Kudos

Thanks so much to the team members who shaped the work so far. Part five is a summary based on your input.

 

Intro

The Series Bible explains the foundations of the story.

Whilst the posts reveal the big picture to the team, the audience will only ever see a riddle wrapped in an enigma.

What lies beyond? 

You know… at least some of it, through the series bible posts.

Theory versus visual

This is our theory of story. How we visually depict story is another unique challenge.

Each episode must reveal visually diverse, ‘theatres of conflict’. Every scene must create an organic track of conflict that grows in stakes and scale. We must see well-defined characters. Those characters will each hold valid motivations and objectives. They will be passionate and they will be in conflict. Creating story that explores this visually is the challenge. 

 

Part one – The creator seed

Part one revealed we’re exploring a new god mythology. One of the traditional god mythologies, (based on the Abrahamic faiths), proposes we are the children of a creator god. It states humanity is created in that god’s image.

Our new mythology proposes a twist, (call it our ‘lost testament’).

Just like a parent’s fondest wish for their children, this parent god would seek for humanity to become everything they are and to exceed them. Therefore, the ultimate game plan is for humanity is to become creators of worlds, mentors to species, gods.

It starts with just one of us, ‘The creator seed’.

Both Kristoff, (the satan character) and Telamon King, (the god character) need to find that seed first. Toowyn is the key to the seed’s identity.

The title

We also polled you about the title. You voted in favour of creating a new title for the TV series. Our next post will be the ‘Title fight’. It will contain a brief about what we are looking for, what we’ll pay and how to submit your title ideas.

 

Part two – The everyman character

In Part two, we revealed that Toowyn represents the voice and experience of all humanity. He’s also the key to finding the ‘Creator seed’.

Both the King and the satan character battle for Toowyn’s allegiance. The future of humanity and the kingdom is at stake.

The usurped son

We also revealed that the satan character in this story is not a force for evil but rather a usurped son, who lost his place as inheritor of the kingdom, to humanity.

His faithful service unrewarded, his place stolen and his future lost, he is enraged by what he sees as a betrayal and plots his revenge.

He is highly motivated and believes his actions serve the King. In conservative politics, he would describe himself as a ‘patriot’.

If we do our job as writers properly, we should be able to develop a real empathy for this character yet reveal his choices as ultimately flawed because he does not learn and he will not change.

 

The Destroyer

Toowyn is revealed not as the creator seed but as a prophesied ‘Destroyer’, a warrior capable of slaying angels and laying waste to worlds.

There is one more, critical reveal to Toowyn’s real identity but we’re going to hold that back.

 

Part three – Baptism of fire

In part three, we proposed three potential story reasons as to why Toowyn and, ‘the three’ came to our world.

Out of the choices offered you selected, ‘Baptism of fire’. Toowyn has journeyed to our world to prepare for a quest for the king. It is a literal baptism as well as a metaphorical baptism of fire. 

The entire event takes place in the space of a moment in the parallel universe but in real time in ours.

Each of ‘the three’, Toowyn, Che and Khalil agreed to take on the quest. They occupy the bodies of people who have recently died, resurrect their bodies and possess them.

They will forget who they are. They will forget why they came.

They will learn of the great sacrifice required of them to compete their quest.

The quest will cost them their lives in our world. When they return to the the parallel universe, they will take back possession of their own bodies.

They will adopt their names from our world and from that point on will be known as Toowyn, Che and Khalil.

 

Why does the parallel universe exist?

Why release a new version of anything? In theory, the new version is meant to work better. We’re exploring two different versions of evolution and the growth of civilisation.

At the heart of the difference is the babel effect.

Where a god becomes jealous of the creativity and collaboration of his own children it may ‘smite’ them. In one world, humanity creates in every field with great and terrible outcomes. In the other world, creativity and growth are both ruthlessly quashed. A balance is achieved but humanity becomes stagnant.

The parallel universe is a visually stunning world but its governance, whist diverse, is repressive. 

Humanity is physically the same in both but the way of life is very different.

‘Working with sentient lifeforms – for dummies’

This is an amateur god tinkering with design and in defence of the character, there is no undergraduate course for being a god.

The truly wonderful thing about the character of Telamon King is that he learns to become a better god. He behaves like a tyrant. He demands the loyalty of Toowyn and loses his love when Toowyn aligns with Kristoff.

When Toowyn returns, the prodigal son, the angels in the King’s service utterly despise him but the King is overjoyed. He now values the great relationship he can have with Toowyn. He learns how to be a better god and Toowyn, the voice of humanity, is the catalyst of that change.  They both learn, they both change and we think that’s rates as a feel good ending for humanity and its creator. 

There’s a line at the very end of the whole series where the King goes to leave, forever. Toowyn calls to him, “Wait, who are you, what are you?”

Telamon replies, “I am”. 

 

Part four – Pandemonium

In part four we proposed a focus on the overthrow of government after the Day One event. You said you preferred to watch, the ‘pandemonium’ unravel as society collapses and for the characters to define themselves in that window of story. 

Revised synopsis

Your input has reshaped the synopsis. Got a view? Want changes? Log in and have your say in the comments section below.

What is the relevance of the ‘Day One’ event?

Day One is orchestrated by Kristoff, (the satan character). 

It is a continuance of the war between Kristoff and the King. It’s Kristoff’s, ‘weapon of mass destruction’. He draws the lost souls of the abyss back to our world. 

In our story, there is no eternal life. There is however, a place for the burning embers of humanity’s souls after death. 

Where a soul has brought about great harm they are separated from the others in an abyss. They are without form or physical feeling but possess the memories of what it was like to be human and mourn in the space between their death and their spirit’s ultimate decay. 

Kristoff brings them back. When they return, they seek to possess the bodies of the living. In some cases, they are successfully fought-off, in others, the possessors achieve absolute control but for most, there are two drivers at the same wheel, one, burning with anger, seeking to experience every carnality possible, the other fighting for control of the vehicle. In just one night, seven billion people are wiped out. The survivors remaining are either exceptionally strong of spirit or the possessed and the strongest of the possessed are particularly dangerous souls.

The returning spirits who fail, die and pass through a soul portal to the parallel universe. There, they seek to raise the corpses of the dead. This gives birth to another terrifying threat in the parallel universe, ‘the ravagers’. 

Zombie plus possession = Stephen King on steroids? 

Are we going to spell that out for the viewers? No. Leave it as a mystery to be eventually revealed. The question is how to reveal it. The last thing we want is a half hour, Tarantino style dissertation on the ‘why’. We have to find the visual reveals and allow the audience to work it out for themselves. Create speculation and controversy, that’s the technique. 

New story developments

Based on conversations with the writer team, we have some new developments to report.

Got a view? Log in and have your say in the comments section below. 

 

Misty for you

We previously considered the arrival of the red mist as an overnight event.

In the new version, the mist will hang. It will be impenetrable. We will lose satellite, GPS and global internet. Nothing can fly in and survive.

We will lose all communication with the rest of the planet.

We will be blind and deaf to what is happening.

Later in the story, when the mist finally begins to clear, we will deliver a terrifying reveal, enter the ‘Moscow story’ first and the rest will follow.

Stop the boats

A stream of refugees as well as in-transit traffic will be making its way to Australasia post Day One.

Both Team Sydney’s Jacqueline Smyth and Team Rio’s Keith Melton proposed mid-air stories where the possessed occupy a plane on-route.

Keith Melton’s story features a journey to Auckland where mayhem breaks-out bringing the possession to New Zealand. 

If cruise liners, passenger jets, cargo vessels and other craft all arrive in New Zealand bringing tens of thousands of people, there may be hundreds of thousands of the returned souls from the abyss. 

If  New Zealand is *lost to possession then the Australian government would apply an immediate, ‘stop the boats and planes’ policy that would include orders for our military to shoot-down and sink on sight any plane or vessel approaching Australia.

Featuring a returning passenger liner, pleading to be allowed to enter Australian waters creates a moral dilemma. Perhaps they’re not infected but can our leadership take the chance?

Asking an Australian commander using a submarine or a jet fighter to sink the liner, killing everyone on board is controversial. Leaving the survivors to the sharks, even more so. The impact on the participants called to carry out the task can also be explored.

Curiously, a very similar storyline was addressed in Battlestar Galactica, (there’s nothing new under the sun). 

*Why would New Zealand be lost to possession? The returns souls can piggyback in numbers. When they break-though a person’s defence, more than one can enter trying to take possession therefore even though one person subject to possession is on a plane, they may have hundreds of the returned trying to break in. If those souls cannot take possession of one person they will flee to another.  

Visions of the parallel universe – What are the three swords?

Part of the iconology of the Journey franchise is the three swords.

Toowyn dreams of a land ravaged by war.

He sees a stark and windswept landscape defined by three massive stone swords, embedded in rock.

The land of the three swords is Toowyn’s homeland. It is torn apart by civil war and his family is to blame. His wife and child have been sold into slavery and he has been accused of a terrible crime.

He is a prince without a kingdom.

The images of the three swords are part of Viking mythology and are actual sculptures in Norway. The raw images provided come from photographer, Amund Nedland.

Next 

Apart from the, ‘Title fight’, next comes the job of creating the content for our design, production and post teams to create in 2015.

That includes the creation of a pilot script, a first series outline, a teaser trailer and the design of the look of the characters and their worlds.

This along with a development schedule will allow the team to complete development in 2015 so we can go to market to raise for production by 2016. 

During the development period, we will be breaking down each stage of development, giving it a budget and approaching sponsors to fund each stage.

Begin the journey