The Game Show Project - Introduction

For my third year at university we can propose whatever we like for our productions. Most people will be pitching short films and documentaries but I fancied doing something a little bit different. No-one will pitch an action game show I thought, so the ball was rolling.

Before Summer I worked on the game and the format including a test run with some friends and now it's reached the point to propose them to the university. It's very much possible that it won't go any further than this stage but it's worth a try! Here's the proposal.

On The Run (wt)

23 minute, multi-camera action game show

4 contestants take the roles of secret agents and embark on an epic chase around the city streets in order to reclaim stolen money from an evil corporation.

The presenter acts as the leader of the operation and oversees everything from the studio/mission HQ. He introduces the 'agents' (contestants) and explains what needs to be done. The evil corporation, with contacts in high places, has taken money out of several different high street banks. The money has been dropped in 4 different rucksacks near these banks for a different henchman to pick up and return it to their base. Our agents must pick up these bags before the henchmen do and return them to HQ and receive a percentage cut of the money they recover as their prize.

There are complications however, Inside each of the bags is a dye pack which, if fired, will ruin the money in the bag. These dye packs were put in place to prevent anyone besides the intended recipient taking the bags. They are set to fire under a number of circumstances. Firstly, if the bags are taken beyond the range of the corporation's central base and secondly if an internal timer reaches 20 minutes. The only way to prevent the packs firing at the end of the timer is to use a disarming key attached to the outside of each bag, however each bag has the key to a different pack. This means the agents must find each other to save the money.

They're not the only ones searching for them however, two operatives for the corporation receive a radio message that some people have taken the bags from where they were and they begin to hunt our agents down. Each bag has a tag attached which, if pulled out, fires the dye pack regardless of whether the pack has been disarmed. Our agents will have to avoid these people in order to finish with their cash intact.

At the end of the game all of the agents return to HQ for their debriefing, and to find out how much money the team finishes with. Each contestant is unlikely to know whether someone else's bag has been dyed or not so this acts as the 'reveal' at the end. Each contestant tips their bag out onto the table revealing either crisp clean notes, or a clump of soggy ruined notes.