Episode 3 - Revised

The Drive Thru Dare

Main Points

- Ernie works on the drive thru
- Baz and Turner spend their time daring each other to do stupid stuff
- Ernie bonds with Baz and Turner at the drive thru
- They dare each other to do stupid stuff
- Baz and Turner are interviewed together
- Ernie is now left to run the department alone - goes well
- We see Harold out on a training day - He does very well

NEW:

Ernie works on the drive thru today, this is his chance to show he isn’t wasting Maj's time. Ernie should be pretty safe here as there are two people to watch over him. However Baz and Turner aren't the brightest duo in the diner. They spend most of the day daring each other to do things like; drinking yesterday's fat from the fryer and slipping innuendos in when serving customers.

Inseparable as they are, Baz and Turner are interviewed together. Baz tells of his life outside the Quick Stop, as the roadie for a local band and Turner reveals his failed entrepreneurial escapade before starting at the diner. Whilst Ernie is left to run the Drive Thru window by himself. Which, contrary to Ernie's record of clumsiness and arson, goes surprisingly well.

Meanwhile, the cameras follow Harold on a training day; learning how to use the fryer. It turns out Harold is a natural, coming top of the class. Will this be his chance to impress Maj when he returns?

OLD:

Maj has given Ernie the opportunity to work on the drive thru window and a chance to show he isn’t a total waste of skin. Here there is no fire and there are no sharp objects for Ernie’s dyspraxia to take over…only the duo of Baz and Turner to train him up. During which time, Ernie manages to bond with the two over a common interest in video games. During the day Baz and Turner spend most of the time daring each other to do stupid things. Drinking yesterday’s fat from the fryer and slipping innuendos in when talking to customers are but a few examples. Inseparable as they are, Baz and Turner are interviewed together. Baz tells of his life outside the Quick Stop, as the roadie for a local band and Turner reveals his failed entrepreneurial escapade before starting at the diner. During which time Ernie is left to his own devices to run the department alone. Which, contrary to Ernie’s record of clumsiness and recent accidental arson, goes very well. He has already started to take more pride in his work, and making new friends in Baz and Turner has boosted his self-esteem. Meanwhile, a camera crew follows Harold when he goes out of work on a company training day; learning how to use the deep fat fryer. It turns out; Harold is a natural, passing the day course with a 92% score margin. This is the best score of any Quick Stop employee within his region. Will this be his chance to impress Maj when he returns?

Episode 2 - Revised

I feel like this episode needs a little more happening in it.

Greg Doesn’t Party

Main Points

- Greg is interviewed and he tries to act nice to make himself look better than he is
- However this shroud is lifted when a children's party gets under way
- The kids are loud and obnoxious, making Greg run back and forth to bring them refills and burgers
- The kids then make fun of him and say he looks like a vampire
- The staff in the back find it funny and they make fun of him too
- Greg sees them doing it and makes them all stay behind and clean everything Quick Stop owns.
- Whilst Greg puts his feet up in the managerial office

NEW:

The camera crew gets to meet and interview Greg today; the Deputy Manager. From first impressions he appears very nice and almost loveable, baffling other employees with attempted high fives. However his temper quickly wears thin during a children's birthday party.

Taking up half of the available seating is a rabble of young children who booked the diner for a birthday party. Maj is not in today, so as the acting Manager; Greg has to be on his best behavior so as not to upset the kids...or the paying parents. But before long his true colours come out when the kids start to make fun of him. They say he looks like a vampire and put chips under their top lips to look like fangs. The other staff see this and do the same, making fun of Greg. However Greg notices this and demands they stay after close to clean everything the Quick Stop owns, much to everyone's annoyance.

Going back out to the party in a rage, Greg manages to upset all of the children by shouting at them all as they manage to scream louder, which results in the parents not paying for the service.

OLD:

Greg makes his first appearance in the diner today. The camera crew interviews him and first impressions suggest he is very nice and almost lovable, attempting to high five other employees whilst they look on confused. However this soon changes as the children’s party booked for the day arrives.
Greg is out serving them when they start making fun of the way he looks, saying he is like a vampire. The kids all put chips in their mouths to look like fangs and when he gets back to the kitchen he sees that some of the other staff are also doing it to make fun of him. Seeing this Greg loses his temper on camera and his true colours are revealed. Demanding all of the employees get back to work and makes them stay after work cleaning the entire footprint of the Quick Stop Diner inside and out.

Episode 1 - Revised

So this is the start of a long process...

In the next series of posts I am going to be uploading updated and shrunken down synopsises. I'm taking the main points from the episode and constructing them into a more rounded synopsis.

Ernie's First Day


Main Points

- Camera crew meet Maj
- Glimpse of other employees during the walk through
- Ernie starts and makes a mess
- Ernie gets sent to the car park and interviewed
- We learn more about Heema and Harold

NEW:

Maj welcomes the camera crew to the diner and shows them the ins and outs of the place. Whilst getting a glimpse of some of the employees who work there. Setting up in Maj's office, Maj is interviewed and we learn a little about her and her past. Whilst she mentions how today is a great day to start filming as there is a new starter.

Ernie starts his first day at The Quick Stop, he gets to meet a couple of the employees; Heema and Harold. However it doesn't quite go as smoothly as he'd have liked...he nearly blinds a child, spills drinks over a customer and sets fire to a colleague. Maj hasn't fired anyone yet and she has faith that she can find Ernie's role within the hierarchy of the diner. For no Ernie is banished to car park duty. Here, the camera crew interviews Ernie, who has time to reflect on the days events and tell us more about himself.

In the mean time Heema, is interviewed by the camera crew, between juggling Ernie and unhappy customers complaining about uncooked chips. After having been informed, Maj goes straight to the source and finds out Harold has been using the fryer today without the proper training.

OLD:

Entering the diner; Maj, the Manager of the Quick Stop, greets the camera crew. She takes some time to explain the ins and outs of the diner, showing where the orders come in and where the food is prepared. We also get a quick glimpse of some of the employees there as the camera crew passes through. They set up in Maj’s office and she tells about her career so far, from her days as a teaching secretary and her ultimate aim of applying to be Quick Stop Regional Manager. Maj also explains how today is a great day to start filming as there is a new employee starting. His name is Ernie and it is his first ever job.
Ernie starts his first day at The Quick Stop, but unfortunately it doesn’t go quite to plan. He spends some time in almost every department of the restaurant, getting to know Harold and Heema in particular. Throughout the day, Ernie nearly blinds a child with cleaner fluid by spraying it into their eyes when cleaning the table. He spills a drink over a customer at the order point when working on the tills. Then somehow manages to set fire to a colleague whilst helping cleaning dishes in the kitchen. During which time he meets Harold, who keeps himself to himself, Ernie finds it difficult enough as it is to speak to new people so the two don’t have much to talk about. Even when interviewed by the camera crew Harold is very shy and doesn’t give anything away. Each time Ernie screws up Maj has to stop the interview and intervene; she eventually relegates Ernie to cleaning the car park, away from any direct contact with customers. Maj hasn’t fired anyone yet and she still has faith that she can find Ernie’s role within the restaurant’s hierarchy. Meanwhile Heema, the head checkout operator, tells us about her university course and plans for the future, whilst she has been given the task of training Ernie and juggling unhappy customers due to an unusually common complaint with uncooked chips. After having been informed, Maj goes straight to the source and finds out that Harold has been using the fryer today.
In the car park, the camera crew has the chance to interview Ernie and he has time to reflect on what has happened throughout the day, whilst talking about his life at home and how his mum encouraged him to get this job.

Episode Review

As you can see my episodes are very long and have way too much detail in them, I'm going to spend the next few days cutting them down and making them more to the point with some help that I got from Jud and Mario today.


Straight after that I'll have to get on with some set design and give you a feel for what the diner is going to look like.

Episode 8 - A Furry Delivery

Episode 8 – A Furry Delivery

Greg gets to work uncharacteristically early today and is hanging around the back door. Suddenly there is a delivery at the back gates of the diner that Greg rushes out to collect. Waiting outside is a pet shop van, with the owner standing at the back holding a large box; Greg peeks in the box and takes it from the owner’s hands. When coming back in, Greg places the box underneath a work surface in the kitchen and kicks it to the back, obscuring it from view.
A few hours have passed and a lot of the other staff are taking their lunch break, this is Greg’s opportunity to sneak back into the kitchen and take care of the package he collected earlier. However when Greg goes back to the box, he finds that there is a hole chewed through the bottom corner. He quickly runs out the back and throws the box into the dumpster, feeling that his plan went better than he originally hoped. When coming back into the kitchen he hears a scream come from the front of the diner. A customer has seen a rat running by her feet! The entire diner empties of customers as they run from the rats…soon after, the Health Standards Agency arrives.
The police are called and being the Manager; Maj is arrested for breaching some severe Health and Safety Regulations. Everyone has gathered round to see Maj leave, and unfortunately for the others, this means that Greg is now automatically promoted from Deputy to Manager, his dreams and aspirations have finally been realised. Greg snatches the Managerial Badge and clipboard from Maj as she is taken away, but as he does a receipt falls out of his pocket…it is from a pet store, for 4 rats. Harold spots this and quickly picks it up, too shy to speak up himself, he gives the receipt to Heema telling her it has fallen from Greg’s pocket. She immediately realises what has happened and runs after Maj showing the Head of the Health Standards Agency. Greg instantly denies it, but when they check the card that has been used to pay for the rats and see that it matches the number on Greg’s card; all becomes clear that Greg was the one who brought the rats into the diner.
The decision is left in Maj’s hand as to what happens to Greg, She decides that the best punishment would be to demote Greg, never allowing him to become manager of any Quick Stop Diner. Maj knows this would cut Greg deeper than losing his job completely. At the same time, for saving Maj’s career, she makes Harold the Deputy manager.

Episode 7 - The Festival of Revenge

Episode 7 – The Festival of Revenge

Heema and Ernie are sent out of the diner to the town square to man a Quick Stop stall at the ‘Festival of Fast Food’. Here all of the town’s fast food companies compete for the title of ‘Fastest Food in Town’.
Greg asks to take Heema and Ernie there; he’s not one to miss out on a day out of the diner. However Greg has an ulterior motive for getting out of the diner this day, it is here where the first stage of his plan for punishing the others for making fun of him can commence.
During the busiest period of the day, where the queues extend for meters; Greg leaves Heema and Ernie to struggle with the massive orders building up and heads off down a side street. The cameras follow him at a distance unknown to Greg and see him enter a pet store. Greg is only gone for a short while so Heema and Ernie don’t even notice he has gone.
Meanwhile back at the diner, business is very slow as everyone is out at the ‘Festival of Fast Food’. It gives a chance for Maj to read from the suggestion box, and is surprised when she sees so many great reviews regarding Greg in very similar handwriting.

Episode 6 - A Mother's Love

Episode 6 – A Mother's Love

Greg starts the day making a lot of demands and abusing his managerial powers yet again. Ernie is to make Greg’s lunch as he sits down in the diner. However he screws it up and brings the wrong one, Greg naturally becomes more irritated with everyone and demands Ernie get the right one. Taking it back, Ernie complains about Greg to the others (Baz and Turner) who convince him to spit in it. Little does he no Greg is watching over them. As Greg begins to shout a female voice carries over Greg’s and his face drops…it is Greg’s mum. Greg still lives with his mum and today she comes in and sees him shouting at Ernie, she takes him by the ear and drags him out to the centre of the diner. There she humiliates him by shouting back at him and making him shrink down to the size of a pea in the other employees’ eyes. She calls him her currant bun, because when he was younger he had a lot of acne on his face.
The others in the diner see Greg in a new light today and spend the day making fun of him about his mother’s pet name for him, even Maj gets in a jokey jibe about it. This upsets Greg and makes him very angry, so he begins a devious plot that he plans to put into action during the next episode when he is out of the diner at the town’s yearly food festival.

Episode 5 - Greg's Management

Episode 5 - Greg's Management

It is Harold’s first day back after his training session and Maj is eager to see if he has practiced enough to be left alone working the fryer. After a few test runs, she is impressed with what Harold has learnt.
Meanwhile Greg is skulking around near the back of the checkouts, he is carrying a pair of pliers and looking rather suspicious. When he sees the camera crew following him he jumps, explaining that he is just carrying out some routine checks and repairs.
During which time Maj jumps onto the checkouts with Heema as business suddenly picks up. With Maj’s extra help things are running smoothly, that is until she goes to use the drinks machine Greg ‘repaired’…as she is serving a customer; the nozzle explodes in her face and soaks her with sticky smelly drink. Maj now has to make a run home to change her uniform, as she is drenched from head to toe. With Maj incapacitated for a few hours, Greg is left in charge. He spends most of his time in the office with his feet up, away from any customers and problems whilst the others are out front running around after orders. Greg soon becomes bored and comes out to cause a little chaos.
Ernie has been trouble free for some time now, much to Greg’s disliking, so seeing this he decides to give him some dirty work. Sending Ernie outside to clean the gutters and empty the bins.
Greg then focuses his attention on Harold, harassing him about his condition. As he heads back to the office Greg leaves Harold to stew in the anger and insecurities he has stirred up in his verbal attack. Harold then begins deep frying everything he can get his hands on; from his hat and shoes, to customers whole bagged orders. Harold’s training has become lost deep within the recesses of his adolescent brain. Heema quickly spots this as she passes and is able to calm Harold down. She also notices Greg is in the office doing very little, so takes the management of the diner into her own hands. She is able to get things under control just as the rush calms down and as Maj returns.

Episode 4 - Employee of the Month

Episode 4 – Employee of the Month

Greg’s favourite time of the month comes round again…the ‘Employee of the Month’ announcement. Nothing is going to stop him getting in some last minute brownie points with Maj. Greg sees the perfect opportunity to make some of his colleagues look a little more than dumb, only making himself look more competent.
After an over night storm damages the spinning drink decoration on the restaurant roof, Greg sends Baz and Turner up on top of the building to fix it. Seeing his chance to get himself more brownie points, Greg intends to close the door behind the duo, locking them on the roof all day. However, they have little more than a brain cell between them so the door slams shut, trapping them on the roof. Whilst Baz and Turner are struggling to get back down, Greg is on a mission to get himself further into Maj’s good books. This comes in the form of making a fool out of Heema. Unfortunately for Heema, she is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Greg steals some money from the till that Heema has been using all day, and when the tills don’t add up at the end of the day, it is Heema that gets the blame and her wages docked the amount of the missing money.
Just before close, Ernie is the one to eventually find Baz and Turner on the roof, after hearing them banging on the roof hatch. He lets them down and they immediately accuse Greg of locking them up there. Greg denies it and Heema demands to see the security footage…confidently Greg agrees. It shows Greg was nowhere near at the time, to everyone’s confusion.
Maj has no choice but to announce Greg as the Employee of the Month due to other people’s mishaps and award him with a golden burger, much to everyone else’s annoyance.

Episode 3 - The Drive Thru Dare

Episode 3 – The Drive Thru Dare­

Maj has given Ernie the opportunity to work on the drive thru window and a chance to show he isn’t a total waste of skin. Here there is no fire and there are no sharp objects for Ernie’s dyspraxia to take over…only the duo of Baz and Turner to train him up. During which time, Ernie manages to bond with the two over a common interest in video games. During the day Baz and Turner spend most of the time daring each other to do stupid things. Drinking yesterday’s fat from the fryer and slipping innuendos in when talking to customers are but a few examples. Inseparable as they are, Baz and Turner are interviewed together. Baz tells of his life outside the Quick Stop, as the roadie for a local band and Turner reveals his failed entrepreneurial escapade before starting at the diner. During which time Ernie is left to his own devices to run the department alone. Which, contrary to Ernie’s record of clumsiness and recent accidental arson, goes very well. He has already started to take more pride in his work, and making new friends in Baz and Turner has boosted his self-esteem. Meanwhile, a camera crew follows Harold when he goes out of work on a company training day; learning how to use the deep fat fryer. It turns out; Harold is a natural, passing the day course with a 92% score margin. This is the best score of any Quick Stop employee within his region. Will this be his chance to impress Maj when he returns?

Episode 2 - Greg Doesn't Party

Episode 2 – Greg Doesn’t Party


Greg makes his first appearance in the diner today. The camera crew interviews him and first impressions suggest he is very nice and almost lovable, attempting to high five other employees whilst they look on confused. However this soon changes as the children’s party booked for the day arrives. 
Greg is out serving them when they start making fun of the way he looks, saying he is like a vampire. The kids all put chips in their mouths to look like fangs and when he gets back to the kitchen he sees that some of the other staff are also doing it to make fun of him. Seeing this Greg loses his temper on camera and his true colours are revealed. Demanding all of the employees get back to work and makes them stay after work cleaning the entire footprint of the Quick Stop Diner inside and out.

Episode 1 - Ernie's First Day

It's been a long time coming...but here are my episode ideas!

I have emailed the lecturers with the blog post address so they can look over them properly and give me a bit more advice on how to edit them...because at the moment I know most of them are way too long!

Episodes 2, 6 and 7 I wrote after talking to the lecturers so they are a better length and better synopsised. They still however need some tweaking for the final ones.


Episode 1 – Ernie’s First Day


Entering the diner; Maj, the Manager of the Quick Stop, greets the camera crew. She takes some time to explain the ins and outs of the diner, showing where the orders come in and where the food is prepared. We also get a quick glimpse of some of the employees there as the camera crew passes through. They set up in Maj’s office and she tells about her career so far, from her days as a teaching secretary and her ultimate aim of applying to be Quick Stop Regional Manager. Maj also explains how today is a great day to start filming as there is a new employee starting. His name is Ernie and it is his first ever job.
Ernie starts his first day at The Quick Stop, but unfortunately it doesn’t go quite to plan. He spends some time in almost every department of the restaurant, getting to know Harold and Heema in particular. Throughout the day, Ernie nearly blinds a child with cleaner fluid by spraying it into their eyes when cleaning the table. He spills a drink over a customer at the order point when working on the tills. Then somehow manages to set fire to a colleague whilst helping cleaning dishes in the kitchen. During which time he meets Harold, who keeps himself to himself, Ernie finds it difficult enough as it is to speak to new people so the two don’t have much to talk about. Even when interviewed by the camera crew Harold is very shy and doesn’t give anything away. Each time Ernie screws up Maj has to stop the interview and intervene; she eventually relegates Ernie to cleaning the car park, away from any direct contact with customers. Maj hasn’t fired anyone yet and she still has faith that she can find Ernie’s role within the restaurant’s hierarchy. Meanwhile Heema, the head checkout operator, tells us about her university course and plans for the future, whilst she has been given the task of training Ernie and juggling unhappy customers due to an unusually common complaint with uncooked chips. After having been informed, Maj goes straight to the source; and finds out that Harold has been using the fryer today.
In the car park, the camera crew has the chance to interview Ernie and he has time to reflect on what has happened throughout the day, whilst talking about his life at home and how his mum encouraged him to get this job.

A Bit of Fun From Goldfish

Here's a cool and inspiring music video in a low frame rate 2D style. I think it's really fun to watch and I bet it was fun to make!

Synopsis Development

I think it's about time to post my synopsis development as I haven't written much about it.


Here is my original that I wrote over the summer..

We spend some time as a fly on the wall of a not so popular fast food restaurant, creating a documentary about the employees who work there. We film them as they go about their daily routines and grow to love or loathe them as we learn more about them and their aspirations. We see them working in action and interview them each episode to see how they are progressing.  However a visit from the health standards agency and an unforeseen procedural error could see the restaurant closed down before the end of the shooting.

And here is a slightly altered one that I sent to the lecturers the other day for feedback and crits...

We spend some time as a fly on the wall of a not so popular fast food diner, creating a documentary about the employees who work there. We film them as they go about their daily routines and grow to love or loathe them as we learn more about them and their aspirations. We see the small team working in action and interview them each episode to see how they are progressing.  However an unforeseen procedural error could see the restaurant closed down before the end of the shooting.

After being advised that it needed some more info about all of the characters and an idea of what the reason for closure is I did some thinking and quite drastically changed it...

We spend some time as a fly in the wall of a not so popular fast food diner, The Quick Stop. Here the camera crew creates a documentary about the goings on and the employees who work there, getting to know some of the members of staff. We quickly realise that Greg, the Deputy Manager, is out to step on more than peoples' toes in order to be in charge of his own Quick Stop diner. This eventually comes in the form of the removal of the current manager, Maj, with help from some little furry friends. Thinking he has finally achieved his fast food goal, Greg doesn’t bank on Harold unraveling his whole plan and turning the tables on him.

Meanwhile we get to speak to Harold, Heema, Ernie, Baz and Turner; who unfortunately keep finding themselves in the path of Greg's destruction. Harold in particular constantly finds himself in the firing line, mostly due to his disability...but Heema isn't going to let this continue for long. Baz and Turner remain blissfully oblivious, existing in their own world of cliche music, dares and innuendoes. Whilst Ernie does his best to impress as the new starter; however his best doesn't seem to be very good at all.

Emailed again and now just waiting for a response. Hope it gives the few readers out there a better idea of where the series is going as a whole...the episode ideas that I plan to post over the coming days will give an even clearer picture! 

FINAL Characters

Here are my final characters, the lecturers are happy with them and so am I. I have added the Pantone referencing and neatened up the bios.

Now to crack on with my episode development as there is little time left...

Set with Pantones

Here are my finalised set designs with the pantones as promised.

I'll blog my final characters with their pantones and finalised bios in the next post.

Set Dev. and Design and a Little Book Idea

I have been working on my set design recently and have finalised some designs of the exterior of the building where the whole of the series will be taking place.  I am still yet to design the interior but that will come shortly.


Here are my initial designs of perspective views.

I liked the look of the bottom one but took the element of the window covers from the top right one for my final design. 
With this in mind I drew up a design from the front face of the restaurant/diner, and added a few more interesting elements; like the car for the drive thru area of the restaurant. a bit more detail on the roof decorations and a sign.

I also added the characters to get an idea of scale.


With this done I thought it looked a little bland and very small, so I added some more to the building along with a plan from above to see what kind of area it might take up.

I was happy with these designs so I added some colour and tidied the whole image up to make it look more professional.

I haven't finished the pantones for these yet but I will today and get them uploaded, I just wanted to get some work up as I haven't posted for a short while.


The set design also gave me an idea for my book cover, it needs more detail in the background but I feel it would suit quite well if I could get the shape of it cut out instead of just having a plain A4 book.

Episodes

I have been giving some serious thought into my episodes recently and have found it quite difficult to keep them interesting. 


I want multiple stories to flow through each episode so that the audience isn't concentrating on just one character a week, because that really wouldn't work for my series. Also trying to get the potential for humour across in a synopsis is also quite difficult. But I'm giving it my best shot.


I have roughed out an idea of what might happen in each episode as we progress through the series but when I have a full rough draft finished for all of them I will post them, because for now I only have 3 and they don't follow on so it wouldn't make much sense!!

Character Bios

Here are my character bios, I had a look back at an earlier post with the character bios on and realised that they aren't really bios at all...so here are the updated ones. I have emailed them to the lecturers and will probably have to make some changes but they are a world away from the first ones.

Restaurant Names

Recently I had a bit of a brain blast of names for the restaurant in my contextual project;

Fast Burger

Top Burger

The Quick Stop

Easy D's

Meat Easy

Meat Stop

Burger Grill

I decided to go with The Quick Stop, as it suggests the restaurant is fast food by nature and it is also a place where you can eat in.