#[Logline] The Underground - queer drama

18 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

random pagoda
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Title: The Underground
Format: TV screenplay (50-55 mins)
Genre: Contemporary queer drama
Logline: When a jaded publisher and his casual lover agree to see other people together, they must learn how to navigate envy, complexity and unbidden feelings.

So I came up with this idea ages ago, modelled partially off of my own experiences. I wanted to play with the idea of a common equaliser between classes (huh, I'm sensing a theme in my works here) - and the unwitting target for my eye was actually the London Underground. I wanted to be able to pit the middle-class, comfortable queer man against his working-class contemporary, who may not be afforded the ability to live outside of the closet in his home life. Thoughts?

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[Logline] The Underground - queer drama

fast silo
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as an idea, this seems very tightly scoped, to the degree that I'm not sure how many episodes it could sustain, especially at an hour per episode. are there details you're not including in the logline?

random pagoda
fast silo
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The classic solution for this kind of thing is to have a group of friends/family members who reflect/refract the central theme and allow for subplots

random pagoda
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Oh yeah there'd be friends and family. I wouldn't just focus it on the two characters, that just seems like a recipe for either boredom or disaster.

fast silo
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what do you see as comps for the show?

random pagoda
fast silo
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that might help. otherwise I would try to work the class distinction into the logline. "jaded publisher" & "casual lover" doesn't tell me why it's interesting that these two characters are in this situation.

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also, not sure how the underground connects to all of this, though that may be obvious to someone actually from the UK

random pagoda
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I wanted the Underground to be a 'great equaliser' between the main characters and the other romantic interests

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Like, ultimately, everyone in London gets the tube, so it's an opportunity to place opposing people against one another

fast silo
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mechanically what does that look like? is every episode set in the tube?

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is that where they encounter all of their potential entanglements?

random pagoda
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Kind of, yeah. It's just a title at this stage, as it's the first idea I really had for the story.

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So this publisher guy works out of a place called Richmond. He meets another guy on the Tube - they start talking discreetly over Grindr or something. Rich guy gets off in a super expensive neighbourhood. Poorer guy, who's using Richmond to change trains, gets off in a rougher neighbourhood. That was the very first idea I wanted to run with

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I wanted it to be urban, but I wanted to use the idea of a shared space as a common ground between rich and poor

fast silo
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sure, but that's just the pilot. if it's your title, that suggests it's going to be central to the show as an ongoing concern. ER as a title doesn't really work if it stops being about the ER after the first episode.