Monday 30 August 2010

"As it Stands..." (An outlook on 21st Century Visuals and referring to Neo-Reailsm)

Continueing with the concept that would be a bi-weekly added blog, The Job, episode 1: Bourac has reached a working draft level, as of a week ago, with a reknowned positivity beyond what we could wanted or even realised.

Currently, I am working on the next 3 episodes independently as one continuous story as, with the concept and expert writing of The Wire, moments that are not focused on detail in some scenes are revisited in greater detail later on. A literary exploration that should go farther than dictating legislation or flaws within that legislation.

For example, the liklihood of several "crime scenes" only really boil down to one or two when all the elements are in place. A sense of contrast that depicts many aspects of life. Old and new. Life and death. Beginnings and endings. Everything will feel understated as some moments are never fulfilled to their summary conclusion, as in life, everything is on-going long after you stop watching, like an alternate reality pictured within the confines of a 3464 X 2310 (referring to information in relation to size) window at which we can shut the blinds on you at any times. What we can't see doesn't mean it does not carry on.

Much like Visconti's La Terra Trema, and many other Realist films of the Post-War era, the definition of realism was showing the moments that say, Hitchcock, would remove. I'm not saying we are likely to include an Italian maid washing a floor for 20 minutes, but the concept of retaining images that would more or less be removed for pacing purposes, remain in one form or another. With the luxury of a long running series, whose to say our characterisation needs to be exacting and precise. One thing about each of our lives is that it gets boring and banal sometimes. We struggle for some sort of acitvity to keep our minds occupied but more importantly, to keep us feeling alive, hence we struggle with pattern and monotony. We may be of the MTV generation but I reckon dulling audiences with fast-cutting, overgraded visuals, moves nothing forward. The power of TV is intense and exact, the gimmicks of tabloid TV aside, cinema has become a fairground ride, the best of films sneaking away into the darkness of tiny cinema screens, someone's had-graft, blood, tears and sleepless nights little recognised personal picture, to maybe be remembered. But with all good, it it usually only appreciated to it's potential long after the artist has passed from this world.


Stylistically, we will be following the general rule that story dictates everything, whilst the visuals should compliment the telling of the story. Nothing flashy, nothing too over-the-top, just simple understated storytelling with interesting, true to life (as the stories remain true themselves), characters, hinting at aspects of Scottish culture, scenary, beauty and ultimately, humanity and morality. Universally understood factors that transcend outwith the boundaries of our culture alone. Something that can be spoken out to many and understood fully by a few.

Ryan Jon Amey Henderson
Co-Creator/Co-writer

Wednesday 18 August 2010

"... Right, now here's the situation..."

The project has been on-going for the last year in script development, from the inspirations of the main contributing writers; Adam as an ex-copper and actor, myself as a filmmaker and the two other contributing writer-actors Ed Corrie and Darren Lightbody.
Inspired by American shows like The Wire, Cracker, The Shield, many other cop genre films and the unrealistic perception of the British police force from say, The Bill, we had wanted to produce something that changed that perception that we could all be a part of. We wanted a series about people who were cops; a series about cops without an emphasis on the dredgery of the crime.

The script had gone through an intense overhaul before the end of the year ending as a feature film draft at 100-pages long. Recently, we had held an actor read-through at our old University, The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, of the current first draft to see how the script played out initially in its first stages which proved to be a massive success. From there we had collectively decided to go back to the original model of making it a 5-part TV serial. Now the project is being re-drafted with an eventual script date of mid-August for the first episode (pilot) with the remaining episodes being written in conjunction.

In the pipeline, whilst we concentrate on the writing, I have planned a number of adverts in the form of virals. The first as two cheap virals to be played online to gather interest and the second, a high-production value teaser trailer to illustrate the mood, tone and essence of the project.

The second ad has been dubbed the “Red-Tape” trailer that shows two plain-clothed officers waiting on a man let off on a DTO (drug treatment order) by the Judge.... The remainder of the trailer plays out with a final tagline that reads, “Think you know the police?”. The advert has been storyboarded and looking for a shoot date of end of September.

We are hoping to shoot on RED ONE; a format I have had previous experience with as a DoP and Director. In addition, there is a selection of photographers who are willing to come on board to shoot some initial promotional material and possibly some on-set photography at a later date. Also, a friend of mine, who writes for a Scottish film website, is wanting to do a piece on The Job for some added small publicity, once we have shot the trailer. In the mean time, I have produced paintings and drawings to conjure up the various cinematic frames that will signify The Job, like the image posted below.

We have been excited about this for a while and with the added encouragement of the people around us, we are determined to make this happen and do it extremely well. More than not, this project will be self-funded so we can attain the creative freedom we started with on this project, knowing fine well that particular high-powered involvement could bring the project to a place neither want to be or taken from us comepletely. Although skeptical, we can't ignore the the fact that things like that can happen but overall, we are working within an industry that should welcome projects like this.

At the end of the day we are hoping for something we are ultimately proud of but, as the main goal, have a product that can be sold, screened / televised and developed further as well as furthering our own careers in our chosen fields.
Keep yourself posted on the various updates that will spring on here. Most obvious one being, from today, that episode 1 "Bourac" has been fully written, with the remaining 4 episodes in first draft, hopefully, by the end of September.

Anyway, thanks again,


Ryan Jon Amey Henderson
Co-Creator/Co-writer

Monday 9 August 2010

"... the job's fucked..."

Welcome to The Job, an up and coming 5-part TV drama serial, looking to go into production mid-next year.

Real people, real stories but hardly any crime. Think of a drab realist Scottish drama, forget about The Bill, look at how people talk (the banter), realise that everything we're containing in this serial is true and inject it with a pace and energy matching that of an American TV series, to a soundtrack of break beats and down-tempo, humming to a style of Michael Mann and the Maysles Bros.

The brainchild of four people, our desire is to create something real, exiting, true and eventually established that we can ultimately be proud of but hopefully, entertains the fuck out of everyone.

Whether you've just stumbled on this or you've seen the Facebook group (http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/group.php?gid=247660129577&ref=mf) and wandered further down this rabbit hole, if you like the sound of it, stay tuned. The majority of the updates will appear on here first, including artwork, concept design, stills, recce's, trailers and more...

In the pipeline we have two viral adverts, a full trailer and promotional stills planned for the August / September period in conjunction with the continued development of the script. Anyone's interest should come directly to me either through here or by the Facebook group.  

Thanks for the, hopefully, continuing support.


Ryan Jon Amey Henderson
Co-Creator/Co-writer