Survey Feedback

One of the questions on the survey that Hennie created was, 'What could we have improved on?' All of the responses that we received were to do with bigger budget.

For example more food on final day, and a fee. These are things that we wish we could have given our cast and crew but is something that we couldn't with it being a student budget. There was enough food and drink for the cast and crew but on the last day in the final scene when the extras arrived we did not allocate enough food for how many extras showed up. I was very happy with this feedback as we really put our all into producing a professional shoot with the budget we had. 

Emails to writers

For my report, I ideally wanted to have some feedback from some writers about how they got into the industry. So I thought the best thing to do was to email them with a personal email and hope for some replies. Here is an example:

To Freddy

I was wondering if you would be able to help me. I am a final year student at the University of Creative Arts and I am studying Broadcast Media. I am in the final 2 months of my degree and I am currently writing my final report. My report is based upon my passion which is script writing. 

I am a big fan of Bad Education so thought I would give it a go in asking you for some writing advice. The combination of brilliant comedy writing and great acting in Bad Education is something I admire as it is not just appealing and relevant to teens but adults too. (Even my mum watches it!) I have just finished writing a television coming-of-age teenage pilot but for an older audience and have looked towards Bad Education greatly for inspiration. 

For part of my report I have to discuss established writers and how they write, so I was just wondering if  you could possibly answer the following questions for me?

1. I understand you write plays but how did you get into writing?

2. Was it always comedy that you favored writing? (If you do)

3. What advice do you have to someone just graduating from university hoping to make their way into television/play writing? 

I understand you are very busy so I appreciate your time in reading this email.

Thank you in advance for any help you can give me.

Maddie Ireland 

Fortunately I didn't receive any replies. However when I attended a Creative England event at the studios, I spoke to Perry O'Hallaron, who I had met previously before on one of Dean's shoots. He now has his own production company called Milk Gone Bad, but is still writing. He gave me a very valuable piece of advice, which was 'Just keep writing.' This sounds simple but is very important just to keep writing no matter how many knock backs you get. This is definitely something I am going to do after uni.

First edit feedback

I knew that the cut that we had given to Simon was rough. Most of the scenes weren't together meaning there was big bits of black throughout. But it had all the scenes there and was  first cut. 

Hennie and I had said that the whole thing felt a bit flat but we knew this could be lifted by music and sound effects. Our editor Josh also had a lot of animation that he planned to put into the edit to lift it as well.

Simon's main points were:

-Not enough close up shots, he wanted us to get straight into the action to get to know the characters.

-Maisy unintentionally keeps looking to the camera, she does it so often that he confuses the audience to whether she is actually meant to be doing it or not.

-Big issue with crossing the line and peoples eye lines in the last party scene.

-The first scene is the biggest problem area- bad choice of shots, over exposed and in some areas soft.

We will pass all of these points onto Josh, so he can improve the edit and we can have a better end piece.

The first edit

Today I watched the first edit of 'Totally Maisy'. I was so excited as I knew how much effort everyone had put into making it a brilliant show.

I was pleased with the first edit but felt that the second half of the film was much stronger that the first half and that the first half just felt a bit flat. I think this is mainly due to the sound not being sorted yet and there is no background music/ sounds to lift the action. I found some of the scenes even funnier now they had been brought to life and there were some brilliant shots in there too.

We will be showing Simon on Monday, so we can give his feedback to Josh and he can get on with the next edit!

Our Editor hard at work

Our first and only problem

Day 4, our final day gave us our first and only problem that we had whilst filming Totally Maisy. The call time for most of the cast was 6pm, including Katie (Maisy's enemy and school hottie.) It got to about 4pm and neither me or Hennie had heard from Katie all day after numerous phone calls, texts and emails. She had been at the first day of filming and seemed happy and excited to continue so we thought this to be odd. By the time it got to 5pm we decided that we could not wait any longer for her to contact us so must start on an contingency plan. Katie is a vital character to show that Jack is not interested in Maisy but is going out with Katie. Katie's purpose is to be horrible to Maisy and the girls and be Jack's girfriend. So we decided to write myself a part in as Katie's big sister, who all the girls to be older and scarier than Katie, a mega bitch if you like. This would work so that when Maisy looked in the binoculars she would see that Katie wasn't there and get excited only to be confronted with her big sister when they got inside. To us this was the only thing we could do with such short amount of time and stand ins. 

Luckily at 6pm Hennie received a text saying that Katie would be late and her phone had died. So luckily for us Katie turned up and we were able to continue filming as normal!

This really taught me the importance of contingency plans and how important it is to have them just in case.

Jack Baugh (Jack) and Mel Sanger (Katie)

Totally Maisy- Day 1

We were all really excited to meet our cast and start filming today. We knew today and Saturday were to be our hardest but most exciting shoots as they were on location and with the most cast/crew and extras. Today's shoot was at the school so the crew arrived at half 7 to begin setting up and then the cast call time was 8. We had a late start as Maisy was stuck in the Dartford tunnel traffic, so we had to cut our whole script read through, down to just the first scene read through.

Our Director, Jordan then briefed the cast and crew and Hennie and I gave a brief health and safety talk so that the cast and crew knew what precautions to take. 

The cast all bonded together really quickly and really well which I was really pleased with as that was my main concern to begin with as they had never met each other before. By the end of the day it felt like everyone was old friend and we were all really excited for the next 3 days filming.

If I could have changed anything from the firsts day shoots, it would be that the extras were waiting around for quite some time at the beginning of the day so I should have made their call time later. They didn't seem to mind though and ate their way through the provided food!

We also had time to take our promotional image that we will be using for all our posters, dvd cases etc. I am really pleased with how this came out and think it really portrays the different characters and their friendship groups. 

1 day to go!

With one day till the big shoot I am getting very nervous but excited. There is still somethings to sort out with directer and 1st AD so we are having a meeting first thing tomorrow to go over last minute issues to do with the schedule and extras. 
This is the list of things we need to do tomorrow:

• Meet with Jordan and Josh at 10am.
• Print at studios (Call sheets, scripts, shooting schedule and shot list.)
• Collect equipment from studios.
• Collect dolly from UCA campus.
• Buy last costumes pieces (A few white shirts from Primark)
• Food shop for first few days. 

Our first day involves most of our entire cast so Hennie and I have to make sure to cater for them all. It will also test our organisation skills with so many people to control.

Location: School

For all of our school scenes we will be filming at Oasis Academy at Hextable. So today Hennie, Jordan and Josh went to have a look at it and choose which rooms we would be filming in.
The four locations we would need are:

• Form Room- Mrs Greenway's room.
• History Room- Mr Walker's room.
• 2 parts of the corridor. (When Katie and Vicky see the 3 girls and when Maisy bumps into Mr Walker and Jack)
• A base where we can set up hair/make up and wardrobe and food.

All of the school scenes will take place on Wednesday, on our first day of filming. 

This is the room we will be using as the Form room as there is good light in here and spread out tables so it means we can spread out our 15 extras to make it look busier:

Mrs Greenways desk

The history room looks the same as this just slightly biggger.

This is the corridor we will be using. It is nice and bright and also looks really modern.

 I really this cornered area of the corridor so will use this to film one of the corridor scenes.

My brilliant production team.

BBC 3

Now that we have decided that 'Totally Maisy,' will be for BBC 3, it has allowed for room in the script to be a bit more tongue-in-cheek and a bit cheekier, we are not producing a crude television programme but it is now possible to add things in that are more suitable for that time and channel. For example there is now a few things that have been added in that go over Maisy and the girls head as they are very naive characters, not mature for their age in the 'sexual sense.' This adds to the comedic element of 'Totally Maisy.' 

The story and narrative has not changed even though the platform has, but it still works. 'Totally Maisy' was always going to be too old for children's TV so fits much better now. 

The main change we have had to do is the branding as Hennie had been emailing the graphic designer telling them that the program was for CBBC, they had been looking at other CBBC logos for inspiration and as the audience range for CBBC is 6-12 it would have been suitable for them. Now the platform has changed, Hennie let them know this so they could think about an older audience (approx 15-34.) 

Anorexia Research

As I created a side story for one of my characters, Cassie, I needed to do some research into the illness that Cassie is beginning to have. Cassie is suffering with the illness anorexia but her 2 best friends, Maisy and Gemma do not know and neither do her family as she is keeping it so secret.

I got the following research from the NHS website so it is accurate and scientific in every aspect.

Symptoms:

• Eating as little as possible
• Making yourself vomit
• Over excerising- burning more calories than you consume in a day. 

The need to obsessively burn calories usually draws people with anorexia to high impact activities, such as running, dancing or aerobics. Some people will use any available opportunity to burn calories, such as preferring to stand than sit as it burns more calories. 

I will use this information with Cassie and make her standing and never sitting, so this will be a subtle hint to the audience that many not even pick up on. 

Warning signs in others:

• Losing weight
• Missing meals
• Complaining about being fat, even though they are normal or underweight.
• Repeatedly weighing themselves and looking in the mirror.
• Saying they have already eaten.
• Only eaten certain low calorie foods in your prescence.
• Feeling uncomfortable or refusing to eat in public places. 

I will incorporate some of this points into Cassie's character, especially the feeling uncomfortable eating in public places. There is also a scene where Cassie inspects herself in the mirror for a while which will show her low self esteem.  

OCD and Anorexia

Like in most real life cases, Cassie has OCD along with her anorexia. This is very common as the illness's come hand in hand. This is what I found out about it:

-Individual repeatedly checks refrigerator, shelves or other parts of the house, in order to make sure that every piece of food brought in is in its proper designated place. 

I have used this information to create a trait that Cassie has in which she has drawer under her bed filled withe chocolate and crisps all nicely set out in a neat and proper order. She spends hours sorting this food and making sure everything is in the right place. This is her way of not eating by distracting herself with this job. 

This is a blog I found of a suffer of both OCD and anorexia which I think will come in handy when writing for Cassie as it shows their unique way of thinking:

http://andthenshedisappeared.blogspot.co.uk

Costume

As the costume for 'Totally Maisy' is everyday wear we will be asking the cast to bring their own costumes. 
The only thing that we will need to purchase is:

• Matching ties to create the school uniform.
• School badge for Rob's blazer.
• Embarrassing underwear for katie.

This is the table I created so we have an idea of the costume needed for each character.

Contract/Consent form

From Simon's lecture today I decided it would be a very good idea to produce a consent/contract form for our cast and crew, so that they can agree to our terms and conditions. My producer Hennie will be sending these out to the cast and crew today when she lets them know they have been cast. 

Cast

So here it is, pictures of our cast!

Maisy

Cassie

Gemma

Jack

Rob

Joe

Maisys Mum

Mrs Greenway

Mr Walker

TBC

2 Audition days

We had our first audition day on Sunday at Becketts sports centre in Dartford. We managed to hire out the dance studio for £10, which was really helpful and helped our budget out. Hennie, our director Jordan, 1st AD Josh and I turned up a bit late and already had a que of eagerly awaiting teenagers. Josh filmed the auditions for us so we could watch at a later date and decide on cast. In the end we had about 7 auditionees for various parts. We ended up asking each girl and boy to do each of the female and male roles as we wanted to see who they would most suit.

I was really impressed with the eagerness and willing to help of the teens. The next audition day was Tuesday at the studios where we had two Maisy's mum audition and one boy for rob/jack. Again we filmed these auditions and I edited a quick youtube video together to show Josh and Jordan. 
This is the video:

For the audition process we also took part in to skype calls and received audition tapes from actors and actress's. 

Yesterday evening Hennie, Jordan and Josh all got together for a gruelling few hours to decide who we thought would make the best cast. 

New Platform

After recieiving emails from CITV and CBBC, who kindly let me know that some of the themes that 'Totally Maisy' covers are not suitable for childrens television. After these emails I was at a lose end as I did not really know where 'Totally Maisy' would fit. I expressed these concerns to my tutor and he suggested that even though the programme is for children it does not necessarily need to be on kids tv. Smon suggested to look at the likes of BBC 3 and E4 whos audience range is from 16-34, which sounds a lot more of what I want. After some initial research I realised I would not have to change my script a lot but maybe just give it a more of an edge.  

Examples of BBC 3 programs thats are similiar (not a million miles away from) Totally Maisy:

• Some Girls
• Bad Education

Examples of E4 programs:

• The Inbetweeners
• My Mad Fat Diary

After initial research I am leaning towards bbc3 but I will continue to research further into both channels to see which would be more suitable for Totally Maisy. 

Writer/producer research

One of my targets from last weeks tutorials was to research into writer/producers and there job roles. 

This is what i have found so far:

• The television writer is the person responsible for creating all plot lines, dialogue, characters and situations. The writer also provides the initial story generation and outlines as well as all script rewrites and polishes. 
• Often writer/producers are responsible for both the budget and the overall quality of the production. 
• The television producer writer/producer will be the one to hire the director, work closely with the line producer to hire the crew, oversee casting and supervise all post production efforts.

This small bit of research has already made me feel more confident and reassured in my roles as a writer/producer. I am currently doing those things such as overseeing casting crew hire and hiring a director so I know I am on the right lines. 

After uni-  Advice on becoming a writer

• A spec script is a sample of your writing that shows other poeple that you understand both the format of television as wel as the craft. Your spec can be a script of an exisiting television show that you have written or an original television pilot. a good spec will show off your skills. How to write a spec script:

http://filmtvcareers.about.com/od/gettingthejob/a/HT_SpecScript.htm

Roles

After a detailed meeting with Hennie we have defined our roles and our contributors roles. They are as follows:

Maddie

• Co-Producer
• Writer
• Researcher (Story, Channel, Programme)
• Production side- call sheets, schedule and health and safety. 

Hennie

• Co- producer
• Casting director (including researching legality with working with minors.)
• Location Manager
• Crew

Jordan Saville

• Director

Joshua Reeves

• DOP
• Editing

Auditions

Audition dates and venues are now confirmed! 

Adults auditions 
- Saturday 28th September
-11am 
-Baldwyns Park baptist church hall, Bexley

Teen auditions
-Sunday 29th September
-12pm
-Beckets gym dance studio, Dartford

After I have received feedback for version 2 of Totally Maisy I will begin to draft auditions pieces for both audition days. 

Further channel research

After my previous blog I did some deeper research into CITV and other channels that would broadcast Totally Maisy.

I found something that said that older CITV is aimed at 9-12 year olds and are look for strong driven main characters and a live action drama. I think 'Totally Maisy' fits perfectly into that bracket except for the target audience. I thought CITV would still be too young an audience for 'Totally Maisy,' but thought I would give their commissioning director an email to see if she would be offer me any help. This is what she replied:

"Thank you for contacting CITV. I've read through the Totally Maisy outline and you're right, it's too old for CITV. We're aimed at kids 6-12 years old. Your series tackles dating, boyfriends, and parties which our viewers are not old enough for. Live action series that we've aired in the past are titles such as Victorious, Hannah Montana, My Parents are Aliens and Best Friends. This is the oldest we'd go.

I hope this is helpful and I wish you the best with your project going forward.

Kind Regards

Jamila Metran"

This email was very helpful and she confirmed what I thought was true. I always appreciate it when professionals take the time out of their busy schedule to help students.

I desperately need to find the correct channel to target 'Totally Maisy,' so I have emailed 3 main digital childrens channels and ill continue to research into other platforms. These are the channels I have emailed:

• CBBC, Sue Notts (Commissioner)
• Nickelodeon Global, Jules Borkent 
• Disney UK, Chrisiana Nobili (Direction of Production) 

CITV

After emailing the commissioner for CBBC, I thought I would do the same for CITV as that is the other big British kids digital channel. After researching into there commissioning web pages I found the following:

"CITV is the number one commercial children's channel. We commission and acquire a range of programmes aimed at children up until the age of about 11. When commissioning we do not tend to generally fully fund so co-pros are completely the norm here. We are looking to focus on shows for 4-9 year olds and live action and animation. It would be fantastic if we could put original, funny stuff on CITV; that would be a bold ambition fulfilled if that happened."

This is definately not the target we are looking at for 'Totally Maisy.' 'Totally Maisy' deals with teenage themes that are not appropriate for the ages of 4-9. So I have completely ruled out this channel.
While I wait for an email from the CBBC commissioner, I will research the digital channels of Nickelodeon and the Disney channel. Although these broadcast mainly American television programmes, I need to see if they have before broadcasted British shows. 

That will be my mission for this evening!

CBBC Commissioner

For my last project I contacted the commissioner for CBBC, Sue Notts, and I asked her what the CBBC would think of The Suitcase Kid. She replied a very helpful email that helped to back up why I had chosen to show my film on CBBC. I decided to give her another email this time regarding 'Totally Maisy,' and weather she thought it was appropriate for CBBC or not. Her response will help Hennie and I to decide on a channel where this TV pilot will targeted for. This is the email I sent:

Dear Sue

I contacted you early this year with regards to my student project on a Jacqueline Wilson adaptation. I was very grateful for the information that you gave me and even got a 1st for that particular project! I was just wondering if you would be able to help again, after adapting a novel, I am now tasked with creating and writing my own TV pilot script. As I enjoy writing for the children's genre very much I decided to continue on the same lines as before and create a teenage pilot programme called 'Totally Maisy'. I was emailing you to see weather you think it is something the CBBC would pick up on as I am not sure if the audience is too young or not for this type of programme as I am currently trying to find the right channel to target my script for. This is the synopsis:

'Totally Maisy'

"This brand new 25 minute pilot tells the story of awkward 15 year old Maisy’s life. She lives at home with her single mum who is much cooler than her and is going on way more dates. Now shes going into year 10 with her BFF’s Cassie and Gemma, and she has a whole new set of dramas to deal with. The girls spy new sixth form hottie Jack, and Maisy knows she just has to make him hers! Luckily she has her boy best friend Rob to walk home with and tell him all about her problems but Maisy just can't see how much Rob likes her. There's the coolest house party on Friday and Maisy and the girls just have to find a way in to it! Meanwhile whilst this is all going on Mums stared to date again, and Maisy can’t work out why her hot new history teacher is being so nice to her…"

I understand you are very busy so I appreciate you taking your time to read this email and any help you may be able to give me. 
Many Thanks
Maddie Ireland

Simon's feedback for version 1 script

-Good Premise
-Timely
-Mature but works with children's television

-Maisy

• Really good character- Her language and personality is the USP of the series.
• Interacts well with her friends. 

-Need to consider the series-

• How many episodes?
• Overall story, what happens to Maisy?
• Should sew seeds for later episodes.

-Maisy and her mum have a really good role rehearsal- build on it. 

-Don't be afraid to be more melodramatic, bigger funnier scenes.

-Write a scene starting a new storyline with Cassie or Gemma, that can be extended in a later episode. 

-Will work best as a TV series for CITV/CBBC. 

-New idea

Lose the back to school disco and have a cool house party that is at Joe and Cassie's. But Joe is adamant Cassie and her friends aren't allowed to come to. Maisy knows that her way to Jack is at the party so she along with Cassie and Gemma come up with a way to go to it. - work on this.

Have a mockumentry feel to it, using vlogs, this way we can see more into Maisy's life and afford to lose some scenes. 

Meeting with Jordan and Josh 11/9

Jordan and Josh are friends from secondary school and have just graduated from university and started up a production company, so we thought we would arrange a meeting to see what we could all do for each other. I emailed the boys over a script beforehand so they brought some really  good ideas to the times.

These were two ideas that Jordan brought to the table:
- To come up with a sort of 'Submarine' feel to it creating a quirky weird edge to the main character. Making it more edgy.
Although I liked this idea I decided this would change  the whole feel of the program and appeal to an older audience not the audience I attended for 'Totally Maisy.' 
- Bringing a mockumentry feel to it, so having Maisy talking to the camera.
Hennie and I really liked this idea as Hennie has previously mentioned having a vlog style to it. The main character, Maisy will have a vlog that she will do at least once a episode. She will be talking to the camera like in a mocumentry.

-Cutaway dictionary definitions on a scrap bit of paper like a diary, which Maisy will explain by using a voiceover rather than having it on top of live action. Keeping the animation to a minimal. 

The roles were decided after a discussion and will be as follows:

-Jordan Saville , Director 
-Joshua Reeves,  DOPing and editing

We gave Josh a list of equipment, so he can start thinking about filming. 

Casting

Today I rang up several local drama schools, a few prestigious London performing arts schools and also a few teen acting agencies to see if they would be able to help me with casting at all. I explained the project to them and emailed them over all of the details of the project including a poster I had made up.

I also tried to cast on Casting Call Pro but as we are not able to pay we are not allowed to advertise jobs for under 16's.

Hopefully I will start to get a good response back from teens who are interested in the project and want to audition.

My mission for tomorrow is to find a venue to hold the auditions.

Production Schedule

This is a production schedule I knocked up for us so that we knew what we should be doing when and when we had deadlines we needed to meet.

List of locations and descriptions

During today's production meeting, Hennie and I went through the script and listed all the locations that appear in 'Totally Maisy.' This is the list:

• A secondary school ( 4 settings; 2 classrooms, a corridor and outside the front gates.)
• Maisy's living room (homely and comforting.) 
• Maisy's bedroom (girly, pink, covered in posters and teddies, childish.)
• Cassie's bedroom (grown up, posh and has expensive things)
• Cafe (fortunately we will be filming from outside and not inside so this will not cause to much of an issue.)
• Outside Locations; the street where Rob and Maisy walk home, the high street the girls walk down and the park bench. 

For the budget we have given ourselves these are all good locations as we shouldn't have to spend any money at all on locations, maybe to give the caretaker that has to come and open and close the school as we are filming during half term. 

The first school we will try and get on board is mine and Hennie's secondary school, Wilmington Grammar. It is aesthetically pleasing and as they know us, they will be  more likely to allow filming permission. 

Script version 1

Today I gave Simon the first version of a full script. I had a bit of trouble writing the end because I didn't want to write an ending of that similar to a film, because it is a series and the characters will all be back next week for the next episode. I hope what I ended up shows this but is also not too vague. I am really looking forward to receiving my feeback as this is the first time Simon will have heard anything about my idea.

I also sent a copy to my co-producer Hennie and my two (hopefully) directors, Josh and Jordan. Josh and Jordan are two friends from school that have finished university and decided to start a production company, so would be perfect candidates to direct and edit my pilot. 

09/09 Production Meeting

Today Hennie and I had a quick production meeting to make a do list of what we needed to do by our next meeting (Thursday.) These were the points we came up with:

• Ringing schools, so we can confirm location.
• Find a place to hold auditions.
• Set audition date- We have decided to hold them on a weekend, so this is more convenient for actors/actresses that have school. The date we have provisionally chosen, 28th/29th September, which is a month away from when we plan to film in October half term. 
• Create Casting Call Pro accounts for the 3 adult actors.
• Arrange meeting with directors, we have arranged this meeting for 6.30pm on Wednesday.

I went home and spoke to my step mum who came up with a really good idea to hold the auditions in a village hall that has a stage area. There is one right opposite my road where I am member of a church and went to nursery there so I decided to drop him in a letter this evening.

This is a copy of the letter. 

To Reverend Green

My name is Maddie Ireland and I used to attend Baldwyns park nursery and went to school at Maypole. I am currently in my final year of university studying Broadcast Media. For part of my final project I am writing and producing a teenage television pilot and am currently looking for somewhere to hold auditions to search for a talented cast.

My step mum, Cindy Fry suggested I tried your hall at Baldwyns Park. I was wondering if it would be possible to use the hall on a Saturday morning (or whenever convenient) for a few hours and were thinking the 28^th September or the 5^th October. I have enclosed my mobile number and email if you could possible give me a call or an email. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Maddie Ireland

Identity Crisis

So 'Totally Maisy' is having an identity crisis. I began writing it as pilot for a potential television series but the further I get into the script (18/27) I think it is more and more like a short film. To turn 'Totally Maisy' into a short film would sort out my platforming problem but I wanted in to be a series. I have changed one plot line to turn it more into part of series. I think the best thing to do is to wait until Simon reads it and then see what he thinks. 

Language

As this tv pilot is aimed at teenagers aged 13-18, I need the language to be as update and relatable as possible. I have also decided to play on this idea and make it fun. If anyone has had a conversation with me for longer than 5 minutes they will know I use silly abbreviations for words, eg. soz= sorry and totes= totally. I want to incorporate these into my main character, Maisy's every day language. It is becoming increasingly popular for teenagers to be using these sort of words that have evolved from the idea of 'Text Talk.'

The program Sadie J that I mentioned in a previous post does just this and Sadie has some ridiculous but funny catch phrases. My favourite is:

This is a play on of the text talk phrase, OMG (Oh My God.)

I plan to use these abbreviations in Maisy's language to convey a sense of silliness and girliness that she has. I have also created a catch phrase that she says all the time which is - CRINGE O' CLOCK.
Maisy will say this when something totes (totally) embaz (embarrassing) has happened.

Similar Programs

I am having a bit of trouble deciding on which channel to show 'Totally Maisy,' for a few reasons. I first though about CBBC but the target audience just isn't quite right. On the BBC website it states that their target audience is 6-12. 'Totally Maisy' is aimed at 13-18 year olds so it comes just outside the age boundaries of CBBC. I then thought about lowering my target audience but decided against as I don't think some of the themes of the tv programme is best suited for CBBC. The program most like 'Totally Maisy,' that is airing at the moment on CBBC is 'Sadie J.'

"Sadie J is a BAFTA-nominated British children's television comedy-drama series about a teenage girl named Sadie Jenkins, who is described as "the only girl in a boys' world" because she is surrounded by her Dad Steve, his apprentice Keith, her brother Danny, his best friend Jake and their dog Roger. It was billed as 'a feel-good comedy about a feisty 13-year-old girl with the sass of Cheryl Cole and the punch of a prize fighter'."

Sadie J is of school age but there is not one scene set at school where in 'Totally Maisy' there is. Also Sadie and her friends are all 13/14 where Maisy and her friends are 15/16. It is the next generation.

In my research I found that a Jacquline Wilson adaption 'Girls in Love' was aired on CITV in 2003-2005. This is much more the sort of thing I am looking towards writing.
"Three teenage girls - Ellie, Magda and Nadine, are three best friends that go through the somewhat weird and wonderful world of boys together. The show is narrated by Ellie, and usually portrays her life events in her sketchbook."

However since its own channel and not on ITV, CITV have since ditched the older audience range of kids and gone for a whole new generation of younger programming. No more will they address themes of sex and drugs. 'Totally Maisy,' will not address themes of sex and drugs but will address boys and love so is not suitable for either channel.

My co producer Hennie came up with the idea of making it a web based series. I don't know much about these so will continue to research into these to see if this platform is the best. We have discussed having an interactive side to this so that the audience could choose the ending they wanted for example.

Director

The first major decision I have decided on is that I would like to bring in an outside Director to direct the pilot. Hennie agrees with me that this is the best choice to make as it something neither of us want to concentrate on in this project and in the future in our careers. Although in the 2 years, that we currently have on the course there is some very competent directors I would love to work with on my last ever project, I know how busy it is for them term time, so I think it would be easier to get in a recent enthusiastic graduate.

Hennie has already sent out some advertisements for this position which we have had some interest in and we will be arranging with these directors, the week beginning the 26th August. After showing them a rough draft of the script we will then, decide who will be the best candidate on- experience, location, practicality, ability to work as a team but to also lead a shoot.

Minor Character Breakdowns

Mum-

• Late 30s
• Looks young for her age, but still Mumsy acting
• Over protective
• Loving
• Tries to be Maisy's best friend
• Attractive
• Dresses good
• Skinnier prettier than Maisy which annoys Maisy.

Teacher 10- male

• Good looking
• Can be quite strict
• Thinks he is really funny
• Always cracking jokes
• Mid 30s
• All the girls fancy him
• Charming.

Teacher 2- female

• Strict
• Older lady
• Nice deep down
• Tough outside

.

Main Character breakdowns

Character List

Maisy (Protagonist)-

• Normal looking but not ugly
• Worrier
• Obsessed with boys
• Bubbly
• Fun
• Always coming up with crazy ideas
• Sensitive
• Caring
• Oblivious to some things
• Family orientated

 Cassie (Maisy’s BFF)-

• Pretty, tall, long hair
• Clever
• Confident
• Sensible
• Popular with boys and girls
• Keeps the group together and safe
• Immaculate
• Caring

 Gemma (Maisy’s other BFF)-

• Easy going
• Daydreamer
• Forgetful
• Messy
• Arty
• Loves music
• Pretty but always dishevelled looking
• Long term boyfriend

Rob (Maisie’s boy best friend)-

• Sporty
• A bit geeky but still cute
• Sensitive
• Good listener
• Goes to the boys school of theirs
• Fancies Maisy a lot