Writer’s
Guidelines
Amended from the Official Production Series
Bible
August
2004
“Cops” meets “The X-Files.”
One Line Synopsis:
A cop finds she
is consumed by a shadow like force that devours evil.
Longer Synopsis:
Teresa
Maria de los Angelos (a.k.a. Angie) is a tough Hispanic cop in the inner
city. She works out of the fictional 7th
District: a regional police dept. that goes all over an urban city. The criminals seem to outnumber them, the
people they have sworn to protect don't trust them, and Angie has trouble
sleeping. The reason she has trouble
sleeping, is because when she gets tired, her body is taken over by a darkness
that moves like a shadow and goes about literally devouring criminals.
Prelude2Cinema intends to begin production on the Series in the fall of 2004. There is a Pilot being edited based on the script “The Last Time I Slept.” The TV Series is also linked to the Emmy winning TV Movie “What Angles Fear.”
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Website for Details, Photo and Info
First and foremost, this is a cop show. So each episode will feature a crime or more than one crime. The 7th district does not take on anything but the most heinous crimes. Something that affects the city as a whole. In fact, since the show is shot in Cleveland, it is advisable writers create crimes that reflect real life events. Although enough of the details should be changed so that legal issues do not occur for the production company. There will be no supernatural elements to any of the crimes. That being said, the emergence of the Dark is the only element that can be described as “supernatural.”
The lead investigators on a case will be Angie and her partner Drew. Yet all the other characters have their own subplots and should be given attention in most episodes. Still, the story will center on Angie, the crime and how the Dark emerges into her life.
The Crime should be resolved by the end of the episode. Resolution of the crime does not mean it is solved successful. It only means the cops have did all they could with the case. Various subplots will be woven into each story and may continue from one episode to the next. It is advised that writers only focus on the crime and Angie and her dealing with the Dark. The staff is laying out Story arcs for the other characters.
While there is an explanation of what the Dark is, it is not definite and Angie “being” with the Dark will change what it is.
The longest part of this Guideline is about the Characters. While the crime will draw in viewers, this is not “Law & Order.” The crime will change the characters’ lives. Viewers must care about Angie and the cops she works with.
Before writing a complete story, writers should pitch the story to us. The pitch should include:
All scripts should be in the standard TV screenplay format for a show of one hour. The actual running time for each show will be approx. 45 minutes.
Each episode will include a Teaser, followed by 4 acts.
While Angie is the main character, there is an entire world she exists in. Below is a list of the characters in that world.
Seventh District.
He has been Angie’s friend and partner for three
years. He is a black man and sometimes
being a cop and being Black seem to be in contradiction to one another. He feels sympathy for some people and
understands how discrimination has shaped their lives. Still, he doesn’t
believe that excuses them from being involved in a life of crime.
Note: Depending on the casting of Angie, Drew may be the older cop who is assigned to Angie, who is a rookie officer.
A Hispanic cop who thought she had everything under control in her
life until she becomes the Dark. She is
a true paradox and at times will be completely sympathetic to a prisoner, and
then she will be cold and ruthless the next moment. Angie
comes from a large family. Her family is one of thieves and criminals. She is
the only one who is a cop and she did it because she was driven to and has a
disdain for her family. She has a large family and I will have them interact
with her sometime in the course of the story.
Casting will determine whether Angie appears a rookie cop or as an officer who has been on the job for a few years.
The name will change. This is a black woman cop. Her job is to keep her partner under wraps. He is a self centered, arrogant racist yet they work good as a team. She believes in getting criminals out of the way and any way to do that is fine with her. She won’t go as far as her partner does, but she will cover up for him when he does cross the line.
The name will change. He is racist, and always talking bad about Latin women. This is after he tries to make a play for Angie. He made a play for his partner once and she hurt him so bad, he respects her now. He has seen nothing but the worst side of people and feels he is there to make sure they don’t get their way.
Lieutenant Foster appears first in the Emmy winning TV
Movie “What Angels Fear” and again in Prelude2Cinema’s digital feature “Blood Kiss:
Soul of a Woman.” He is a ruthless cop
who has not gone as far as he can because of his devotion to duty and his
disdain of politics. His officers seem
to be the “trouble-makers” and “rejects.”
He relishes the chance to shape these cops into good soldiers in the
fight against evil. He is religious, in
an “Old Testament” sort of way, and won’t hesitate to kill if he feels
justified.
He is in love with his Southern roots, but George is more in love with the spot light. He is a smooth talking black man and uses charm, the race card, and anything he can think of to get what he wants. If the person he is prosecuting is guilty, then that is good. If not, and he can still put them away and get his name in the paper or his face on the news, so be it. His thinking is, “they were guilty of something anyway.” Whatever George is guilty of, he won’t say. He is only truly affectionate to his blonde teenage daughter Jennifer. Raft works with the 7th District and only the 7th. He handles all the crimes or decides to hand them off to his team if he doesn’t think they are worthy of his time.
She is described as Prosecutor Raft’s lap dog, but Charlie is smart and cunning and likes power. She imagines she will be a lawyer one day and is learning the ropes and gathering friends to be in her corner.
Sherrie (pronounced Share re) is the new Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio. She is from New Orleans and has a pride that borders on arrogance about her southern roots. Her first job as the new mayor is the establishment of a “regional” police force that provides assistance to crimes all over the city. The 7th only deals with the most vicious crimes. They are all hand picked officers by Sherrie. She doesn’t seem to have a personal life and at times has too much fun wielding her power over people.
She wanted to be an actress once, but she got stuck doing the Cleveland Breaking News. The Cleveland Breaking News is the only web site in the city that has day-to-day news. Georgie is only seen on the Internet. Even when she interviews someone, she is never physically in the room with the person which have prompted some rumors that she is just a computer program and the real Georgie doesn’t exist anymore. Still, it’s only a rumor.
What is the DARK?
It is better to say, what it is not? It is not a spirit. It was here before we were. It is not evil. It is a force of nature that has not existed for a long time. What the Dark is will be changed by its’ relationship with Angie. The Dark cannot speak, but it can echo a voice back to a person in an attempt to communicate. Is Angie invincible when she is the Dark? So far, this is unknown. The dark can take the shape of a man, of water, smoke, or something in between.
For the most part, leave the Dark a mystery.