KICK OFF! first draught (re-issue)

KICK OFF!

Ep.1 Ser.1 – Jamie.

(Jamie arrives at football training in his Mercedes. Low camera shot from rear left wheel, door opens, well dressed male steps out and walks towards the ground)

SCENE 1

(Jamie is the last person to arrive at the meeting room; everyone stares for a while, as Jamie looks bewildered)

Jamie

Alright lads?

(Huge cheer and all team surround him)

(Jamie appears caught off guard, and does not know what is occurring)

Barry

(Whilst thrusting and grinding)

Congratulations mate! I see you have finally got on the score sheet!

(All team sport a cheeky cheer)

All Team

WHHEEEERRYYYYYYYY!!!!

Jamie

Hahahaha, sod off you lot!

(still looking confused, but he seems to have succeeded in something)

(They all crowd around Jamie and Barry, whilst chanting and cheering as they go to prepare for training)

SCENE 2

(Camera pans from meeting room to changing room, all the team are mocking Jamie)

Terry

I’m surprised you actually had it in ya!

Jamie

Oh thanks/

Terry

Is what you should have said to her!

All Team

WEEEEHHHHEEEEEEYYYY!!!

(Manager enters and everybody retreats to their stations, a hushed tone is ensued)

Mike

ALRIGHT LADS, settle down now, we’ve got a lot of work to do today, and we can’t have this foolishness getting in the way…now (continues rambling)

(Whilst mike is talking, Nick leans over to Jamie and begins to whisper something)

Nick

You got it?

Jamie

(looking down, suspicious) No, I told you not yet, I’m doing my best.

Nick

I told you three days, it’s been four

Jamie

I can’t give you something I haven’t got

Nick

(begins to get closer to Jamie’s face, and intimidates him extremely)

Then you shouldn’t borrow something you can’t pay back. Now you know where you can get it, you know where to drop it off, and you know when to do it, so I suggest you do it tonight, or for every day your late, I’ll take a finger from your mother’s hand, if I run out fingers I’ll take toes, and if I run out of toes I can/

Mike

OI! Are you listening or what?

Nick

(only nicks attention is directed at Mike, but he still can talk to Jamie)

Say you’re sorry

Jamie

Sorry Boss

Mike

(To Jamie) you. Outside. Now.

(Camera pans to the corridor, and finds Mike and Jamie discussing)

Mike

What the fuck was all that about in there? You looked like white shite.

Jamie

I know boss, it’s just that.../

Mike

I mean, I know you’re not the kind of lad to say boo to a goose, but Jesus lad, it looks like the goose has crawled up your backside and stayed there!

Jamie

If you’ll just let me explain gaffer

Mike

Go on then son, I’m all ears

Jamie

Well you see, I have this predicament, and if I’m not out of it anytime soon then I’m done here. I’m done in this club, the career, the country, just I have to get out of it/

Mike

Whoa! Whoa! lad calm down, tell me what’s happened.

Jamie

I can’t boss, I just can’t

Mike

If that Nick fella is giving you any grief, just let me know son and he’s out, you came through the academy anyways and he’s only on loan from Real Betis or whatever the fuck you wanna call ‘em

Jamie

No, it’s not, I mean, it wasn’t, just, can I miss today sir? I promise I’ll put 200 in tomorrow?

Mike

Go on lad get out of here, make sure you’re alright, in fact have the week off, I’ll see at the game on Saturday

Jamie

Cheers Boss

(Jamie runs down the corridor and slams through the fire exit doors, one door falls closed, sound of American tyres screeching; close up of Mike, showing a face of disappointment)

Shot from inside changing room, all players are conversing except Nick, who awaits the door.

The door opens and in walks mike

(Mike walks slowly to middle of the room, whilst he and nick exchange dirty looks, a short silence follows)

Mike

(In a disheartened tone) alright lads, let’s get out there.

SCENE 3

Still shot of Jamie’s house, re car drives past, panning the camera shot into the front room

(Alex; a 22 year old woman who is Jamie girlfriend, is asleep in the living room, covered in an array of trash on the sofa)

Jamie

Right, up

Alex

(jumping up and bouncy)

What baby? Ooh you were good last night!

Jamie

We got a fucking issue on our hands

Alex

(hands on approach to Jamie)

Oooh I love it when you’re angry!

Jamie

Just shut the fuck up alright! I need some space, go clean something, or have sex with something, (increasingly getting agitated) or better yet just FUCK OFF.

Alex

Fine, I might just go to my mums today or I might go for a swim I’m not sure, what’s your mum doing today baaaabe?

Jamie

Its fuck all to do with you, now just leave me alone.

Alex

Oh. Well is this about me telling the team that I’m pregnant?

Jamie

(slowly looks round to Alex in a dumbfounded expression)

Wha, you did what?

Alex

Yeah, Nick came round earlier, looking for you, so I said you went out already

Jamie

What happened then?

Alex

He just left

Jamie

Hang on; why you would tell him you’re pregnant

Alex

Cause I am? Stoopid.

Jamie

And you told the whole team?

Alex

Yeah why?

Jamie

Who else have you got to tell?

Alex

Well your mum when I next see her (mutters to self) erm my parents and family (mutters again) you when you get back from training, your brothers, my boss/

Jamie

Wait what was that middle one?

Alex

(Realising what she’s done and begins to slow speech down)

You when you get back from training…

Jamie

Yeah.

Alex

I’m so sorry! I was gonna wait till y’/

Jamie

So the whole team new, before I did?

Alex

Well yeah bu/

Jamie

Including nick?

Alex

Obviously but you gotta realize that/

Jamie

The very same fucking bastard who has kidnapped my fucking mother?!

And he was here today?! Right we’re gone, get a bag, we’re off.

Alex

He’s do’..? wha? (begins to overreact and play on the melodrama of the situation) oh my god oh my god oh my god!

Jamie

Be quiet for fucks sake, just get in the car.

Alex

But where will we go?

Jamie

Leave that to me.

(Shot to Black)

KICK OFF! first draught.

INT - STILL SHOT OF JAMIES HOUSE, A CAR DRIVES PAST

           JAMIE WALKS INTO THE LIVING ROOM FINDING ALEX ASLEEP
           ON THE COUCH, BURIED IN AN ARRAY OF TRASH.

JAMIE

Morning lazy!

THROWING KIT BAG TO HER

ALEX

Where've you been?

GROANS AND RISES

JAMIE

Whats that thing i do? That pays for you to lay about all day, buy's your clothes, and lets you get leathered every night with them other tarts...oh yeah!

work!

ALEX

So what are you saying?

ALEX RISES AND BEGINS SEARCH FOR SOMETHING

JAMIE

Im saying that i don't expect to get back from a hard days work to find everything i've paid for either destroyed or in a mess!

ALEX

What else am i gonna do? you earn enough! just replace it! and i dont need to work with the club shovelling money down your throat cause you look good in shorts and knee high socks!

And another thing! you complain when i go to look for work, but when i do the opposite, you still whinge!

THEY BOTH CONFRONT EACH OTHER

JAMIE PULLS OUT PEPPERONI FROM LAST NIGHTS PIZZA AND EATS IT

ALEX

Upstairs. Now.

CAMERA PANS TO NEXT SCENE

Everybody Hates Chris - script extract.

At the beginning of the text, there is a short direction, to where the first scene is set, and what time of day it is “INT. BOYS BEDROOM – MORNING”, it goes on to describe the bedroom in sort detail, “ On the walls are posters of rappers and basketball players” , setting scene even further. As you can notice with most scripts, the character , and the characters dialogue, are in different fonts, so you can distinguish between the two.

There are ascending numbers at either side of the dialogue “1, 2, 3, 4”, this is to show the readers that every time there is a new number, the camera has moved focus. There is also another feature to this script. There is no distinction between the dialogue and stage directions. But we can still tell these two apart by seeing if there is a character’s name above part of the text, then we know it is speech or not.

How I Met Your Mother (script cutting)

BARNEY

*

I thought I’m your best friend. (BEAT)

Ted, say I’m your best friend.

*

TED

*

You’re my best friend, Barney.

*

BARNEY

*

Good. Then as your best friend, I

suggest we play a little game I call,

“Have Ya Met Ted?”

*

TED

*

What? No, we’re not playing “Have Ya

Met Ted.”

*

TOO LATE. BARNEY TAPS AN EXOTIC, SEXY GIRL ON THE SHOULDER.

*

BARNEY

*

Hi. Have ya met Ted?

*

BARNEY WALKS AWAY, LEAVING TED ALONE WITH THE GIRL. AWKWARD

BEAT. TED SMILES, STICKS OUT HIS HAND.

*

TED

*

Hi, I’m Ted.

*

YASMIN

*

Yasmin.

*

TED

*

That’s a very pretty name.

*

YASMIN

*

It’s Lebanese.

*

FREEZE FRAME ON TED’S LOOK OF SURPRISE.

*

NARRATOR (V.O.)

*

Your Uncle Barney was right from time

to time.
*



In this script, a cutting taken from the pilot episode of "How I Met Your Mother", there are distinctive features that can be of great use to the reader. for example the small "*" after every action, tells the reader that the line/action has been completed and to move on to the next one. stage directions and character names are in different font to the actual dialogue, so the actor knows what to say.

My Results!

The following are the results graphs and comments on my questionnaire that was completed by random selection of people, to get others peoples views on what they like, when they watch, and how they see television, with questions answered to help me on my structuring of my T.V. Drama series.

From this graph I can see that out of the 6 genres of television given in the questionnaire, that comedy was the most popular, with 9 votes, with ‘music’ and ‘horror’ were a close second both receiving 6 votes. Although ‘Non-Ficton’ being the least popular with no votes. I now know on what genre to base my series on, but also being versatile with it and adding features of other genres as well as comedy elements.

I then went on to ask if the title of the show, along with the synopsis, would gain viewers on no other action than them being informed that it was about a football team engaging in everyday dilemmas and activities. 90% of the group who answered agreed that it would. This compels me to put a lot of detail into the description of the show, just to give that extra information that they may or may not find out whilst watching the show, without giving away too much information about a certain episode.

As you can see, the majority of the group believes that the name of the show should be called “Kick-Off”. That is now the decided name of the show!

Most people feel that the show should be aimed at people of an age that they will begin to act more independently, about the late teens/early twenties. But I also feel that this show could impact upon people of a much later age, so I shall try and cater for a variety of requirements, much like that “Genre” scenario.

I can see from this evidence that most of the group watch television most frequently between 2-6 hours per week. I can deduce that they have their favourite programmes and channels that they watch regularly, I need to make my T.V. show more appealing to them and perhaps air it on a channel  that has a substantial amount of viewers, and advertise it to see how many actually would like to watch this show.

From this data I can deduce that the most popular T.V. Channel is ‘E4’. As it is famous for its “Student Friendly” listings, and most of its programmes challenge everyday encounters, I feel that this would be a suitable channel to air my T.V. show.

I asked this question to see how the majority of the group would feel about what route the storylines they wish the characters would take. Most of them would gain pleasure from the characters suffering within the show. This tells me that the storylines must be confrontational and either/or explicit to the audience.

This tells me that the audience would want to see comedy. So having to intertwine that with other genres will be a task in itself, but if it’s what the viewers want, it has to be done.

AS Media : My thoughts and ideas

My inspiration for my short television drama series is from the popular series “Footballers Wives” and “skins”.

The main idea to the show is that it revolves around one player/person related to the football team that the series is based on, and their daily lives containing the dilemmas and issues that they deal with, and how they affect those around them. Giving the viewers an inside view to the football squad, and their weekly result reflects their “off-the-pitch” experiences.

The structure for the programme will be similar to the show “skins” and will focus on one person each episode, like as follows,

·         Goalkeeper-life-problem-match-resolution

·         Defender-life-problem-match-resolution

·         Midfielder-life-problem-match-resolution

·         Striker-life-problem-match-resolution

·         Manager-life-problem-match-resolution

·         Substitute-life-problem-match-resolution