About Us
En Droppe Midnatt
PITCH DECK
LIMITED TELEVISION SERIES ADAPTATION
LOGLINE:
Afraid that his father will not be around much longer, Jason wants him to tell him about his ancestral history, but his father refuses to return to his past in the USA.
A Drop of Midnight is a coming of age story between a father and son on the backdrop of a Swedish hip-hop legacy.
"Why do you keep insisting on tracking nigger graves that were paved over into parking lots ages ago, why?"
The Hook
Jason tells his father that he wants to write a book about him and their family. But he is met with resistance and indifference. When their cousin Willy, who was the last living relative from the slave era, passes away in the USA, Jason is determined to tell his story.
"No one wants to read about our slave history. Write about music or a detective story, people in Sweden will read that."
The Story World
We are invited into Jason's world and the way Sweden was and is today. This is a historic time capsule about society, "folkhemmet", a family who have migrated to a new country for a new start and their son who unknown at the time, becomes one of Sweden's epic hip-hop and rap artists of our time. Jason's path to music is the path to his political, societal revolution and his relationship with his father.
A Drop of Midnight is a limited television drama adaptation that Inter-cuts between key time epochs in 80's 90's to present day. Set in Sweden.
JASON
The protagonist is Jason Diakité and which the story is centred around a dramatisation based on the memoir, A Drop of Midnight.
What does Jason want/ need ?
He wants to write a book about his family ancestry and needs his father to remember his past so that Jason can make sense of his future.
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Why?
Jason wants to make sense of his mixed race identity, where he belongs, what he is and what is not.
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What is the central conflict for Jason?
Jason's father refuses to help him with his "slave project."
What is at stake?
When Jason's father is taken to hospital for life threatening illness, Jason realises that if his father passes, his story and legacy will risk never getting told. He becomes more determined than ever. Loss, death and family relationships are at stake.
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Key Plot Points for Jason
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Jason has to convince his father to tell him about their history in the USA.
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Jason and his father's influence on music and the catalyst to Jason's hip-hop/rap journey.
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Jason's experience growing up as a kid in the south of Sweden and the racism he hid from his parents.
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Jason becoming the musical sensation that he is today.
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Jason and his mother's story and how she met his father.j
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Key plot points in the episodes are :
Madubuko Diakité
The centre of gravity for Jason
the
Jason's father is Madubuko Diakité
Key conflict points for Madubuko:
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He does not want Jason to write his book
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He has life threatening illness
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He does not approve of Jason's career choices into music
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He wants Jason to accept Sweden the way he has and be at peace with it.
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Jason forces him to bring up things from his past that he has buried and wants to forget.
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Episode Synopsis
Episode 1 :
Donald Trump is in the background on CNN, saying that he is running as president of the USA. Jason's father tells him not to write a book about their family, Jason is determined to do it for himself. We open with Jason's music, go back to his childhood and his parents history. We end with an episode cliff-hanger when Jason's father is suddenly rushed to hospital with life threatening illness. Jason is confronted for the first time in his adult life, the if his father leaves him, his story will not be told.
Episode 2 :
Its 1980's. Olof Palme has just come back from the USA and said, " Att ta in cable tv är att släppa in satan I våra vardagsrum." Jason's father has also come back to Sweden after visiting New York. He brings a gift for Jason that will change his life forever. Its a vinyl record of Grand Master Flash. When Jason hears him rapping for the first time, his world is forever changed. Jason embraces his Black identity, he begins his path towards his music as a kid rapping beats in school and then later in New York, where he is told his beats are not good enough. Devastated , Jason returns home to Sweden.
Episode 3 & 4, 5 :
Elaine, Jason's mother, gives him a book by Malcom X when Jason is 15 years old. Jason digs deeper into the teachings of Malcom X from his radicalisation to coming to realise that race is not black and white but about building bridges.
Jason meets a producer who convinces him to rap some beats for him. Jason decides to rap in Skånksa and blows the roof off.
When Jason's father tell hims about the toy train set on the book shelf, Jason realises painful truths.
The Arcs
Emotional Arc:
Jason realises he could lose his father before he fit the pieces of his life story.
Character Arc :
When Jason discovers that he can rap in Skånska dialect, he suddenly finds his beat, his voice and re-invents himself by embracing his Swedish identity and becomes one of Sweden's greatest musical legends of all time.
Story Arc :
For the first time in his life, Jason understands his father's own journey filled with loss and grief and comes to learn the hardships Madubuko and his mother, Elaine, fought for as a mixed race couple in the USA. But most of all that Sweden is his home just as his father said.