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. 

MAN ALIVE - INTRODUCING THE CHARACTERS

Character Profiling and Casting For Man alive

As a writer, I always find that words flow better onto the page when I know exactly who I am writing for. This does not mean the person I have written for needs to play that character but it helps with my imagination. Sometimes of course they are a combination of people I have met during personal experiences and as such I have not found this limiting. For MAN ALIVE I decided to spend time casting my characters before I wrote the majority of my script to aid me with description and dialogue. I a number of weeks carfeully selecting each and every actor to play my 20+ roles for the series. These actors and actress are British and American, with a mixture of house hold names and unknown talent. They have all appeared in television dramas, many of whom in America and particularly for the AMC network which is important from a producers role when pitching to the channel, they have already had success with them.

I then looked into character profiles, composed a list and with Lauren worked on a way of presenting the main characters in our package. This will be in the form of case files and prison documents. We will also look to produce wanted posters that could be used in the marketing campaign. Below is my work on this area so far;

Before I named the characters, cast them and wrote the case files I sat down and wrote a paragraph or two about their role in the series and where they are heading.  Here is an example of one of the main characters;

Ethan Harperr

A young and wise LAPD cop, with a beautiful wife, and beautiful daughter Molly. Life was perfect in his hometown on the golden west coast. Then it all changed. 

He is the newest member of Coldmarsh Prison, and has been placed on Death Row, for the murder of his Partner James McCarthy. He is also charged with making deals with LA’s biggest Drug Lords. The LAPD cop is of course innocent. Up until now he has been an exemplary officer, harsh but fair. Then he stumbled upon his co workers, taking money from gangs, and promoting brutality among the force. When he made an official complaint, he was taken to a warehouse and locked away, whilst they murdered his partner, who also shared the same information. Ethan Harper, is to be made an example of, and will be punished by death in front of millions of people live on national TV by The Network. However, his only hope is the very same network and their lack of desire for justice. All they care about is ratings, if he can win over the nations heart, and increase votes, the network will keep him alive. But his only hope for escape, is getting into “The Lockdown Games”. 

This is an example of the case files we are looking to print professionally and include in our package:

Michael Harding 94965 by Lauren Howard

Here is a list of all the characters featured in the series, the role within MAN ALIVE, key plot developments, who I have cast to play them, a picture of the actor and small bio:

Charcter List PDF by Lauren Howard

MAN ALIVE - Researching Scripting Writing for AMC

MAN ALIVE SCRIPTWRITING

For MAN ALIVE I will be writing a full Pilot Episode to be aired on AMC at on Sunday 8th December 2013. AMC is funded by advertisements and as such the scripts are written in the form of “Acts. Typically each episode is split into four Acts that build up to a cliffhanger which is then followed by a 4-5 minute advert break. Therefore an hour time slot for the channel, which most typical dramas are, will only be filled by 40-45 minutes of drama (Due to adverts before and after the episode as well). If the traditional screenplay time of one page per one minute of action is applied, I will be looking to write a 42 paged script.

Below is an example AMC pilot episode screenplay from the hit series Breaking Bad. The writing is exciting, dramatic and full of twists and turns. I would like to base my style on this pilot episode and use techniques such as flashbacks which reveal key plot lines as well as simple actions that are later revealed to have major consequences. 

Screenplay Breaking Bad Pilot by Lauren Howard

MAN ALIVE - AMC's The Prisoner

Research into the Hit Series’ of AMC

THE PRISONER

A remake of the original series had been in the works, in one form or another, since 2005. The series premiered on November 15, 2009 as a miniseries on North American cable channel AMC in cooperation with British broadcaster.  The six part series premiered in the UK on 17 April 2010.

The series begins with an unidentified man waking up in a desert and finding himself in the middle of a pursuit as mysterious guards chase an elderly man through a canyon. The old man dies soon after, but not before passing a message on to the younger man: "Tell them I got out."

Exploring the desert, the man arrives in an enigmatic community, whose residents inform him that it's called simply The Village. Everyone he meets is known only by a number—he learns his number is 6—and he discovers that they have no knowledge or memory of the outside world.

6 himself is unable to remember his real name, or much of his life before the Village, only snippets of memory of New York City and a mysterious woman he met in a diner and took home. Meanwhile, he soon finds himself locked in a battle of wills against 2, the Village's leader, who goes to great lengths to make 6 assimilate into life in the Village. 6, meanwhile, tries to contact "dreamers" – Village residents who, like himself, have been experiencing flashes of memory of their life outside the Village. Along the way, he befriends 147, a Village taxi driver; 313, a doctor with whom 6 develops a romantic connection but who has her own secrets; and "11–12", 2's son, who begins to question the reality of the Village.

Each episode title in the series is one word taken from an episode title from the original programme.

Main Cast: 

• Ian McKellen as 2 / Curtis
• James Caviezel as 6 / Michael

• Ruth Wilson as 313 / Sarah

• Jamie Campbell Bower as 11–12
• Hayley Atwell as 4–15 / Lucy
• Rachael Blake as M2
• Lennie James as 147
• Renate Stuurman as 21-16

The Prisoner shows that the channel AMC could warm to a series that is set in a dystopian future that deals with themes of imprisonment. The Prisoner was also AMC’s first successful miniseries which is what our series hopes to be 

MAN ALIVE - IDEA MOOD BOARDS - What ideas will be in the script

MAN ALIVE THE FUTURE

I have researched some prototypes of ideas that I want to include in the script, such as advanced holographic television screens, smart TV’s (already in existence), microscopic flying surveillance drones in the disguise of mosquitos, new style prisons and architecture for The Network’s HQ . Below are my findings in image form.

Mood Board

MAN ALIVE - AMC RESEARCH - THE WALKING DEAD

The Walking Dead

I am currently watching the walking dead, and although the last series has started to decline, the first was ground breaking. The production level was close to that of LOST but the storytelling was more intricate. 

The Walking Dead is an American horror drama television series developed by Frank Darabont. It is based on the comic book series of the same name by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard. The series stars Andrew Lincoln as sheriff's deputy Rick Grimes, who awakens from a coma to find a post-apocalyptic world dominated by flesh-eating "walkers", resembling zombies. He sets out to find his family and encounters many other survivors along the way. The eponymous title of the series refers to the survivors, and not the zombies.

The Walking Dead premiered on October 31, 2010, on the cable television channel AMC in the United States. It premiered internationally during the first week of November 2010 on Fox International Channels. Based on its reception, AMC renewed the series for a second season of 13 episodes, which premiered on October 16, 2011.Two episodes into the second season, AMC announced that the show would return for a third season of 16 episodes, which began airing on October 14, 2012.[8] On December 21, 2012, AMC renewed The Walking Dead for a fourth season of 16 episodes.[9]

The series has been well received and has received many award nominations including ones for the Writers Guild of America Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series (Drama). The series has also attained strong Nielsen ratings, surpassing various records for a cable series, including receiving 12.4 million viewers for its season three finale to become the most-watched drama series telecast in basic cable history.

Based on the comic book series of the same name, The Walking Dead tells the story of a small group of survivors living in the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse. Most of the story takes place in the Atlanta metropolitan area and then the surrounding countryside of northern Georgia, as the survivors search for a safe haven away from the shuffling hordes of predatory "walkers" or "biters" (as the zombies are referred to in the show), who devour any living thing they catch, and whose bite is infectious to humans. The plot is focused primarily on the dilemmas the group faces as they struggle to balance their humanity with their survival against the zombie horde, and later, how they cope with members being killed and deal with other human survivors they encounter, many of whom are dangerous and predatory themselves.

The group is led by Rick Grimes, who was a sheriff's deputy before the zombie outbreak. At every turn they are faced with the horror of the walking zombies, the changing dynamic of their group, and hostility from the scattered remains of a struggling human populace who are focused on their own survival now that the structures of society have collapsed.

MAN ALIVE - AMC Research - Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad Research

Breaking Bad is one of my favourite AMC productions and the style of script writing will be a huge influence for MAN ALIVE. The series deals with changing the protagonist into the antagonist. I want to develop this in our series too by changing Ethan Harper in to antagonist, and Michael Harding into a protagonist. I find it interesting that through script writing and the ability time gives to story development, you can change an audiences whole perception of a character from what you first created. 

Breaking Bad is an American television drama series created and produced by Vince Gilligan. Set and produced in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Breaking Bad is the story of Walter White (Bryan Cranston), a struggling high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer at the beginning of the series. He turns to a life of crime, producing and selling methamphetamine with a former student, Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), with the aim of securing his family's financial future before he dies.[1]

Premiering on January 20, 2008, the series is broadcast in the United States and Canada on the cable channel AMC and is a production of Sony Pictures Television. On August 14, 2011, AMC announced that Breaking Bad had been renewed for a fifth and final season consisting of 16 episodes. This final season is split into two parts, each consisting of 8 episodes and broadcast over the course of two years; the first half premiered on July 15, 2012, and concluded on September 2, 2012, and the second half is scheduled to begin in summer 2013.

Breaking Bad has received widespread critical acclaim. The series has won seven Primetime Emmy Awards—including three consecutive wins for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for Cranston, two wins for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for Paul, and three nominations for Outstanding Drama Series. Cranston has also been nominated three times for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series: Drama and nominated four times for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series, which he won for the 19th Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Conception

Breaking Bad was created by Vince Gilligan, who spent several years writing the Fox series The X-Files. Gilligan wanted to create a series in which the protagonist became the antagonist. "Television is historically good at keeping its characters in a self-imposed stasis so that shows can go on for years or even decades," he said. "When I realized this, the logical next step was to think, how can I do a show in which the fundamental drive is toward change?" He added that his goal with Walter White is to turn him from Mr. Chips into Scarface. The concept emerged as Gilligan talked with his fellow writer Thomas Schnauz, and they joked regarding their unemployment that the solution was "putting a meth lab in the back of an RV and driving around the country cooking meth and making money."

Gilligan has said it is difficult to write for Walter White because the character is so dark and morally questionable: "I'm going to miss the show when it's over, but on some level, it'll be a relief to not have Walt in my head anymore." Gilligan later said that the idea for Walter's character intrigued him so much that he "didn't really give much thought on how well it would sell", stating that he would have given up on the premise given it was "such an odd, dark story" that could have difficulties being pitched to studios. As the series has progressed, Gilligan and the writing staff of Breaking Bad have made Walter increasingly unsympathetic. Gilligan said: "He's going from being a protagonist to an antagonist. We want to make people question who they're pulling for, and why." Cranston said by the fourth season: "I think Walt's figured out it's better to be a pursuer than the pursued. He's well on his way to badass." Gilligan defines the term "breaking bad" as "to raise hell".

While still pitching the show to studios, Gilligan was initially discouraged when he learned of the existence of Weeds, and of its similarities to the premise of Breaking Bad. While his producers convinced him that the show was different enough to still be successful, he later stated that he would not have gone forward with the idea had he known about Weeds earlier.

Development history

The network ordered nine episodes for the first season (including the pilot), but the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike limited the production to seven episodes. The series is set and filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico.It is shot on 35 mm film. Breaking Bad reportedly costs $3 million per episode to produce, higher than the average cost for a basic cable program.

In July 2011, Vince Gilligan indicated that he intended to conclude Breaking Bad with the fifth season. In early August 2011, negotiations began over a deal regarding the fifth and possible final season between the network AMC and Sony Pictures Television, the production company of the series. AMC proposed a shortened fifth season (six to eight episodes, instead of 13) to cut costs, but the producers declined. Sony then approached other cable networks about possibly picking up the show if a deal could not be made. On August 14, 2011, AMC renewed the series for 16 episodes.

CAST:

• Bryan Cranston as Walter White – a chemistry teacher diagnosed with Stage IIIA lung cancer who turns to making meth to secure his family's finances. As his shady businesses progress, Walter gains a notorious reputation under the name of Heisenberg. Cranston stated that, though he enjoyed doing comedy, he decided he "...should really focus on doing something else. But I think any good drama worth its weight always has a sprinkling of comedy in it, because you can ease the tension to an audience when it's necessary, and then build it back up again. Walt White has no clue he's occasionally funny, but as an actor I recognize when there are comedic moments and opportunities."[24]
• Anna Gunn as Skyler White – Walter's wife who was pregnant with their second child prior to his diagnosis, and who becomes increasingly suspicious of her husband after he begins behaving in unfamiliar ways. Gunn sees Skyler as "grounded, tough, smart and driven". Gunn sees Skyler's stalled writing career as her biggest dream, saying "I think she really deep down yearns to be an artist and to be creative and productive."[25]
• Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman – Walter's former student, Pinkman is a drug dealer who partners up with Walt and makes high-level meth. Paul sees Jesse as a funny kid. "He's just this lost soul – I don't think he's a bad kid, he just got mixed in the wrong crowd." Paul elaborated on the character's background, saying "He doesn't come from an abusive, alcoholic background. But maybe he just didn't relate to his father, maybe his father was too strict and too proper for Jesse." Paul compared the character's relationship with Walt to The Odd Couple.[26]
• Dean Norris as Hank Schrader – Walter's DEA agent brother-in-law. Hank has been described as the "comic relief." Norris, who has played several cops before in film and television, stated "Having played so many cops, I've talked with a lot of technical advisers, so I've been able to pick up a lot. Coincidentally, one of my best friends growing up is a cop in Chicago, and one of my other best friends out in LA is a sheriff. So I get to see all the components of that culture."[27]
• Betsy Brandt as Marie Schrader – Hank's wife and Skyler's kleptomaniac sister. Brandt described Marie as "an unpleasant bitch", but also stated there was more to her than that. "I think we're seeing more of it now that she would be there for her family. But it's all about her."[28]
• RJ Mitte as Walter White, Jr. – Walter and Skyler's son, has cerebral palsy. He begins lashing out after Walter's cancer announcement. Like Walter Jr., Mitte has cerebral palsy, although his is a milder form.[29] Mitte stated he had to regress from his therapy to portray the character, staying up late into the night to slur his speech and learning to walk on crutches so his walking wouldn't look fake.[30]
• Bob Odenkirk as Saul Goodman (recurring season 2, main cast season 3–5) – a crooked strip mall lawyer who represents Walt and Jesse. Odenkirk based his character on film producer Robert Evans. "I thought about Robert Evans because I've listened to The Kid Stays in the Picture on CD. He's constantly switching up his cadence and his delivery. He emphasizes interesting words. He has loads of attitude in almost every line that he says. So when I rehearse the scenes alone I do my impersonation of Robert Evans to find those moments and turns. Then I go out and I do Saul."[31]
• Giancarlo Esposito as Gustavo "Gus" Fring (recurring season 2, main cast season 3–4) – a high level drug distributor who has a cover as a fast food chain owner. Esposito stated for the third season, he incorporated his yoga training in his performance. "Gus is the coolest cucumber that ever walked the Earth. I think about Eddie Olmos way back in Miami Vice. He was like dead – he was hardly breathing. I thought, how is this guy just standing in this fire and doing nothing? Gus has totally allowed me that level of flexibility and relaxation – not because he has ultimate power and he knows he can take someone's life. He's just confident."[32]
• Jonathan Banks as Mike Ehrmantraut (guest star season 2, main cast season 3–5) – an all-purpose cleaner and hitman who works for Gus. The character of Mike has been compared to Harvey Keitel's Winston Wolf character in Pulp Fiction, which Banks says he isn't trying to emulate: "I immediately tried to put it out of my mind, quite honestly. His cleaner ain't my cleaner. But throughout this world, you would suspect there had been a great many cleaners, whether government-run or individual contractors."