For BBC Radio1

THE AGENCY

PILOT EPISODE PITCH

 Presented by
Daniel Crocker
The AGENCY

Blurb:

In flashback, Jason laments on his fondly remembered teenage years, and now
defunct friendship with Louise. After tracking her down, the two reunite, but theyve
both changed almost beyond recognition.

The resulting conflict between them results in a revelation of epic proportions

regarding Jasons occupation.

Format:

This radio drama will be the first instalment of a long running show, a classic serial.
The individual episode fits into this format, because while it will be a satisfying
stand-alone entity, it sets up a lot of plot threads that there is no time to explore
within just 10 minutes, and is intended to establish a larger premise. The series fits
the convention of a serial, because each episode is relatively short, it can be long
running and released very frequently, and easily kept up with by listeners without
requiring them to set aside time dedicated only to listening to it each and every
instalment. The resolution of some plot threads, but with a cliff-hanger, promising
much more action next time, also makes it a good example of a serialized show.

Outline of genre:

It will fall into both the science fiction, and thriller genres.

This narrative and structure is very suitable to the genre of science fiction/thriller.
Focusing a large amount of the episode on character interactions is suitable as it
will make the audience care about the expositional elements that place the drama
into the sci-fi category. It is necessary to contextualise the genre elements into
character drama in order to ensure the audience are engaged and making sense of
what they hear. On top of this, even the totally character-interaction soapy
moments are told in a non-linear way, which further lends this drama to the genre
of sci-fi, and ties into the larger themes of the piece.

Characters:

Jason: Age 17 then 25. Ethnicity Caucasian. Good family background, but
overprotective parents. Occupation as an adult is as an extremely successful
business man, rather rich, and as a result extremely arrogant and self centered.
Friends with Louise since childhood. He also acts as the narrator:

First person narration by Jason, to give insight throughout. His speech provides an
opening and ending, as well as bridging scenes and commenting on the action as it
happens. This narrator is a real person within the narrative, and what they say is
limited to what the character knows and thinks.

Louise: Age 17 then 25. Ethnicity Caucasian. From single parent family,
sometimes impoverished but very happy childhood. Occupation after education is
as a special ops DI for a secret alien organization. Motivated by happiness in past, in
present only to keeping separate from friends in over to protect them. Internal
conflicts of wanting to tell Jason the truth about her job but not being able to,
external conflict of having to fulfil a job description that requires morally dubious
action.

Representation:

I want to have both a male and a female lead. The characters will start out as
being15 years old then time shift to age 30 as the story jumps to the present day.
Ethnicity will be ambiguous. But actors will be white English due to availability.
Stereotyping includes the depiction of an angst ridden teen, a happy-go-lucky
teen, and of adults that have been changed so much by their jobs that they no
longer recognize themselves. Stereotype of an arrogant male business man, and
stereotype of a kick-ass female secret agent.

Target Audience + audience expectations:

The show is aimed at the socio-economic group E (such as students). They will be
aged 14-21 primarily, and there will be no gender bias.

They will have knowledge and prior experience of sci-fi plots from the current
climate of pop culture (Marvel and Star Wars films). They might have a prior
expectation that these be fronted by male leads, however, and that all female
characters will be Mary Sues (badly written) and I want to deliberately confront
this.

Actors:

The two lead characters will be played by unknown, young actors. Charlie Pike will
play Louise, and Lachlan Bone our protagonist Jason.

My actors are young and unknown. This is because I wanted to create a sense of
relatability between them and my teenage audience, that they are not elite actors
or other they are just like my audience. Additionally, there young age makes
them more suited to playing different ages. The drama contains a lot of flashback
and flash forward, so the actors need to be able to sound convincingly very young. I
think it is much easier for young actors to sometimes act an sound older, that it is
for old actors to frequently sound and act young.

I have chosen my specific actors, Charlie Pike and Linus Rickett, because of their
youthful and friendly voices, as well as their ability to act old and in a wide variety
of tones. I also feel that their real-world personas make them suitable for jobs on
radio intended for teenagers, as they are both fashionable and relatable.

Budget:

My radio drama has a key cast of 2, with additional voices provided by them and a
single additional actor.

As the drama is only 5 minutes long, but I want time to get the best performances
out of the actors, so I will hire the cast for a full day each. Additionally, as this is a
pilot, I only need to pay them for a single transmission.

Under the single transmission tariff, a full day costs 172, so for all three of my
actors it comes to 516.

Additionally there are costs for the studio, which is 80 per hour. Each 7 hour day
will therefore be 560. All three, 1680. This brings my total for recording to 2196.

Station:

It will air on BBC Radio 1 as their remit is to entertain broad range of young
listeners with contemporary content, including spoken word programming. It has
an audience of teenagers and young adults, which crosses over with my teenage
target audience. It is also a prominent station, and will ensure a large listening
audience. Moreover, because of the BBC iPlayer app, it will make my drama
available online immediately after its terrestrial broadcast, further suiting it to my
target audience by fitting their online and time shifted viewing habits.

It will air at 9pm, a time in the evening that is suitable for my teenage audience,
and adequately excludes young children, as this time slot is after the watershed,
which is necessary because of sexual references, some strong language, and for
strong threat of violence.