Transition: Producer statement

Casting

The original casting of the episode "AKA Start At The Beginning" is the show's regulars, Krysten Ritter and Eka Darville. 

For our remake I wanted to set the scene in the UK, this required having two actors that could help sell the location. 
Before putting an ad out for actors I already had a rough idea of how I wanted them to behave, I wanted Jessica to be bold and brash while Malcolm would be the quieter and subdued character.
This is due to their histories, Jessica having a lot of emotional trauma she uses sarcasm and wit as defence mechanisms, and Malcolm's ex drug use-age meaning he prefers to stay in the background and not draw attention to himself.

Advert posted on Mandy.com

Due to the emotional nature of the scene I will be looking for someone who can cry on demand, the effect of an emotionally closed of character like Jessica crying will be really useful in the scene. I'll also be looking for actors who resemble the characters in some way either in looks or personality.

Location/Set design

The original location for the scene is Jessica's apartment.
To allow the scene to become a self contained narrative I added two other locations in the script, the hallway and path outside. The apartment is now Jessica and Malcolm's flat, I took inspiration from Sherlock and had Jessica trash the flat out of frustration.

The scene will look as though it's been trashed, there will be over turned sofas (due to Jessica's strength) as well as the typical crushed cans (due to her job as a PI Jessica has multiple energy drinks, this will be in our set and has been referenced in the show itself) etc.

The original location was going to be in a basement, however due to a conflict in scheduling with another group we aren't able to use this. We've changed to a student house, this further allowed me to take inspiration from Sherlock and set up the house to look like flats. We have numbers that will go on the doors to add to the realism.

Script

The script has been adapted from the original. I made a transcript of it, this allowed me to edit/change it so it would become self contained.

From there I edited slight things like adding in "Southbank" to establish the country we're in as well as changing the character Whizzer to Dan.
By doing this I was able to alter the story line by having it as Dan bringing the ashes and him being the reason she leaves the scene, so she can find him.
This was inspired by the original scripting where it's Whizzer who knocks the ashes that had already been brought into the scene.