PITCH 1.4

The Pitch - Strangers in the Night

Title

Strangers in the Night

The Logline

How an aspiring athlete, extremist catholic, struggling actor and activist live under one roof, all forced together
in desperate times. As strangers come and go by night but the memories forever stay.

The Tone

My influence for this storyline pitch is from the city Cambridge as the plot/obstacle that the main 
characters face is their financial struggle. This was influenced by Cambridge as it is a highly 
expensive place to live, as well as very tourist populated. The tourist influence is used to draw
attraction in my plot as the characters use their dorm room/apartment as an Air BnB 
(which is an app for tourists to help them find holiday rental bedrooms and houses). These
influences capture the feel of the series as it is heavily evolved around money and the pressures 
that come with adulthood. The Apartment itself will have a modern interior (to give a wealthy interior)
and will have a old, rustic exterior. As the Apartment will be located in central cambridge, it is rich in
historical architecture.

Synopsis

Three new students arrive at Cambridge University, Phoenix, Caleb, Jocelyn. The three arrive at their mixed
dorm where they are greeted by their new landlord, Francis. Francis warns they have a new fourth student arriving
in the week. She also warns them that rent highly likely to increase as there have been cuts.

The three university students struggle to settle in facing the pressure of university,
and now have to face a large financial issue. All of them have to come up with a financial solution
to prevent their eviction. Caleb and Phoenix form a close bond and devise a plan to use their bedrooms
as an Air BnB in order to pay the rent, without the landlord knowing. As their dorm is an ideal location
for tourists, (the centre of Cambridge).The three students take turns in letting their apartment bedrooms 
out to strangers, through the Air BnB app. The first time they use their Apartment for AirBnB it becomes
trashed with litter as the couple who stayed gave little respect. Caleb and Phoenix clean up the bedroom
they let out (Aible's soon to be bedroom). As they clean it, AIbel arrives for the first time at the Apartment.
Caleb and phoenix cautiously disguise their AirBnB use of his bedroom and say their friend borrowed it for the night.
Aibel becomes distressed by this and treats the roommates cold and harshly over the next week. As episodes continue
each characters backstory is revealed. Giving a piece of personality of each character to the audience.
Aible tells his fellow roommates that every weekend he stays at his parents home.
Caleb, Jocelyn and Phoenix decide to use this as an advantage and continue using AirBnB by letting
Aible's bedroom out on the weekends, when he's staying at his parents. Without him knowing.
This continues for two weeks and the audience are balanced between being shown the students University life and
the guests who visit every weekend. This continues over the next few episodes showing the audience the
struggles that Caleb, Jocelyn and Phoenix face with the guests and with each other.

Near the end of the season, Aible doesn't stay at his parents one weekend. Phoenix and Caleb are unaware of this
and book guests for that weekend, to stay in Aible's room. The guests are a regular couple. Aibel is out that evening
and returns to the Apartment to find his bedroom occupied by the guests/couple. Aible becomes quickly infuriated and
demands them to leave. The couple and Aibel argue but eventually leave. Without anyone noticing. Before the
couple entered the Apartment, they took the disability lift. Jocelyn was going to take it but walked up the stairs as it was occupied
( by the Air BnB guests). Jocelyn falls down the stairs and becomes unconscious. One of the downstairs neighbours hear
her fall and arrive at the scene, and call and ambulance. The season ends with Aible exposing Phoenix and Caleb
and Jocelyn's plans to the landlord and the last shot is of Jocelyn in a coma. Both Caleb and Phoenix are never seen again.

Characters

Main Characters

Phoenix Coleman - 19, Non Binary, Caucasian. 

Caleb Brown - 18, Male, Mixed Race, Gay.

Jocelyn Edwards - 19, Female, Ginger Hair, Caucasian, Blind.

Aible Murphy - 18, Male, Brown hair, Caucasian, Catholic.

Minor - Francis (Landlord)

The Apartment/dorm room - Location, Genre and Form

Location - Cambridge University

Genre - Drama with aspects of Comedy

Form - Long Form Series

Character Profiles

Caleb Brown- Young Male, mixed race,18. Studying a Physical Education Degree. Aspiration to be professional
athlete. Caleb struggles with body image and confidence. He also struggles with anger issues, from
childhood trauma. The audience found out early into the series that Caleb wasn't accepted by his
family as being gay and had to move in with his friends family as a teenager.
This is exposed to the audience when Caleb bonds with Phoenix one night when discussing their
background and life story. Theses struggles become increasingly more intense as he starts university.
When Caleb starts letting Aible's room out to strangers, his mental health starts to deteriorate as the
guilt inside eats away at him. This causes his physical/academic performance to drop too. However, he
is set on staying at the University and wants to continue the AirBnB. At the end of the season, Caleb and
Phoenix are both banned from staying at University rented accommodation and have to fend for themselves,
while still attending the University.

Aible Murphy - Young Male, caucasian, 18. Studying a Business Degree. Aspiration is to be a Business Development
Manager. Aible is extremely catholic and has a stubborn personality with incredibly opinionated views. This
is because of his strict catholic upbringing by his father, who is a Priest. His religious views clash with the other
roommates in the apartment. As he was raised to belie in old fashioned ideologies. For example, he does not agree
with same sex marriage. Aible is the character out of all four that is least present. Aible's personality has no filter and
he becomes rude and cold towards his three roommates after they use his bedroom (for the first time) to their 'friend'.
Aible's character has heavy back story revealing why his personality is so harsh and blunt. Aible's parents are very
demanding of him and force him to stay at their home on the weekend to study and practise Catholicism. This is
vaguely hinted in the series when Aible is repeatedly travelling from University to his parents house every weekend.
By the end of the season, Aible exposes the AirBnB to Francis and has Caleb and Phoenix banned from living off
University rented accommodation.

Jocelyn Edwards -Young female, caucasian,19. Studying a Drama/Performing Arts Degree. Aspiration is to be a
voice actor. Jocelyn is visually impaired. This is because when she was a child, by her Stepfather
physically abused her and poured boiling water into her eyes, causing her to go blind. Jocelyn was then put into
care and was adopted and raised by a incredibly wealthy family ( the Edwards).

Jocelyn has a traumatic up bringing but once adopted was raised into a rude, snobby and a narcissist person.
Jocelyn's personality clashes with her roomates as she likes to control of every situation. Jocelyn struggles
in the beginning of the series with her daily routine. She is unfamiliar with her surroundings and feels
isolated because she is given little support and empathy with her blindness. Jocelyn reluctantly lets Aible's
bedroom out as an Air BnB, eventually gives in. Jocelyn later in the series has an accident (falls down the apartment
stairs) as some customers (renting the Apartment) take the lift. Neighbours finds her unconscious and calls the
ambulance. She is taken by the ambulance. The last the audience see of Jocelyn is her lying in a coma.

Phoenix Coleman - Young non binary, caucasian,19. Studying Sociology Degree. Aspiration is to be an Social Worker. Phoenix is a strong activist for the LGBTQ, Phoenix wants to help children who are mistreated because of their sexuality or gender. This is because Phoenix herself was bullied by her peers in secondary school because of her gender.

Phoenix is an incredibly humble and compassionate person. Phoenix resembles a peacekeeper in the apartment that they share with the other roommates. In the beginning Phoenix clashes with Aible because over religious views. However, as the show progresses Phoenix forms strong bonds with Caleb. They both bond over Caleb's traumatic past as Phoenix wants to help those who have suffered the same trauma Caleb has, and prevent it from others. Once Phoenix and Caleb devise their plan of using the apartment as an Air BnB, Phoenix starts to act as a leader because she monitors those who are staying in the apartment and when. Phoenix becomes incredibly controlling as the series goes and and by the end is obsessed with the Air BnB business. Phoenix's stress from University work/studying causes her to use the Air BnB business as a therapy as she feels its the only thing she can control in her life anymore.

Episodic structure

Episode one - In September 2019, at Cambridge University Campus three new students (Caleb, Jocelyn and Phoenix) arrive at their shared Apartment/ Dorm room during the afternoon and greet/introduce themselves to each other. Francis opens the Apartment door and introduces herself to them as their landlord. Francis tells the roomates the rules and regulations and warns the four students that the University will be facing cuts within their first term. Francis also states how their is another student arriving in a week late as he is on holiday, but will be joining them. All three students decorate their bedrooms, revealing to the audience more about their personalities. The students discuss with each other their plans for food etc. The evening arrives and they sleep.
The episode continues onto the next day. Caleb returns from a morning run and arrives at  the Apartment. He finds Phoenix holding a letter (from the landlord) standing with Jocelyn with a look of distress upon both their face. She hands Caleb the letter. The letter states how there will been extreme cuts and the rent is increasing by 10%. Caleb, Phoenix and Jocelyn panic, they stress as none of them are employed nor do they have to be as they have only started University. They agree to return to the Apartment in a few hours to review each others ideas. All three students exit the Apartment. The episode follows each character and reveals who they hangout with and where. Later that day they all return. Caleb raises the idea of maybe starting a AirBnB, as his friend (in second year) let his room out for extras cash on the weekends. Jocelyn and Phoenix are hesitant and question this as their fourth roommate has no say as to what they decide and whether they would agree with letting their bedrooms out. The episode ends with them all agreeing as the rent increases in 2 days and they are desperate. The three characters decide to rent the fourth bedroom (which will be Aible's once he arrives) for that weekend. The final scene of the episode is of the of Jocelyn, Phoenix and Caleb downloading Air BnB on their phones. 

Episode two - The episode opens to Phoenix and Caleb preparing the house for the guests, they both stress whether they should allow for them to use the kitchen. Before they can decide, the first guest arrive. Phoenix greets them and hands over the spare key (that belongs to Aible who still hasn't arrived at the University yet). The guests are a young couple who stay for two nights. The couple are given Aible's soon to be bedroom, to sleep in. Phoenix and Caleb explain to the guests that they as well as one other (Jocelyn) will be living and staying in the Apartment that weekend. The episode gives a glimpse to the guests by having them do as they please, they litter in the bedroom and play loud music over the weekend. Francis knocks on the Apartment door, and Phoenix answers hesitantly. Francis is infuriated by the music as she has been given complaints by other their neighbours and asks for it to stop otherwise their will be consequences. Phoenix apologises and once Francis leaves she becomes incredibly relieved. The episode continues showing Phoenix, Caleb cleaning up after the guests. Especially the bedroom. Jocelyn hears a knock at the door and opens it. Aible enters and introduces himself to her and states how he is the fourth student staying here, and that his holiday was cut short. So he has arrived a few days early. The next scene cuts to Phoenix and Caleb staring at each other in panic and worry. Both of them heard Aible and what he said to Jocelyn. Then the episode finishes.

Mood Board

This moodboard expresses my Long Form TV Show visually to capture the textures of the locations and costumes that would suit the environment and set of my TV Show. The costumes depict my vision of what I believe my characters clothing would look like, by judging their personality. The location images are shots of the placement of filming. The images of the Apartment and exterior are suppose to capture the feel and texture in which the apartment reflects.

Character Costume - Aible costume resembles a business attire as it represents a stereotypical business outfit in which his personality would embody. As he is an aspiring business manager, and I wanted his costume to reflect this. Caleb's costume represents his athletic/ sporty lifestyle and what career he wants to aspire to be, an athlete. Phoenix's character's costume is to represent a non gender clothing that could be worn by both a female or male as she identifies with no gender, her clothes expresses this. Jocelyn's clothes represent her girly side as her personality is quite bold and she uses it as a form of expression.

Character personalities / emotions - The three images I have used are represent the struggles and emotions the characters face. The financial struggle of rent is what drives the plot throughout, and the anxiety and stress are repeated throughout the plot. As each character struggles with the pressure of university and the issues brought with adulthood.

Setting of location / textures - The setting and location resembles the tone of the TV Show as the images capture the architecture and surroundings the character's will appear in. The tone shown captures the expensive and historical influence of the location, Cambridge.