Thursday 11 April 2013

Man Alive - Setting The Scene


The Prison and Cell Location Information



Main Setting for the series as it develops -San Quentin - AKA COLDMARSH PRISON



San Quentin was chosen as the fictional setting for COLDMARSH prison as a way for the current American audience to identify a link with their world. By using an existing prison that has it’s name changed through the story the audience will find it easier to believe into the dystopian American future we are creating. 

This prison is the perfect choice because it has links to Alcatraz, perhaps the worlds most famous, and the location of San Francisco is plausible for the main character Ethan Harper who comes from Los Angeles. San Quentin is designed to hold 3,082 and has a notorious Death Row with both electrocution and lethal injection methods used. The prison also has a strong connection with the community, in particular hosting a weekly baseball game for the inmate team “The Giants”. Local people can come into the prison and play against the team every Sunday whilst the rest of the prisons watch and cheer.  This is unique to the prison and is a tradition going back fifty years, MAN ALIVE the series will also have a baseball game in one of the episodes as a key scene.


COLDMARSH in MAN ALIVE was one of the first to be renovated for The Network’s television show “Cellblock”. Although the iconic facade of San Quentin Prison remains, inside has been transformed into a start of the art cage. To keep ties with the original prison, the inmates numbers begin with the San Quentin postcode 94964. There are 421 cameras that broadcast live to the outside world 24/7 in the high security unit alone, which houses a mixture of Death Row and Life Sentence prisoners. Every state has a Primary High Security Prison, which is where the “Lockdown” event takes place annually, COLDMARSH is the one for the State of California. 

The television series on focusses State Primary Prisons as these are of High Security, particularly those with death row, as executions are broadcasted live. Other prisons are only viewable on dedicated websites. State Primary prisons are viewable twenty four seven, with a two hour highlight package “CELLBLOCK” each night, on TNW. 
Futuristic computer technology is present at all levels, with heat detection and weight detection as standard on all corridors and exits. In it’s five year history since Michael Harding and The Network won a bid to the airing rights of the prisons in exchange for taking full responsibility for the inmates has anyone escaped. In the history of American Justice, “Cell Block” has been the most effective way of running state prisons. 






COLDMARSH - THE CELL
Coldmarsh Prison’s cells feature two bunk beds, a sink and toilet. 
Although seemingly standard, on closer inspection of the cell’s featured in MAN ALIVE there are many differences. Firstly all cells are fitted with a state of the art iPad, with holographic capabilities. The device is cemented into the wall and is used to notify the prisoners each day what they have been selected for, i.e. their food, yard time, activities work etc, from the audience outside. 
Prisoners lives are generally voted for by the public, although some high paying customers can choose to sponsor a prisoner, usually family or enemies who want to improve or degrade their life in prison.
The tablet can also show them videos selected by the public and music, for an hour a day. Once a month, messages can also be posted by family and friends. The communication is only one way.  The prisoners have NO communication with the outside world what so ever, there is no visiting. One package a month however is granted with one letter.  To tackle the issue of communication there are motion capture censors placed on each wall, floor and ceiling that can detect with in seconds mouth movement and hand written signs focussed at the ipad. Penalties are severe and are to deter inmates from speaking out about The Network. 

The colour scheme is navy, blue and grey which help with the capture of the camera’s. One multi angle camera is screwed into the ceiling, and the other inside the iPad that can focus on prisoners when they are in the bunk beds, both are highly secure. 

Each cell has heat detecters so that when the system has been programmed to know when the prisoners should be locked away , an alarm is sounded if it cannot detect the body temperature of both inmates. 

There are no metal bars, only lasers that criss-cross in-front of the exit, if these are breached a solid iron door slams down from above. This is to enable guards visual access to cells at all times and helps with the control of prisoners. Finally there is a finger pad on the wall nearest the entrance in every cell which inmates must use to check in and out of their cells, stopping any cell swapping and keeping an up to date record of the prisoners location. 


Lockdown

Every year, the last two weeks of August “Lockdown” takes over the American nation’s television - where the primary state High Security prison is locked down for two weeks, with the audience prohibited from voting on the inmates lives. They are in a state of limbo with basic rations and no yard time. They can however watch the games on the Cell Devices (A built in wall iPad). At the beginning of April, voting and preliminary trails open, for audiences to select ten prisoners, from each primary state prison to compete. Throughout the two weeks, the chosen prisoners will fight, in a knockout tournament. The winner is granted early parole. 

Throughout the series it becomes clear that the Presidential candidate and CEO of The Network, Michael Harding has hopes of changing this years programme to Lockdown: LAST MAN ALIVE. 

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