Genre:
- Slice of Life
- Comedy
- Romance
GM's
- X
- CO-GM (TBD)
- CO-GM (TBD)
The Story So Far
Theme Song: City and Colour - Friends
In 2006, amateur film maker Nick Dempsey came up with an idea. Taking one, hand held camera he followed a group of teenagers between the ages of sixteen and eighteen as they lived their daily lives as young people in a nowhere town just south of Philadelphia named Thornhill. Nick shadowed these kids for a year of their lives, experiencing everything within their lives as they themselves experienced them. The process of filming the product was magical, torturous, wonderful and dangerous (and completely with parental permission of course). The sum of Nick’s efforts was a documentary series he had entitled “Nowhere”.
Nowhere was lauded by critics for its unapologetic portrayal of youth culture in the 21st century. Controversial with its depiction of drug use, alcohol abuse and sexual activity, many tried to boycott the series, whilst most others watched with trepidation. The release of Nowhere was plagued by issues as its controversial subject matter caused a stir in the dream machine and one of its main cast passed away two weeks after its launch on a prime time network. For the six months it was on air, Nowhere generated a huge fan base and despite its risqué subject matter, it made a star out of Nick. Following his stint in Thornhill, the bright light of film making moved on to Hollywood blockbusters.
Ten years on, Nick is now a successful movie director but he is disenchanted by the Hollywood world. After another drunken bust up with his glamorous wife, he retreats to his den where he discovers in an unopened box the original cut of his first project, Nowhere. After re-watching it, Nick’s creative desire to return to his roots is ignited. After months of research, Nick begins making contact with the original stars of his first documentary (all now fully grown adults). Heading back to that quiet town of Thornhill in the middle of nowhere for a follow up story, Nick is curious to see just what happened to those unique and amazing kids he left behind so long ago? In “Somewhere” we are about to find out…
The Short of It
A slice of life story with the added twist of camera’s always being on the characters. This is a character driven story set out in an episodic fashion, with each episode being represented by time jumps and events happening within the story i.e birthdays, town events, situations with the characters’ lives that will take centre stage. Each episode will be rounded off by interviews with the characters summing up their thoughts and feelings to the camera (of course these will by private with no other character seeing them though we as “viewers” will).
As players we would each control up to two characters as well as any NPC’s that might be involved with the story. Most characters will have appeared in the original documentary as teenagers when they were between sixteen and eighteen, although new characters to the series so to speak are welcome also if they have some form of previous tie to the original documentary. All characters now would be in their mid to late twenties and with their own lives, families and careers. They may even not have spoken to any of their old friends since the original documentary. Some might have capitalized on the fame to try and become celebrities, some may have fallen on hard times, wherever they are, Nick will find them.
NOTE: Before the rp begins, once all the characters were designed and relationships built, we would also need to solidify a timeline of events of what happened in the original series and bridge the gap between Nowhere and Somewhere.
Furthering the mention of an episodic nature; we would all design an “episode” dedicated to our characters but still leaving plenty to do for the characters that are not the focus. The premise and order of episodes must be agreed upon with a GM first before anything else. The general idea will then be implemented as the next instalment of Nick Dempsey’s new documentary series (For all intents and purposes, Nick is simply a narrator and not a character himself, as such he should only be used for the opening and closing of episode and can be used by all players).
So what do you think guys? Ambitious I know…so anyone want to make someone’s favourite tv show with me?
The Setting
This rp takes place in the fictional Pennsylvania suburb of Thornhill though we may do a fair bit of travelling too if the story calls for it. Thornhill is a large town but has a very close knit community where most people know everyone and most businesses a small and family ran. Thornhill is home to several sports such as Basketball, Hockey and Football all of which have teams tied to the High School. Time frame is modern day, 2016.