Pre-Production | Idea Development and Pitch

After taking on board the feedback from our initial tutorial, we got to work on improving the initial idea so that we could pitch it to Simon and the group, with the aim of getting the green light to move on with the pre-production work.

We have decided to stick with the original 'VET-MAN' concept and to continue to develop the idea that Dr Stewart has lost his vet license and is going 'on the road' as a mobile vet to try to make money and set up his own practice on day.  From Simon's tutorial, I had another look at the story and refined some of the ideas and carried out some more research into key plot points to create a more believable and achievable story.  For example, I have looked into the process of becoming a vet in real life so that our central character, Tim, can have more a more believable back story.  A lot of veterinary doctors study at the Royal Veterinary College at the University of London, which is amongst the top 3 veterinary schools in the world.  This is a five year course and afterwards, students are qualified to work in veterinary practices.  This research is key to creating the world of 'VET-MAN' as plausible as possible.

We each contributed for our own parts of the pitch and came up with this:



The pitch went fairly well and I feel we conveyed the idea well.  We had a few questions relating to genre - i.e. how we would delve deeper into Tim's character from an absurd surreal character to a more grounded and tragic character.

Simon gave us the green light to go ahead with production but also gave us some pointers on where to go next with the project and the plot in the script in particular:

• The title 'On the Road' is quite similar to the 'Office' spinoff film 'David Brent: Life on the Road'.  This is a fairly common phrase anyway but I agree it is a bit too similar, especially as they will both have a similar comedic tone to each other.  For the moment, we have decided to simply call it 'VET-MAN' as working title which we can change later on if we wish.
• In the pitch, the tone was not entirely clear - we suggested macabre but did not clarify how this was going to be achieved.  I feel we will aim to make it quite dark and it will involve death as Tim inadvertently kills animals.
• Simon also suggested that I fully flesh out the central character before writing the script.  This includes his motivations, back story - why he is motivated to do what he does.  He also suggested that I add a rival to bounce off of Tim and act as catalyst for the things that he does.

These were useful points to work on as I continue to develop the script - the next step now is to work on the treatment and character profiles which will be extremely useful when it comes to producing the first draft script.