Journal #7704

(Edited with treatment)
"Congratulations, your submission for the TV factual Pitch has been shortlisted. The panel would like to hear more from you so you will pitch your idea in the following session:

Wed 28th March
CCA5
14.00 - 16.30
PERFECT PITCH: BROADCAST COMMISSIONING IN SCOTLAND"

So apparently I will be pitching a programme idea I had directly to Ewan Angus (Commissioning Editor, BBC Scotland), Harry Bell (Creative Director, Tern Television) and Nick Low (Managing Director, Demus Productions).

To put it simply:
HnnngngkRHAsjrgrvjspvoszpozkmsxc (nervous breakdown)

Here's the treatment I submitted that got shortlisted.

‘Brought Up to Believe’
A one-off 30 minute factual programme for the Creative Loop

As scientific innovations become more ground-breaking and more questions get answered, the world is starting to rely less and less on the outdated beliefs of organised religion. In 2005, a Eurostat poll of the UK found that only 38% of Scots believe in a god and in the seven years since then we can only assume that the number has decreased further. Even rarer is the number of people who follow their religion to the letter – most choosing a compromise between belief and modern understanding. So what would make an ordinary Scottish boy in his late teens suddenly decide to become a creationist?

Douglas Pollock, a twenty year old Glaswegian has always believed in the Christian God, but only recently decided to interpret his religion literally and became a self-proclaimed creationist. Following this personal revelation, he spent a year in Ukraine conducting missionary work emphasising the massive change in his life.

From living a relatively normal life, Douglas has now chosen to live his life under an extremely strict rule book and takes no shame in trying to spread his new-found beliefs. From being an open-minded, bright lad he now openly denounces homosexuality and promotes abstinence.

Brought Up to Believe will explore the reasons behind Douglas’ sudden transformation and will follow him on his return to Ukraine as we find out what it’s like to go abroad to evangelise and aim to discover why he feels the need to spread his interpretation of the Christian Bible. We will also briefly explore the morality of children being raised in religious families and whether or not they really have a choice in their faith. Being raised in an extremely Christian household where he would receive a new bible every year for Christmas from his grandparents and being told to attend church every Sunday must have seriously influenced Douglas, so is it morally correct to indoctrinate kids from such a young age?

As the topics covered can be somewhat controversial, the programme will spark debate and discussion which could be facilitated in an online forum. Religion is always a relevant topic and it still plays a massive role in worldwide politics and culture – people always love to have an opinion about it. There is also plenty of room to expand upon the basic idea of the programme and perhaps get a series exploring the same topic from the viewpoint of various different religions.

The target audience is men and women in their late teens to early thirties of all social grades and should attract an audience of both religious and atheist viewers as both would potentially be interested in the reasons behind Douglas’ revelation. BBC Three at 20:00 would be an ideal slot for such a programme as the BBC Three audience is around Douglas’ age and the channel often airs a factual show during this after-dinner slot.

Stylistically the programme would be a mix of guerrilla-style filming while following Douglas in Ukraine and traditional sit-down interviews with his family, minister and other relevant characters. A presenter’s voice-over would be used to transition segments and Douglas would be prompted on-the-fly by the director during his mission, questioning, but not undermining his actions. Visually similar to docs like ‘1 Giant Leap’ and ‘Brave New World’ with some stylistic visual effects used to add flair.