STUDIO PRODUCTION: ARCH ROOMIES

Simon and myself finally decided and planned out a Sitcom which we want to pitch.

Summery
The Sitcom is about 2 friends. Sam Jetty and Jason Sage. They are roommates living in a small studio flat in Brixton, London. They're both good friends and get on, but with a secret. Sam is secretly a superhero/vigilante called Duke Hammer who fights crime and protects the streets. He has strength as his power, not super strength though, so he couldn't stop a car but he could lift a couch (for example). Then there is Jason, his secret is that he is Viper, a hypnotic villain who steals from Jewellers, shops, electronics, etc. He has the power to hypnotise people but he can't take over free will. For example, he can get someone to walk away, leave a scene or to hand over money. He cannot command them to kill or harm themselves. Jason studies the way Hypnotism works and always tries to improve his ability. Although currently he can only do it to one person at a time.

These two are actually arch-enemies but have no idea. They constantly miss the signs that they are enemies and in the flat they are the best of friends.


Reasons for the sitcom
There's a number of reasons that we chose to make this sitcom and why we feel it's relevant. Firstly, the superhero genre. From my previous research into Superhero Franchise, I found that Superheroes are hugely popular lately, with so many films and Television shows (Both broadcasted and online based) are being released these days and there are more set right past the year 2020. This is the ideal time to make this programme as it's got the audience for it.

When we had a meeting with our tutor about this though, we were told we need to have other reasons. So, we looked into the current housing issue in London. Having family who live there and living in Kent I always here that it's stupidly expensive to live in London, so we researched into this:

After looking through Gov.Org and marketing websites I found that since 2011 the average housing price has increased by over £50,000. That's in only 7 years. I already know people who work in London in Films, Retail, marketing and customer service. All of whom, live outside of London and commit to work everyday as they find it cheaper. When I quickly googled "Studio flat rent, London, Brixton" I found that the prices for a 1 bedroom Studio Flat were between £1,000-£2,000 per month.

London prices are through the roof for someone to live there. Doing a little working out:

Minimum wage for over 25's is £7.50 per hour. If someone worked a full-time job in London, working over 30 each week, would get someone £900 each month. That isn't even enough to cover their rent, let alone their national insurance, tax and any other expenses they may pay such as phone or car bills, insurance for pets/home. Luxuries such as subscriptions to Sky, Netflix and of course money towards food and living necessities. This can often lead to people living together to cover rent and has been done over and over in both real life and also in programmes and sitcoms (such as Friends when Joey and Chandler lived together).
This is a relevant issue now in the UK and something which the audience would be able to relate to in the programme.

Also, watching comedians such as Frankie Boyle, Russell Howard, Lee Evans and Ed Burnes, they all do routines on big companies such as Amazon, Starbucks, Google, etc. Not paying taxes and making the working class suffer and struggle while they live the high life. The old, rich get it easy and the poor struggle. This, again, is relevant to the world these days as there are always people complaining about it and it's a theme which has been seen over and over in films, classic story is Robin Hood, someone who fights against the rich. Simon and I thought this would work well with the Hero and Villain in the Sitcom. Sam is a guy just trying to do good but because of his secret life he keeps getting fired from jobs for being late and running out randomly, always struggling. Whereas, Jason is a well dressed 'Businessman' who always manages to make a sale, little do people know he's actually stealing and using it for his own.

Location
We chose Brixton in London because it's a well known area. It's South London and away from central and this is still expensive to live in so we found this a good place, even though our characters aren't in Central London they're still struggling with bills. As well, Central London is always on the news where as Brixton isn't looked at as much. We also wanted to set this Sitcom in London as there have been so many sitcoms in America and almost all Superheroes in films and Television shows these days are American. Dr Strange was rewritten as British in the Marvel Movie adaptation but originally he's also American.

The only original British Superhero that's had a screen adaptation in the last few years was John Constantine in the series 'Constantine'. Although the series was Produced and made in the USA, they kept the character as British and got a British actor, Matt Ryan. The series was unfortunately cancelled due to pour reviews.

With no other British heroes, we felt this was an ideal Sitcom and setting for our programme.

The main area for the programme would be their flat. We decided that we'd stick with the classic location for Sitcoms and have their flat as the main point for the story. We've seen it over and over and it would make sense to have 2 friends living in a Studio Flat rather than a house. It would also help with the comedy as they'll be living in such a small space but still missing the signs. We started thinking about the layout of the flat and how it could be:

Simon designed this online, Our idea was a simple Studio flat, bare minimum in there so you can see the struggle that these characters have. We went with a table to eat at, kitchen and living room together which you would get in a studio flat. Bathroom at the top of the set which would actually be an exit for the actors from the set. Finally a bedroom with both beds for the characters and a sofa with a TV. We added in a book case with the idea of Viper have a secret compartment which is revealed when the book case is spun around. This is where Viper keeps his outfit. The idea for this actually came from the scene in Incredibles where Frozone reveals where his suit is meant to be kept:

When seeing the secret compartment appear, we thought it would be good and an ideal twist for Viper to have the secret compartment and the good suit rather than Sam. So the Villain is better equipped than the Hero for a change.
After this, we thought about what we could do for Sam. Kick Ass was my go-to film for research on this. This is a guy who gets metal plates in his body and has nerve damage so can't feel a fair amount of pain. He creates his own suit and will randomly get changed and try and fight crime, often getting himself beaten up:

The idea of someone doing this, for the sake of keeping people safe felt like it suited the character. So then we had to move onto the style and look for the characters.

Characters
When thinking of how our characters would look and act, we wanted to swap around the classic style of Hero and Villain. Usually a Hero, Such as Iron Man, Batman, The Flash or Superman, will have am amazing costume, help on the inside, money to help or the equipment needed to fight crime. Villains such as the Joker, Wilson Fisk, Red Hood, etc. Will all struggle and aim to get what they need or make do with what they have.

For something different and comical purpose, we decided to have Duke Hammer as a sort of Kick Ass Hero, someone who has thrown together a costume and does his best to fight crime but doesn’t really succeed. Our idea for the costume came from the 3 Spider-Man trilogy films, the first of each where we see the ‘make-shift’ Spider-Man suit, before Peter Parker either makes a better one, or in the latest adaptation gets it off Tony Stark. It’s a simple costume which has clearly been thrown together. Mask and jumper with a harness. The idea is that the costume looks bad to add to the joke and make the audience giggle when he enters the room/scene.

As well as this, we decided to have Sam Jetty as a very lazy and chilled character. Away from fighting crime he’s messy, lazy, sits around in his t-shirt and shorts and eats food. Someone who you couldn’t possibly see as a Hero. We thought this would be an ideal change for the Sitcom as usually the hero works hard, well dressed or in reference to Spider-Man or Kick Ass, at least gets really good marks in school. We went for the complete opposite to give a very different turn and make this more original.

Jason Sage on the other hand, is very different. Viper is very well set up. Secret area for his costume. A staff and helmet which makes him more threatening. We also decided this could be a way to throw off people. They think the staff is the key to his power, they get it away from him but he can still hypnotise people. He wears a long coat and shirt. A very simple but effective costume which makes the Villain look much more efficient than the Hero. 

We chose to have Jason Sage as a ‘businessman’. So, everything that Viper steals is then sold by Jason and he’s known for “never losing a sale” meaning he uses his power to sell what he sells. But to everyone else, he’s a well dressed salesman. Smart suit, sunglasses, slicked back hair. Completely different and someone you wouldn’t think of as a thief.

Our ideas for these characters came by wanting something funny and different. Something you wouldn’t expect from a Superhero Sitcom.

VT’s:
In our brief, we were told we needed to have 4 VT’s in the show. This became a struggle as we didn’t know what we could add in here. After watching Friends, The Big Bang Theory and Mrs Browns Boys, I couldn’t find anything which looked like VT’s. Something which would be out of the studio. We then thought about extending the story. We talked about the crimes that Viper commits and Duke Hammer tries to foil, why don’t we show them? The VT’s for this Sitcom would be all the ‘action’ scenes. Everything that takes place outside of the flat and shows the Alter Egos of the 2 characters. Here, we could add in much more effects and edits and we they would be the hardest bit to show in the programme if we did them in the studio.

Simon had the idea to have 2 VT’s as scenes outside the flat were we see the Alter Egos, then 2 as News Reports, which can show the publics opinion of the characters as well.

We feel that this is a really original idea for the Course. A sitcom has been done over and over by third year projects such a House of Delinquents from the previous year and third years this year are also making Sitcoms but this hasn't been done in a studio before. 

Feedback

After discussing the idea with our tutor, they told us what we needed for our pitch was clear branding and structure for the Sitcom. Our tutor also suggested that we get a script together for the programme, this will help our pitch and help show our preparation.