Amanda Green

Author

Alex Piliouras

Degree Type

Honors Capstone Project

Date of Submission

Spring 5-1-2010

Capstone Advisor

Richard Dubin

Honors Reader

Evan Smith

Capstone Major

Television-Radio-Film

Capstone College

Public Communications

Audio/Visual Component

no

Capstone Prize Winner

no

Won Capstone Funding

no

Honors Categories

Creative

Subject Categories

Film and Media Studies | Playwriting | Television

Abstract

I have submitted for my Capstone Project three interactive scripts for the series Amanda Green. The series features a fourteen-year-old girl, Amanda Green, who solves mysteries with her friend Jerome relating to school and social life. In the pilot episode, submitted here, Amanda hopes to ask the school heartthrob to the dance, but is robbed of the opportunity when the principal announces that the dance is canceled due to an act of vandalism. After her grandmother regales her with an inspirational story, Amanda decides to head an investigation of the crime scene in the hopes of solving the mystery and saving the dance. Amanda and Jerome then discover that Amanda’s crush, Derek Jameson, was the culprit, and Amanda must decide between turning him over to the principal, or allowing the dance to remain canceled and bearing the guilt of knowing who is the guilty party. Decisions aside, Amanda decides in the end to open a detective agency with Jerome, which will act as the basis of the series in future episodes.

The show has been written in television format, but it would also serve its purpose in an online venue. In the same vein as shows like Doug and Hey, Arnold! the series will feature a lead character dealing with the struggles of growing up, including coexisting with the opposite sex, fighting with friends, having difficulties with parental figures, and other issues relating to the process of leaving childhood and entering into adolescence and adulthood. In addition, most episodes will feature a problem that does not necessarily have a “right” or “wrong” answer, but instead has a problem that could be solved in a variety of ways, many of which are not obvious to Amanda and require her to decide on a course of action that may not seem ideal at the time. To illustrate this, the pilot episode, submitted here, features Amanda struggling with the decision of whether or not to ruin her chances with Derek by turning him in to the principal or allow his wrongdoing to go unpunished. Every episode will pit Amanda against a similar decision in order to highlight to the audience that it is not always easy to discern between right and wrong.

Amanda Green acts as a form of entertainment for children ages eight to ten that serves the double purpose of also teaching children about coping with their emotions as they progress through life. Children can laugh at Amanda and Jerome’s antics while also relating to Amanda’s inability to speak to attractive members of the opposite sex, as well as looking to Amanda’s decisions for guidance when facing their own personal difficulties in life.

Recommended Citation

Piliouras, Alex, "Amanda Green" (2010). Honors Capstone Projects - All. 344.
https://surface.syr.edu/honors_capstone/344

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