ZOOMERS
concept in development
web series
James Ricketson
Six strangers - young men and women, forced into isolation by the Coronavirus pandemic - meet on Zoom. They become close friends, fall in love online, fall out of love online, share with each other the highs and lows, the black humour and moments of deep despair and existential angst that arise from their confrontation with an unknown (and unknowable) future, and the very real possibility that one or more of them may not survive the pandemic.
As their ancestors did in pre-historic times, around actual fires, (warm, with flickering flames and hot coals) these young ‘Zoomers’ (for that is how they refer to themselves) sit with their cold laptops, their smart phones, in their bedrooms, talking intimately (and animatedly) with each other about ‘meaning of life’ questions that they, denizens of 21st C consumer society, have largely avoided as they lived hedonic (and/or mortgage-driven) lives Before Coronavirus (BC).
Denied the chance to kiss, to cuddle, to be in the same room with each other, they have no choice but to create, online, with Zoom, a tribe of sorts in which their multifarious social and emotional needs are met. They discover, whilst online romance is difficult (to say the least) and while cyber sex may be safe, that it leaves a lot to be desired. Masturbation is no substitute for the joys of kissing, cuddling a warm partner, making love.
ZOOMERS can (and will) be shot in such a way that the six central characters (and the actors who play them) will never have to be in the same place at the same time. Integral to the concept is the notion that the production must not place any member of the cast or crew in danger on transmitting Coronavirus to each other. This can be done. The production practicalities I will leave aside for now.
The central characters of ‘Zoomers’ discover joys of intimacy and the riches to be obtained from being part of an ever-growing and mutually supportive online community, that they had not appreciated BC. They find within themselves resilience that they had not known they possessed. They discover what is most important in their lives and that is, quite simply, each other – the people they love, be they family, friends, lovers and former lovers.
The Zoomers are all, in their own and quite different ways, forced to re-asses their lives, to question the values upon which they have based their lives; to ask themselves and each other what is important to them in life and what is not.
The ‘Zoomers’, having grown up with the lack of privacy Facebook introduced into their young lives lives, find themselves digging deep into their true feelings about themselves, each other and life in a way they did not, could not, BC. In late night chats fuelled at times by alcohol and drugs, they share intimacies with each other they had not shared before, even with those closest to them; digging deep into themselves to discover what they really feel about each other, about themselves and life in general.
The next stage: six writers each create a character that they feel comfortable with; whom they know well. Then, six writers come together, online, and throw their characters together and see what happens.
There is more, much more, but one page should suffice for now.
James Ricketson
26th March 2020
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