M2 - Potential Client Questions

 M2 - Potential Client Questions

Practice pitch questions

The following questions were transcribed from my practice pitch. Although I answered the questions during the pitch, I have written more developed and improved answers that I should aim to address in future versions of my presentation.

How will women be represented in your series / How will diversity be incorporated?

My series will strive to represent a range of male and female characters with a variety of ethnic backgrounds and characteristics by ensuring to recruit a diverse set of cast members. The role that gender, ethnicity and sexuality will play in the series will be deemphasised, meaning that they will not be dwelled upon and not used to drive a character's personality or presentation. I have chosen to do this because I believe that a deemphasised approach will help to enforce the notion that these characteristics of a person should not change the way they are perceived, as such the way they are presented in my series is not changed either. 

Following the effects theory, this would help the audience to let go of gender, ethnic and sexual prejudices by exposing them to a world where they do not exist. Additionally, following the Uses & Gratification theory, the audience might gain personal identity in characters that share their gender and/or ethnicity and appreciate how they are not represented in a way that marks them as "different" to everyone else by virtue of these characteristics.

What is the underlying message of the series?

The message that my series will carry is inherited in part from the message of Breaking Bad, which is one of the shows I have chosen to draw inspiration from. It portrays the danger of criminal activity and the consequences of involving oneself in it, as well as how wealth and power corrupts and can change a person into something very different to their former self. 

Following the effects theory, this would cause the audience to feel discouraged from getting into situations similar to Alex, as well as increasing their awareness about it's danger. Following U&G theory, the audience might gain surveillance from the series by learning about how Alex's situation came to be, which could inform them on the world around them and increase their awareness on the subject.

How will hacking be realistically portrayed in the series without encouraging crime?

Again, drawing from Breaking Bad, my series will selectively show information about hacking and cyber crime without showing enough to allow someone to replicate those actions. In Breaking Bad, for example, the viewer does not learn how to make meth but the series still portrays it's creation in a scientifically accurate way. By dropping mentions and displays of real-world terminology and hacking methods, the show will be able to present cyber crime realistically without being replicable.

As for encouraging cyber crime none the less, the aforementioned message of the series will show criminal activity in a negative light, in order to discourage viewers from taking away a positive outlook on the actions that Alex commits throughout the series. This follows the effects theory as above, and following the U&G theory the audience could gain both surveillance (by learning parts of how cyber crime works and operates) as well as personal identity (if they are interested in cyber security / computer science they could appreciate the technical and realistic portrayal of the subject).

What is the protagonist's driving characteristic that motivates them to act as they do throughout the series?

Alex's driving characteristic is similar to Walt's motivation in Breaking Bad. At the start of the series, his motivation is purely for money and to make a living in the wake of his unemployment and rising debts. However, as the episodes progress, it becomes increasingly apparent that Alex actually enjoys his new life and does not want to stop, even with enough money to last a lifetime. Alex becomes power hungry and his motivation changes to a desire for notoriety and respect in the dark web community. He wants everyone to respect him, or fear him. By the end of the series, money is just an excuse to mask his real goals, which Alex tries to hide even from himself.

Following the effects theory, this would have the same effect on the audience as the message of the series, which is that they would be discouraged from following Alex's path to avoid becoming like him. Following U&G theory, the audience would also gain the same use as the message of the series.

Other potential questions

These questions were not asked in my practice pitch, but are nonetheless questions that a BBC executive might ask about my series when I pitch it to them.

How will you demonstrate "hacking" sequences on such a small budget?

In alignment with the realistic and grounded approach that I have with the series, the actual hacking sequences will not include CGI shots of matrixes and networks (which is commonly used in Hollywood films to portray hacking), just a computer screen showing what someone would actually see in real life - the console commands and program prompts of whatever software is being used. This would not require much money at all besides licensing costs of the software. In some cases, the real software might be considered too dangerous to actually show/use on the series (as others might download it for themselves) so mock-up versions would be created. These mock-ups would be non-functional of course, and only serve to look like a real program that might be used in cybercrime. This also applies to the above question on portraying cybercrime safely.

Why did you choose to name the series "Boundless"?

The word "boundless" was chosen for the name of my series for two reasons;

1. The name is short and easy to say/recognise/remember. This is a somewhat uncommon factor to consider despite it's importance in a series' marketing and livelihood. A simple name will make the audience more likely to remember it, and therefore more likely to tell others about it.

2. "boundless" reflects both the nature of the internet / dark web and it's potential for wealth and online power. This plays a key role in the series as it is the medium through which Alex makes his mark on the world, and he certainly considers his opportunities on the dark web to be boundless.

Is there potential for having multiple seasons?

In short, yes. At the end of the first series, Alex escapes the gang and the police by fleeing to Scotland and changing his identity, leaving his future open for another season. A second season could see Alex rebuilding a new career in cybercrime and becoming even further involved in the criminal world, facing new and more dangerous challenges to keep audiences captivated in the series.

Assessment of practice pitch performance

I think the pitch went quite well, and I am overall happy with my performance in it. To assess this in more detail, I will evaluate my performance of the presentation based on the following factors: confidence + communication, QA efficacy, understanding my own series in depth and missing elements of the pitch.

Confidence and communication

I would like to say that I was fairly confident while conducting the pitch, and looking at the recording I think that holds up. I presented all of the information in my pitch sufficiently enough for the audience to understand, but I do think that I "waffled" a bit too much and could have cut down on time quite a bit. Not being concise enough would make the audience less engaged and become bored during the pitch, which is something that should be mitigated as much as possible. After rehearsing the pitch more, I would be more efficient at communicating the information in my pitch as well as gaining more confidence in what I have to say. 

QA efficacy

My ability to answer the questions posed to me in my pitch was sufficient enough to answer them, but was not amazing. Above, I answered the same questions in a more detailed and developed way, which is what I would have liked to say during the pitch itself. To improve my QA efficacy, I can both improve my impromptu skills (which links to confidence & communication) as well as ensuring I have a deep and broad understanding of my series and what it is made up of. A better understanding would give me a better idea of the actual answers to the questions, which would make it easier to answer them at a moment's notice.

Understanding my series in depth

As well as my ability to present my series proposal, I also need to have a thorough understanding of what my series really is and be able to interpret my ideas for it into content for my pitch. I think that I already have a good understanding of my series, but it have lots of room for improvement. The best way to do this is to continue working on the content of my pitch and include more detail on components like character profiles, setting layouts, scripts and storyboards etc. This will get me thinking more about different parts of my series and naturally develop my ideas regarding it.

Missing elements of my pitch

This follows on from understanding my series, as it is improved in the same way; simply working on my pitch's content. The aforementioned components come to mind, which is what I will be working on next. All of the recommended elements should definitely be included in the final pitch in order to maximise it's quality and minimise obvious questions about things that weren't in my pitch. I will also aim to include answers to all of the above questions in the pitch itself, so that I won't need to answer them again.