So I'm trying to wangle my way into development at my new place. This requires me to come up with ideas for shows, which means you must help me. Here are some ideas. Improvements should be suggested. Ideas that I can rip off should be leaft in an unmarked box addressed to Senor Perto and left under the bridge on a full moon...or just posted. Idea the first: ********************************************************** DO YOU FEEL LUCKY, PUNK?* A new comedy quiz tapping into the nation’s love of films. A comedy show Idea for Channel 4 or BBC2 late slot (10pm) and half hour length. Ideally hosted by Jonathon Ross with Nick Frost (Or Simon Pegg) Star of British hit ‘Shawn of the Dead’ and Cult classic ‘Spaced’ or Dillian Moran: Stand up comic and star/writer of Black Books /David Mitchell: Peep Show as team captains. Captained by some of Britain’s top comedians teams will be made up of actors, directors, producers and celebrities of the moment who will battle each other in a race to see who will be the film king. With a hilarious and fun fillied tone this will be accessible to everyone (not just movie fans). Full of witty banter and sharp jokes. The teams will play a range of games that will test there film knowledge and fuel their comic aptitude! Games 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon: Teams must find the link between two seemingly random actors either via movie fame or tabloid gossip. The Pitch: Our Team captains will be given a star (e.g. Dustin Hoffman), a film style (Time Travel Thriller) and a random factor (a Banana) which they must forge into what they host thinks is the winning Pitch! Scene Guess: Teams must guess the movie from a freeze frame of a film that has been digitally altered. (See attachment) It does what now? : In this round Teams must work out the propose and origin of a bizarre prop, i.e. the games set from existenz (http://www.jjambproductions.com/images/eXistenZ.jpg) Quick fire Quotes: A speed round in which teams must name the source of memorable movie quotes. Inappropriate Acting: Scenes from famous movies will be acted by unexpected corners. Children acting out scenes from pulp fiction, Elderly nuns bringing the Exorcist back to life. From these shaky enactments teams must name the movie ********************************************************** Idea the 2 (although I'm going to change the name of this one. ********************************************** Extreme Culture See the world from a different pair of eyes. Extreme Culture aims to break down the ignorance we have of the world round us to open our eyes to the wonderful and amazing, and sometimes harrowing lives people live- by dumping participant’s right into the middle of them! In the show an ordinary, everyday person secure in their life and their world view will have to give up everything they know and immerse themselves in a whole new culture. A middleclass housewife from Hampshire might find her self transported to the nomadic Mojave tribe of Canada. Will she be able to survive with them for 2 months?! Will their simple lifestyle teach her anything about her own life? Extreme Culture aims to teach us all about the unique and wonderful cultures that exist all around us. It specifically aims to highlight are own views on how society is and contrast them to the rest of the world around us. Our contestants will be put in some of the most extreme and challenging cultures that exist, either battling against the severe weather of tribes that live in the freezing arctic or intense desert or living in a culture that is politically harrowing, like a country that’s been devastated by war. The shows narrative would arise from the contestant learn how their own views about society wildly differ from the rest of the world, how will a militant vegan deal with living in an environment where killing innocent animals is the only way to survive. How will a gay person who’s proud of his sexuality and who he see deal with living in war torn Palestine? This would be an innovative and unique programme full of factual information about the world we live in, giving a stark and evocative picture of the many amazing and extreme cultures that exist in the world! ************************************************* The questions I need to answer are why would people watch these shows, what are the points of drama etc. You do this for me.
There already is a show like the first one here in sweden, or at least very simmilar in intents and purposes. it's called Popcorn. It works great, there's also a part where the contestans shall continue the dialogue that gets started on the 'show screen'
Idea 1 is fabulous! there is really nothing like it here and there should be! i do think the guests should be quite famous actors though, like Robbie Coltrane or Ray Winstone etc to see if they actually watch all these fancy premiers they go to!!! What about a best actor round where the contestants have to put forward a good reason why an actor should play a certain part, like Dawn French playing pretty woman! I would love to be able to say "i know the guy who suggested that" get it sorted Rinso!
Unfortunaly, One of the Idea briefs they gave me to look at is a movie show, which is similar (but better!) so that one is pretty much dead in the water. I'll hand it in anyway, just to show that I thought independantly the same ideas as them, plus some of my ideas would work well in thiers. Other things they want is a fun, light hearted breakfast show. And Celebrity reality shows. Which basically work to the format of take any one thing and add the word celebritity to it. E.g Celebrity Boot Camp, Celebrity Circus, Celebrity Stunt School. Then try to think show the shows would work.
Any possibility of something like the Werewolf games, involving 'celebrities' Kill some of the useless talentless tossers off properly? The movie one sounds like a laugh I'd say, but anything fun tends to be relegated to BBC2 at a silly time... Not very constructive and I should apologise but Celebrity Broadmoor:- Maximum security prison - just leave the buggers in there! Sounds like a laugh to me...
Hm, well, here in Germany they have two celebrity shows which are nice because thhey work much better with intelligent people. One of them is basically a revival of impro comedy theater, but on screen. The actors involved, with a hand full of regular comedians and re-appearing guest stars, don't get a script, but only a setting (and usually the main character's "flat" as scene), a basic "what happens today" (like, one of the regulars has to introduce himself to the new girfriend's mother and seeks advice). All through the show, which is uncut and performed in front of a life audience, they get commands via funk from the director, everything from just plot to really bizarre. It was interesting to see how much better they became from episode to episode. The other is actually only a celebrity quiz show with unanswerable and bizarre questions (the sort that has those kinds of facts as an answer that no one really knows), which have to be guessed in a rather semi-serious way. The questions are best provoking rather funny answers. One of them was, a year ago or so: "What's an arse antler?" At that time the German word, "Arschgeweih", wasn't too well known yet - today everyone would know the answer. But you don't. So - go have a guess!
[quote:3b96819535]One of them is basically a revival of impro comedy theater, but on screen.[/quote:3b96819535] You mean Schiller Strasse, Hsing? That is one great show, they are hillarious, though I prefear Genial daneben:[quote:3b96819535]... a celebrity quiz show with unanswerable and bizarre questions...[/quote:3b96819535] The questions are supplied by the audience (the ones from home or from live audience, and if they don't guess what the answer is, the person who submitted the question gets a reward. Even the Croatian national TV has bought the licence to that one, and it does work quite well. Although you have to admit that the nature of the German language itself (the long combined words) supply many of the most hilarrious guesses (misses). And of course German comedy has been in uprise in the last 5 years (Quatsch comedy club, Rent a Pocher, Stefan Raab...). Rinso, I think that you should definitely hand in your ideas (which seem to be to be well thought through) for the first one, even more so if it does correspond with their ideas. Extreme culture seems an interesting idea, and it might be woth considering, but off the top of my head I can see some problems that you'll probably need to analyse and consider: -2 months is a considerable amount of time, but then again, if people apply for Big brother... - safety of the people involved in the show (you were mentioning countries devastated by war, which by default are not the safest ever) - getting other cultures to coperate (the problem would probably be mostly with small isolated cultures) - money, money, money.. the production would probably cot A LOT, especially if done abroad You could use the same concept with subcultures, however, it'd probably be easier and possibly as interesting. Good luck!
Idea 2 is kind of similar to a show called 30 Days from Morgan Spurlock (Supersize me)... You might want to check out the similarities there... I always figure a travel show where its not so much about where you stay but kind of throwing people into a strange culture and watching them sink or swim would be kind of fun... I know in the UK there are businesses that have overseas placements like female engineers to Muslim Malaysia to work in a drive shaft factory... An interesting experience that one. Can't say that it would be cheap telly though.
Have celebrities do absolutely serious interviews with everyday people. Silly idea, but I bet people would like, well, at least to be in that role. It's the consquence of reality TV to turn the tables. Also, there might be many interesting varieties of impro theater thinkable that are cheap, and not too overused. And Lipi, you are not allowed to translate "Arschgeweih" for everyone. - Nor is E-Man.
Rinso, honey, if you want your ideas plugged on a radio to the head of entertainment of ITV, send a mail to the Geoff Show on Virgin Radio via their website before thursday, they are having a show-idea-free-plugging session Otherwise, there's a show in France called "Vis ma vie" (as in Live my life) where oposite kind of people learn to live like someone else, i.e. a girl who's scared of dogs goes to work with a husky-sled trainer, or a lazy bugger goes to work with a baker, getting up at 3am to make bread all day... But yeah, it could be fun to go further and send people to really extreme places, so I vote for that one. The furthest from me would be a rich jet-setter living in a luxury mansion in LA, could you please arrange that ? Thanks...
Loads of cool stuff here, guys! That improv theater sounds interesting, tell me more about how it works? Does the show just start with the basic premise each week or is there an intro? How does the show end? What happens if they're rubbish?
There's an impro show here, they basically have a series of characters and a set that carries through the show, and then they have to improvise while receiving instructions (usually very stupid) through their earpieces from the stupid presenter. Seeing as the French have a genetic inability to act, this is all very lame.
[quote:60fdfff904="Hsing"]And Lipi, you are not allowed to translate "Arschgeweih" for everyone. - Nor is E-Man.[/quote:60fdfff904] Damn it, and I was just about to plunge into a monologue on the meaning and use of the word. Actually, the concept of the Schillerstrasse is the same as in Katcal's french impro show. The difference is, it works well. That probably has a lot to do with the choice of the comediants.
The set up is the following: The whole thing is performed on a stage, and in front of a live audience. No repeats, no real plot, no such thing as a script. The stage shows -so far- the flat of the main character, whose firends pay her a visit once per week, so to say. They get a rough premise of what's happening, a kind of background story, as you would for a role play character, but no details. The "friends" are a few recurring chars and some guest stars with reoccuring appearances. They just play along, and developed a lot of story and background story spontaneously on stage, depending on the chemistry and the dialogues. They get interrupted by instructions from the director, via microphone, "off" so to say as not to have the atmosphere destroyed by someone shouting at them. This was done, i think, a) the actor getting an instruction without his colleagues hearing them and b) all actors hearing them. The audience sees them on a screen, written out. I think it works well because they've found a regular cast with a good chemistry and the ability to pull it off, as Lipi said. The main char is enough of a stage comedian and actress to work as a character as well as being pretty funny most of the time. The others are fitting well into the scenery. But I also think it works because the directors don't give instructions that are so silly that they destroy the developing stories, and good, spontaneous comedy is also highly unlikely if the concentration of the actors is wasted on performing too bizarre and impossible stuff. I have red that the French directors give some pretty crass instructions, but what would I know... Wikpedia says:[quote:8dc9e16406] Schillerstraße is a German improvisational comedy show aired weekly on Thursdays. In it, famous German comedians visit their friend Cordula Stratmann, who lives in the Schillerstraße. They meet and talk about everyday life issues. Each of them gets instructions from the director, designed to elicit a humorous turn in events, which they have to include into their acting. For example, "Ralf, tell the others the carpet is moving".[/quote:8dc9e16406] Here's a link to some video snippets. In case you wonder, the main actress is highly pregnant. http://www.sat1.de/comedy_show/schillerstrasse/bildervideos/content/08151/
Some pretty funny videos there, Hsing. It's a shame I only get a few German channels. A Dutch improv-comedy show was recently nominated for a prestigious European TV award. They do brief sketches based on the audience's suggestions. It is a very popular show and they usually manage to snag some interesting people as celebrity guests as a result. I think it was loosely based on "Whose Line Is It Anyway?", although I never seen that show myself.
You could suggest a lot of variations on impro shows that are actually being performed on small stages here and there. A friend of mine told me about a small impro ensemble that did things like handing out cardboards to the audience, where they could write down a word to hold it up during a sketch, and the actors had to build it in within the next ten seconds after reading it. Or they handed out cardboards with languages on, and the actors had to imitate them and play the next 30 seconds of their sketch that way. You could let them perform a sketch and let people shout the name of celebrities at them whom they have to imitate for the next two or three minutes, or whatever. You could combine all those things, and cast celeb guests and let them perform with a few regulars who are good with this sort of things, to hold up a certain standard. A wide field for ideas.
[quote:5924dfeb28="Hsing"] One of them was, a year ago or so: "What's an arse antler?" At that time the German word, "Arschgeweih", wasn't too well known yet - today everyone would know the answer. But you don't. So - go have a guess![/quote:5924dfeb28] Well, I had a long think about it, but nothing sprang to mind, so I cheated - That is funny! If, of course, what I got is the correct thing... Seeing photos especially brought it home
I don't dare guess, seeing as the only thing I can think of is definitely not appropriate for anyone who may be at work...
