A new soap opera enters the spotlight at Kean
By Lena Zhu | Published by December 10, 2019
David Janes, senior majoring in Media and Film, loved television at a young age.
“I’ve loved television since I was a child. I traded my cartoons for weekly appointments of 24, Prison Break, Homeland, Alias, and soap operas when I was only eight years old,” Janes remembers. “The continuing story unfolding week after week or day after a day packed with twists and cliffhangers, as well as watching live.”
“David Janes to direct, write, and produce a soap opera called INTENTIONS.” Photo courtesy of David Janes
Growing up with television, Janes always knew that he wanted to one day work in television and film as a TV writer, director, producer or all three. Now a senior, he is able to make his dreams a reality with creating a soap opera in his final months at Kean.
Titled INTENTIONS, the show is a twist on soap operas by adding a murder mystery component with a strong female lead as its protagonist.
“Logo for soap opera” Photo courtesy of David Janes
“She’s perceived as a modern-day Nancy Drew, P.I., but to me, she’s our college version of Olivia Pope, modeled after Scandal’s main character. While we have an important social issue at the forefront, we’re also entertaining with a few soapy mysterious twists and turns.”
There will be a total of five episodes and each episode will have a varied length regarding time.
Due to his hectic schedule, Janes barely has enough time to take a breath. But, Janes has a positive outlook and takes it week by week.
“I have to say some weeks balance out more than others and some don’t,” Janes said. “I don’t think about it as much, I just try to lay out a plan going into each week and some weeks as far as filming I do plan ahead but I take it week by week.”
Since he knows that directing, producing, and writing episodic television is what he wants to do after he graduates, he is motivated to stay on top of it all.
Dabbling in episodic writing, especially a soap opera, helps him to pay homage to the shows he’s loved as a kid.
“In many ways, this is a passion project for me, a tribute, a paying of homage to TV, specifically soap operas…a genre that often gets looked down on. [There’s] a level of stigma attached to it, and I wanted to change all of that,” Janes said. “To me, soap isn’t a dirty word or a genre that’s cheesy, terrible …soap opera is an American institution and very much part of the cultural zeitgeist that dominates television today.”
Janes firmly believes that writing a capstone article would not be the same since it does not “capture the creativity that goes into creating a show from scratch.”
Although he’s had to take on many roles in the process of creating the INTENTIONS soap opera, he’s become very grateful for the opportunity.
“To me, it was important to run this show very much like a regular television show writer’s room,” Janes said. “We’re a close-knit writing group, from the Starbucks in the library to a classroom board. We talk about the story, how to break the long-story into episodes, where we want to go, where do we want to end, and from there we write a detailed breakdown outline, and then write the episodes.”
“Episode scripts for INTENTIONS” Photo courtesy of David Janes
As a senior at Kean, he gives one piece of advice to every creative student.
“Go create, write, produce, try as much as you can and throw yourself into it. Even if you don’t know what you’re doing,” Janes said. “It’s so beneficial throwing yourself into a project versus not doing anything because of experience, honing in on your craft. Don’t let anyone stop or tell you can’t create. If you have a story, go pick up a camera.”
INTENTIONS is set to be released in February 2020.
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