Pre- Production: Group Meeting #2

At this stage we decided to work on our story for the show so that we were prepared for our next tutorial with Simon.  We have gone with the idea that the protagonist characters, Annie and Dean, are looking for their 15 minutes of fame and throughout the series they are constantly foiled in their plans. 

 Pitch!

 Attention seeking retired couple 'Annie and Dean' struggle to achieve their 15 minutes of fame in order to impress the community, family & friends. 

 Finding New Names For Characters

 As 'David & Jackie' are the names of the people who the characters are actually inspired by, we needed to create new names for them because the David and Jackie are only inspirations for the characters. 

 We began by looking through the popular names in the 1950s which is the time that we have set our characters to have been born in.  We took the male and female names down that we liked and created combinations that we thought had the nicest ring to them.  We decided that the two names needed to ideally have the same amount of syllables in them in order to orchestrate the ring of the names.  

 The combinations for Jackie and David's replacement names were as follows:
Annie & Dean
Joyce & Bill
Larry & Linda
Larry & Brenda
Debbie & Douglas
Nancy & Jerry
Frank & Annie

We decided to go with Annie and Dean as we found they suited the characters we have created the best.  To do this, we tested out the names in lines of dialogue that we have already considered for the characters to be saying.  Annie & Dean seemed to suit the best which we all agreed on. 

We also had a couple of other characters that hadn't got names at the time of our initial ideas. These were: 

Posh Couple (Neighbours of Annie and Dean)
Gay Son (Son of the Posh Couple) 
Maid of Honour (to Claire and Ben who are Neighbours as well) 


We gave them the names of:

Posh Couple: David & Jackie. This was because we wanted to cameo the inspiration throughout the series without it being too obvious.  As these particular characters are neighbours that aren't seen throughout the pilot episode, having their names as David & Jackie is okay. 

Gay Son: Robert/Bobbie. We named him Robert as his parents David & Jackie are well spoken and quite posh, therefore Robert is a strong name and can be considered quite upper class. We decided that Robert's character was quite rebellious and he goes against his parent's wishes often but without malicious intention and he therefore refers to himself, and asks others to do the same, as Bobbie.

Maid of Honour: Ashley. We chose Ashley because its a current name for the 90s according to the popular names website.  We felt it suited her character well also. 


Pre Production Booklet

Now that we had discussed and agreed on the story and the character's names, we decided that we should look at previous examples of the pre-production book to be able to draw up a list of headings to include.  Here is what we have come up with so far that we will split between us and create a learning agreement for:

Story & Plot 
Synopsis & Pitch
Directors Statement
Film Inspirations
British Comedy Research
Visual Style
Branding
Title Sequence
Music
Character Profiles & Back Stories
Cast
Crew
Locations & Test Shoot
Equipment List
Shot List
Storyboard
Audience
Schedule
Budget
Marketing, Advertisement & Sponsorship
Sitcom Format & Guidelines
Broadcasting Overview & Channel
Mood & Tone
Call Sheets
Risk Assessments
Moving Image Trailer & Test Shoots
Set Design
Props
Costumes
Makeup Style 
Photographer
Production Company
Script
Weather Research 
Credit Style

We will be adding to this list and will be constantly updating our list of to do's. 


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