Research and planning for currently untitled TV pilot

Foreword for Film and Moving Image portfolio

Detailed below is the current version of my planning and research for my next college project. Having full control and no restrictions to what I make, I have decided to make a love letter to the campy, low-budget horror and sci-fi films of the 80's I have grown up with. For this project I am writing and eventually producing a pilot episode as I believe there's more opportunity to parody different films and styles in a non-linear, short episodic format.

I plan on starting the pilot's screenplay soon and to be finished within a month, pre-production and casting within the next 2 months and production to have started by mid to late March. No further episodes past the pilot are in the works presently.

A treatment draft has been finished and finalised as the base outline of the plot - 12/02/2022

Please note:

In its current form these notes are still incomplete but mostly finalised. All research and references recorded are for college purposes.

Background Research -

Observations -

All of the cheesy 80's B-flicks leant into how stupid and campy they were and this was vital to their success and cult status. They achieved this in part by being unapologetically themselves no matter how bad the production and acting, and through this manage to be enjoyable and brilliant. the real challenge to my project would be to reflect this 'so bad its good' dynamic without trying too hard.

This is an issue of more modern low budget movies such as 'Birdemic' and the Sharknado franchise, brought about by the popularity of Tommy Wiseau's 'The Room', a poorly made drama film which everyone mistook for a so-bad-its-good comedy. A good modern example of low-budget done right is 'The Velocipastor', however its modern style doesn't make it a good reference point for a project which encapsulates the 80's VHS boom.

In reference to the TV shows of the time, many of the popular horror and sci-fi shows were anthology shows, completely changing the scenarios, locations or characters per story with some exceptions such as one or two recurring characters, for example in Freddy's Nightmares 8 of the episodes feature Freddy Krueger as the antagonist. The late 80's also featured the first major semblance of non-linear narratives, in which each episode shares characters, themes and locations without having an over-arching story, or at the very least not prominently featuring one bar a few essential episodes with the majority being filler. This concept would become much more realised in the 90's and 00's era of sitcoms, with a large majority of modern TV shows following this format with the exception of TV dramas and soap operas.

Social and political influences

Many films and shows in the 80's had a lot of subtext relating to various social and political changes in the time period. Many of these themes revolved around traditionalism and classism due to the influence of Thatcher and Reagan, and many films touched on breaking these values or leant into them as a way to expose their flaws by the end of the movie.

Two of the biggest social issues raised in the 80's were the AIDs epidemic notably making its mark in the slowly rising and newly empowered LGBT community among various over marginalised communities and also the first major reports of the climate crisis brought to public attention. The latter was publicised largely in part to the efforts of former US senator and vice-president Al Gore, something which he'd been fighting for since 1976 in congress, and made striving progress to help raise awareness and prevention during his tenure as VP.

A big social issue touched on in the late 80's was consumerism, with films such as 'They Live' and 'The Stuff' touching on the western negligence over what products and media we blindly consume day in day out, while films like 'Wall Street' touched on materialism and greed during the height of yuppie culture. The latter theme is reflected in later movies such as 'American Psycho' and the more recent 'The Wolf of Wall Street'.

My Project -

My idea - A TV pilot for a spoof on classic low-budget 80's horror crossed with the over-the top nature of dramas at the time.

Films/shows watched for inspiration - Killer Klowns From Outer Space; The Stuff; Night of the Comet; The Return of the Living Dead; Maximum Overdrive; The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2; Garth Marenghi's Darkplace; They Live; Freddy's Nightmares; Tales from the Crypt; Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn; Return of the Killer Tomatoes; Society

Directors/writers inspired by - Larry Cohen; Steven King; John Carpenter; Matthew Holness; Tobe Hooper; Sam Raimi

Plot overview -

One of the characters drinks a random coffee they find in a chemistry lab next to a sign saying "do not drink this coffee". Cut to title theme. Character who drank coffee is slowly transforming into a clown while the other characters try and figure out how to stop it. Clown becomes more and more violent and antisocial as the other characters speak to the chemist who made the coffee for answers. Chemist gives them the cure, a cream pie that must be smushed in the clowns face. The clown appears and kills the chemist, possibly using practical effects to simulate an eye being ripped out and blown up like a balloon. The other characters use the cure on the clown and there's a transformation sequence of them reverting back to their initial form. Cheesy final pun and characters laughing, transition to credit sequence.

Character ideas -

Hunter "Jock" Walker - 80's Jock stereotype, stylish meathead, always brave and uncomfortable in masculinity. dressed in varsity jackets, t-shirts, jeans and trainers.

Cheesy one liners:

"There's only one thing better than coffee, and that's free coffee"

Practical Effects planned -

Throat slitting - fake blood being pumped through prosthetic throat

Eye being pulled out - fake eye pulled away from prosthetic eye hole, using camera angles to make the illusion easier

Eye being blown up - white balloon altered to look like an eye, blown up to point of popping

arm wound - deep cut on arm made from prosthetics, using painting techniques to make the gash look deeper

Budgeting -

£15-30 estimated for costuming

£55-70 estimated min/max for SFX

£60-100 min/max total estimated costs