The reason I have selected a television series as the format I want to work with, is because I believe that I will be able to fully flesh out and explore the characters I am creating better with this format. A feature length film could work, but I would be very restricted with what I could show in a certain amount of time if I were to choose to work with this format.
My main aim with this project will be to create and develop characters that are truly likable, and relatable for a viewer. I want them to evolve realistically. A major problem with my previous script "Inoculum" was that characters would often not react in a realistic fashion to certain situations, and I believe this was because of the short-film format I had given the film.
If I had chosen to script a feature length or series, I believe I would have been able to create a much more realistic set of circumstances and characters that react accordingly. This is the beauty of choosing a series this time around.
The main story I want to tell, is of a group of old high-school friends that are unfulfilled in their lives, and decide to reconnect with each other to reminisce about happier times. They plan to do this by spending time at a secluded mansion in Crystal Hills, a beautiful mountainous region in Massachusetts, USA. During their time there however, they discover that one of the group of friends is on the run, and has been accused of murdering many innocent people in their time with the U.S Marines. Not only that, they are currently armed. Not only that, a freak snowstorm has hit the mountains, and there's no way back to civilization and no way to contact help!
The relationship and distrust between the old friends will be the driving force in the series, with emphasis being put on the friends discussing how they came to be in this situation, and whether or not they can trust the accused murderer.
Flashbacks will be a major factor in the creation of this series (much like the critically acclaimed series; Lost) and will be used to showcase the characters developing attitudes and history accordingly.
With the ideas I have, I believe that this project would warrant a big budget for it's production, and would follow the same kind of drama style as other high budget American series like Game of Thrones, Prison Break and Lost.
A network I believe would suit my idea is AMC, a network famous for it's series Breaking Bad, Mad Men and The Walking Dead. These series have all ran for several years and allowed for massive development and evolution of each of the characters that appear in them, and have become cult classics in mainstream media with massive fan followings.
Viewer's develop a sense of kinship with the characters and everytime a characters motivation changes or a character dies, viewers always have a massive opinion about it. No moment seems at all wasted or out of place.
This care and dedication to characters is the same kind of treatment I would like the characters I create to have and I hope that characters motivation will change throughout my series. A massive reason I am using the series Breaking Bad as an example and main motivation for what I would like my series to be like, is its depiction of characters that blur the line between good and evil, something that I would like to reflect in my own.
I currently plan to have 6 episodes in my series, with each episode being around 25 minutes long. I believe this is enough time for me to tell a coherent story and have a coherent amount of development in each episode enough to keep the viewer wanting more.
As of now, I have a working title; "Coming Home", but it is very likely this will change multiple times throughout the development of my project, as the "Coming Home" title only seems to relate mostly to one particular character, not the entire group of friends, and after all my main intention for this series is to make each character just as important as the last.
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