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Tv Show Idea- "The Mark"

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TheEpitomeofAverage

BRIEF SYNOPSIS:
1 and a half years after graduating college and still unemployed, Adam Turner runs into Raymond "Ray" Oliver, a former college classmate, and joins a partnership with Ray and becomes a con-man. But it's Ray's hidden agendas that put Adam's life at risk.

IMPORTANT INFO PERTAINING SHOW:
Adam purchases a church to launder his money by using the "donations" church members give the church. There won't be any corny preachy scenes, BUT I will use the church to point out the irony of the situation.

Every episode will have a "Mark" that Adam and Ray are trying to work over. As well as a long-term mark that will be played out throughout the season.


So how do you like the premise of the show? I aready have the first episode written. I just want your feedback on whether I'm onto something, or if I'm getting excited for no reason! Your opinions would be greatly appreciated!
 
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Depends on what kind of Church you're talking about. 99.9% of churches you see in Tv and movies are generally some form of Christian/Catholic church - fancy architecture, stained glass windows etc. - "people" don't own these, the diocese does. Now if you're talking about your side of the road (in a strip mall), or Evangelical "Pat Robertson" or "Billy Graham" type church (think Crystal Cathedral), then by all means, yes the "person" or "persons" do own this, and would be a perfect vehicle for mob laundering.

Also know that the Irish mob, are an extremely religious people - think Irish catholic. This theme has been explored before, but don't be afraid to delve into it if you're up to a little research. Priests may be holy men, but men none the less and thus subject to corruption.
 
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The church would be a regular side-of-the-road church. As a guy who used to be forced to go to church, I know churches can be privately owned. Of course it won't be a cathedral or anything. Just a chapel, big enough to make the income drawn from the church justifiable.

And i'm not interested on taking on religion as a topic. Little, if any, of the shows storylines will center around the church. The church is just a neat, and creative cover up.

I also want to dwelve into the psychology of man. Most people who get conned are taken advantage of, not by kindness or a positive moral quality, but by their own greed and dishonesty. And it's something I want to explore. The moral imbaguity of human nature in general
 
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Sounds like a pretty solid premise for a show. My only issue with it is the way they're laundering money. I get how its ironic, but you shouldn't push for something that's unrealistic. Low-key churches don't make a lot of money, so if they're making large con's, then it won't be believable. But, I don't know. I suppose this could be stretched and made believable. It really just depends on how thrilling you make the show.

But yeah, I wish you the best of luck.
 
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You can't launder money through donations, umm donations have to go back to the church. So they say the $100,000 was from donations, okay, so now what? They can't keep it.

Laundering is filtering the money through a shill business. A fake business set up to cook the books. It comes out clean as profits of the biz.
 
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You can absolutely launder money through a First Church of The Circle K. They pad the take from the collection baskets. The money is put into the church's Benevolent Fund, which shuttles it (tax free) to bogus outreach programs. I think that you really do need to have an evangelical preacher to make the cover believable. Some Evangelical churches use visiting preachers on a regular basis. This can be a vehicle for cameos. Alternately, your friend/mark/sucker/partner can get ordained online and be the resident minister for the church. Your "bad guy" is the Deacon and he oversees the church and it's "missions". The way I see this is that the big bad guy is conning everybody, even the new partner. They have a series of short cons that they work every episode and work on a long con throughout the season/series. You could have a story arc for the new partner in which he gradually comes to believe that conning all of the people of the church is wrong and starts working a con on the big bad guy because he is taking to his role as minister.
 
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Lucky Hardwood said:
You can absolutely launder money through a First Church of The Circle K. They pad the take from the collection baskets. The money is put into the church's Benevolent Fund, which shuttles it (tax free) to bogus outreach programs. I think that you really do need to have an evangelical preacher to make the cover believable. Some Evangelical churches use visiting preachers on a regular basis. This can be a vehicle for cameos. Alternately, your friend/mark/sucker/partner can get ordained online and be the resident minister for the church. Your "bad guy" is the Deacon and he oversees the church and it's "missions". The way I see this is that the big bad guy is conning everybody, even the new partner. They have a series of short cons that they work every episode and work on a long con throughout the season/series. You could have a story arc for the new partner in which he gradually comes to believe that conning all of the people of the church is wrong and starts working a con on the big bad guy because he is taking to his role as minister.
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I like that. I'd watch Leap of Faith for some inspiration. There's also a British series that's similar and that's been on PBS lately: a team of grifters who con a mark every episode, or something like that, I think. I haven't really watched it. But might be another reference point for you. I think it might be The Hustle.

Sounds cool. Best of luck. Would be cool if you posted a screenplay here for us to read. =)
 
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Wow. Thanks for the positive reaction

@indietalk, I know for a fact that the donations from the collection plate goes straight to the church. So whoever owns the church, that's who gets the money. How else do you think a church is able to pay the rent, the pastor, the lighting, and all other expenses? Through the collection plate. And from personal experience, I know ppl who donate 10,000 on occasion

@ Lucky, The preacher for the church, and all members of the church will all be legitimate. Except for the deacon who handles the money the church recieves. As far as the pastor will be concerned, he'll be clueless on what's going on. I don't necessarily agree with that "deacon" being the bad guy. I have other plans when it comes to the good/bad guy. Again, the church won't be a major plot point to the story for the most part.

@richy I haven't heard of the show but I looked it up and I can see by reading about the show, how I can use it as inspiration. But I will not watch it because I don't want to catch myself copying them. Being that our storylines are similar, I have to set mine apart from them even more
 
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