonstrated in the trailer

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MMA: Blood, Sweat & Chokes Trailer

This webisode intrigued us as it won the Best British Series in the “Raindance Web Fest” so we thought to use this trailer for inspiration due to its success.

These conventions are similar and they also acknowledge the camera as though its a documentary. 

Fast paced editing

Music in the background

Introduction of characters

The genre simply yet clearly demonstrated through the mise en scene and overall running theme

Short in length, only 40 seconds- enough time to show what the audience need to see to understand what type of series is being promoted (genre, characters, context, theme etc.)

Difference

The genre and tone is the obvious difference between our aim and this web series

This therefore creates a whole different visual theme however analysing the conventions overall, we will use this as research to allow our webisode to have the same amount of visual demonstrations to allow the audience the understand the tone and genre of our piece as much as they have illustrated it in this trailer.

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Das Apartment Trailer

I would say that this trailer has the most similarities in regards to the conventions, and we are wanting to create something similar in our webisode trailer.

Its low budget

All characters are introduced in a simple fashion (they are illustrated in the footage)

Simple camera angles

Short lengths in footage 

Quit cuts to different shots

Simple font for title

Easy listening music in the background throughout 

The Difference

The difference with this one however is the genre and tone as, unlike this, we will be acknowledging the camera and also will allow time for silences which are almost awkward and give time for pauses to demonstrate naturalism within our trailer. This will show the audience the type of genre and tone to our series and give them a taster of what they should expect without giving too much away.

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Squaresville Trailer

In order to create a professional looking trailer for our webisodes, we need to find existing products online to figure out the conventions for a successful and interesting looking trailer.

There is a vast range of webisodes online, in this case with this webisode trailer, American style series, more high budget than others, various genres etc. Our chosen genre is comedy, made in Britain and therefore creating that dry sarcastic wit within our webisode and therefore needs to be conveyed and demonstrated through our trailer.

For conventional purposes however, we have been researching the wider variety to get the common themes within webisode trailers.

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Staying Connected

Throughout the process, we will keep posting on social media to keep our name current and allow people to know who we are as a company. Social media nowadays is a key constituent and powerful tool to target the audience we want to, especially with this being targeted at the younger generation.