COP 3 - Character research and concept building

For my practical I want to create a set of character designs and some sort of pitch bible. I created some brief notes to help get the ball rolling on what exactly I wanted the show and characters to be like.

From my visual and contextual research on already existing animated sitcoms, I came to the conclusion that the shows revolve around family dynamics but the protagonist is usually a male father figure. The main point of my essay and practical is to challenge the dynamic of animated sitcoms but still conform in certain aspects. 

The plan is to have 6 episodes in the first season. I will mainly focus on what happens in the pilot episode because that will be what sets the tone of the show.  The idea is that the parents have split up and there will be a sense of mystery about why and where the mother is. the characters will know and hint throughout the first season as to where the mother is. Each episode will be 15 minutes long

I came up with the idea that because UK families value dinner time a lot that the episodes will be based around the dining table and focus on dialogue fueled by the main protagonist. I decided that the protagonist will be a young female character who's family dynamic mimics the common UK family dynamic. Her parents will be divorced and she will live with her dad rather than her mum in order to conform as well as challenge what the dynamic is when parents split up. Usually the mother has custody over the children, but I want to challenge this concept in this show. I want there to be a comedic vibe to the show but I also want there to be some relatable aspects as well. Because it's common for parents to split up in the UK, I want there to be a sense of a broken family but they find solace in humour and each others company in order to support my essay that challenges how comedy is presented through animated sitcoms.

I want the aesthetic of the characters and show to be individual but still readable in the sense that it's not too outlandish so it distracts from the dialogue. I decided that the families last name would be "Carmen", a play on words for "common" as they are meant to be representations of a common UK family.