Evaluation Report
Georgia
Pre-Production
In order to create
a good script for my six-part British TV Series, I had to undertake several
research tasks to find out exactly how to write one, what to include and what
it should look like.
I
started by jotting down ideas for the potential television programme, this
included thinking of what genre it would be, the basic storyline and character
types. My idea of a TV programme was based on a young teenage girl who is
obsessed with a celebrity icon but problems occur every time she gets the
chance to meet him, but her rebellious attitude does not allow her to miss it,
she is willing to do anything to get what she wants.
To establish whether or not my initial idea would work, I created a questionnaire to hand out to members of the public to find out what kind of television programmes appealed to them, this was an important part of the process as it portrayed people’s interests and views of my idea. If my initial idea appealed to them and what I can do in order to make it more appealing to my audience. This was a helpful part of the process because I could then take their opinions and ideas and include them in my first draft of the script which I then went on to create. But, I was only able to include the basic storyline because research on how to properly create a script had not been carried out yet.
After creating my first draft, I was able to identify that it was not looking like a screenplay and undertook some research to find out the generic conventions of scripts, to do this I thoroughly read and compared two script examples to establish how they are developing and becoming a successful storyline. I read the scripts to an episode of the American Sitcom, Friends and an English, reality/drama, Eastenders. By doing this, I established several similarities between the two scripts, being that, both of the scripts included stage directions that where within brackets so that they was not mistaken for monologues, when a new scene was about to begin, it said ''CUT TO'' or ''CONVERT TO'' to make it clear that a new scene/setting is going to take place, they were both clearly set in a realistic environment and both programmes last up to approximately half an hour. By looking at the similarities between the two scripts, I was able to realise that what they had in common was what I should include in my TV Script.
Whilst watching television, I realised several similarities and differences between, American Sitcom, “Friends” and British Soap, “Hollyoaks”. I identified that there were an average of ten main storylines that occurred in either of the television programmes, an average of twenty scene changes and an average of fifteen characters that appeared. This impacted me when it came to creating my second script because I were able to take this research and add more storylines to my programme to develop it more, put in more locations to add more realism to it, include more characters to involve within the storylines.
Subsequently, I was then able to create my second draft. I took the research from the two television programmes into consideration and was able devise them in to my second draft to improve it slightly before carrying out more research.
I then undertook more research and created a focus group test which consisted of asking five people to read my second draft and answer six questions about it to try and help me improve my third draft. I asked them open questions to allow a more specific response to help me improve. By asking these questions, I was able to take their responses into consideration and explore them to help me further on in the Pre-Production process and create a script that fit the generic conventions. The third draft was then created.
At this point, my script still was not looking like a screenplay, so in order to get my script up to those standards, I carried out more internet research, this included establishing how to lay out a script for a British Television Programme and other guidelines such as the specific font type. I identified how to properly create and lay out the script and it impacted by fourth draft. I then went on to create my fourth draft and included as much of the research that I could. For example, the font type being “Courier” and the font size being “12-Point”, as well as that, how and where to include stage directions, how to introduce a new character and so on. By now, the script was beginning to visually look like a screenplay.
To find out whether my fourth script was successful and up to the correct standards, I had to get people to act out my script so that I was able to watch and analyse thoroughly to identify flaws within the script. I noted down what I thought could be improved and took that into further consideration. I identified that there was some difficulties within the wording and the time pace seemed to drag on. This allowed me to revise over my script and adjust it adequately the final time.
I decided to do this particular genre and style of a Television series for a target audience of children and teens aged between 12-17 because the storylines included are ones that they could relate to. For example; the typical teenage tantrums and behaviours and conflict between the children and their parents.
Production
The next task to undertake was to create a DVD cover for the release of the series, followed by a promotional poster to advertise for the series that we had previously created.
The first thing I did was researched and analysed three DVD covers. The DVD covers that I analysed were; “Being Human”, “The Big Bang Theory” and “The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air”. By analysing these specific DVD covers, I was able to identify what conventions to include in my DVD cover when I came to create mine. By looking at the cover of “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air”, I interpreted that this specific programme would include comedy and drama; this impression was given because of the image we have placed on the front cover and the background colours. We have a clear picture of the main protagonist, Will Smith and it is clear that he is the main protagonist in the show because of his individual image placed at the very front of the cover – I decided to take this as an idea from my DVD cover and use bright place the main protagonist right at the front of the DVD cover, signifying their importance. The family are placed further back in the picture and are looking in Will's direction. Their individual facial expression comes across as either happy or laughing at Will or the smiling and laughing at him - further leading to us having a sense of comedy again, or disappointed and angry with him, which would then create enigma for the audience too because we want to know why ones are mad and why others are laughing – because of the style of my television series, this impacted my idea because including the same facial expressions in reaction to my main protagonists behaviour, it could portray the same idea to my audience. We are also given the idea of stereotypical teenagers, due to the fact that he has a smug look and looks as if he does not care and the clothing; being tracksuits and chains. I also decided to take this idea and have my main character, who happens to be a teenager looking as if she does not care either and look mischievous.
When looking at the DVD cover of “The Big Bang Theory”, I liked the font that they used and the colours used; broad, capital letters are used for the title which gives the impression that it isn't particularly girly because it isn't fluent and nice colours, it's black and red which may portray a sense of mischief or bad behaviour and due to my series including mischief, I wanted to have a bold lettered title with a “dangerous” colour, such as red.
When looking at the DVD cover of “Being Human”, the female character can be interpreted in two ways; one being that she is a representation of the male gaze by her seductive facial expression and her mysterious side, or infact that she is a representation of masculinity due to the fact that she is comfortable in the prescence of two males, there is no other females and there is no representation of 'the body' shown in her on this picture which shows masculine strength. I wanted to take this idea for my DVD cover and make my picture of my female character look dominant and mysterious – creating enigma for my audience.
I then began to design thumbnail ideas for my DVD cover, I did this by drawing up eight brief sketches of different ways that I could structure my cover, I then chose my four favourite ones and drew them out again and adding annotations of what colours would be used, the main features and so on. I then chose my two favourite ones and drew them bigger, fully annotating them and drawing the pictures out properly to get a better idea, in order to carry out a focus group test, involving myself asking other people, preferably around the target audience age, which one looked better. By looking at audiences opinions on my DVD covers, I was able to create a DVD cover to suit my audience.
To establish whether or not my initial idea would work, I created a questionnaire to hand out to members of the public to find out what kind of television programmes appealed to them, this was an important part of the process as it portrayed people’s interests and views of my idea. If my initial idea appealed to them and what I can do in order to make it more appealing to my audience. This was a helpful part of the process because I could then take their opinions and ideas and include them in my first draft of the script which I then went on to create. But, I was only able to include the basic storyline because research on how to properly create a script had not been carried out yet.
After creating my first draft, I was able to identify that it was not looking like a screenplay and undertook some research to find out the generic conventions of scripts, to do this I thoroughly read and compared two script examples to establish how they are developing and becoming a successful storyline. I read the scripts to an episode of the American Sitcom, Friends and an English, reality/drama, Eastenders. By doing this, I established several similarities between the two scripts, being that, both of the scripts included stage directions that where within brackets so that they was not mistaken for monologues, when a new scene was about to begin, it said ''CUT TO'' or ''CONVERT TO'' to make it clear that a new scene/setting is going to take place, they were both clearly set in a realistic environment and both programmes last up to approximately half an hour. By looking at the similarities between the two scripts, I was able to realise that what they had in common was what I should include in my TV Script.
Whilst watching television, I realised several similarities and differences between, American Sitcom, “Friends” and British Soap, “Hollyoaks”. I identified that there were an average of ten main storylines that occurred in either of the television programmes, an average of twenty scene changes and an average of fifteen characters that appeared. This impacted me when it came to creating my second script because I were able to take this research and add more storylines to my programme to develop it more, put in more locations to add more realism to it, include more characters to involve within the storylines.
Subsequently, I was then able to create my second draft. I took the research from the two television programmes into consideration and was able devise them in to my second draft to improve it slightly before carrying out more research.
I then undertook more research and created a focus group test which consisted of asking five people to read my second draft and answer six questions about it to try and help me improve my third draft. I asked them open questions to allow a more specific response to help me improve. By asking these questions, I was able to take their responses into consideration and explore them to help me further on in the Pre-Production process and create a script that fit the generic conventions. The third draft was then created.
At this point, my script still was not looking like a screenplay, so in order to get my script up to those standards, I carried out more internet research, this included establishing how to lay out a script for a British Television Programme and other guidelines such as the specific font type. I identified how to properly create and lay out the script and it impacted by fourth draft. I then went on to create my fourth draft and included as much of the research that I could. For example, the font type being “Courier” and the font size being “12-Point”, as well as that, how and where to include stage directions, how to introduce a new character and so on. By now, the script was beginning to visually look like a screenplay.
To find out whether my fourth script was successful and up to the correct standards, I had to get people to act out my script so that I was able to watch and analyse thoroughly to identify flaws within the script. I noted down what I thought could be improved and took that into further consideration. I identified that there was some difficulties within the wording and the time pace seemed to drag on. This allowed me to revise over my script and adjust it adequately the final time.
I decided to do this particular genre and style of a Television series for a target audience of children and teens aged between 12-17 because the storylines included are ones that they could relate to. For example; the typical teenage tantrums and behaviours and conflict between the children and their parents.
Production
The next task to undertake was to create a DVD cover for the release of the series, followed by a promotional poster to advertise for the series that we had previously created.
The first thing I did was researched and analysed three DVD covers. The DVD covers that I analysed were; “Being Human”, “The Big Bang Theory” and “The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air”. By analysing these specific DVD covers, I was able to identify what conventions to include in my DVD cover when I came to create mine. By looking at the cover of “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air”, I interpreted that this specific programme would include comedy and drama; this impression was given because of the image we have placed on the front cover and the background colours. We have a clear picture of the main protagonist, Will Smith and it is clear that he is the main protagonist in the show because of his individual image placed at the very front of the cover – I decided to take this as an idea from my DVD cover and use bright place the main protagonist right at the front of the DVD cover, signifying their importance. The family are placed further back in the picture and are looking in Will's direction. Their individual facial expression comes across as either happy or laughing at Will or the smiling and laughing at him - further leading to us having a sense of comedy again, or disappointed and angry with him, which would then create enigma for the audience too because we want to know why ones are mad and why others are laughing – because of the style of my television series, this impacted my idea because including the same facial expressions in reaction to my main protagonists behaviour, it could portray the same idea to my audience. We are also given the idea of stereotypical teenagers, due to the fact that he has a smug look and looks as if he does not care and the clothing; being tracksuits and chains. I also decided to take this idea and have my main character, who happens to be a teenager looking as if she does not care either and look mischievous.
When looking at the DVD cover of “The Big Bang Theory”, I liked the font that they used and the colours used; broad, capital letters are used for the title which gives the impression that it isn't particularly girly because it isn't fluent and nice colours, it's black and red which may portray a sense of mischief or bad behaviour and due to my series including mischief, I wanted to have a bold lettered title with a “dangerous” colour, such as red.
When looking at the DVD cover of “Being Human”, the female character can be interpreted in two ways; one being that she is a representation of the male gaze by her seductive facial expression and her mysterious side, or infact that she is a representation of masculinity due to the fact that she is comfortable in the prescence of two males, there is no other females and there is no representation of 'the body' shown in her on this picture which shows masculine strength. I wanted to take this idea for my DVD cover and make my picture of my female character look dominant and mysterious – creating enigma for my audience.
I then began to design thumbnail ideas for my DVD cover, I did this by drawing up eight brief sketches of different ways that I could structure my cover, I then chose my four favourite ones and drew them out again and adding annotations of what colours would be used, the main features and so on. I then chose my two favourite ones and drew them bigger, fully annotating them and drawing the pictures out properly to get a better idea, in order to carry out a focus group test, involving myself asking other people, preferably around the target audience age, which one looked better. By looking at audiences opinions on my DVD covers, I was able to create a DVD cover to suit my audience.
I then followed
the same procedure when making my DVD poster, I l researched and analysed
promotional posters for a television series, being; Shameless, Prison Break and
Criminal Minds. By doing this, I was able to again identify what conventions to
include when it came to me creating my promotional poster and take ideas from
what I see on these promotional posters. By looking at the poster for the
American TV show Criminal Minds and looking at the characters placed on this
poster, I realise that the lighting behind them is black, creating a shadow on
one side of each of the characters face - this suggests to me that they all
have a different side to them, for example they might be serious when it comes
to work but they are nice people, or that they might have something to hide. I
wanted to take an idea like this for when I came to create my promotional
poster and use a black background to either create a sense of danger and
mischief or use it to shadow the main protagonist to again make her look
mischievous and sly. I then decided that I wanted to include similar styles to
what I decided for my DVD cover. Likewise with the pre-production stages and
getting ideas for my DVD cover, undertook another focus group test in order to
gain more specific responses involving their opinions on my ideas. I was then
able to take their suggestions in to consideration and make the amendments that
I needed to in order to create my promotional poster.
The demographic of
my television programme is young people aged from 12-17 years old. I had to
take this in to consideration when creating my DVD cover and promotional poster
and ensure that the aspects featured suit the target audience as well as the
genre of the television programme, this includes the use of colour, font style
and character positions.
For my DVD cover
and promotional poster, I used a black background with red, bold font to
portray the idea that my television programme could contain mischievous
behaviour and although the main protagonist is a female and it contains female
teenage drama, it is not typically girly and by using a black background, it
makes the images and font stand out clearer. The use of font is also formal and
simplistic, it is rounded and bold which is clearly readable and visible to the
eye which will attract my audience, the font I used was “impact” which is
similar to the researched DVD cover of “The Big Bang Theory” which was also
effective. Also, the use of the “VIVA” channel logo also determines the
demographic. After carrying out research, I am aware that this specific channel
is aimed at and appeals young people and it mostly features teenage or children
programmes.
The DVD cover and
promotional poster use various visual and technical codes. The use of the main
female protagonist on the front cover of the DVD cover portrays the fact that
everything is going to be based around her, her facial expression is smug and
makes her look mischievous which is a stereotypical trait of young teenagers
which the alternative audience being elder people or adults and parents will
have against young people. The main protagonist is the only character placed on
the front of the DVD cover and the promotional poster; I chose to do this so
that she was a representation of the young youth in today’s culture.
The editing and
the use of a black background highlights the female protagonists face and makes
her look angelic. The sharp contrast makes her look this way and appear to be
brighter, symbolising that young people are full of life but the use of the red
lipstick on her and the red font, symbolises the idea of danger and trouble.
The theory of
Roland Barthes narrative codes suggests that the DVD cover and poster use the
semic code. This is due to the use of facial expressions and body language
used; the target audience who can refer to these are able to interpret it and
make their own connotations and values, again reaching the demographics needs.
Additionally, this
leads to the audience affect theory of uses and gratifications. My television
programme will engage with the media because of the use of “surveillance” – my
audience would use this as means of voyeurism and an insight of people similar
to themselves, they will be able to relate to at least one event within the
programme, whereas the alternative audience would use this as a means of
curiosity of what young people are like and get up to – creating stereotypes.
The use of “escapism” which the audience will use as a means of entertainment.
Also, the use of “personal identity”, the viewers will be able to form an
identity based on what they like and project themselves, like the main
protagonist and due to the age of the target audience being young teenagers,
the use of “personal relationships” are also portrayed because they will be
able to discuss the television show with people around their similar age group,
creating word of mouth and hopefully a wider audience.
Furthermore, media
theorist Laura Mulvey suggests that females and males are used in the media for
pleasure and argues that the media relies on voyeurism, making the male or
female characters a “gaze” that the audience are attracted to. The female
protagonist in my television programme could be seen as a male gaze in the eyes
of teenagers due to her blonde hair, red lipstick and mysterious attitude.
In conclusion, the
DVD cover and promotional poster required adequate and deep research in order
to suit the audiences needs and interest and make it to the best of potential.
Without all of the research on DVD covers and promotional posters, mine would
not of been able to of been created due to the fact of myself having no
knowledge on how to.
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