Unit 21: D1 - How I'd change my show

Making a smaller Promise

  One issue about the show is that it may be too ambitious and big for the client - BBC Three - which means that I'd fail the task of creating a good show that suits the channels usual type of content. One way that I would alter the show to achieve the task set is to ether reduce the amount of topics that I'll touch on in the show, change the topics to smaller ones or to not touch on them as much as planned/not as in depth as planned. I'll adopt the method of not covering all the topics in as much depth as I strongly believe that the topics areas that will be raised (religion, sacrifice, poverty, freedom and rights, racism, corruption, human trafficking and slavery). Evidently, a lot of the topics will only be touched on or shown whereas areas like religion, sacrifice, poverty and racism will be looked into and mentioned more in depth than the others.
Another area I can make the show smaller in size is by reducing the amount of characters that will be in focus. However, what I'll actually do is focus on three characters (Temi, Lucy and Grace) and when another character needs to be in focus, I will give them more screen time and development e.g. developing Joy Adeola (the mum) in the episode before she dies at sea to give the audience a closer relationship to her and to make the death more emotional.
The last part of making the show smaller comes from having smart ways to save money especially whilst filming. With some animation to be featured in the show as a story-telling method and some scene to be filmed at sea, there will need to be some creative ways used to film the scenes like using drones when at sea or even filming in an open water research lab - which can be found in Scotland.

Protagonists and focus

  As mentioned above, a response to the show having too many characters to focus on is to have three man focus' and give more screen time to characters that need it because of their big upcoming scene(s).
The other thing with the characters is making them more relatable to the audience in order to keep their interest. This is partially the reason that I chose to focus on Temi and Lucy as I know that they are characters who are definitely in BBC Three's audience range of 16-34 years old with Lucy being 16 and Temi being 20. This along with the characteristics of the positive but honest and realistic young characters should hopefully be enough to make the audience relate to them in some way, whether it's because of the exam stress, coming of age and journey to find herself that Lucy will go on or the rebellious nature of Temi to go against what his parents say or his internal feeling of needing to help the helpless. The third main character is Grace, and as a very young girl she'll be used as an outlet for the audience as every situation she is in will be shown from her perspective so that the audience will learn along side her about the experiences that the family go though.

Connecting the families

  I could find a way to link the two families to each other so that their story becomes more connected. This was picked up by the client as they didn't understand why the families care for each other - or at least why Lucy cares for immigrants in general since she starts the season with no real opinion about the subject. One way I contemplated connecting the families is by making Lucy and Temi pen pals from school, this would give Lucy a reason to care for the Adeola family and take action to actively help them find their way to Britain. However, whilst considering this I realised that they would have to be pen pals before the show starts and since in the first episode the Adeola's leave their home, Lucy would have no idea where to post the letters to since she'd know that the family have left their home. Despite this, I believe that the link can still work if it's heavily relied on in the first episode and the friendship is not played as a relationship but rather a standard friendship.
Throughout the run of the season, they'll be constant references of how actions have consequences, especially in the case of a politician where their actions and decisions will have a big impact of potentially millions of lives. This is just another way that I'll show the link, every time a new deal or law is enforced in the show's version of Britain and the EU, the Adeola family will feel, see and experience the consequences.
As well as being pen pals with Temi in the first episode, Lucy will gain a drive for helping immigrants when her dad is injured in a rock climbing accident and he is helped by a group of foreign nurses at the hospital. This leads Lucy to discover that the majority of foreign nurses are at risk of being deported which acts as further fuel for her to help other immigrants.

Interesting characters

  The characters are more than just good and bad, and this is exemplified with the character arc of Temi who starts the series off as "the perfect" character with a good sense of humour, compassion, honesty, a gentle spirit and all the usual likeable character tropes however as the season goes on and he faces more and more hardships and events that test his patience and resolve. He eventually cracks when he finds out about his mothers death and his attitude and demeanour change to the point where he isn't recognisable in comparison to the beginning of the season. This is just an example of how a character will change throughout the season with a focus on how the environment of a person will change how they act and behave, this sort of change will also happen with Godfrey with his belief in a God and Sue Walker with her morals, goals and intentions in life.
Each character will have a large amount of character development as they go on their journey throughout the season, as mentioned Temi will experience things that will change how he views the world and that will definitely change his attitude. Godfrey Adeola goes on a literal journey as well as starting to question his own faith after so long of just believing and being a devoted Christian. Lucy is on a path to find herself, finding out what she truly does and needs to value as well as determining her morals and beliefs. She will find out just how important migrants are to Britain and then actively protest and urge her mum to stand for them rather than against them. The beliefs of Sue Walker will also be tested but not her religious beliefs but rather her political beliefs and her political stance on major topics. She will try hard to become the leader of the party she stands for and then to pass all her anti-immigration laws in parliament as part of a bid to become the PM all whilst trying - and failing -to balance work and home life with a daughter that becomes increasingly frustrated with her.
When the characters accomplish the goal that they set for themselves, they won't just fade out of the show but rather will go on to start their next adventure which will be the beginning of their adventure for the second season.

Promised future

  The overarching storylines throughout the first season are the Adeola families (without Temi) journey to get to Britain, with them finishing the season at Zona Portuale in Italy after Joy Adeola (Grace's mum) drowns at sea and Godfrey holding out for the body to be returned to them so they can bury her and "properly lay her to rest before moving on". The second storyline is of Lucy who is trying to find herself and what she really believes in before trying to convince her mum that she shouldn't be against immigrants but rather for them as her mother - Sue Walker - is trying to gain political power by rebuking them and being against immigrants and asylum seekers. The last storyline is of what Temi gets up to in Libya as he helps as many people seeking to leave for Europe  as possible whilst also fighting and standing against the racist people in the country.
Similar topics will be explored in future seasons but I will also focus on how change can affect people and look more into the various reasons why people flee their country. It will also be looking more into politics like corruption in government for Africa and the potential sexism in British politics as well as looking at how modern slavery is working and people can get away with it.
In future seasons I will focus a little more on the blossoming relationship between Lucy and Sue, the continued journey of Godfrey and Grace as well as what they do next when they arrive in England the struggles of change and adapting to a totally new culture.
The show's overall aim is to make people more sympathetic and understanding of the struggle that immigrants go through and to show that there are a lot of misconceptions about them. I will hopefully achieve this by the focusing more on Grace and Temi and their experiences, lots of close up shots in major scenes to capture the expression and emotions of characters, and putting more of a focus on characters that are about to have a major scene like Joy's death to make the impact of her death more meaningful and saddening to the audience. I need to make them feel like they know the characters like their own friends by exposing their strengths and weaknesses to the audience.