Initial Ideas

Initial ideas

As soon as I knew that I had to create my own television sequence, my first thoughts were to murder mystery, crime and drama genres, as these are my personal favorites to watch. I have decided to create a television sequence in the hybrid genre of crime and murder mystery, as it is my favorite genre and it came up as one of the most popular genres in my questionnaire. 

Another idea I had was to do a comedy, sitcom genre of television programme. I had ideas for a narrative and characters that I was quite confident in. However as I began to think more into it and attempted to write a script, I realised that I struggled to write a comical script that would make an audience laugh. I also realised that finding actors to play the characters was going to be hard as I feel you need the right sort of person to play the part of a funny character. I realised that to execute a comedy well it takes a lot of skill and time that I don't necessarily have. As I think I would have to spend a lot of time finding out what a plethora of people find funny, not just me. I'd also have to be careful that I was considerate of what some people may find funny and some people may find offensive. Between the two genres I concluded that a murder mystery would be more suited to me and my abilities, and I personally find watching murder mystery more interesting. 

My narrative is going to be focused on a character and will use the structure of having a key turning point. The plot will begin with an enigma; two twin siblings have been brutally murdered in the small fictional town of Redwood. The twins are called Ely and Edith Valentine, the pair are adored by the community and are seen as the sweetest, most lovely teenagers anybody could ever meet. Their younger sister, Cherry Valentine, is narrating her point of view on the murders and was has happened. The bodies were found stabbed to death in the local woodland, close to the town, with no evidence and no witnesses. The police have no leads and nothing to work with to discover who murdered the village sweethearts. Cherry narrates with her take on the story and how it has affected her. The audience follow Cherry and her relationship with her siblings as she tells more about life before and after the murders. Slowly she reveals more and more information about the tragic deaths of the twins, eventually allowing the audience to realise that she may know too much about the murders. The sequence ends with the reveal that Cherry is in fact the murderer, and the audience are left wanting to watch on to find out why she murdered them. Cherry's complex character and resent for her siblings connotes to the audience that Edith and Ely were not the sweethearts that the town all thought they were, and that there are a lot of dark secrets yet to be discovered. 

I have taken inspiration from television programmes such as 'Broadchurch' and 'Riverdale' as they are both murder mystery and crime dramas. Both programmes focus on the murder of children and teenagers and the effect the murders have on the people around them. The settings are also important factors of both the television shows, the dominating landscapes used as the backdrops in the television shows adds to the narrative and make the characters seem small and insignificant. I would like to shoot some scenes of my own in locations such as beaches and cliffs to create this effect also. My idea is completely my own and although I have taken inspiration from other murder mystery tv shows, my plot and characters are all my own unique ideas. 

I am going to produce the first three minutes of the first episode of the television show. This allows me to give the audience context and to set the narrative. I believe that if I produced a segment of a tv show that was half way through the episode, the narrative would be harder to follow and the audience would be less engaged and invested in the characters. By producing an opening sequence to a tv show, this allows me to introduce characters and settings, and to allow the audience to see the whole picture, rather than a segment in the middle that would be harder to understand and establish.