Notes on round table discussion at Pymalion 2nd lab (Bronia)
Some notes from the discussion, to be added to.
Who was there: Paul, Sam, Bronia, Joerg, Sue Nott (CBBC live action drama), Lucinda Whitely (Novell Entertainment), Axel von Meydell (Morgen Studios, digital entertainment and learning), Dietrich (feature film producer) Frank (Primehouse), Jenny, Jimmy, Clarissa, Christina. Someone else with Frank (don’t know her name).
Paul introduces Sam and Bronia (he did very nice job).
Frank introduces the discussion, the set up, - it should be a relaxed informal discussion usw.
Bronia and Sam pitch for about 10-15 mins (Sam can you post our pitch on the blog? it’s on your machine Ta)
Responses from panel:
Axel - would like to see the machine that freezes the memories. Pointed out that ‘inventing things’ is a strong theme for kids, especially boys. Would it be possible to create ‘digital tools’ online? He mentioned the “Ritter Rost” [the Rusty Knight]- german cartoon with music, picture book series attached to it etc.
Axel also mentioned that with regard to web presence, children’s surfing of the web is usually restricted by parents in that they don’t allow kids to use the browser, instead, the sites they can access are set using book marks. To get a site viewed by children, he suggested trying to get space within aweb domain for children’s stuff that is already established and ‘trusted’.
Sue Nott - Question of ‘what can go wrong?’ - this is what creates drama and interest. Eg the memory freezing machine breaks down, etc. The plot can’t be allowed to become predictable for a series of several episodes.
Panel felt that the relationship between the grandfather and grandson was rich territory for creating drama. A mutually dependant relationship - Mori is Matt’s sole carer as he has no other family - Matt needs to help Mori to remember to do certain things, how does the machine work etc. Matt also helps to show Mori how valuable his own memories are and that they are worth preserving, and he ‘gives hime back his youth’. It was also pointed out that the intimate nature of the relationship, plus a story that includes a fantastical element (freezing memories in ice cream) in an ordinary world, might be better suited to television than a feature film.
Sue also raised the question of healthy eating - 21st century values have shifted away from candy floss and chocolate sprinkles to eating healthy, and tv reflects this change. One way of tackling this might be to focus on the ‘nourishment’ memories provide in terms of creating understanding between generations/learning about the past.
Sue - interested in the idea that over the course of an episode, a memory is pieced together from fragments, it is uncovered, there is a detective element. (lunchtime - this discussion continued, into the possibility that there is a larger puzzle that spans the arc of a series - solving a small puzzle in each episode provides pieces of the answer to a larger question which is only revealed at the end of the series). The idea that there is a ‘ticking time bomb’ - Mori is trying to preserve his memories before time runs out. Possibly he might die at some point during the series, leaving his preserved memories behind him?
Lucinda- Idea of working with different senses - how is memory activated by taste, smell, sound, touch as well as sight? Different triggers for memories and also looking at different types of memory - motor memory, long term, short term, emotional, factual etc.
Lucinda- discussion re. children’s book. 7-11 is too wide an age range. Often books are targetted specifically at ‘8-9 year olds’ for example. Need to be more specific - is it a chapter book, or a picture book…or what?
Also with book publishing there is a ‘schools market’ and an ‘after schools’ market, and publishers are looking for ways to bridge that gap which might be where a book for this project could fit in (?)
Tv- Lucinda felt that unfortunately there is a lack of tv programmed for 6-9 year olds. They are often expected to ‘watch up’ to shows for 9+….so a show made for 10 year olds will be watched by 7 year olds…
Question of which platforms to tackle and in what order. Sue - talked mainly about rights issues affecting the order of what comes first (?) it sounds complicated, that much was clear.
Lucinda - we should produce the theatre piece first, have that as a solid basis to show to a publisher, then work on getting a book deal. (I think this is similar to what Natasha, Paul’s book scout contact said?). Lucinda raised the issue, particularly with picture books, that you often have to lay everything out (ie. a lot of work) to present an offering to a publisher, before you actually get paid to do anything.
And, for a bit of converse opinion, Frank (this was later, after lunch) felt that we should make a really huge movie about memory and that cinema was the right medium to be tackling such a huge subject, depicting memories in full colour and… it was a very interesting conversation, also quite tricky to grasp specifics which would be at all note-downable. Maybe Sam can add to this with any additional details he can recall?…
Next steps-
A meeting with Haringey Libraries who have expressed interest in partnering with us to apply for MLA funding (see earlier posting). If this comes of it will be soon as the deadline is approaching.
Looking into how to go about book publishing, agents - Natasha sounded like she might be able to offer some suggestions here?
Creating some visuals to give a sense of how the interactive theatre performance in the van would look.
Talk to Paul about RDF media.
3 years ago • 0 notes