-Themes
Mental health.
I initially chose to focus in on mental health issues within my show as I thought it would be a very relatable topic for my target audience of 15-21 but hadn't really put much thought into the finer details of how I would be able to portray anxiety and paranoia correctly without it being overly stereotypical or incorrect.
In my pitch, I received very helpful feedback (that I agree with) that I needed to be more thorough with my explanations about specifically how mental health issues will be shown, which was very useful to me as I decided before my show could be made, I would have to take action to find out more about these issues and how I would show them. As I mentioned in my M3 Understanding Feedback blog post, I am going to show the gradual appearance of these mental health issues, showing Connor having more symptoms of paranoia and anxiety as the episodes go on, showing him to be isolating more and also staying away from large social events or any major confrontation (or showing more reservations about it if he is forced to.) The reason I want to introduce this gradually is to show that mental health issues can happen to anybody and tend to build over time.
In my M3 blogpost I talked about how I'd expand my show’s exploration of Mental Health Issues in a possible season two.
“If I had thought about this before, I would have said that for the second season, I want to focus in on the new family dynamics and Connor stepping into his own, being more independent, also following up with the mental health issues that were brought up towards the end. Also, I want to continue the supernatural element with Connor and Keily together, possibly having a new ability also to do with time, such as seeing into the future by 30 seconds.” To expand one what I meant here in relation to the mental health aspects, I will explain: Since Connor has dealt with his mental health issues alone so far (through series 1), a new angle would to see how he acts around different people and how his relationship changes with them because of his paranoia (which may result in him being very wary of his friends' ulterior motives) and his anxiety, so he may not be able to hang around in large groups anymore. I want to follow up on these mental health issues obviously within the episodes, eg, letting Connor speak to other characters about his problems, including Keily who has suffered mental health issues herself. Possibly this could address further mental health issues (such as depression or bi-polar) so they could look for places that could help them together as this would show to the audience that friends and family are there for them and will help them to get help.
Characters
Within my cast of characters, I don't want certain characters to be representing individual issues, eg: Connor represents bisexuality, Keily with mental health. I would like all the characters to have multiple layers to their character to make them more relatable to the audience.
A piece of feedback I got about this was about if Connor had an inner monologue. Personally, I don't think this would add much to the show and might take the audience out of the experience, realising that they're being told exactly what the character is thinking, instead of being able to guess along. I don't agree with the respect that there should be an inner monologue but I think Connor could tend to talk to himself instead to make his situation seem more plausible.
I would avoid using this inner monologue technique by initially letting Connor (in the body of someone else) completely freak out and appear to be scared. Depending on who's body he will be in, there will be different reactions to portray his emotions without unnecessary exposition; with his mother's, he'll be more confused and freaked out, the burglars, initially confused and then angry etc. I intend to instruct the actors to change their body language depending on who it is and how he feels about that person, (open body language, defensive, agitated,) because people inherently can identify body language.
For example, the film Freaky Friday does not use an inner monologue and you remain aware of what the characters are feeling and know that they are each other despite looking like themselves through body language and the way that they speak, acting like they would act normally but in somebody else's body. I would want this to happen in Face The Past as it will definitely help the audience to differentiate!
Look of the show
Special fx
I was also asked a question about special effects since in one of my episodes, there will be two copies of the same person. Definitely, before starting pre-production, I would need to work out how this would work as it is a really important scene while keeping the costs pretty low. I agree that there might be a need for compositing and if so, the budget for the show might have to be reassessed depending on how much that would cost to do (see below under Budget).
As I don't want to add more to the budget than I am already aiming for, the choreography of where the actors and cameras are going to move to is going to have to be perfect so they can be simply edited together in a split-screen sort of way to create the appearance of the two actors where there will only be one, sticking to this will mean that only basic editing effects will be needed in post-production.
Budget
If we were to choreograph the camera movement and actors multiple times before actual shooting, this would cost more as we would have to pay for longer hours on the set and therefore may get fewer scenes shot within a day, meaning the locations might have to be rebooked for different days than I was thinking. This method would cost less in post-production also as instead of having to composite things into the shots, only basic techniques will have to be used as well as special effects such as a gun firing. In conclusion, I think the cost of special effects and specialist editing software to do this will cost more than booking more time within a location and the overall effect may look better if shot authentically, rather than added in later on.
Positive Feedback
In my M3 blogpost, I discussed some of the positive feedback I got from my client. One thing I was very pleased to hear is that it would be 'Good for the BBC3 target audience' as the themes fit in with some other shows that are already on BBC3 such as Fleabag and Back To Life. When I was planning the themes of my show and the overall look of it, I was very conscious of all the pre-existing shows that also appeal to this target audience so I'm happy it paid off.
How will I ensure it it perfect for my 15-21 target audience? Well, I will ask the target audience through social media, online questionnaires or the BBC adverts on tv what they would like to see within this TV show so I can get direct feedback from the target audience and possibly adjust some things to make it more representative of their wants as this is a show for them that they should enjoy.
