Saturday 23 March 2013

Pre-Production/Production - Evaluation

Pre-Production/Production - Evaluation


In my assignment, I was told to create and produce a new TV Drama series. To make this television drama I had to make the script for it which was approximately about 10 pages which is like 10-20 minutes of a scene or episode in the drama. In addition to this, making a DVD covers for the production and the poster will be able to attract viewers attention and will be promoting the series.

Firstly, I have looked at some examples of DVD cover, posters and scripts over the internet for ideas and what I could add to my own from Television dramas. I took a note of what font they used, the images for each type of genre and the generic conventions that were linked to the image. This enabled me to have a clear mind of what my DVD cover and promotional poster will look like in the end.

Next, I got most of my ideas by creating a questionnaire which contained questions about what people’s opinions on certain things such as for example ‘what type of genre do you like in a drama?’. I went around and asked a bunch of people to give me their views on each questions asked and this gave me an overall estimate what people like and want in a TV series. This enabled me to create my story and each character’s personality. I asked questions like ‘what time do you normally watch TV and the channel you always go on’ to allow me to choose what time and channel my TV series will be on. I organised all of my results that I got from people together and placed it onto a graph and chart to see all the final outcome of what was the most popular result. This allowed me to aim for what my targeted audience is for my drama.

It is aimed at the aged of people in their late teens or early 20’s with also people who have an interest in the sci-fi genre. Because I already know that my targeted audience is for late teenagers and early 20’s and people that like sci-fi, I have used images and colours in my DVD cover and poster to suit the required audience. The colours used were dark and mystery, this backs up the type of genre of the series. My researched information about ‘Doctor Who’ enabled me to have an idea of what images and colours to use for my production. By airing my TV series on channel ITV and using the ITV logo on my DVD cover, it helps me to make my drama to become more known throughout teenagers as this channel has many TV dramas that teenagers always watch on.

After that, I thought of a bunch of ideas that my TV series could be based on and in the end I decided to go with a TV series which is based around the Sci-Fi genre. My drama is about a high school student going on a class trip to North America and suddenly the plane malfunctions and he ends up travelling in time back to the past. He was told that he needs to find 10 pieces of puzzle to help stop the world from being destroyed in the year 2040. 

I then began to create my first script of the TV series.  The first draft was to just introduce the main storyline as there was no research carried to enhance my script. In the next piece of draft there will be changes made to improve the overall of the script.

To gain more knowledge on scripts and methods to make my script better, I went online and researched on the internet to look for scripts that have been used for existing TV dramas and see how they have set out their scripts. I looked at ‘Eastenders’ script and ‘The Dumping Ground’ script and this gave me various ideas to include in my script as I compared them with my script to add additional things to it. In the second draft, I made adjustments to the first draft such as adding the location and time of when each scene occurs. When the third draft came, my script was already looking like a proper script with extra research carried out from the internet and then adding to my script. 

Following that, I carried out a focus group which I asked questions on how to improve and enhance my script, an example of a question asked was ‘How can I improve my script?’ and the answers were all open question resulting in a wider range of response given. This helped and became very beneficial as it gives a wide range of solutions as to how to develop the script greater.

I then acted out the script and see if there was any problem and flaws in the script. There was no emotion when reading it out and there was too much speaking at once so to enable this to flow better, I gave each character more time to pause and take a break for a little after performing. There were also actions included to show how the character will act when reading out the script.

By the time it went to the final script, the font and sizes of the text have already been altered and the location of each event changed. There were many things that were included in the final script and have made the script resulted better.

Furthermore, in my DVD cover I have used a variety of visual and technical codes. Such as in one of the image it shows a classroom and teaching is taking place. You can tell this because of the generic conventions used for example are; desks, chairs and a smart board taking place in the scene. You can tell that this scene is taking place in London through the windows of the airplane as there is wide shot of London which includes the use of iconography as there is the London eye that is in the background of the image. There is also the direct mode of address included in the DVD cover which shows the male looking directly at the camera, this allows the audience to be linked with the characters, and this was used in the DVD cover of ‘Doctor Who’ so I decided to also do the same thing for my DVD cover. In the Poster, it shows the female and male gazes which sometimes are used in the media just for the pleasure of looking at and will be able to capture the viewer’s attention to watch the TV drama. 

There is the image of the planet being overrun with the colour black and pink, this could be due to the fact that there is a binary opposition happening as the colour pink represents romance and love happening as the colour black stands for an unfriendly approach, secretive, unknown and mystery. Because the planet has half of the colour black, this creates the impression of half of the world already being corrupted and the world is about to be annihilated as the other side of pink maybe means that there is still hope and time left to do something about it.

The male and females used in the Poster relates to the proairetic and action code as they are both hold weapons that are used for violence and action. This builds the interest and suspense of the audience as they can relate this to their cultural knowledge off guns and grenades which leads to soldiers and fighting. The movement and gesture of these two protagonists seems like they are about to fight back and help save the planet. We can tell this because they each have weapons in their hand and are looking directly at the planet as if they are going to assist and aid them to save their planet back. Since the images used in the TV series of the male and female in their teenage years, this can allow the targeted audience to relate themselves to them as they could use the personal identity which they might wear something which the male and female also wear to show that they have an interest in them.

I analysed existing media products of their DVD cover and Poster and this helped in my production as I can see how they each link with the visual and technical codes in the media. The images they used have been related and what they have used was backed up and the way they promoted their posters to attract their targeted audience. The colour used was related to the type of genre in the drama.

In addition, there is the use and gratifications for watching this TV Series. The audience can watch and view this drama to be able to escape the reality of life if they are bored and sick of their life. They can enjoy themselves and escape to a new world by watching this. The audience can also build and make new personal relationships with one another by having something to talk about the next day as they have also watched this drama and can talk about it with friends.

To conclude, in order to enhance an individual’s production, the internet research must be carried out to be able to set a standard and something to work towards. Opinions and responses from others are very essential as it helps to boost the production to be more efficient and makes it to be a high quality result. Also by having knowledge of how to create and produce a DVD cover and promotional poster for a TV drama helps to choose what visual and technical codes to use and this helps to be resourceful when designing a DVD cover and Poster.

Brief


Brief


In my pre-production I have developed a six part TV series which consists of students from a high school going on a class trip to North America and the plane crashes and this made Jason to travel back to the past of year 1790. Jason sees two cities at war and he gets arrested for being mistaken as an enemy spy so he was taken to a tower where he was being prisoned.   He meets a man in there who told him that he must use that necklace in order to stop the world in being destroyed before the future of 2040 arrives. There are 10 pieces of puzzle that needs to be assembled together to open the gate of the dimensions to stop the aliens to conquer Earth. My TV series is aimed at people who like the genre Sci-Fi, and likes a bit of mystery. It is also aimed at people who are aged 15-35. My TV Series will be on channel ITV at times from 9:00pm to 10:00pm.

Focus Group – DVD Cover/Poster


Focus Group – DVD Cover/Poster

I was told that a way to improve my DVD cover was to add a Bonus Feature onto the back. This will be able to make it unique and will include extra things that will attract the audience and have more features such as being available in different language subtitles will make watching the series more enjoyable. By adding a quote in the front, this will make the audience want to know what will happen in the story and will buy it to watch it.

A way to improve the poster was to add the starting date of when the TV series will air and the times it is on so the audience will know when it is going to be on TV and could make plans to watch it. An additional way to make the poster look enhanced is to add the colour effects of the planet in the background in black. This is to make the image link to the story of the series with it being covered in darkness and corrupted.

Design Ideas - Poster

8 Thumbnail Sketches
























Best 4 Ideas Annotated

























Best 2 Drawn Out In Detail


Design Ideas - DVD Cover

8 Thumbnail Sketches




























Best 4 Ideas Annotated
























Best 2 Drawn Out In Detail










Friday 22 March 2013

Poster Analysis - Prison Break


In this poster, you can see the title ‘PRISON BREAK’ which implies what the series will be about. The use of images in this poster explains that this will be a crime, drama, thriller and mystery genre. 

There is a close up shot of the male at the top, which explains his worried and tense emotion. Maybe it could mean that he is the mastermind of the break out of prison. In addition, it illustrates a direct mode of address glaring right the camera.
This probably means that this series will be mainly based about him. 

In this scene at the bottom, you see four males trying to outrun the police cars at the back, this creates the feeling of worry and nervous. This clarifies that they have already broken out of prison and trying to blend in the woods at night time so it will be hard for the police to spot them. 

The location in the image of this poster is at a forest as the generic conventions used are trees and grass surrounding the criminals. ‘BREAKING OUT WAS THE EASY PART’ this quote refers that there are a lot more that is going to happen in the future and it makes you think what will happen to them. The targeted audience for this series is aimed at teenagers and people aged 15-40.

Poster Analysis - The Big Bang Theory

On the poster it shows seven protagonists, with a female in the centre giving off a seductive pose, this implies that she is the male gaze in this TV series. Because she is positioned in the middle of the poster, this could signify that the show will be based mainly about her.

The way the other casts are positioned and their gesture might explain that this could be a comedy type genre with a little bit of romance in between. The title ‘the BiG BANG THEORY’ is all in bold which makes it eye-catching for viewers when they come across this.

The word ‘THEORY’ is usually linked to science which might clarify what all the people in the poster might have in common. The way they are portrayed with their hand gestures and their facial expressions give off a nerdy vibe feeling. This explains the stereotypes being used by showing the type of clothing they are wearing and the use of glasses which glasses are used as a generic convention of being a nerd and clever. 

There is also the use of direct mode of address as they are all looking straight at the camera. The age rating for this show is 15+, this explains that the targeted audience is for people aged 15-35.