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.
