Another Man's Treasure

(First of all, apologies for slightly shaky video, youtube doesn't like HD quality. I'm the crap actor in a white shirt, I won't be in the film so don't worry. A more refined promo video will be made in due course).

Another Man's Treasure is a sitcom based at a flea market in Salford. I was walking through the Sunday market and thought to myself, this place is a comedy gold mine. The people who sell and consume are so rich in character I felt inspired to write something about it. Unfortunately the market maybe facing closure as the council maybe selling the land for a supermarket development site, which is a great shame as the place is such a bastion of community spirit. One of the reasons I am making this pilot is to potentially give a lifeline to the flea market, to reinvigorate a culture that looks like it may fade out to a neverending capitalist tirade.

The idea/style aims to encapture the quirkiness of The League of Gentleman and the dry northern humour and heart of The Royle Family. It follows several larger than life characters of all ages, mainly the marketeers who quarrel and fight their inner, "quirky" demons in a day at the market. 

   KEVIN and ASH, two young Salford scallys, rob an elderly man’s urn of his dead wife’s ashes, along with his piles pills, and sell them to scrupulous all round bastard LOUIS at the Salford flea market, who believes the urn to be a vase.
    In other quarters, father and son, ROSS and CRAIG, try to outsell their rivals, father and daughter, TREVOR and FAYE, after Trevor entices Ross into a bet. Ross is convinced his Korean TV’s are the cut above. But when he finds out they are North Korean and the channel gets stuck to only broadcast Kim-Jon-Nam-Il. He thinks the bet is all over.
Elderly bakers IRENE and MYRTLE discuss Irene’s dieting problems. Irene is determined to keep to her new diet of Rivita, but is mentally tortured by the sight of Myrtle’s tempting looking éclairs. Irene faces her biggest fear when she is left alone by Myrtle.
AL the depressed butcher faces a difficult day trying to motivate himself, after his wife left him for his sister. Things come to ahead when two bohemian women berate him for not knowing whether his meat has been humanely killed. He is willing to let things pass; until he finds out they are lesbians.
TIM, the merchant of black market sex toys, scams Louis out of extra cash after Louis’s taunts about him being the cause of Peter Sutcliffes in the world. Tim also sells Viagra to the burgled elderly man whom mistakes the pills to be for piles. The elderly man also gets deadly shock when he finds out what Louis has done to his urn.

I am not far from having a Masters in screenwriting. I have been studying the craft for the past three years, previous to that I have a BA Hons in Media Film and Journalism. I have had some good people in the sitcom industry give me some very good feedback on my sitcom/comedic skills. I know the rules of sitcoms and comedy thus one of the reasons I believe I can make a very good pilot with a series potential.

My director for the project is someone I have worked closely with the past year. He is a skilled  technician who like me has a media background and an MA student as well. He has filmed two of my previous shorts and we are just about to film a music video for an international renowned artist, and a couple of other shorts in between this project. He also has an award for cinematography and a pretty good editor. We have two short films in Virgin Media shorts this years competition. Slit Wrist Theory and Good Luck With That These shorts will hopefully demonstrate to you what our ability to be humourous, quirky, imaginative and what we have done on zero budget productions.

The cast is almost fully assembled. I am delighted to say locally renowned talent Mick Ferry, Peter Slater and Dominic Woodward have agreed to play some of the parts amongst some other talented 'newcomers'. 

The reason I am appealing for funding is to hire potential equipment, cost of locations and expenses. The shoot looks likely to take two to three days. We need to hire a catering van for the day, as well as fill our stalls with relevant props, i.e. electrical equipment, cakes and um, sex toys. 

I will also be funding the project myself also. The final piece is planned to be distributed virally in the hope it interests production companies who can take it to a broadcaster. I also have someone who will take it to the BBC head comedy commissioner.

The aim of the project is to showcase local and untapped talent. In light of any potentiaI success, it is my aim to pay back investeors. 

I thank you for your time for reading this. It's a bit mumbly jumbly, potentially a bit too informal, but I'm a comedy writer, not a civil servant. I apologise if you are a civil servant. If you have any questions, feel free to message me.

Kindest Regards,

Chris Aitken