UPDATE: Deadline extended to 30/10/2022, 23:59 AOE (anywhere-on-earth)
Disclaimer first: I have no connection to the film industry and am not the greatest movie buff either, so feel free to propose other inspirations that I can add, or point out where is room for improvement for the non car-related facet of the challenge as well.
TL;DR: You are tasked with developing a car and a pitch for an early 1980 Hollywood TV series with the car as (one of) the main acting protagonist(s) of the series.
BACKGROUND AND BRIEF
Monday, February 13th, 1978
Executive Office, Eidolon Productions, Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, CA
“Alex, I have the new Nielsen ratings for our two new series that launched last year.” Angella Fontana, one of the Senior Executive Producers for Eidolon Productions waved with two typewritten sheets of paper as she stood in the doorway of the studio’s CEO, Alexander Taylor.
With anticipation, Alexander looked up from the script he was reading. “And?”
“Not good, honestly.” She moved closer to Alexander’s desk, sat down and handed Alexander one of the sheets of the paper. “The Ten Million Dollar Man slipped three places further down, and The Harford Files two places. If ratings do not improve soon, we might see one or both series cancelled.”
Alexander sighed. “Not again. Do we know why?”
“Preliminary results from our focus groups indicate two reasons. Some viewers think that our series are too similar to others, while others find the main protagonists increasingly unsympathetic.”
“So, in the worst case, D-A-S-H will be again our only established series for 1979 to help keep the lights on?”
Angella nodded. “Although we have a few good proposals with the major stations for 1979 awaiting responses. For the mid-term future, maybe we should think more out of the box for our series development?”
“What do you mean?”
“There were some major box office hits over the 1970s across various genres where cars played a prominent role and these were very appealing to audiences. For our next series, we could maybe go one step further?”
“Something like a main protagonist with an iconic companion car? Detective Harford has his Bricksley Grand Warden, and this doesn’t seem to have affected ratings much.”
“Not quite.” Angella’s expression visibly lighted up. “Make the car the star… or co-star at least! Cars as cast members, so to speak, have been good movie antagonists - think Christine or The Duel truck. How about we have one as a sympathetic protagonist for a TV series?”
Alexander pondered the suggestion for a minute. “Like, that striped Bug in those movies…? What was the name? Herbie?”
“As one example, yes. The more I thought about it, the more I wondered why noone has really tried the underlying concept for a TV series yet. There are many people who treat their cars almost as family members, so why not try expanding the idea to our casts?”
Alexander hesitated for a moment and walked to the big windows of his office which overlooked the parking lot of Archway Studios where his company Eidolon Productions had their offices.
For the first time, he considered the wide range of different shapes and ‘faces’ of the various employee and company cars parked there. He imagined the parking lot being a crowded waiting room for aspiring actors going through a casting process for a new Eidolon-produced series. What character profile might each car have? Of course, this would also have substantial implications for the writing and the production of a series that does not rely on a solely human cast…
He turned around. “Alright, Angela, then prepare a brief to send out to our pool of freelance writers - let’s see whether one of them can come up with a convincing pitch for a series and its protagonist car that we can develop further. With a good idea, maybe we can work out something for a series to start in 1980.”
So, in a nutshell, there needs to be a convincing protagonist car as the cornerstone of a series pitch, and that’s what you are asked to submit for this challenge. The series pitch goes into the forum post whereas the protagonist CAR file is to be submitted to me as Discourse PM.
There can, of course, be one or more human co-protagonist(s) and a supporting cast, but the series should not be able to work without the protagonist car. In any case, the protagonist car needs to be able to act on its own in some form (have agency, so to speak). This can come about through, for instance, magic / supernatural causes (think Christine), but also through 1970s/ early 1980s computers (think KITT), can be the result of a lab experiment (**), or it can be left vague or unclear (think Herbie) initially or throughout the entire series.
The series can be conceptualised as a regular TV series with yearly seasons until cancelled or as a mini-series with several longer episodes. Feel free to incorporate aspects of TV series styles and plots in your pitch which are very much ahead of the times in 1978 - the studio execs are not looking to play it safe but are open for innovation (otherwise they wouldn’t have invited a car-focused pitch in the first place). The series needs to be a full live-action series, however - so no animated parts or characters etc. CGI hadn’t existed at all back then, but regular special effects can work a lot of magic as well.
The series’ premise can be anything, and the setting can be anywhere on Earth - and it will be the producers’ job later on to make sure that this turns out to be believable. However, at least part of the filming will take place in the US or Canada (so left-hand drive settings). The time period for the series can be anything after 1950.
Otherwise, the sky is the limit for your creativity… but guided along by the priorities as detailed below.
PRIORITIES
Top priority:
-
Protagonist car - Character: The sustained attractiveness of a TV series rises and falls with the character of the main protagonist - the car in this instance. Our protagonist car needs to be able to act on its (his? her?) own and to interact and communicate with the rest of the cast (or the world) as well as the viewer in some form. A reasonably well fleshed out character of the protagonist car fitting to the series’ premise is therefore crucial for our studio execs to know what they would eventually greenlight.
-
Protagonist car - Visual fit: Visually, the submitted car should fit its outlined character as well as the premise and setting of the proposed series. For the challenge, this mainly applies to exterior design. A basic interior is most appreciated (if only to make the photo shots look more realistic). If you go for gadgets or a sentient computer, however, then more interior detail is required to make clear to the execs how this will be operated and look on film. You don’t have to include how any special effects would be generated, that’s for the FX people to figure out later on.
-
Protagonist car - Engineering realism: Likewise, the engineering for the protagonist car need to be realistic and fit its character and its appearance. Whether you submit a small quirky 1960s import, a 1970s US-domestic sports coupe, a highly advanced futuristic supercar, or anything else, the engineering choices should reflect that. Techpool is allowed so ‘futuristic’ supercars can be made with a 1978 MY. Techpool can also reflect what the car manufacturer is particularly good (or bad) at, if that matters. Race parts are allowed, too, if the main protagonist is going to be (or was) a race car. However, any car that is going to be driven on public roads needs to be street legal for the period the series is set in (I won’t be super strict on the details here, there are too many cases to cover and some oddities or ‘violations’ may even make sense in the context of the series.) If you cannot fit certain features into the Automation engineering choices (e.g., an advanced computer system), add it to your Discourse post and/or the description field in Automation on the Testing tab [was this ever used before in a challenge?]. If you are going to submit an 18-wheeler truck through 3D magic, engineer it in a way so that you get roughly appropriate stats for an 18-wheeler.
-
Series - Potential audience appeal: After all, the TV business is a business so the planned series and its protagonists should appeal to a certain not too small audience. Whether you choose mainstream or more niche is up to you (and back then, letter writing campaigns by a small but enthusiastic fanbase could work wonders to keep a series alive…). Audience appeal is more than the sum of the parts of the series, so this will be a holistic judgment.
Medium priority:
-
Protagonist car - practicality: In-car scenes and special effects will require some space in the car for the equipment not to get in the way of the actors and the filming. Ideally, there would also be relative ease of access for the camera operators and technicians.
-
Protagonist car - reliability: Frequent breakdowns may be part of the story (or a running gag) in the series but these should be staged, not natural. (+quality can help ofc, but stay within believable realism)
-
Protagonist car - loudness: The submitted car should not be overly loud on set (even if it is/was a race car). Special engine effects can be edited in afterwards.
-
Series - Supporting cast: A protagonist is nothing without a supporting cast (and perhaps an antagonist if the series’ premise requires one). A supporting case may also have potential breakout characters, adding to the series’ appeal. The studio therefore wants to know who else will be part of an eventual series. You can write short character outlines, provide drawings / sketches, images generated from other games’ character editors or AI-generated images of people.
-
Series - Other details: Your pitch should give our studio execs a good idea about the series, its general style and plots, if there are going to be story arcs etc. As Eidolon has their own staff writers to change things or flesh things out later in production, this part of pitch does not have to be overly detailed. Unlike the car, all settings or plot-related details in the eventual scripts can be changed with the stroke of a pen, after all.
-
Series - Ease of production: It’s easy to imagine the fanciest settings and effects, but at some point even the loftiest goals have to meet the hard reality of TV series production. Eidolon works with a well established studio with a large repository of sets, props and costumes and also has good ties to established special effects companies. They can also assign a respectable budget to building new sets, props and costumes for the proposed series once greenlit, and a series that stands out from the mainstream through production quality can contribute to the series’ appeal. However, there will be limitations to what Eidolon will be willing and able to invest, depending on anticipated audience appeal and their own financial means.
Low priority:
-
Protagonist car - purchase / service / fuel cost: A TV series production is an expensive endeavour and the same may apply to hiring a convincing protagonist, car or otherwise. However, the less spent on acquiring (cost) and maintaining (service cost, fuel consumption) a small fleet of the protagonist car, the more money can be spent on other aspects of the production. Note that a higher price or ET may not necessarily affect cost for the purpose of this challenge, if the same result can be achieved via movie props, special effects or cheap car body modifications for filming. The same applies for crash or wrecking scenes, as long as similar cars from the junkyard are available. This factor becomes of medium importance if more than just a few cars are needed for a season due to frequent stunt work / crashes (which may be a unique aspect of that series, so don’t shy away from such an idea on principle).
-
Protagonist car - drivability: Even with potential self-driving abilities, the car will have to be driven by regular actors on the set, and they should be able to concentrating on acting, not on driving. You also can assume that all the actors can drive stick.
-
Protagonist car - comfort: As there will be most probably many scenes filmed in the car, the actors need to have a certain level of comfort. The car also needs to be reasonably stable for filming when driving over regular roads.
-
Protagonist car - safety: Even though filming will take place in controlled settings, and there will be stunt drivers available, the actors’ insurances will nevertheless require a certain level of reasonable safety for driving in regular scenes.
HARD RULES
-
Automation version: 4.2 open-beta (latest build)
-
Model, trim, family, variant year: 1978 or earlier (do not have to match, but have to make sense; realism is a top priority after all. Use MY 1978 with techpool for ‘futuristic’ cars.)
-
No V16s, no car bodies from the legacy mod (I don’t have the DLC and won’t install that mod)
-
All other components and mods available on Steam allowed (again, things need to make sense, see ‘Top Priorities’ above, and consider the general need for a car to be street legal in most cases)
-
Advanced trim settings: anything goes (but need to make sense… you get it)
-
Quality sliders & tech pool: anything goes (but need to… you know. The higher or lower the quality the better the obvious rationale needs to be for extreme settings to make sense!)
-
Price, ET, PU: anything goes (but… and see the priorities above)
INSPIRATIONS
Supernatural / magic
(is the evil antagonist in the book / film, so just take the supernatural nature for inspiration)
Computerised
(as shown in the film, the Cannonball Subaru does technically not fit here, but I think is suitable as an inspiration nonetheless for 70s style computer tech in cars)
Unexplained
(the truck is an antagonist again - but the mystery aspect counts. Technically also had a driver iirc, but is never revealed and wouldn’t have needed one for the film to work imho. )
Submission:
Submit the CAR file for your protagonist car via Discourse PM to me and make a post with your pitch for the series and at least one photo of the car within the deadline.
Naming convention (vehicle model / trim): TMCC22 - Username / Vehicle name
Naming convention (engine family / variant): TMCC22 - Username / Engine name
Submissions open: Fri 07 Oct 2022, 23:59pm AOE (anywhere-on-earth)
Submissions close: Sun 30 Oct 2022, 23:59pm AOE (anywhere-on-earth)
In case of stat-changing game updates, one resubmission per participant and game update will be allowed.
