Studio Production:First idea generation, thought processes and notes

Ideas and first research

In order to come up with 3 different ideas to pitch for Helen and Dell, I wanted to get a greater understanding on what it takes to create a television programme. Already I am intrigued by the idea of a game show as I believe that can allow a variety of elements to work with to create an entertaining show. 

Before getting too much into the research, I wanted to get a greater understanding on what kinds of things I would need to think about. I took to the internet and came across an article on wikihow that I found helpful. 

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Your-Own-TV-Show

The first thing it said to think of was the idea of "what if"

I found this helpful because it is interesting to see how popular, well known shows can sound quite odd when broken down to its bare minimum. "What if I made a show about the humour of a workplace" - It made me think of how many things can come from looking at things that happen in everyday life and you can capitalise on it and even start mixing different elements to it to make it relevant and interesting. So I decided to start listing things about everyday life that could give me a starting point. 

• Relationships 
• Friendships
• Music/ Entertainment
• Games
• Social Media

I really felt that those topics can be considered major things that shape our  every day life. For example, on a daily basis we interact with people, we build rapports and make new friendships all the time. Sometimes it isn't new friendships, sometimes its the ones that already exist. This idea got me thinking about how I could create a show that involves a group of friends or existing relationships. 

•  Friends battling against each other. For this I thought it could be cool if within a group of friends, they battle it out to see who has the most knowledge of that person. and there would be various ways in which this is done. For example, a use of the VTs could be that the main friend has been questioned and the contestants have to finish off his/her sentence. the VT would then be played and whoever gets it right will get a point. I liked this idea because it kind of switches up the idea of friends sticking together. However, one of the cons would be that there would need to be lots of rounds or more than one group to fill in the 30 minute time. However, that got me thinking of all the different challenges that could be created, maybe even for a game show.
• Relationships is something that most people are familiar with but there is stigma about it usually occurring between young people. Especially with all the dating shows that are centred between young people finding "love" (Dating in the dark, Take Me Out, Love Island) it could be interesting to mix up the age ranges and possibly have something for the older audience. With a vast amount of new dating shows on the rise, it is hard to stray from the ideas you see on tv. When looking at this category, there was a particular show that intrigued me.  

Meet the parents ( 2016) This show is very interesting because they have taken a different element of dating and made that the main focus. By using the parents as the key piece to who will end up dating who, it makes a nice change. 

• This inspired me to think about different ways people could meet. I thought it would be interesting to have a show where friends pick dates for their friends.
• I also thought that it could be cool if the children picked dates for their parents. and the VT's would be used to show the possible dates' characteristics 

• Games - So, when thinking about game shows, the first type that came to mind was Japanese game shows as they are known for being very extraordinary and include very fun elements to it. However, of course we do not have the resources to create something as big and extravagant, not to mention the amount of risk assessments but I thought it would be a good starting point to look at what kind of tasks they have, as well as what formulas they use. 

I took to youtube to look at how they incorporated games within a format. The first one I came across was this; 

So from looking at this, the main point to gather in this round was based on chance. There had been different elements that were already prepared and it was down to the game of chance to determine the player's fate. This is something that I want to look into because I think it is a great element to incorporate as there is only so much control the player will have. 

• It is important to know that there is such a wide variety of game shows around, on contrary it could be interesting to have a show that requires some skill. This reminded me of the game show, "The Cube". I found this show very interesting because the tasks were not by chance, they required some level of skill and precision to complete it. And with each level, it became harder for the contestants to obtain.

I continued to look at the article to help me think about what else I would need to consider for the show; 

Genre. This part of the post made me really realise how much I need to think about what I want because changing the genre for my idea later on after other elements are decided would only make it harder for myself. Every detail chosen really effects the final outcome whether it be for better or worse so I want to make sure I get it right the first time. Since it will be pitched as a pilot episode I will treat my idea as if it would come on every week, Therefore I will have to have good sustainability and something that would allow me to switch it up and make it different every week. I feel as though one trick ponies aren't very successful so I have to derive from this as much as possible. 

So, instead of having a serious toned show, Im liking the reality style and I think it would be a good idea to incorporate some comedic elements to it as this would make it much more fun.

Further looking into the article, it lead me to think about what characters I wanted.

So when looking at my possible ideas, I now had to think about what would characters could make it compelling.

My current ideas;

- 2 groups of friends against each other battling it out to see who knows the most about eachother

• This would base heavily on the contributors as I would need teams of charismatic friends. Ones with a mixture of personalities and that would be a case of casting and finding the right amount of people willing to do this. This has already flagged up an issue as it may be difficult to find groups of friends with interesting characteristics as well as the same amount of friends in a group. Ideally I would want 2 competitive groups.  

- a game show that requires skill and intelligence in the manors such as "The Cube" or "ultimate brain" 

• When thinking about the characters of this idea. I would want a host who seems very knowledgeable but not in a way that would outshine the potential of the contestants. They type of contestants I would want for this would be a confident, ready and willing to take on the challenges and it would also be good to have a mixture of ages.

- A dating game show where a group of friends choose the date for their single friend and in the studio show, the single friend plays a series of games and answers questions to choose the perfect date. A test of friendship as well as the compatibility of individuals

• For this, the show would heavily base itself around the contributors and their situations. How many people do we know has a single friend who would be willing to take part?. Either way, for this I would want confident, flamboyant group of friends with the single friend being someone who is up for a challenge as well as meeting new people. 

What's interesting about the wiki article is that it made me think a lot deeper into what is required to make an idea come alive. There are lots of elements that you need to develop first. This is when you realise the feasibility of your ideas and helps you weed out the good and the bad. It saves time as you want to create the best foundation for your idea now rather than finding potholes later and not being able to complete your idea. 

Whats next?

- Provide these brief, undeveloped ideas to Helen so she can give her opinion

- after that, continue to research and develop ideas and see which one is more feasible.