3. Client Brief
Client brief requirements:
■ Plan ideas for a pilot episode of a new teen drama
■ Target audience 15- 21 year olds
■ Must be a relatively low budget production
■ Must be suitable to air on BBCThree at 9pm on aThursday night
Openingremarks
5. A few examples of some of the inspiration behind SYNCIntroduction-outlineyouridea
6. WorkingTitle: SYNC
Meanings behind name:
• Reflecting how much of an affect teenagers lives have on each other within a friendship group, and
how intertwined they can become with one another.
• How teenagers often feel (or their lives appear) out of sync with the rest of society, family etc.
• Shortened version of Synchronize- teenagers actions are often synchronized with their emotions,
or events occurring in their life at certain times.
• Sync being a homophone of sink, when heard reflects a sense of drowning, loss of control, and
uncertainty that comes with the coming of age and teenage years.
Sub genres
Because the whole idea of SYNC is to keep it as realistic, relatable, and real life as possible, I actually
made a conscious effort not to include any sub genre.This is because if I added a supernatural sub
genre for example, it would take away the raw relatability of SYNC, which is really what the
programme is all about.
Introduction-outlineyouridea
7. Introduction-outlineyouridea
Duration
• 40-45 minutes per episode
• Later in the evening
• Target audience age range means statistically shorter attention span- 1hour would be too long
• Target audience won’t want to be up to late as are still in education so will have school/ college/ University the
next day
• Shorter= Cheaper
9. Synopsis
Nine 17 year old friends battling through their teenage years, some struggle and some
take it in their stride- the angst that comes with every day life as an adolescent in current
times. Experiencing all that’s attached to coming of age; sexuality, drugs, friendship,
mental health, relationships. Everyone has their own garbage that comes alongside them,
and SYNC is a depiction of them living, learning, and just getting by. Everyone stumbles
across hurdles on their way, there is a pregnancy, a death, a psychotic episode, drug
abuse, arguments, abuse- real issues.The students at Square view college take you along
on their journey to adulthood.
Proposalwithsupportingmaterials-keyaspects
12. Setting
SYNC is set in Brighton- a beautiful and diverse seaside town that has a lot to offer, drugs,
expressionism, graffiti, arcades, what more could a teenager want?
I think this is the perfect place to set my teen television drama as it sums up all of the
characters in one. It’s rare to find a place that you could say suits 9 separate people, but
the diversity within the friendship group is reflected by the diversity of the city.
The mix of countryside, beach, and city all in one place is great in terms of being able to
have a huge range of plots and storylines. But it also means that it wouldn’t be expensive
as the whole production team could film whole episodes within the same area because of
the vast amount of different scenery.
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13. Marketing and Distribution
Because the client this teen drama is being created for is BBCThree, in the UK the
programme will be distributed online as this is how the channel now operates.
However, iPlayer does not work for non-uk IP addresses.Therefore if the programme took
off here, then we would have to look at distributing it through other means if it was to be
successful globally.A joint venture with Netflix would be perfect for SYNC as it is used
primarily by the younger generation therefore would be viewed highly.
In terms of marketing, I think social media campaigns would work very well, as the target
audience is the age of technology.And so having a SYNC page on Facebook andTwitter
would mean that we could get hashtags trending, and people would share trailers/
snippets of the show etc.
15. In conclusion I believe SYNC is exactly the programme BBC 3 are asking for. It is a teen drama perfect for 15-21 year
olds, and is rather innovative in it’s raw relatable story lines and issues.Teenagers these days are faced with lots of
issues that really aren’t things they necessarily feel they can talk about.Therefore, by creating SYNC it gives them a
platform of entertainment that is also very beneficial to themselves as developing human beings.And this is why I
believe SYNC will do very well.
As well as it being perfect for the required target audience, because of the nature and style of the show- budget really
isn’t a problem because there are no fancy effects, expensive costumes etc. it’s just a group of teenage friends dealing
with real issues.The simplicity is what’s so great about this show. I have now doubt it will be a low budget production.
