Since I was but thirteen, and I began typing words into a computer screen, I've found I have something of an affinity for writing. Whether what I write is any good is not for me to decide, since I don't possess the subjective viewpoint others have of not being me, but I like to think I've improved in my writing over what is now almost a decade. At least I don't still think "ohmahgawd I type words into the computer and it makes things happen I can do anything make these people do anything I AM A GOD" while writing, so there's that at least.
So with that in mind, when I chose Writing for the Screen as my option for Film Arts Specialism, it was for similar reasons to why I chose Creative Writing for Complimentary Studies last year: not to learn, but to practice. I've watched the movie documentaries with writers discussing their work, I've religiously followed the media analysis website thatguywiththeglasses.com, I've read Syd Field and other, similar screenwriting books that teach you how to write the perfect identikit Hollywood story, but most importantly I've spent half of my life at this point just getting better through trial and error. I subscribe to the theory that anyone can be a decent practitioner in any creative medium they want, but there is this imaginary mountain of crap you have to get out of your system first. Anyone can, say, be a competent enough artist if they can get the hundreds of bad drawings locked inside of them out of the way beforehand, the only difference talent makes is reducing the amount of crap you have to churn out before making good stuff. That's where I believe I'm at right now, I've spent years getting the bad writing in me out in a private setting, and now that there's a chance people might actually read what I write, I'm at a stage where it's good enough for me to be confident in getting it out there.
It's also this experience in writing (following a website full of engaging videos dedicated to deconstructing all forms of media through both comedy and insightful analysis helps too) that informed the piece I plan to write for this module. Clever segue ahoy!
When I began thinking about what I would write for this module, my first thought was that I didn't want to write a feature-length script, and from that point knew I would write the pilot for a TV series. After Corrie clarified that a TV-structured script wouldn't be suitable for the module. However, I had a workaround for this. Several TV series begin with double-length pilot episodes, but a select few instead begin with a full standalone film. The example foremost in my mind when coming up with the idea was the Digimon franchise, whose first TV season was precluded by a fifteen minute film which was shown in Japanese theaters. It was structured in the standard three-act structure, it told its own self-contained story while also setting up the backstory of the series, the only differentiating it from a feature film was its length. After establishing this, I immediately had the general outline appear in my head fully formed. It would be around the 60-minute mark in length, and would revolve around the formation of the team of protagonists the series would focus on.
I also decided that, since this module is the first film-based module I've done where the idea does not have to be carried through to a final film outcome, I gravitated towards making the pilot for an animated series aimed at the same general age demographics that action series like Pokémon, Thundercats, X-Men, The Powerpuff Girls, Teen Titans, and He-Man: Masters of the Universe were. Of course, those examples all relate to slightly different age ranges, for example Pokémon is more oriented towards friendship lessons and very child-oriented dialogue (in 4Kids' English dub at least), while shows like Teen Titans and X-Men are more mature in tone and deal with issues like prejudice, loss of loved ones and various fantastical metaphors for puberty (such as young mutants discovering their powers in X-Men or the episode of Teen Titans where the extra-terrestrial Starfire goes through her race's equivalent of a caterpillar's chrysalis stage).
This is the type of children's animated series I am planning to write for this module. It will be based around five protagonists, some having what could be considered superpowers but never played out as such, battling evil and whatnot. The big draw for me to do this was the opportunity to work within a fantastical setting, which I always prefer writing for, but also working with the handicap of sorts of writing for young people. It certainly won't be written in the same vein as the heavily toyetic series, where characters and locations are sloppily written in for no reason other than to advertise the tie-in toy line, and making a full-on adult parody of such series (a sort of Team America: World Police-style pastiche taking pot-shots at franchises like Transformers G1, Barbie and GI Joe, in the same vein as the animated webseries Cheat Commandos) would be too easy for me. The exciting challenge of this project will be to write a straight pilot movie for a show that would be perfectly acceptable to be made and broadcast on Saturday mornings.
However, the one thing that would be required for it to be created and aired that it won't is going through brainless executives wanting stock characters with nothing that would be considered 'non-standard' as part of the line-up of protagonists. I will most definitely do my utmost to avoid this cookie-cutter approach to character creation. Already in the line-up we have two of the five positions filled by females, already something rarely seen in cartoons outside of the stereotypical token girl in the line-up of heroes, and one of them has a disability. Those two facts alone make me doubt the script would make it to air without executive meddling, especially since the blind girl's character isn't entirely focused around her gender and her disability, as it would be in an actual TV show.
But, that's a story for next time, when we delve into the characters. I already have very rough ideas for three of the five characters, and I hope to have all five loosely sketched out when I write the next post.
Until then!
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