Showing posts with label television programming. Show all posts
Showing posts with label television programming. Show all posts

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Cosmos Productions: Action Thrillers Which Will Haunt You

This is a list of Cosmos Production's current projects. It is by no means complete. This list was created to show the depth and scope of our interests as well as our ability to cross genres and venues. It is our team's intention to produce these and other similar projects, leading up to the formation of a four sound stage studio for low to medium budgeted projects. It is our belief that in the current studio system these demographics are under underestimated and under served. The current trend of focusing on “tent pole” films, which rely heavily on A list talent, has limited the industry's ability to satisfy the audiences and the needs of the growing number of media venues. Their business practices have created vacuum, which no longer satisfies the audiences' needs. Cosmos Productions will gratify the audiences by focusing on common sense budgets that feature both experienced actors with established fan bases, but who don't fit in the the ever changing A list category, and talented newbies, who have yet to make a name for themselves

While most large studios are merely off shoots of huge conglomerates, which used them as tax right offs, Cosmos Productions combines both innovation and creativity with an acute business acumen. In doing so, we will create quality projects that have a ready made market in a cost effective manor, thereby increasing our profitability potential.


Never Can Say Good-bye
Love can be a blessing or the curse that destroys a town.
Comparable to Ghost, The Others, and Dark Shadows
Genre: Paranormal Thriller feature film
Status: ready for pre-production

Have you ever met someone and suddenly felt love or hate? Did you wonder why? What if you had forgotten the reason? Would you want to remember if it could save you life
Elizabeth was asked by her mentor to teach a writing course at a small college. Since she never forgets a kindness, she reluctantly agrees. Arriving in town, she instantly regrets her decision. She wants to run, but she is honor bound to stay. Even as the ghost of a small child begs her to forgive, the memories of another time arouse feelings of hatred that she doesn't understand and cannot control. When she meets Shane, all of their lives are thrown onto a dangerous collision course from which they can neither run, nor can they hide. The question is, "Can they overcome their tragic past or will they be doomed to repeat it?"

Horses and Heroes
Although veterans can't go back and make a brand new start,
they can start from now and make a brand new end.
Comparable: I have not found another show like it.
Genre: Documentary/talk show TV series
Status: ready for pre-production


Horses and Heroes combines the concepts a talk show with that of a documentary, by intertwining the spontaneity of a talk show with the scripted informational aspects of a documentary. It will utilize both interviews and practical demonstrations of horse therapy to give the audience a full understanding of how and why working with the horses help veterans heal. Although Equine Therapy will be the stage, the primary focus will be on the veterans as they sharing what they experienced while they served our country and how those events had a lasting effect on their lives as well as on those who love them.







Operation Home Base
Helping others heals our wounds
Comparable: MASH, The Waltons, and NCIS
Genre: Scripted Drama -Action TV series
Status: ready for pre-production winter 2016

Not all scars show. Not all wounds heal.
Author unknownn
Missing limbs can be replaced by the miracle of modern medicine and technology. They are functional, but not the same. But what of the pain that is unseen yet goes soul deep? These are the wounds that bind us to the past. Some use it as an excuse to hurt others. Some hurt themselves. Yet there are the few who channel their pain into helping others as a way of healing themselves or to pay penance for the harm they caused.
Facing their own demons, veterans and civilians come together to actively make a difference through legal, medical and logistics systems, to help active duty, reserves, and retired military personnel, veterans and their dependents. Their motto is: “We've got your back” What if, in their dedication to help, the founders of Operation Home Base stumble upon an international cover up; putting a target on their backs? Do they shrink in fear or do they “damn the torpedoes” to face the challenge with a “gung-ho” mentality?

Eye of Ra
Envying others murders the best of ourselves.
Comparable: Exorcist and Amityville Horror
Genre: Occult Horror
Status: Spring 2016
All families have natural gifts that they pass down through the generations. Yet these gifts are not always equally shared among family members. Sometimes generations are skipped or given the talents that are more passive than active. Not all gratefully accept their destiny; instead, they choose to steal what belongs to others--even if it means murdering their own children.
Katherine was born with the power to control the elements. Her whistle called the winds. Her tears refreshed the earth. She sees into the realms where fools and angels fear to tread. Yet her daughter Sandra's gift were complimentary—or they should have been. Katherine created life. Sandra had the ability to nurture and heal. She could see their destiny and helps them to release their fears. Instead she envied the talents others. A voice from the dark void asked, “What she would do to have their power. Sandra replied, “Whatever it takes.”

Swamp Rats
Truth heals old wounds.
Comparable: Swamp Rats is to the Magnificent Seven,
what the Magnificent Seven is to the Seven Samurai.
Genre: Action Thriller feature film
Status: treatment and partial script

They rode together. They fought together. They played together. Sometimes they loved together until a lie tore them apart. They were the Swamp Rats. Although the Swamp Rats agree to ride together ride together one last time, the old resentments stand between them. Willie hopes his has enough time to fix fix what he broke by saving by saving the daughter that one of them never knew he had.

The Greatest Treasure
What we value the most is frequently found
in the most unexpected places.
Comparable: It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
and Soapdish
Genre: Comedy feature film
Goldie and Glen stand at the altar, preparing to say their "I dos" when Rachael, Glen mother, confesses to an affair that makes them half-siblings. Before Goldie's mother could intervene, her father confirms that Glen could be his son. Crushed and resentful, Goldie leaves her parents and their small resort town behind, vowing never to return. She earns her law degree and makes a life for herself complete among the legal elite. Glen forgives his mother and claims both men as his fathers. He become heir apparent to the jointly owned ski resort called, The Greatest Treasure.
Apparent doesn't necessary mean a sure thing. Forty years later the last surviving partner dies and the ownership of the resort is thrown into question. Goldie is forced to return to fight for her mother's financial rights. If she looses her mother will become a permanent house guest. Instead of a court room, Goldie finds herself, along with Glen and the rest of the town, hunting for the clues, which will lead to ownership of The Greatest Treasure. Thrown together by the common goal, Goldie and Glen with the entire town trailing behind, follow a clue trail that guides them around the mountain trails and into the secrets of their own past.

AWOL (working title)
Losing your past can kill your future
Comparable: The Fugitive and 24
Genre: Action feature film
She wakes up in ICU. The man beside her bed calls her Sharon and claims to be her husband. Instinctively, she knows that is a lie, but no one will listen. Left with no other option, she goes "home" to an apartment and a life she doesn't recognize. As she unravels her true identity, she is forced down a gauntlet of of murder, betrayal, and domestic terrorism. Can she remember who she really is before the target on her back becomes a bullet in back of her head?

Keys the Kingdom
Betrayal lit the fuse of the future
Comparable to a combination of Angels and Demons and
Indiana Jones: The Crystal Skull
Genre: Action Thriller feature film
It started with one man. A man who dishonored his blood oath to God and to his brethren Disgraced, he sought revenge on those who would not listen—those who refused him compassion. His lies gave a King an excuse. The King's decree with Papal assent lit the funeral pyre. Jacques de Molay looked to God for justice. Geoffroi de Charney looked to the future in the faces of his brethren. Three men stood in the crowd. One Knight, One Sergeant. One Chaplin--each was charged with preserving the secrets of the Brotherhood. He watched them until the flames hid them from his mortal sight. He felt no pain for he knew they and others were the future’s bastion of truth. In another time and another place, they all would have justice.

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Thursday, January 15, 2009

Formatting Soap Opera Scripts

Formatting Soap Opera Scripts

In style, television and movie script are similar; however, television programs must format around commercials and station identification. While movies contain a full hour of entertainment, broadcast television is broken down into approximately 22 minutes of entertainment and 8 minutes of commercials per half hour.

Most one hour shows have six 2.02 minute breaks with two 1.34, which fall at the top and bottom of the hour. Generally this leaves 22 minutes per half hour for the actual show, which is broken down further into the teaser/open, three acts and bottom of the hour teaser/bridge for the local break. The second half hour also has three acts, but it is ended with a teaser/closing credits and the top of the hour break.

Whether starting at the top or bottom of the hour, the initial segment, contains the show teaser and opening; its run time varies between 2-4 minutes in length. The following three acts divide the remaining entertainment time between them without any set length; however, most stations, especially during ratings, identify themselves within a two minute margin at the quarter hour; therefore, there is usually a break written in to accommodate this standard. The second half hour also begins with a teaser, which identifies the show and the network, and is followed by a local commercial with identification. Most shows end with a 2-4 minute teaser of the next episode and the ending credits with another local break following.

Unless you have a talent that milks their part, usually one page of script equals one minute of air time. This generality helps the writer pace the storyline and time the scenes to maximize the suspense in order to hold the audience’s attention through the commercial breaks. By splitting the action between multiply scenes to create mini cliffhangers, the writer suspends the action in order to height the drama and prevent channel surfing. It is also how a creative writer creates an effective end of an episode cliffhanger to torment the viewers into returning to see what happens to their favorite characters.



Format for one hour television script
2-4 minutes teaser and show open

2.02 minute commercial break

Act 1

2.02 minute commercial break

Act 2

2.02 minute commercial break

Act 3

1:34 minute commercial break

20 second teaser- 10 seconds from each half hour

1:34 bottom of the hour local break

Act 4

2.02 minute commercial break

Act 5

2.02 minute commercial break

Act 6

2.02 minute commercial break

2-4 tag and end credits

1:34 local top of the hour break


No doubt many of you are asking why the script I have been writing for Days doesn’t meet this industry standard. Very simple. There are two reasons. When I started, it was a protest that I never thought would go any where. Originally I was going to write a few scenes to embarrass the writers into their job. However, I received so much positive feedback that I just kept going. Secondly, a major of my script writing experience was for the stage and screen. Even then, it had been a while since I worked on a long project. My information was not only dated, but I had forgotten a few little details. The new scenes will be in the correct format. I’ve also started the process of reformatting and restructuring the rest to not only meet the industry standards but to also put it into episodes. During the process a few scenes will have to be tweaked, but it will give me a chance to improve them as well. Although I knew how I wanted the storylines to unfold, everything that I have posted still qualifies for first draft status. The reality is that I had put little effort into the project yet it was still be better than the so called professionals; hat do you think I could do if I actually put work it to the project?

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Viewers control the Television Industry, Networks Listen or Lose

Viewers control the Television Industry, Networks Listen or Lose


On the surface, the television industry seems complicated; however, in many ways it is just like every other industry. In order to be successful, a business not only has to provide a product or service that customers want to buy, it also needs to provide the highest quality for the value. Broadcast television is no different except that it has two customers bases instead of one. No longer limited to two or three stations, the competition for both viewers and advertisers has not only raised the stakes, but has also shifted the power away from the networks and bestowed on the viewers

Unlike most industries, broadcast television has a dual flow of both product and customers. Both viewers and advertisers can be considered clients. Whereas the viewer seeks entertainment and information, the advertisers search for exposure for their products or services. Television sells entertainment to the viewers and viewers to the advertisers.

Whether over the air or through cable, broadcasting attracts viewers with entertainment, news and sports. Although the viewers don't lay down cash for the programming, they do pay for the entertainment by watching the commercials. By investing their time, attention and loyalty to a program or actor, the viewer becomes not only a client, but also a product the broadcast industry sells the advertisers. TV shows that respect the viewers by providing quality entertainment or accurate facts in the case of news programs will be the one to garter the viewers’ loyalty and increase their viewers. Advertisers will compete for the limited air time during these programs, thereby increasing the revenues of the networks. However, the reverse is also true; unpopular programming will not only lack viewers, but will also have to fight for sponsors by lowering the commercial rates.

Technical advances in cable and satellite dishes have increased the number of available channels, not only increasing the competition for viewers, but also diversifying the programs available. No longer limited to their local stations or the three big networks, the viewers are the ones who control the remote and decide which programs will succeed. Independent stations and new networks have shattered the monopoly of the elitist network and program executives. If the viewers don’t like what they are seeing, they simply change the channel to another one of the hundreds available; they are not bound to watch any program or event

This symbiotic relationship between viewers and advertisers gives them control over what is produced and broadcast. Viewers won't watch programming they don't like; advertisers won't buy time on shows the viewers don't like; therefore, it is the viewers who control the success or failure of a program, not the executive producers, writers, or network management. No matter what the industry insiders want or what agenda they try to push, if the viewers aren’t interested, they will not watch. Those in the industry who provide what the viewers want will be successful; those who chose to ignore the viewers’ wishes will soon find themselves on the outside, looking in at those execs, producers and writers who do fulfill the viewers needs and expectations.

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