Let's make a TV series in 2012

I know I promise things, and sometimes I don't follow through. I am sorry, and I will try to do better.  While I'm working on that, let's talk about my new exciting plan.

Next year I head to Holland and film a TV series.  That's pretty great, right?  The thinking is that we do a short, web-based series and for the rest of our lives, can always say that we produced a TV show.  Or maybe we use it to springboard into glitzy jobs, I'm not sure.  Anyway!

Right now, the main problem is that to persuade people (potential investors, cast and crew) that our TV series is a good idea, we need scripts, synopses, general information.  But stories are supposed to be character led, and who knows what kind of actors I'll get.  The relative abundance of volunteer actors is why this is going down in the Netherlands, incidentally.

Arguing chicken and the egg in this way is silly, of course.  Write a decent script, get the actors, then change it completely later on if we have to.

What do we know?  Well, male actors are going to be in short supply, so a character list should be female-biased.  These people are volunteers, driven mainly by general altruism, love of performance, and my co-producer's interpersonal skills.  Rehearsing and filming will be fairly time-intensive (I've opted for a single camera set-up, on the basis of equipment costs, and the fact that the actors will be used to theatre, and so blocking and re-running a scene should be second nature) so limiting the number of episodes the majority are in will be a priority.

A 'main character' list of, say, three actors.  Probably one male, 2 female.  It's going to be awkward that other classic sources of diversity - say, age, race etc - are going to be pretty much out of my hands.  I imagine the narrative as whole as this long line, of which the actual episodes are sort of the middle.  The characters' backstories will get changed by whoever ends up playing them, which in turn affects what kind of characters they become, which alters the way the stories play out, which changes the direction of the show, and whatever direction we're facing when we close.