Author: Arsalan Awais

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;

1. Floor is Lava
2. A break up with a friend is equivalent of a divorce
3. Groupings
4. Sports
5. Lunch Swap
6. Admission Day
7. Cheating during exams
8. Preparation fro Exam
9. Exam result
10. Kadi-Kadi ( catch-catch)
11. Kings Stop
12. Costume day
13. Show and Tell
14. Chinese Whisper/rumours
15. School Plays
16. Art competitions
17. Spelling Bee
18. Fights in schoolyards
19. Re-enacting famous lines and scenes from films and TV series
20. Food fight
21. Getting locked up in the toilet
22. Class bunking
23. Eagle trying to steal your lunch
24. castle wars
25. Drawing on the tables
26. 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].

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To get a mockumentary right, first I needed to decide what it the actual documentary going to be about so that I can mock it, because if I look at mockumentaries like The Office (UK and US versions), Modern Family, Parks and Recreation or what we do in the shadows (which are going to be my case studies as well); they are set up in very unusual places and the characters are very conscious of the camera when it is around so it leads to them create humorous situations.

The Office (US version)

As you can see in the video, Dwight is using the camera crew as a plot device for his disastrous plan. He tells the crew what he is about to do i.e., giving a fire safety drill. Which eventually backfires and leads to one humorous after another (One of the best series episodes as well). A risky move on his part, but seeing the camera crew is what gave Dwight courage to do such a crime.

The Office (UK version)

This is a perfect example of when a human becomes aware of the camera and acts in a different manner e.g., in this case Brent is doing an employee evaluation and acts in a very sophisticated manner to sound smart on camera and this leads to a very awkward banter for Keith (who is less conscious of the camera and more focused on the task at hand).

What we do in the shadows

The comedic style in What We Do in the Shadows flips between self-aggrandizing and self-effacement. These vampires believe that they’re superior to humans, though the story constantly proves that they’re not half as intelligent or responsible. Well, except Nadja — unless her perennially reincarnating human lover, Gregor, is involved.

Seinfeld started the trend of “No hugging, no learning,” which forms the basis of several modern TV comedies. It implies that sitcom characters shouldn’t waste time on emotional development when they could be making audiences cringe-laugh, instead. The characters in What We Do in the Shadows mock and insult each other non-stop, but the show still manages to evoke heartfelt responses from viewers.

Hence, when it comes to children, they are going to be acting like how they are regardless of the camera. So either I change the concept a bit or design characters that fit this narrative device. Why not do both?

I thought why not add a character that has a knack for film making and decides to make a documentary on his school adventures and the characters could be of different ethnicity who over act in front of the camera.

One that can be noticed is that, the mockumentary format has a very guerrilla style film making and instead of steady cams they use handheld ones. It will be an interesting thing to create in animation.

References

The Office. 2000. [Film] Directed by Ricky Geravis, Stephen Merchant. UK: BBC.

The Office. 2005. [Film] Directed by Greg Daniels. USA: NBC.

What We Do In The Shadows. 2019. [Film] Directed by Jemaine Clement. New Zeeland: FX.

It is that time of the year when are allowed to pitch films for the final project. I had a couple of ideas in the back pocket for while now and in today’s lecture I got to share it with the class and get their feedback on it. Before coming up with ideas we were asked by our HOD; what we want to achieve with our final project e.g., use it as a pitch for a TV series or make a film that you want to send in to festivals etc. Since everyone is opting to create a short film, I thought why not take this opportunity to make a pilot for a children’s tv series. However I did ideate other ideas as well.

Idea 1 – Light and Shadow Further Development

The initial idea was to further develop my practice 1 concept of light and shadow and to make it a full fledged film. A quick recap of what the story was; The story depicts a battle between two sides, 1. Officials (army, police, black ops etc) who are depicted as Light vs. A shadow army, 2. Civilians (lights) vs. Shadow army. The story begins in an apocalyptic world and the two sides are about to face off. In a gory match, both sides are have tremendous losses and in the battlefield two soldiers (one of light(civilians and officials) and other of shadow) are left pointing guns at each other. Just as the sun rises and the shadows starts to disappear. It is revealed that the shadows figures were in fact bodies of officials and civilians. For the civilians, the officials were seen as evil shadow figures and for the officials ,the civilians were shadow creatures. In a way, the story is about how people have lost humanity and are blocked by worldly restrictions and over shadowed by greed and power etc.

Although I love the concept but the problem with it remains the same that it is too ambitious and 3 mins of time will be doing injustice to it. So I don’t know for sure but will see what I can do with it in the future.

Idea 2 – Meethay Chawal ( Sweet Rice)

Meethay chawal i.e., Zarda means sweet rice and it is a dish popular in Pakistan. Meethay Chawal is derived from the traditions that is common in Pakistani villages. Whenever an old person dies, as tradition meethay chawal are distributed at their funeral.

The story starts on a rainy day. People are coming and going in a small cottage. We see that a funeral has taken place and we track the crowd towards a room when an eight year old is sitting alone, dressed in white eating “Zarda“. This is when his obsession with meethay chawal starts on the day his grandfather dies. The next day he goes to a parchoon (a small convenience shop in the neighborhood) shop to get some things his mother has asked. There he befriends an old man who resembles to his grandfather. He gets to know of his obsession with sweet rice and the both bond over them. He tells him stories in exchange he gets to eat all the rice that he can. One day the man and the boy get in to a fight and don’t see each other for days. One day the door bell rings and an unknown person brings meethay chawal to the boys home and says that they were sent to him as a token of apology. He accepts them and eats to the brim only to later find out that he had died and were distributed as part of the tradition.

The reception of the story was unanimously positive and I also believe that if executed right it can turn in to something beautiful that can be sent to festivals. Fingers crossed.

Idea 3 – A mockumentary comedy set in a Primary School

The series is set during lunch break, when the child get vivid imaginations, exaggerate a lot of stuff and are engaged in various schoolyard politics. Primary school seemed like a perfect setting for this because of children of this age bracket (6-12) have very ambitious ideas. In those 15 minutes a lot can happen especially when the teacher is not around.

After taking a vote the ideas 2 and 3 were the favourite ones.

In a tutorial with the teacher later on, we further dissected both ideas. While idea 2 was good, we felt that it needs a longer run time to justify the premise and concept, while would not be possible this time. While Idea 3, can be something very nostalgic for everyone and people can relate to the adventures.