LO2A – MERITDEVELOP ONE ADAPTATION IDEA INTO A TREATMENT OR PROPOSALBY KUNAL LAD

CONTENTS

TITLE

GENRE

RUNNING TIME

PLOT SYNOPSIS

IDENTIFY THREE KEY SCENES

CORE AUDIENCE AND AT LEAST ONE SECONDARY AUDIENCE

CONSTRAINTS ON ADAPTATION

OPPORTUNITIES PROVIDED BY ADAPTATION

TITLE

• For my mini series TV adaptation of the 2004 movie ‘The Day After Tomorrow’, I will entitle it ‘The Days of Tomorrow’.

• The similarity between this title and the original means that it will attract fans of the original movie, as well as letting them know that it is a long form version of the original story with the use of ‘Days’.

GENRE

• The adaptation will be a science fiction, post apocalyptic drama.

• It will also feature elements of action adventure because of the dangerous world that the adaptation will portray.

RUNNING TIME

• The miniseries will feature 3 hour long episodes.

• This gives the series the time to tell a detailed, in-depth story with strong characterizations whilst still being compact and focused.

PLOT SYNOPSISPart 1• A weather scientist named Jack Hall thinks that because of global warming, a new Ice Age

is on it’s way. He tries to warn politicians and fellow scientists at a conference but is shut down and branded as crazy. However another scientist believes Jack and talks with him. The two conclude that extreme winter weather caused by an imminent eclipse will occur within 24 hours. The two bring their evidence to the Vice President who suspiciously ignores them.

• Meanwhile his estranged, drug addict son (Sam) who lives in New York leads a reckless almost suicidal lifestyle which has made him lose a prestigious place at a university.

• Leading up the eclipse various parts of the world experience freak weather and drastic drops in temperature. This forces the government to carry out minor nationwide precautions, still ignoring Jack’s warnings.

Part 2• The eclipse happens and the world is ravaged by extreme weather. Millions of people are

killed, including the vice president and Jack’s partner scientist, which leaves him trapped in a base with a small group of scientists and government officials.

• Sam sees New York become destroyed by the weather and groups with a handful of survivors who do not trust him.

Part 3• Over the following days both groups (Jack’s and Sam) survive in the harsh conditions, and

many people die. The two become the leaders of their respective groups. Sam is forced overcome his addiction.

• Jack escapes the base and heads for New York after finding a helicopter which leaves his group split. He arrives at New York and finds Sam. The two make emotional amends as they look on to a future where they must learn to survive through the harsh new world.

M A I N C H A R A C T E R S• JACK HALL (FATHER)

Who do they know?As taking a role as a professional scientist into research with climate changes Jack Hall has connections around the world to other leading scientist, not only that but also is able to have connections to the president of USA as well as their serving government.Why are they important to the plot?He is one of the main characters in the film as he is in charge of letting the whole world know that the world is in danger of being wiped out from the Ice Age and to get them prepared. Not only this as he is a father we also see him take on a realistic challenge of being a father and for this it is important to have an emotional realistic side to the story as well as the unrealistic approach shown with the extreme weathers.JUXTAPOSITIONIn the mini series there is a contrast shown between two sides of the story for Jack Hall, this is the mix between Jack Hall trying his best to inform the world about the threat where we see a how everyone took his words as a joke showing everyone to be completely sceptic about it all, from the rejection of this this then effects everyone to be at threat instead of warning them all. Another contrasting effect is with Jack Hall and his son as Jack Hall doesn’t seem like a father figure as he is completely dedicated to his job causing his son not to follow the right paths. The contrasting effect is when they both finally meet in a emotional trip but then shows them to work together as a strong force to survive in the end.

• SAM (SON)WHO DO THEY KNOW?Sam in these mini series is a lonely guy living life on the edge from being financially unstable and mentally unstable. The connections we see Sam have is implied that he knows drug dealers and he is a user of cocaine but we also see that his main connections are just with the public and doesn’t have individual friends. Throughout the mini series we see his strength in finding friends enabling him to work with them to survive in the cold harsh weather.WHY ARE THEY IMPORTANT TO THE PLOT?Sam is a key character to the plot as he makes the contrasting link that is emotional to his father where it is important to have a depth of a realistic situation. Sam will be the character that shows self power and he overcomes his addiction to coke and becomes a leader showing a powerful message in emotion where his father tries to share his powerful message verbally.JUXTAPOSITIONThe contrasting effect for Sam is that he has an addiction to cocaine but then has to deal with the realisation of being someone that is able to help and save lives of others by working together effectively, in the deepest darkest moment of his life he finds the emotional power to not think about himself and to help others.

IDENTIFY THREE KEY SCENES• The first key scene is when the eclipse happens and there are drastic weather

changes. The scene begins with a joyous but ominous tone as the whole world watches in awe at the eclipse. However Jack watches on in fear of what is to come. The scene is meant to be visually strong and serve as a visual motif for the series with the use of the eclipse. After the eclipse the weather drastically changes whilst the world is still in partial darkness which ends the scene with a dark and scary tone.

• Second is a scene in which Sam struggles through his need for drugs. To convey his agony and withdrawal symptoms visual techniques such as editing the scene with various dissolve fades and using colour filters are used. Furthermore unconventional camera angles (e.g. low/high, extreme close ups, dutch tilt, handheld) are also used. The actors performance must be intense but realistic to capture the audience whilst keeping it believable.

• The third scene is the emotion reunion between Sam and Jack, they finally meet up and make amends with each other. The actors performances would be emotional and realistoic as the scene is the emotional climax of the mini series.

CORE AUDIENCE AND AT LEAST ONE SECONDARY AUDIENCE

• Core audience will be people who regularly watch popular and acclaimed TV shows such as Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones.

• The adaptation’s elements of drama and action along with it’s mature, explicit tone will attract a 19-39 aged of males and females, males because of the action and contrasting scenes it shows and females for the emotional drama side to the scenes. These would be in the working class demographic and geographically attract people from the USA appealing to white people first as majority of actors are white and may be able to relate more between relationships in the mini series. Furthermore the mixture of all these elements and the current popularity of high-concept entertainment (e.g. Interstellar, Elysium, Black Mirror) will give the mini-series relevancy and widespread appeal.

• The secondary audience will be mostly male in the USA with a small amount in the UK being white where they are genre fans (e.g. science fiction fans) who are devoted fans of shows such as Star Trek, Fringe and Doctor Who. This audience will give the show online popularity on websites such as IGN.com and SceenRant.com.

CINEMATIC IDEAS

• The visual look is what makes this adaption distinctive as well as the fact this would be completely new to viewers being the only TV show showing such drastic happenings in a cinematic style. The science of the extraordinary freak natural events gives the series a strong distinction being able to show harsh conditions with the theory of how it all happened, it gives the series more of a interest point with global warming being a big part of the news.

• It also focuses on Jack and Sam which give the series a strong emotional pull from Sam struggling through his need for drugs.

CONSTRAINTS

• Technical issues of portraying the world over taken by extreme cold weather.

• Budget issues of funding the technology and special effects.

• Ethical concerns involving the killing of wild animals.

OPPORTUNITIES

• Modern technology such as CGI, green screen and motion capture can be used.

• The short length of the adaptation means that the budget is controlled and reasonable.

• It also means that time and money can be spent on creating a high-quality show.

• The shows unique visual look and high concept can distinguish itself from what is currently available on TV.

• The mini-series format means that it is easy for people to catch up with the show on online streaming sites such as Netflix, and buy DVD’s and Blu-Rays of the show.