Storytelling Unit - The Meeting Character Profiles

Here I have attempted to give shape to the 3 characters within my story. The main protagonist is Sidney, the antagonist Cortell, and his associate. Being the central characters and the only ones that appear with speaking roles, I felt it necessary to only write about them.
I have also come up with a new idea to add to what I have written in my previous blog. I have decided to make the first part of the story a narrative of Sidney's, starting at the stand off at gunpoint between Sidney and Cortell. Sidney will ask the question "How did I end up here?" and he will tell his story. But anyway, below are the characters for my piece:

The Meeting - Character Profiles


Sidney Ferris - Sidney is the central character and protagonist to the story. Unemployed, no family, no friends, he is your average nobody. Despite all this he is an intelligent and quite athletic young man, he has just never received a break in his life. He struggles to find work for his lack of confidence in himself. He knows this, knows that he does not have the social skills needed to get a job, and make something of himself. This is why when the opportunity to join "MI6" comes along, he jumps at it and strives to do his best in the task he has at hand. He hates it when people shorten his name to Sid, in his eyes, he is just Sidney. He always corrects people when they do call him Sid. When he gets kidnapped however, with the opportunity that comes up, he does develop some confidence in himself, which lets him stand up to the crafty Mr Cortell, resulting in a struggle for his life in the end.

Edmund Cortell - Cortell is the central antagonist to the story, shown at the beginning in a stand off with Sidney. He is a dark and deceitful man, who shows no remorse to any of his actions, he is in fact an international criminal mastermind. He enjoys conflict (subtly put across by the way he constantly calls Sidney, Sid) and hurting people. He is a very powerful man and can come across as quite influential and convincing in his lies. He likes being a figure of authority, getting Sidney and his associate to call him Mr Cortell. He believes he is the best, and that his plans and ideas cannot be matched by anyone. He is very proud and once he gets an idea in his head, there is nothing that can stop him from going through with it, and whatever anyone tells him, he will not back down. However his confidence is thrown in the stand off with Sidney. How can a man that has never amounted to anything, be the one who possibly stops him for good?

The Associate - A man with no known name, always referred to as "My Associate" by Cortell. He is a big man, with very little to say. Very much like your aver thug, goon or lackey. He always listens to and does with Cortell asks with no hesitation.

I hope this gives a better insight to the story and idea I have come up with. The time span I am planning to use for the story is over a few days. I have also broken it down quite suitably I feel, into a decent beginning middle and end, though I shall get to that later!

Ciao for now!

Story Telling Unit - The Meeting Ideas

I had a couple of ideas, well mainly one which I developed into something bigger which I shall share with you all now. It's a little rough and ready, and seems like a bit much, but I am almost certain I can fit it in to a ten minute slot.

Ideas for “The Meeting”

Initial idea, a man badmouths his boss at work, and has to have a meeting with him. He goes to the meeting and his insane boss ends up promoting him instead as he likes the attitude of the man.

Revamped idea, an athletic young man who works as a <insert some form of job role> is spotted by an older man and his associate. On the younger mans way to work the next day, he gets abducted with a bag put around his head by an assailant you do not see the face of, and placed in the back of a car which then drives off. When he awakes and the bag is taken off his head, he is in an office, tied to a chair. He sees the older man who then orders his associate to untie him, on the condition that he stays calm. After agreeing to do so, he is untied. The man introduces himself as Deputy-Director of MI6, and he is looking for a new young up-coming agent to join the agency. The guy is slightly taken aback, and doesn’t know what to believe; after all, he has been kidnapped. The older guy tells him if he changes his mind, to call a number (written on a piece of paper given to him). After a short amount of time and thinking, the young man calls the number, and the minute he dials he is abducted with a bag placed over his head again. This time when it is pulled off, he is in the same room but not tied up. The agent gives him his briefing, of which he must pull off solo if he is to get the position as an agent himself. The task involves breaking in to the back of a warehouse and stealing a flash drive, with no casualties to occur either.  He is given the security codes and told once in he has 15 minutes to get the flash drive, and get out. After successfully stealing the flash drive, he gets to a said meeting place to meet with the DD. The DD then takes the flash drive, and pulls a gun to the man’s head. Confused, he backs him into a corner and tells him that he isn’t the DD after all; he was just playing the young man.  He tells him he needed to use him and play him so he would steal it for him – he needed a nobody who no one would miss or relate to the crime scene. The young man then pulls a gun himself on the criminal. They have a short stand off before a gunshot is heard and there is a black out. FIN.

Storytelling Unit - Prewriting Practice

We were placed into pairs and told to come up with ideas for 10 minute stories, using newspapers for inspiration. Here's what we came up with in my group.

Title:  Spoilt

Genre:  Drama/Crime

The Idea: A 17-year-old girl accuses her brother’s friend (24) of raping her, when it is in fact a lie. The story focuses however on the brother’s friend and his struggle with being accused of rape when he is in fact innocent.

Theme: The film is essentially about the repercussions of false accusation and lying. It also highlights the prejudice on men with ‘guilty till proven innocent’

Characters:  Mikey – 24 years old. 6 foot 2 inches tall. Blonde long hair.  Middle class, quite trendy, good-looking. His peers all love him and find him funny, a genuine nice guy. He is the victim of the accusation.

Madeline (Maddy) – 17 years old. 5 foot 4 inches tall. Long dark brown hair. Middle class and the sister of Mikey’s best friend, Patrick.  Spoilt and has everything she has ever wanted with the attention always focused on her, when her brother gets engaged, the attention is driven away from her, so she tells an elaborate lie (the rape) to bring everything back on her.

Patrick (Paddy) – 24 years old, 6 foot tall, the brother of Madeline. Suave ginger hair. He has just recently become engaged and received a very high profile job. He loves his sister but does often call her a ‘brat’, although obviously he does still love her, so sides with her over the accusation against Mikey.

Setting: Set in Canterbury and in the current time (last couple of years etc.) 

Broadcast Media - Spaced Synopsis

Spaced is a series predominantly following the life of two characters in there 20’s, Tim and Daisy; however along with these two there are a few more central protagonists, Mike, Brian and Marsha.  The character Tim has recently split from his long-term girlfriend Sarah, who has left him for one of his old ‘friends’ Dwaine. He is an aspiring young graphic artist who works part –time in a comic book store. Whilst homeless, he goes to a café and meets Daisy, an aspiring journalist, who is also nearly homeless – she lives with a group of crack addicts and is desperate to move out. Together while flat hunting, they find a cosy 2 bedroom flat in North London where the Landlord is looking for a professional couple to move in. They decide to lie and apply for the flat, and end up getting it and living there. Whilst there they meet their Landlady, Marsha, the only character who is not in her 20’s, although she does act it. A chain smoking strange lady, she adds to the comedic element of the so far mismatched group. Living downstairs in the basement of the house, alone in his flat is Brian, an aspiring artist, who is a very strange and reserved man. Also in the mix is Tim’s best friend Mike. He is a weapons expert who used to be in the army, and has never left his experience there behind.

The majority of the show takes place in the urban North London flat, and follows their individual (and sometimes intertwined) life adventures as they go about their daily antics. It is designed as a sitcom come drama that contains much slapstick humour, many atmospheric situations, and realistic circumstances that the audience may have found themselves in before, which makes it quite relatable. There are also many pop-culture references found in the show, which makes the show more relatable, whether you get the references or not – it works each way.

The show lasts half an hour and is designed as a series with seven episodes per series, which there are two of in total, making a grand amount of 14 episodes altogether.  Watching their lives and stories come together, fall apart and mix in with each other, it is a show that hooks you into wanting to find out what comes next.  Still a cutting edge show for its time, this is a story of life, love and laughs and can not be missed!

Broadcast Media - Spaced Pitch!

Yesterday we had our first lecture on our course. We started out the day by watching 2 episodes of Edgar Wright's tv programme Spaced. I have watched all 2 series before so it was a good exercise to do, as I already know a fair bit about it.
After we watched the second episode, we were taught how to write a pitch. I was not aware, but a pitch has to be done in around 25 words, and has to properly sell the idea for a show you have. I thought it had to be a fair bit more than 25 words, so the learning curb has begun!
Once going through all of the main elements of Spaced, we had to write a 25 word pitch over lunch. Afterwards we all read our individual pitches out and discussed ways to improve them. This was my first attempt:

Spaced is a half-hour Sit-com series about the lives of 5 Twenty-Something’s. It’s a contemporary and atmospheric show, featuring progressive relationships between characters and includes pop-culture references.

The advice I was given on this was to make it less descriptive as what it is, but to include words and phrases that would actually sell it more. After thinking about it, I gave it a second attempt, which is as follows:

Jump in to the lives of 5 Twenty-Somethings, as they embark on their individual life adventures which intertwine creating slapstick atmospheric mayhem. Set in a North London flat, the show is filled with Pop-Culture References.

We then discussed how to write a synopsis. This has to be at least one page long (around 500 words) and were told to write one for Spaced as a training exercise, so we understand how to do so in future. I am still writing mine so I shall post it later tonight when it is finished!

Ciao for now!