An investment career has produced an unusual second act. Andrew Dickinson, previously an angel investor and investment manager, has written a sitcom set inside a venture capital firm, and the pilot episode is now on YouTube for free. It can be watched here.
No Big Deal takes place at Janus, an investment firm chasing the next billion-pound business idea, usually with disastrous results. The pitches that come through the door include fart-proof underwear, clinical toilets and questionable items of sex furniture, and every promising investment ends in comic disaster.
Dickinson says the writing draws directly on the years he spent on the other side of that table.
“I wrote No Big Deal during my time as an angel investor and investment manager. Every storyline began with a real incident that has been exaggerated and expanded for comic effect. I also wrote all of the original music used throughout the series, which was performed and recorded with the help of my good friend and outstanding musician Andy Pike.”
Familiar figures around the table
The partners will be recognisable to anyone who has sat through a funding round. Derek Tudor has the brilliance and none of the predictability, and cannot keep his thoughts to himself. Lydia de Mabro runs the firm in all but title, a board seat won on its only successful investment having settled the question. Perry Kent brings the experience of an investment banker and regards the job as a stepping stone to a US Green Card. The founder in the room, John Stevens, is well-meaning but spectacularly underqualified, having inherited the money to start his business.
A production decision made on cost
Production was handled by ModeLabs.ai, an AI studio based in the UK. As far as anyone involved is aware, no sitcom before it has been written by a human and then produced entirely using AI. That was not the original plan.
“I originally planned to make the pilot through traditional television production, but it quickly became clear that the process would be slow and prohibitively expensive. When I met the team at ModeLabs, I realised AI offered an entirely new way to bring the project to life.”
Dickinson has resisted the idea that the technology did the work for him.
“Making the Pilot wasn’t simply a case of pressing a button. Every shot, camera movement, performance, line reading, location and visual detail had to be carefully planned, refined and recreated through an iterative creative process between the writing and production teams. Even while we were making it, the script was rewritten more than 65 times.”
What ModeLabs.ai says
Dan Hawthorne of ModeLabs.ai said the pilot showed what emerging tools could do in the hands of writers and filmmakers.
“We’re incredibly proud of what our team has achieved. Combining emerging AI technology with talented writers and filmmakers has opened up exciting new creative possibilities, and we’re grateful to Andrew for trusting us with his vision.”
Dickinson said of the finished episode: “I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve created together. I still laugh at these characters, and I hope audiences will too.”
The pilot is on YouTube, free of charge, and can be watched here.
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