Hollie Budd's TV Bible
Show Bible
Concept number 3
I have chosen my third concept as my favourite, therefore I will be expanding this concept and adding much more depth to the whole concept and everything involved with it.
I preferred this concept to my other 2 as this one has more potential to have a much better storyline and also more controversy, as the main focus in this concept is quite a sensitive subject to some people. However, while going more in depth with this concept I will have to ensure that however I decide to expand it that I take other people's feelings into consideration as, like I mentioned before, this concept has a lot of touchy subjects involved such as; domestic violence, alcohol abuse and drug abuse.
I also really felt strongly about this concept as I know how important it is to raise more awareness surrounding domestic violence and the consequences it can have; As there is a current gap in the market for this type of show I felt that it would only be fitting to write a concept based around these themes and attempt to portray them in the most realistic, yet considerate, way I can think of.
Synopsis of the series
'The concept for this show is based around a young girl (roughly 17 years old) who meets an older guy (about 22 years old) and ends up dating him. At first he seems like your average 22 year old, he was more mature, protective and made her feel happy and safe. However, as things progressed with the couple, the young girl started to see some underline problems with her partner. He starting drinking heavily, taking a numerous amount of ‘class A drugs’, all of these things led to him becoming abusive towards the girl, which leads to a number of bad situations. The show will focus on the girl and the choices that she is faced with'
The aim of this show will be to educate and raise awareness of the issues that will be raised in the series as all themes involved are very serious and need to be shown in a way that will shock the audience and also educate them and make them see the damage that the issues can cause.
Location
The location of this show will either be in central Cambridge or in Camden, London. The time period will be fairly present as the themes covered in the show currently happen in the world today, therefore the time period will be present.
I am currently undecided about the location of the show, as both locations would work well with the story line, everything currently depends on availability and accessibility.
Episode breakdown
Episode 1 - The first episode of the show will involve you meeting Alley and some of her friends as they hear about a party that they're able to go too. The episode will show the girls getting ready for the party and it will also show them attempting to get strangers to purchase them alcohol. The episode will then go over to the party, which is where Alley meets Luke. The episode will end on the two lead characters swapping phone numbers and going their separate ways at the end of the party.
Quick analysis of episode 1
· The audience being introduced to Alley
· Witnessing the group of girls attempting to illegally purchase alcohol
· The girls go to the party
· Alley then meets Luke
· Luke and Alley begin talking
· The episode ends with Luke and Alley exchanging phone numbers
Episode 2 - The second episode will focus on Alley and Luke meeting each other properly for the first time after the party. The episode will show the progression of their relationship, as they will be getting to know each other a bit better. The episode will show Alley and Luke spending time together over the course of about 3 days. To Alley Luke is like no other guy she has met before, she looked at him and saw someone that she knew she wanted to be with; As Alley grew up without a dad she had always been searching for a father like figure to look after her and protect her, and she saw those traits in Luke. After telling Luke about her childhood and how she has issues with not having a dad, he promises to look after her and take care of her. The end of the episode will show the couple kissing for the first time.
Quick analysis of episode 2
· Episode begins with Alley waking up in her room showing flashbacks of the night before
· Luke messages Alley to ask if she would like to meet him for coffee
· Alley goes down to the coffee shop and meets Luke
· Luke and Alley start getting to know each other
· Luke reveals his age (22)
· Alley reveals her age (17)
· Alley opens up to Luke and tells him about her issues with her dad
· Episode ends on the couple kissing for the first time
Episode 3 - The third episode will focus on Alley and Luke becoming an official couple. At this point Luke is aware of how vulnerable and weak Alley is and sees an opportunity to take control of someone else's life, as he isn't happy with his own. During the episode Luke suggests to Alley that they should go to a party with some of his friends, Alley is at first hesitant as she is aware of Luke’s age (22) and that all of his friends are of a similar age. Despite her hesitation, she agrees to go to the party. The episode shows Luke taking various drugs and drinking, during the party you also see Luke spike Alleys drink without her finding out. The episode ends with Luke carrying Alley to an upstairs bedroom and the door closing.
Quick analysis of episode 3
· Episode begins were episode 2 ended, with the couple kissing for the first time
· Luke is now aware of how vulnerable Alley is and he is able to take advantage
· Luke is in his flat when he hears about a party with his friends
· Alley receives a message from Luke asking if she wants to go to the party
· Alley agrees to go to the party with Luke
· Luke takes different drugs and drinks a lot
· Luke spikes Alley’s drink
· Episode ends with Luke carrying Alley to an upstairs bedroom then closing the door
Episode 4 - The fourth episode shows the day after the night before, you see Alley wake up very confused and startled to find out that her clothes had been removed and that she was in an unfamiliar environment. Luke enters the room and Alley questions what had happened the night before, he lies and tells her that she had gotten too drunk and her clothes were wet from the alcohol so he had to undress her and put her to bed. She believed him. Later on in the episode you see Luke take Alley to his flat to watch a movie, however, Alley notices that Luke is acting strange and she tries to leave the flat; he doesn't let her. The episode ends with the couple arguing and Luke pushing Alley against a wall, the episode ends with that scene.
Quick analysis of episode 4
· Alley wakes up in the strangers room with Luke and notices she’s unclothed
· Alley questions Luke about what happened and he lies and tells her she was too drunk and got her clothes wet so he undressed her and put her to bed
· Alley believes Luke
· Alley and Luke go back to his flat to spend time together
· Luke begins acting weird and Alley notices
· Alley tries to leave but Luke wont let her
· They begin arguing
· The episode ends with Luke pushing Alley against a wall
Episode 5 - The fifth episode takes place a week after the events that took place a day after the party. Alley is out with one of her friends who notices that Alley has attempted to cover up a bruise on her eye and that she seems very different and quite fragile, Alley quickly dismisses her friends accusations and tries to change the subject. Later on in the episode you see Alley and her friend shopping when Alley receives a text message from Luke, which states 'come to my flat now.' Alley is then too afraid to say no so she tells her friend that she has to go and help her mum at home. Alley arrives at Luke’s flat and she quickly notices that he has been drinking. Alley tries to talk to Luke about what had happened the week prior but Luke dismisses her and leaves the flat to go out with his friends. The episode ends on a shot of Alley crying in Luke's bathroom while looking at her in the mirror.
Quick analysis of episode 5
· Episode is set a week or so after the argument
· Alley is out with her friend who notices Alley is trying to cover up what looks like a bruise
· Alley and her friend then go shopping when Alley receives a text from Luke telling her to go to his flat
· Alley leaves her friend and goes to the flat
· Luke was very drunk by the time she arrives
· Alley attempts to reach out to Luke and get him to tell her what’s going on but he dismisses her and leaves
· The episode ends with Alley staring at herself in the mirror crying
Episode 6 - The sixth episode focuses on Alley working up the courage to tell one of her friends what had been happening to her with Luke in the last 3 months. Her friend immediately tells Alley to get the police involved but Alley is too afraid of the consequences. (At this point in the series Alley and Luke had been together for just over 6 months, Alley had received multiple cuts and bruises all over her body from Luke) Later on in the episode Luke takes Alley with him to go and meet some of his friends to do drugs, Alley at first refuses the offer, as she does not want to get involved with that type of crowd, but Luke forces Alley into taking some of the drugs. The episode ends with Alleys friend debating with herself whether or not to get involved and do some about the abuse that is going on with Alley.
Quick analysis of episode 6
· By this point in the series Alley and Luke had been together for just over 6 months
· Alley goes and meets with her friend and finally plucks up the courage to tell her what Luke had been doing to her
· Alley’s friend tells her that she must go to the police but Alley refuses
· Later on in the episode Luke convinces Alley to go with him to see his friends
· His friends are all doing drugs
· Alley is offered drugs be she refuses
· Luke forces her to do the drugs so she does
· The episode ends with Alleys friend contemplating and debating with herself on what to do about the information she had received about Alley
Episode 7 - The seventh episode will focus more on Luke, during the episode you get to find out more about his background and how he had a troubled childhood. The episode will also show how he was abused as a child and how that has affected him in terrible ways. The episode will end on Luke having a breakdown on his own in his flat.
Quick analysis of episode 7
· This episode will be focused more on Luke
· You will see flashbacks of Luke’s past and how he had a troubled childhood
· All of Luke’s behaviour begins to make more sense to the audience
· The episode will end with Luke drinking and taking drugs then him having a break down and trashing his flat
Episode 8 - The eighth episode will take place the day after Luke had a breakdown. Alley goes into his flat to find the whole thing is trashed and Luke on the floor sleeping. Alley then quickly goes to see if he's okay by attempting to wake him, which then leads to Luke getting frustrated again and taking out on Alley by yelling at her and pushing her onto the ground. Later on in the episode you see Alley sitting at the dining room table with her mum and younger brother, her mum questions Alley on Luke and asks if everything is okay with them as she has noticed that Alley has become increasingly anti-social when it comes to her mum and brother. The end of the episode shows Alley's brother going into her room and telling her that he knows what Luke has been doing to her; this shocks Alley and the episode ends with Alley and her younger brother crying together.
Quick analysis of episode 8
· Episode takes place the day after Luke’s breakdown
· Alley goes to his flat to find him asleep on the floor
· Alley goes to see if he his okay and tries to wake him
· Luke is woken by Alley and is immediately frustrated by her and takes his anger out on her
· A few days later Alley is having dinner with her mum and younger brother
· Her mum questions how things are with Luke as she is worried
· The episode ends with Alleys 13 year old brother going into Alleys room to tell her that he knows that things are bad with Luke
· The episode fades out with Alley and her brother sitting together crying
Episode 9 - The ninth episode is going to focus on Alley's brother and close friend talking about how they can help get Alley out of this abusive relationship. They come to the conclusion that they need too talk to Luke and find out from him what’s been going on. Later on in the episode you see Alleys friend go to Luke's flat to talk to him, when he answers the door he is surprised to see her there and tries to get her to leave but she won't budge. He reluctantly allows her to come into his flat and she begins questioning him about Alley; Luke quickly realises that she knows what he has been doing to Alley and says that if she tries getting the police involved he will not only hurt Alley but he will also hurt her. She quickly leaves his flat and reports back to Alleys brother. The episode ends with Alleys brother and friend talking to Alley and confronting her about what has been going on, they all come to an agreement that the police need to get involved in order to keep both Alley and her friend safe.
Quick analysis of episode 9
· This episode focuses on Alleys friend and younger brother talking about what they know and how they can try and help
· They decide to talk to Luke
· Alleys friend goes to Luke’s flat to talk to him
· Luke answers the door and is surprised to see her there
· She begins questioning him about Alley which makes him realise that she knows
· Luke threatens her saying that he will hurt both her and Alley if she goes to the police
· The episode ends with Alleys friend and brother talking about what had happened
Episode 10 - The final episode of the series shows Alley and her friend going to the police station to report Luke for domestic violence towards Alley, threatening her friend and also for drug abuse. The police note that the girls want to remain anonymous in order to keep them safe. However; when the police arrive at Luke’s flat to take him into custody he knows straight away that Alley and her friend went and reported him. The episode ends with Luke, Alley and her friend all in a courtroom in order to try and get Luke to go to jail. The episode will end on a cliffhanger, as you won't get to see whether or not Luke is found guilty.
Quick analysis of episode 10
· This episode begins with Alley meeting her friend
· Her friend convinces her to go to the police
· Alley is reluctant at first but later on agrees
· They go to the police and file a report against Luke
· The police go to Luke’s flat to take him in
· Luke knows that Alley and her friend snitched on him
· The episode ends with Luke, Alley and her friend all in a courtroom
· You don’t see whether or not Luke gets convicted or not as the series is left on a cliffhanger
Changes to the name of the show
I have decided to change the name of the show to 'Get Away' as I feel that it fits in more with the theme of the show and the storyline that it follows.
Character profiles
Character name - Alley
Age - 17
Alley will be the lead character in this series. She is a troubled 17-year-old girl who ends up meeting a guy who she believes is like no other. During the series you see how the girls feelings start developing towards the man and how that would be a very bad mistake on her part.
Alley lives in a broken home, her dad left when she was just a child and she lives with her mum and younger brother. She had always struggled with the fact that her dad had left, which leads her to get herself into bad situations.
The series will focus on Alley attempting to find herself while also trying to get out of an abusive relationship.
Character name - Luke
Age - 22
Luke is also a lead character in the series. Luke is a 'jack the lad' type of guy, very cool and composed on the outside but on the inside he is completely broken. He had been brought up in an abusive environment, which rubbed off on him and lead him to do drugs, drink excessively and be aggressive towards others. His character becomes abusive towards Alley due to his aggressive behaviour, which leads into him getting himself into trouble and causing .a lot of damage to Alley.
Treatment
Sol Birch
(The one that is being put into script form. First episode)
Working title: Darklands
Synopsis
Darklands is a period crime drama. The show revolves around two main protagonists Adam Sawyer and Eve parker, who are detectives that have been assigned to a case concerning the disappearance of a girl named Camille Moriarty. The case sends the detectives away from their comfortable positions in the Cambridge police force to a small rural village in the fens. At first the village seems normal but through a series of odd vignettes and encounters with villagers strangely reluctant to answer various questions its revealed that something much more sinister is going on than they initially thought. Throughout the series there are various plot points that keep the audience interested such as the ongoing tension between the two protagonists and the various mysteries being solved that always seem to leave us asking more questions.
Outline of form
Darklands is a longform original crime drama that will be aired on Netflix and Amazon Prime. It will have an approximate runtime of 45 minutes. It will run for a total of 10 episodes and follow a serial narrative structure.
Content and style
Darklands is a thrilling crime drama inspired by shows such as the X Files, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Twin Peaks. It will have a dark and eerie atmosphere atmosphere. The show will be full of shots of the fens on overcast foggy days to create the desolate and remote mood. The show will have many recurring themes, but the main theme is the idea of the strange village mentality that comes with living in remote location. The show focuses on the idea of a close-knit community that hasn't changed for many years and rarely has visitors. The villagers treat the protagonists in vary strange ways making it very clear that they are not wanted. The fact that the village is so remote leads viewers to believe that sinister and illegal thing have been going on long before the detectives arrived.
Market Position
Darklands is a similar show to shows like True Detective and The Wire, so I hope to build on the audience of these kinds of dark crime/dramas. As there are none of these show already available on Netflix or Amazon prime Darklands will fill a gap in the marketplace, and hopefully attract more people to subscribe to these services in the process.
Target audience
My main target audience would be 12 plus due to some of the moral and ethical issues covered as well as some of the violence. However i want to try to keep the rating as low as possible to make sure its accessible to children/younger teenagers as i think this will be one of the main audiences. Darklands caters to a large age bracket. The show provides a fast paced eerie, surreal world for its younger viewers, whilst offering a more mature audience a dramatic storyline between two protagonists and underlying metaphorical themes that create complex and multi layered plot.
Episode breakdown
Episode 1: "Paradise lost"
In episode 1 a small town in the east of England is shaken up when a young girl, Camille Moriarty goes missing under mysterious circumstances. Police investigators Adam Kowalski and Eve Sawyer are called by the local chief of police tom cooper when a school friend of Camille's is found dead by a farmer in the fens. Agent Kowalski believes to find a connection between the two cases and a case he investigated two years prior, after he finds a similar marking on the girls lower back. Kowalski believes that the same killer may strike again. At the end of the episode we see Camille's mum wake up from a terrible nightmare depicting a long haired man laughing manically.
Episode 2: "The one with chandler"
In episode 2 agent Sawyer finds out that Camille had a secret boyfriend named Chandler Bing. She arrests him and questions him. Meanwhile agent Kowalski discovers that Camille's therapist may have something to do with her disappearance. At the end of the episode we see Chandler and Camille's best friend Trisha vow to solve the mystery of Camille's murder.
Episode 3: "God is dead"
Episode 3 begins with Chandler and Trisha trying to solve the case in the form of a montage. After the montage we return to a more conventional series of shots observing the pair question various character from the village. At the end of the episode we see the pair collecting their evidence. when there collecting the evidence Trisha drops a piece of paper and when both of them go to pick up the paper their hands meet. This is how the episode ends.
Bold=key scene in detail.
Episode 4: "Time after Time"
This episode starts 20 years in the future. in the opening seen we see the majority of the characters from the first 3 episodes standing in black suits in the rain holding black umbrellas obviously attending some kind of funeral. After this initial shot the camera pans to a grave stone bearing the name Adam Kowalski, there is then a sudden flash of lightning and loud roar of thunder. After this camera pans up to the sky and Cindi Luaper's time after time begins to play. A flashback then begins explaining Kowalskis death. It reveals He gets too invested in the case and begins to go insane. One night he went out to solve the case and never returned. His body was never found but all evidence pointed towards his death. He was pronounced dead on the 18 may 2000.
Episode 5 "The passion of christ"
The camera pans down and shows Agent Sawyer tied to a chair, she looks to her left, her new partners lifeless corpse lying beside her on the wet and dirty warehouse floor. As Sawyer looks around hopelessly trying to figure out how to escape, she hears a loud thud and hears a car engine start, she looks forward and sees the blinding headlights of the car, driving towards her, she screams and as the car gets close, the shot ends and it jumps back in time and has super imposed text across the screen saying "2 Days later". We see Sawyer waking up in a hospital ward bed with a blatant heavy bruise on her forehead.
Episode 6 "Fire in the confession booth"
She wakes up in a hospital bed, restrained. Sawyer panics and frantically tries to shake them loose. She has no luck budging the bed. She screams and shouts, hoping someone will come to her aid. She sees the long haired man look through the window on her door. She goes ballistic. A nurse charges in and sedates Sawyer.
Episode 7 "Circle theorem"
The nurse hears her cries for help and runs in through the long haired man to aid Eve and make sure she's alright. Sawyer tries to explain to the nurse about the long haired man, but the nurse dismisses her talk and tells her to stay and rest in bed. Sawyer feels like a million bucks right now.
Episode 8 "Secrets of the guardians"
Sawyer awakens from her sleep and feels much better, she tries to get out of bed and manages to successfully start walking again without support but starts to think about the long haired man and has deep pains in her head and starts to have a fit. She gets restrained. Nurses surround Sawyer. She frantically looks around the room in panic. She sees the long haired man. She stares into his empty, lifeless eyes. His eyes flicker with fire. The episode ends.
Episode 9 "Manipulated living"
The episode begins first person from sawyers perspective. Her eyes open. Theres smoke swarming out of the open window, Sawyer knows that she's in trouble! The door creeks open, slowly. Sawyer can smell the foul stench that the man carries. She can hear his miserable moans. She can feel his presence in the room. Sawyer climbs to her feet and looks into the mirror. She see's him behind her in the reflection. She scream "What do you want with me!?". The smoke engulfs her. All you can hear is heavy breathing and the constant sound of a heart beating.
Episode 10 "The physical impossibility of death in the mind of the living"
Sawyer compares herself to the longhaired man, she see's similarities between them both. She cautiously drapes her hair over her eye, she has an eye patch. She rapidly looks at herself and the long haired man. He disappears. She flicks her hair back over and sees that she has become a man! She releases a manly roar in terror. She grabs a scalpel and starts to cut her hair off. The faster she cuts it the faster it grows back. She becomes overwhelmed by her own hair and cries out. Fire fighters run in and see her, covered in hair. They lift her up and run out. She struggles and wants to be left behind. She only wants to die. She draws the scalpel from her sleeve and stabs the firefighter in the throat. Blood gushes out and blinds the other man. She screams and run deeper into the burning building. To this day her body was never recovered and no one know where she is and how she escaped. To this day children still claim to see the long haired WO-man in their rooms at night.
