Writing for children media requires a very different set of skills, it is a very different medium. In order to write a mockumentary set in a primary school, I first had to peek in to my past and resonate with stories I want to tell myself. After talking to my childhood friends, I listed what kind of games we used to play, the competitions we used to have, what kind of politics and antics we were engaged in, just to name a few.
Below is a list of few of the activities we used to do in school;
- Floor is Lava
- A break up with a friend is equivalent of a divorce
- Groupings
- Sports
- Lunch Swap
- Admission Day
- Cheating during exams
- Preparation fro Exam
- Exam result
- Kadi-Kadi ( catch-catch)
- Kings Stop
- Costume day
- Show and Tell
- Chinese Whisper/rumours
- School Plays
- Art competitions
- Spelling Bee
- Fights in schoolyards
- Re-enacting famous lines and scenes from films and TV series
- Food fight
- Getting locked up in the toilet
- Class bunking
- Eagle trying to steal your lunch
- castle wars
- Drawing on the tables
- Bullying because of a disability
For now I will use one of these as the basic story for the pilot episode and use the rest as a pitch to show, if ever picked by the producers these are the stories we can tackle in the following episodes.
I think the floor is lava game has the potential to be an engaging episode as there is a lot of room to play here. Every child in this game would a different role e.g., the classroom could be divided in to zones, some are doing an activity or some are doing a call back to the climax scene form the Revenge of the Sith. Hence, there is a lot to play here.
References
Advancement Courses Blog. (2018). How to Manage School Fights | Advancement Courses. [online] Available at: https://blog.advancementcourses.com/articles/how-to-manage-school-fights/.
Floor is Lava. 2020. [Film] Directed by Brian Smith. USA: Netflix.
Magnolia Banner News. (2021). Central Elementary School holds science fair. [online] Available at: https://www.magnoliabannernews.com/news/2021/mar/04/central-elementary-school-holds-science-fair/ [Accessed 29 Apr. 2023].
Arsalan Awais 