Appendix: Manual for a Concept for a TV Series 205
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Appendix: Manual for a Concept foraTVseries The concept paper, sometimes referred to as ‘The TV Dummy Paper’, from the TV term at The National Film School of Denmark. Courtesy of Lars Detlefsen and The National Film School of Denmark. On the Cover of the Concept Title. Tagline. Genre. Date. Give the names of the people involved. And their functions: Producer, writer, designer and so on. Table of Contents Table of contents of the concept. Intro Introduction to your TV series. What is it about and why do you want to make it. Idea and Genre 1. Describe your idea. You can refer to other TV series, movies, books, plays etc. 2. Genre, style and mood. 3. What is new and unique about your series? 4. What is the ‘identification’ and the ‘fascination’ of your TV series? Theme and Premise Premise, theme and subject of the series. How does it show in the series? The Main Characters Describe the main characters, the protagonists. Give their goals, secrets, passions and ideals and so on. Describe their looks, homes, clothes, things, pets, cars, and so on. And describe their important relationships. 204 Appendix: Manual for a Concept for a TV series 205 Supporting Characters Describe the supporting characters and their relationships. Antagonist Describe the main antagonist of the series. 5Questions It is interesting to hear your characters speak. Ask them the same five questions, so we can hear how different their views are. The questions should be about the subject, dilemma and theme of your TV series. Arenas, Locations and Time Describe the main locations of the TV series: The city, the homes, the workplaces, the bars, etc. Give the time of year where the TV series takes place. And how you will use it in the series. Give the time span of the series. And how time is used as a dramatic factor in the series. Style and Mood Give the colors, the style and the mood of the series. How should it be filmed and edited and so on. Title Sequence Describe the title sequence of the TV series. Sound and Music Describe the sound and music of the series. Describe the title song (if any). What is it about? The Arc of the First Season Write a synopsis for the whole first season. Describe the main conflict, how it develops and how it ends. Give the motivation for the characters. Give the structure of the episodes. And give the storytelling elements of the series, like flashback, voiceover, suspense and so on. Give how many episodes there are in the first season. 206 Appendix: Manual for a Concept for a TV series Story Lines Write pitches for all the episodes of the first season. Script Write the script for the first episode of the season. The Second Season Make up a cliffhanger for the end of the first season. And write a short synopsis for the second season. Cast & Crew Make a list of the actors. Make a list of the crew. Production Describe how the TV series could be made: Budget, finance, plans, strategies, studios, filming schedule and so on. The TV Slot and the Audience Give when and where the TV series should air. And who your target audience is. PR and Merchandise Ideas How will you make people aware of this new TV series? Credits Give the names and contact info of all the people who have been involved in creating the TV series concept. Notes Introduction 1. A brief note on terminology. This book uses the term ‘script’ and not ‘screen- play’ for the text written as an episode for a series; script is also widely used in this sense in ‘how-to books’ on television writing (e.g. Goldberg and Rabkin 2003; Douglas 2007; Sandler 2007; Del Valle 2008; Smethurst 2009). 2. A list of interviews is in the references. In the following chapters these are referred to by the last name of the respondent and the year of the interview. The interviews have been supplemented with e-mail correspondences, which are referred to as notes in the text. 1 Television Writing and the Screen Idea System 1. In spite of this, as for example, Newcomb has argued, these kinds of pub- lications can sometimes be valuable sources for scholars with an interest in production analysis if dealt with in a careful manner (1991, 99). 2. CPS can be regarded as part of the pragmatic paradigm in creativity research, since the primary focus is to facilitate creative processes, for instance by devel- oping concrete techniques like brainstorming (Sternberg and Lubart 1999, 5). Central to CPS is, thus, the teaching of creativity, but the nuanced break- down of the different stages also offer a productive understanding of complex production processes if one wants to explore the primary focus, principal par- ticipants or main challenges during the making of new products. The CPS models are not the first to attempt to break down these kinds of processes. In How We Think from 1910, John Dewey described five stages of reflection in a problem solving process, which are still inspiring to scholars today (e.g. Darsø 2001; Puccio et al. 2005). Graham Wallas described the four steps of preparation, incubation, illumination and verification in The Art of Thought (1926). The basic ideas behind CPS were developed by Alex Osborn as part of his attempt to describe how to enhance creativity in groups as well as in indi- viduals (1953). As summarized by Puccio et al. in a historical account of the development of CPS, the thoughts of Osborn are still the basic components in what is now a range of different models (2005). 3. In Changing the World (1994), Csikszentmihalyi, Feldman and Gardner present the model as the DIFI Framework (‘Domain Individual Field Interaction’). I use the original term from 1988, which Csikszentmihalyi has also used in later studies (e.g. Csikszentmihalyi 1996, 1999; Abuhamdeh and Csikszentmihalyi 2004). As noted by other scholars who have found inspiration in the work of Csikszentmihalyi, the systems model shares similarities with Pierre Bourdieu’s theories about the field of cultural production (e.g. Kupferberg 2006; McIntyre 2006, 2008). 207 208 Notes 4. For more on premises, see Chapter 3. 5. Richard Corliss’ attempt to get screenwriting out of the shadows of the auteur theory is still alive in books like David Kipen’s The Schreiber Theory: A Radical Rewrite of American Film History (2006). 2 Danish Television Drama: A Crash Course 1. http://www.dr.dk/OmDR/Nyt_fra_DR/Nyt_fra_DR/2012/08/223614.htm. Accessed 2 April 2013. 2. In 2012, three Danish feature films sold more than 500,000 tickets in Dan- ish cinemas: Hvidsten Gruppen/This Life (764,516 tickets) by Anne-Grethe Bjarup Riis, Den skaldede frisør/Love is All You Need (628,477) by Susanne Bier and the Oscar-nominated En kongelig affære/A Royal Affair (528,425 tickets) by Nikolaj Arcel. http://www.dfi.dk/FaktaOmFilm/Tal-og-statistik/Billetsalg/ Billetsalg-for-danske-film-2012.aspx. Accessed 2 April 2013. 3. http://www.dr.dk/OmDR/Licens/Fakta%20om%20Licens/2009011053652. html. Accessed 9 November 2012. 4. In February 2013, dk4 premiered its first originally produced TV series, the two-episode mini-series Bødlen/‘The Executioner’ (dk4 2013), pointing to the possibility of more broadcasters moving into the production of original scripted series in the years to come. 5. See, for instance, Levine 2008 for a discussion of different discourses on dis- tinguishing features of the television medium and of the changing meanings of television liveness. 6. This latter development is dealt with in more detail in Chapter 3 on formulating dogmas for television drama. 7. For more on the life and work of Leif Panduro, consult the biography by John Christian Jørgensen (1987). For a brief introduction to his television drama work, see Bondebjerg 1991, 155–8. 8. For titles in what Bondebjerg has called the ‘Danish line of royalty’ in serialized literary classics for television, see Bondebjerg 1991, 158. 9. Satirical DR2 series like Drengene fra Angora (2004), Rytteriet (2010) or Nor- malerweize (2004–) have found appreciative audiences and created national hit songs, but the viewing figures are in no way similar to the DR drama series. For more on the production of satire in Danish television, see Bruun 2012. 10. According to http://tvtid.tv2.dk/nytomtv/article.php/id-20269086:25-mest- sete-danske-tvprogrammer.html. Accessed 8 November 2012. Other histori- cal series have been the more adventurous attempts to make history come alive as action-filled stories on screen, like Gøngehøvdingen/‘The Gønge Chief- tain’ (1992) based on the novel by Carit Etlar (from 1853) about a hero of the Danish-Swedish wars in the 1600s. Another example is the atmospheric and stylized gangster mini-series Edderkoppen/‘The Spider’ (2000), which was inspired by the so-called ‘spider case’ 1948–1952 dealing with the unravel- ling of a major criminal web in the post-war underworld of Copenhagen. While the real people and events were used as the basis for creating a more general story of crime and romance, the series seemed more interested in creating cinematic imagery and has been compared to both the spaghetti Notes 209 westerns of Sergio Leone and classic gangster films like The Godfather (1972) (Piil 2008, 651). 11. Klovn has been compared to a Danish take on Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusi- asm (2000–present) with comedians Casper Christensen and Frank Hvam as fictionalized versions of themselves. The series was made by Zentropa for the stand up comedy-influenced sister channel TV 2 Zulu and evolved into the feature film Klovn – The Movie/Clown (2010), which sold more than 850,000 tickets at the national box office.