By Summer Hornbostel, Pete Nugent, and Hailey DuBose, VI Form

The Pitch Project TV Show Winner: “The Second Reality”

Title: “The Second Reality”

Logline: If the first reality fails, there will always be the second one.

Elevator Pitch: “The Second Reality” is a show about alternate realities, and how the decisions that characters make affect their futures. If you think about it, every decision that we make can have multiple different outcomes, meaning that there are multiple different realities that we could possibly live out. In our show, “The Second Reality”, there is no such thing as one reality. You live one reality, but some people are given the chance to go back and change their biggest mistake, thus leading to their second reality. However, characters don’t know that they have the opportunity to go back, otherwise they might live their first reality without care. While living their second reality characters are able to remember their first one in order to justify it as actually being reality.

Synopsis: In our show, “The Second Reality”, we explore what it would be like to have the opportunity to go back and change our biggest mistake. In the show, we follow four stories of four different people going through various times in their lives. They have to deal with the everyday struggles in life that we do, but there’s one catch. They’re able to go back and change their biggest mistake. As soon as the characters make a mistake that negatively alters their own life and the lives of others, the universe

“corrects itself”. Usually, this phrase is used to mean that it is impossible for a human to change their fate and that no matter how hard he/she tries to avoid certain parts of their future, the universe will “correct” itself by bringing the human back to their destined future. In the case of our show, it means that the universe recognizes the life-shattering mistakes some humans make and gives them a second chance. When one character of our show makes a bad choice, they must live with it for a while so that the universe can understand how devastating the mistake really is and determine whether or not that person should be given a second reality. Once the universe decides, the human is brought from their present time to a time shortly before their bad decision, while still knowing what happened in their first reality. However, no one in their first reality is aware that they can redo a mistake, because if they knew they might live life carelessly. For example, when Richard Wilson goes into the record store and flirts with the cute cashier, but doesn’t ask her out, he regrets it for the rest of his life. As he continues his life, fighting in Vietnam and losing many close friends in battle, he feels more and more lonely. Though his decision to not ask out the cashier may seem insignificant, it impacted Richard’s life immensely. He regretted missing the chance to take a risk in asking out the cashier and that decreased his sense of confidence in himself. The universe gives him a second reality, which he uses to finally ask Martha, the cashier, out. They deeply connect, fall in love, get married and have three kids. Martha helps Richard feel more confident and pursue being a firefighter, his dream job as a kid. Reality means the world or state of things that actually exist. These people in our show are entering their second reality with the memory of their first on being real. This is how we are able to make two separate realities.

The things that our characters want to go back and change aren’t the regular everyday choices with which many humans are challenged. They are big problems that they believe they handled wrong or regret. From topics that we discussed in class, such as marriage and revenge, to others that we didn’t, such as a child coming out to you, our characters are faced with big decisions. These may not be decisions that we make in our everyday lives, but these are definitely the decisions with which humans struggle and we want to represent their difficulty and their outlasting impacts on a person’s life. We wanted to make a show with relatable people, understandable struggles, and the kind of regrets viewers are afraid of having in their own lives. All this, but with a little bit of a twist.

Treatment:

Season 1

• Episode 1
  • Main character: Richard Wilson
  • casting: Matthew Broderick
    • • Cautious individual
      • Textbook overthinker
      • Very thoughtful, to a fault
      • Not a go getter
      • Rarely steps outside of his comfort zone
      • Enjoys looking out for others
    • In his first reality Richard regrets not going for the girl
    • In his first reality Richard walks into the record store and buys a record and talks with the cute girl behind the counter as he does so
      • He doesn’t end up asking the girl out
    • As his life goes on he finds that he is more and more lonely
    • He is a Vietnam war veteran so his friends either died in battle or went their separate ways after they were released from the war
    • This left Richard lonely, and after the day in the record store he always regretted not asking the girl out
      • Something told him not to go back, and he found out that the girl got into a serious relationship soon after they met
    • Richard was disappointed in his decision since he was so alone in his life
    • The universe granted him a second reality and he took the opportunity
    • He goes back and asks the cashier out on a date and once he does this he can already feel his life getting better
    • He and Martha end up getting married and having three children (Alex, Sandra, and Mckenzie)
      • He isn’t alone and Martha helps him gain the confidence to get back to work as a firefighter
        • He liked the rush that it gave him, and the way that he was able to save and protect people, this really gave his life purpose
• Episode 2
  • Main character: Rodika Clements
  • casting: Sierra McCormick
    • • College student
      • Always looking for a good time
      • Not entirely responsible
      • Inconsiderate for others
    • She was at a party with friends where there was drinking involved
    • She was only 22 and out at a friend’s house party
    • She and her friends were pretty drunk and in no condition to get behind the wheel
    • Rodika wanted to get home that night so she decided to let one of her more “sober” friends drive
    • They were going too fast on a dark road going around a turn
    • They thought everything was fine, and they thought they were on the right side of the road until they crashed head on with another car
    • Rodika and Finn the guy who was driving were both unharmed, but the younger boy driving the other car was dead
    • He was only 17 driving home from seeing his sister
    • Rodika’s story combines with Kate’s story since Rodika and Finn killed Kate’s brother Tyler that night
    • Rodika spent nights awake thinking about the crash and feeling sorry for the life she had taken due to the fact that she was so careless
    • Rodika spent a lot of her time thinking that she should have been the one who died, not Tyler, but Finn told her to put her emotions aside and Finn, Rodika, and their friend Gavin all decided to go on a ski trip to help Rodika forget about things for a while
      • It’s been a little under a year, 10 months since the accident
    • The whole time Rodika couldn’t get her mind off of Tyler and his heartbroken sister Kate
    • At one point she thought she had gone mad since she thought she saw Kate at the ski resort
    • It was going to be her last run of the night and while going higher and higher on the chair lift Rodika thought about killing herself
      • It was at this moment that the universe gave her the opportunity of a second reality
    • Rodika accepted, and went back and decided that she and Finn were going to stay at the party that night
      • She also vowed to herself to never get out of control again and get into a car with an intoxicated driver
        • She didn’t know how many more realities that she would be granted and she never wanted to feel the way she did when she killed Tyler again
• Episode 3
  • Main character: Kate Locke
  • casting: Uma Thurman
    • • Angry soul
      • passionate
      • Vengeful
      • Holds grudges
      • Irresponsible
      • Inconsiderate
    • Her story ties into Rodika’s
    • Her brother was killed in an accident involving a drunk driver (Rodika and Finn)
    • Earlier that night before her brother left her house to go home they fought
      • They argued over why their father had left their mother so late in their marriage after everything seemed to be fine
        • Tyler (who was the only one still living at home was causing a lot of problems, he wasn’t doing well in school, and his parents had confronted him many times about drug use) thought that their father had another woman, however Kate confronted Tyler and suggested it was his fault and that their father didn’t want to stay and watch Tyler get nowhere in life due to the way he was treating himself
    • The two started to fight, and did so until 11:30 when Tyler left storming out of Kate’s house followed by a stream of swears and insults that she uttered
    • When Kate got the call that her brother had been killed by a drunk driver she was shocked
    • She felt horrible for the way she had yelled at him moments before his death and that she never got to say a proper goodbye
    • She then felt uncontrollable rage towards the people who had done this to her and her family
      • She was struck by how selfish of an act they had done costing the life of someone that she needed most in the challenging time she and her mother were going through
    • She vowed that she would find the people that did this to her and make them feel the way that she felt
    • Kate found out that Rodika and Finn had caused her so much pain and spent the next eight months stalking them, learning everything she could about them, and planning what she would do once she found them
    • She followed them to a ski resort in Colorado, and resented them for doing so as a means of forgetting what they had done to her brother
    • Kate decided that she was going to torture these people who had tortured her, so on their last run of the night she made her move
    • The mountain was deserted and she snuck up on the chair lift operator and knocked him out, hiding his body in the nearby lodge bathrooms
    • She then stopped the chair lift in hopes of leaving the group on them over the long weekend to freeze to death, or die trying to get off the mountain
    • She was about to go inside to help explain to the chair lift operator why he had awoken in the bathrooms when the universe gave her the opportunity to go back for her second reality
      • All Kate had wanted to do this whole time was say goodbye to her brother before he left her forever
    • Instead of having the argument they grieved their father’s leaving over a nice home cooked meal
    • She begged him not to go, but he said that he wanted to get back and be there for their mother, and Kate sadly let him leave
    • Before he left Kate gave her brother a big hug, the last he would ever get, and told him that she loved him, and he said it back
    • Later when Kate got the call about the accident she was still sad, but more content with how things had ended
• Episode 4
  • Main character: Christian Stevens
  • casting: Robert De Niro
    • • Disciplined
      • Old fashioned
      • stern
    • Christian was a very strict father who always expected the best from his two children
    • One day over dinner he noticed that his 18 year old son, Adam, was acting strange and looking sheepishly over at his mother between everything that he said
    • After the meal Adam asked his father to go into the family room since he had something important to tell him
    • The whole time they were talking Adam seemed nervous talking about other things like school and his work load lately before coming out and saying it
    • Adam “I’m gay dad, and before you say this might be a phase I just want to tell yo…” Christian “Let me just cut you off right there. You aren’t gay. Well at least you can’t be gay as long as you want to be my son”
      • With that Christian walked out
    • After this conversation Christian didn’t see Adam very often, and he wasn’t upset by that
    • Adam had moved out of his house for the rest of the school year until he went away to college
      • He went and moved in with his boyfriend, Gabe, at the time who wasn’t good to him
        • Gabe never wanted to do anything serious and always just wanted to go to parties and clubs
          • This, along with the lack of family support caused Adam to struggle in his college process and he ended up going to the local community college
          • Even here Adam struggled to pay his tuition with his menial salary from the burger joint that he worked at
    • Between work and classes Adam had barely any friends
    • Adam was going through his life unhappy with himself for being someone who his father couldn’t be proud of
      • He also never felt comfortable being his true self when it came to hanging out with friends either
    • After a difficult few weeks Adam decided that this life wasn’t worth it, he had nobody he could talk to, his family had all but cut him off, and he didn’t see a better option than to kill himself
    • His family got the call on a Sunday afternoon that their son had taken his own life
    • As much as Christian wanted to forget his son he couldn’t help but feel responsible for this
    • As Christian crumbled to the ground crying after the phone call, the universe decided to give him another chance
    • He went back to the living room with Adam just as the words, “I’m gay dad, and before you say this might be a phase I just want to tell yo…” Christian hugged him and said, “Adam, I love you so much. You can be anything you want to be as long as you’re my son. I want you to do anything that makes you happy and go after everything that you want because you can.”
    • With a look of disbelief on his face Adam said, “Thanks dad, you have no idea how much it means to me to hear you say that. I’m still your son, and most of all I want to be a man that you can be proud of.” Christian said with tears in his eyes, “You can’t imagine how proud I am of you.”
• Character 5: The Universe
  • • Omnipotent
    • Omniscient
    • Big
    • Mysterious
    • Uncontrollable/unstoppable
  • Plays a part in every episode by deciding who should get a second chance
  • Potentially in the second season we will see characters who are NOT given the second reality
  • The character of the Universe will become more and more apparent as the show goes on
  • One episode may be that the Universe makes a mistake… gives someone the WRONG second reality. The universe brings the person back, but instead of to where he/she made his mistake, to where someone else made his/her mistake.

Episode 1 Key Scene

• In episode 1 the scene is set in 1962 during the Vietnam War, in Greenbow, Alabama. A frail, shy, and nervous 19 year old named slithers into the corner record store in downtown Greenbow. He scours the record store looking for a Ray Charles, or perhaps a Bobby Vinton vinyl. Upon selecting “I can’t stop loving you” by Ray Charles, he approaches the checkout. At the register, a 20 year old counterculture advocate is working with large peace signs on her earrings. Struck by the youthful beauty of the cashier, shy Richard Wilson feels the urge to talk to her, to take her out to dinner, to kiss her, to marry her one day. He shakes off the feeling, remembering what his dad used to always tell him: “Shut up and know your place.” The cashier smiles as he sets the record down on the counter.

“Good choice,” she says. Richard smiles back nervously and tries to shake his dad’s voice out of his head. “You know, I got to see him live in Atlanta back in ‘59.”

“I bet that was quite somethin’.” He looks like is going to say something else, opening his mouth then closing it again.

“So.. are you buying this record for some lucky gal?” she asks, slyly. He laughs.

“Nope, no gals for me…uh well, yes I like girls, just not at the moment. I mean, I like them at the moment, I just don’t have a girl at the moment…” Richard sighs. This time, she laughs.

“Well, I’m surprised! A handsome man with good taste in music ought to have someone to listen to that music with!” Richard blushed and she smiled because she wasn’t used to men who weren’t cocky and overly flirtatious. “I’m Martha, by the way,” she said and stuck out her hand. Richard fumbled with his wallet while attempting to shake her hand.

“Richard,” he said, with a shy smile. He looked behind him to make sure he wasn’t holding up a line. They looked at each other for a few seconds, until Richard looked away, blushing again. “Well, I guess I’ll see you,” he said as he saluted her. She saluted him back.

“Maybe I’ll see you at a Ray Charles concert!” she called after him. He turned and smiled wide. As the bells on the door clanged and Richard starting walking down the block, he started overthinking.

“I couldn’t have even told her how pretty she was?” He said to himself, kicking the curb. Angry, he started walking back. “I should at least give her my phone number, then she has the choice to call me or not and if she doesn’t like me I don’t have to worry.” He turned back around. “She’s probably just very friendly, I shouldn’t make a fool of myself and go all the way back just to ask her out”. After many back and forths, Richard finally sulked home and played his record all night long. He never stopped regretting not asking Martha out.

Plot:

Two realities: make our own definition of reality – the people in the show are able to have two realities due to the fact that they remember the first reality as something that actually happened and they’re able to learn from it

First reality is the first time they made a decision- the universe recognizes that they made a bad decision the first time and grants them a re-do

The second reality is the opportunity they have to go back and relive their first reality, but change what they want to. The characters are cautious to make the right decision this time because they are unsure of how many times they are allowed to go back.

Only happens to specific people. This second reality is granted to people who the universe deems in need of a second chance the most.

Each of these characters goes through a difficult ordeal similar to those that we have discussed in class (marriage, love, revenge, realizing who you truly are).

Each character’s story lasts two episodes. Each episode will be 30-35 minutes long.

Characters don’t know that they will have the opportunity to live a second reality so they don’t go through their first one carelessly. The characters made the mistakes that they made at first out of rash decision making when their emotions were too in the way for them to think clearly.

Everybody’s second reality is different. This is why Tyler still died in Kate’s second reality even though Rodika and Finn decided against driving home. The universe can’t change the outcome of a reality, it can only grant you a second reality to attempt to make the changes yourself. If the universe had given Tyler a second reality, he might have found a way to avoid dying in a car crash, but the universe believed his fate was meant to be for him. The universe was more concerned about Kate’s life as a result not just of Tyler’s death, but of her lack of goodbye to him.

Genre:

• Drama
  • All of these stories deal with important topics that come up in everybody’s lives at least once, and these aren’t topics that people should be taking lightly
  • The episodes will help people see how easy it is to make mistakes that can haunt someone forever, and remind them to think carefully about their choices.
• Sci-fi
  • The whole idea of a second reality is interesting in itself due to the fact that the universe is the one who picks who gets a second chance or not
    • Throughout the show you don’t know exactly how the universe selects who gets another chance, the wrong decision is in the universe’s eyes which makes the universe like another character throughout the show
    • As the show progresses, the viewer learns more and more about the universe as a character

Themes:

• Marriage
  • Richard Wilson
• Regret
  • Rodika Clements
• Revenge
  • Kate Locke
• Realizing who you really are
  • Christian Stevens

Art:

• The meaning behind the image on the front cover is representative of the decisions that we make and all of the realities that we could live within the one decision
  • Circle = one decision; smaller circles within the big circle = the multiple realities that you have the possibility to live out