Coursework: Preliminary exercise

1) State the genre you have chosen for your TV drama - family or crime drama.

Crime drama

2) Choose at least three TV dramas similar to your concept and watch the trailer and one scene from each. Make bullet-point notes on everything you watch, commenting on camerawork, editing, sound and mise-en-scene




- Many close in the trailer, convey the characters emotions and also establishes who the main protagonists will be
-editing is very faced paced suggesting that there will be a good amount of action and suspense throughout
-The mise en scene that is common is the orange jumpsuits as we see the main cast all wearing them which connotes that they are doing some kind of time in jail.


- This trailer uses a number of medium and wide-shots to establish the large ensemble cast for the TV show as well as a close up of every single main character as we get to know them through the one close-up and medium shot of them side by side.
- The pace of the trailer starts off relatively slowly so that it could set the atmosphere and let the audience know what type of setting the show will have. But as it went through towards the middle of the trailer the pace gets a lot faster as we are introduced to some action and enigma codes such as 
-We can see that the main characters wear school uniform to show how they are a academy learning their powers and also we see knives and masks which reveal that there will be a darker side to the TV show



-This trailer has a number of camera shot ranging from close-ups to long-shots. The close-ups were mostly to show the protagonists and the long-shot were used to show the action sequences. Also, a lot of it was filmed in the dark with low lighting to reveal the dark themes and seriousness of the show.
-Super hero costumes clearly reveal that the show is clearly a superhero genre

3) Write a script for your TV drama scene. You'll find guidance for writing a script in the BBC Writers' Room (click on the Script Library to read real examples of professional TV scripts).

Inner monologue

Daryl: What's this noise that i'm hearing? vibrations I can hear them

Mum: Daryl? why you home so late today?

Daryl: Umm, I just had a long day at school

Inner monologue
Daryl: Did my mum notice? nah she couldn't have?

Inner monologue
Daryl: The vibrations their getting louder! I cant take it no more!

*Teleport's across room*

Daryl: What the hell was that??

4) Write a shot list containing EVERY shot you plan to film AND additional shots to create flexibility when editing. These additional shots are often close-ups, cutaways, alternative angles or similar. I advise using a simple table on Microsoft Word to set out your shot list 

Shot List – Syke School

Shot No.	Shot	Filmed?
1	Extreme close up of Daryll eyes
2	Wide shot of Steele posing
3	Medium shot of Arthur Meditating
4	Medium shot of Daryll, steele and aruthur together in a circle
5	Wide shot of Jay teaching Steele self defence
6	Close up of arthur focusing
7	Wide shot Daryll running
8	Medium shot of Agents
9	Medium shot of jay and daryll aruging
10	Over the shoulder of daryll entering house
11	Wide shot of Arthur trying to chat up a girl
12	Medium shot of Daryll telling athur to hurry up
13	Wideshot of Steele and Daryll bonding
14	Steele, arthur, Jay, daryll, skipping
15	Wide shot of Agents saying : we need to find them
16	Close up of Steele crying
17	Close up Jay Uses his mind reading ability
18	Wide shot of daryll talking to masked person in confrontation
19	Arthur helps a wounded Daryll wide shot

Shot No.	Shot	Filmed?
20	Agent aims gun
21	Daryll teleports wideshot
22	Steele uses superpeed wideshot
23	Arthur Flies off wideshot
24	Jay Uses mind read close up
25	Steele walks into school awkwardly
26	Steele and Daryll sit on bench together
27	Arthur see’s them secretley, walks off
28	Shot of daryll walking in house over the shoulder
29	Transition to mum asking why hes late closee up

Shot No.	Shot	Filmed?
30	Voiceover saying daryll hears a voice as he goes up the stairs
31	Daryll looks distressed close up
32	Daryll On bed stressing jump cuts medium shot
33	Close up of his pain of his face
34	Daryll starts shaking teleports wide shot
35	Daryll appears across the room medium shot looking confused
36	Steele speeds around a park wideshot
37	Arthur and steele are talking in the park medium shot

Shot No.	Shot	Filmed?
38	Daryll teleports to them wideshot
39	They all make jokes as a group medium shot
40	Music fades down as an angry close up of Arthur appears
41	Close up of Jay Stressing out in his room
43	Steele crying by herself medium shot

Shot No.	Shot	Filmed?
44	Daryll hands on his head looking shocked Medium shot
45	Fades to black

5) Plan your mise-en-scene: what iconography are you including to ensure your audience understands the genre? Plan your cast, costume, make-up, props, lighting and setting. For this preliminary task, use just one location to keep it simple.

What will your characters wear?
The characters will be seen wearing modern western clothing, the three main characters will wear common teenager clothing. Jay the slightly older character will be wearing a leather jacket and will look in general more professional

What is the costume supposed to communicate to the audience?
The teens attire communicates how they are still carefree in their youthful years due to lack of professionalism where as Jay's "cool" look suggests he has experience for his mentor role.

How does this link to your Statement of Intent in terms of creating representations?I mentioned how the teenagers involve themselves in juvenile behaviour further showing the meaning of the rebellious teen look. In my statement of intent I mentioned how Jay was a mentor to the main 3 people

Lighting
My trailer will have mostly low-light and during the day I will mostly display motivated lighting giving my trailer a natural look. I will film in both day and night. During the interior shots I will use a back lighting and film in low-light a lot as well. When I am outside I will use natural light as when I am outdoors I will be filming during the day-time. I will also film a small amount of exterior shots outside and will use a phone flash light for lighting.

Actors

Main
Me- Daryll - Many dialogue scenes, wide shot, medium, close up etc over  the shoulder
Vaagesan- Arthur- Many dialogue scenes, wide shot, medium, close up etc
Steele- - Many dialogue scenes, wide shot, medium, close up etc
Jay- Andi Many dialogue scenes, wide shot, medium, close up etc

Darylls mum- my mum- Dialogue Medium shot
agent- Close up, medium shot looking professional and serious

Make-up
No make up in particular because it is set in this era and there is no inhumane looking character

Props
-car
-scarf
-Basketball
-phone
-bag


Setting
This should already be largely planned using your script. However, now is the time to specify exact locations - if a classroom, which one? How will you arrange it with the teacher? When will you film there? For external locations, try and take pictures of settings or use Google Maps and Google Earth. Spending quality time planning your locations can make a huge difference to the professionalism of your film. AQA also seem to prefer external rather than school-based locations.

-Class room (d block) Schedule a time, most likely will be in my form room
-My house (northolt)
-my drive way(northolt)
-Ravouner Park
-rooftop ( ealing)
-Northolt Station
-Southall Near Mcdonalds
-


6) Plan a shooting schedule that will ensure everything is filmed by the deadline. Include when, where, who is required and what shots you will complete at each time/location.

28/10/19 northolt locations
4/11/19 Class room (d block)
10/11/19 Southall Near Mcdonalds
14/11/19 Top of car park ealing

Prelim LR

1) Type up your teacher's feedback in full plus a summary of the comments you received from other students in the class.

Teacher Feedback
-Good voice-over.
-Jump-cuts communicate meaning and mental state of the character.
-the effect worked-could've looked bad but it worked well.

class feedback
www:
-good camera-work
-good special effect
-voice over
-good music choice
-comedic element
-editing
-narration

Ebi:
-acting needs to be better
-too many pauses

2) Using a combination of your own reflection on the preliminary exercise and the feedback you were given, write three WWW bullet points and three EBI bullet points for your TV drama scene.

WWW

• Voice over was effective and created a narrative
• editing for effect was a good aspect
• camera work

EBI

• Acting
• Too many pauses

3) How effectively did you complete the objective you laid out in your mini preliminary exercise statement of intent?

I effectively completed the mini-prelim as I showed the character Daryl and his life at home, as well as the way he manifested his powers for the first time showing confusion and shock.

4) What have you learned from the preliminary exercise that will help you in the actual coursework project?
I learnt that I had to finish my filming quick so that I could focus on the editing for a longer time as I had to create complex SFX such as the teleportation as I will using even more SFX in my official trailer.

5) Now you have completed the preliminary exercise, will you change anything in your actual TV drama trailer? This could include narrative, character and script or technical elements such as mise-en-scene, camerawork and sound.

I will keep everything the same but in my real trailer I will show the other main characters and their abilities as well as showing other characters like Jay and the agents who would make my trailer exciting with the diverse character selection. My narrative in the trailer will be a gradual showing of special abilities in combination with conflict between character emphasising the drama aspect. My full script was not shown as I only had 30 seconds but the full scene of my preliminary task will not be in my trailer. The sounds will also be dynamic as I will have more base in the music and have a techno synth style of beat. Lastly, I'll have wide range of shots like I did in my preliminary, this time using more angles such as a high angles and low angles.

Skye School Preliminary Task

Coursework: Ignite presentation learner response

1) Type up your feedback in full including the ratings out of five for each of the six categories. 

WWW:
-Interesting concept
-detailed plan

EBI:
-lack of representation theory
-Delivery could of been more fluid
-more research for industry
-concept may be hard to create
2) Use this feedback, comments from peers and your own reflection on your presentation to self-assess and write a detailed WWW and EBI for your own coursework concept and presentation as a whole.

The things I primarily did well was I managed to create a concept that is very intriguing to an audience, as well as making sure I planned and researched well due to how I explained the story of my TV drama as I added a equilibrium, disequilibrium and a new equilibrium. 

The way I could have improved was to add more representation theory as I only talked about subverting stereotypes, also my delivery could have been better however I had changed my concept last minute not leaving me with much rehearsal time. In addition, I could of added more for industry because I only included social media platforms. Lastly, my concept was said to be hard to create which may be true to an inexperienced editor however I have practised these effects numerous times.

3) Write a paragraph discussing how your presentation will lead into your actual coursework production. Do you need to update your statement of intent? Does your narrative offer enough clarity? Is it appropriate for the audience specified in the brief? Does it fit the genre you are aiming for? Can you add media terminology or theory to your statement of intent now you have reflected on your presentation and seen others?

My presentation will follow into my coursework production as you will see aspects of the super power genre which will add visceral pleasure to my audience also creating action codes and enigma codes. Also, I will cast the characters I spoke about and make sure to give them scripts to follow. I believe my narrative was clear because of how I gave a beginning, middle ,end which you will see aspects of in my trailer. I will make sure I stick to the watershed times by having no swearing and making the action without crossing boundaries such as showing blood and other extreme violence. I believe it strongly fits the genre because my characters will be solving crimes using superpowers which fits my genre. 

Statement of intent

My TV drama concept is called Syke school. The reason I chose this name was that the idea behind my drama was a group of teens who learn to gain full control of their psychic abilities hence the word "psych" which has been changed to "Syke" which is said in a broken way to show how the characters come from a poor and broken environment. The word school is a way to show the learning process as they are taught by a mentor. This all equated to "syke school". The tag line I chose was "your power is your weakness", now the reason I chose this as a tag-line was to show how the protagonists abilities will lead to the trouble they encounter in the series as well as general issues such as the struggles of fitting into a normal western society. The genre of my series is crime-superpower which I chose as I feel like it will add uniqueness to my story.

The narrative of my story begins with 3 teens (Daryl, Arthur, and Steele) who wake up finding out they have special abilities which are teleportation, telekinesis and superspeed. These characters go to different schools but feel a strange connection as they are drawn to one another. They end up in the same location and immediately realize they are different. They all try to figure how they were bestowed with these abilities but simply disregard it for a while and use their powers for their own gains for a while (nothing too harsh or immoral, they simply make life easier for themselves.) They end up spending a lot of time together in general. One day they are approached by someone who they feel an instant connection with, the same connection they felt with each other. He is also older(23) and is called "EJ" who has the ability to read minds. Turns out he is experienced in his powers and wants to lead the teens in a good direction as he himself had seen other people with special abilities turn to the darker path. After convincing the teens to join him he begins teaching the teens how to control their powers properly and maximize them to stop crime on the grimey streets of London. However higher authorities are not satisfied by their vigilante antics and end up trying to stop the squad. Towards the end of the season, we see the Skye squad face the police eventually coming to an understanding and agree to the protection of humanity. However, we see Arthur become disturbed with heroic life as he wishes to live on his own accord which ends off the season in a sticky mess.

Characters:
The first character is Daryl. Daryl is your average teenager, uninterested in school, gamer, interested in females and in general, he represents what it means to be a teenager as he is not as deep as the other characters but quite relatable and offers comedic value to the audience. Finds himself in a love triangle with Arthur and Steele

Arthur is the next teenager, he comes from a broken home living only with his father and often finds himself in trouble whether it be in school or outside of it. He comes off as sympathetic due to his background and is often seen as the potentially unstable character out of the squad. Finds himself in a love triangle with Arthur and Steele

Steele is your scholar and the "good at everything" character who is seen to have mastery over her ability before both Arthur and Daryl. She subverts the usual female stereotypes because of how "badass" she is seen as and her overall confident and unrattled demeanor. Finds himself in a love triangle with Arthur and Steele

EJ is the character you would find out of a comic book, however, he is also quite different because of in contrast to the teens, his ability is mental, not physical which ends up putting him on the sidelines in the show instead of standing in midst of everything which I believe makes him unique. He is a mentor and has an interesting past as he was homeless before he attained his abilities in his teen years.

TV drama pitch

A Level Media NEA – Brief 5: TV drama trailer and culture magazine

TV drama concept

Title: Syke School

Tagline: “your power is your weakness”

Genre (and sub-genre/hybrid genre if applicable): Crime, super-power drama

Setting (note brief – at least two locations): high school, urban environment

Number of episodes: 10

Channel and time/day of broadcast (note brief – prime-time, pre-watershed, family audience):

Channel 5, every Thursday, Pre-watershed, 8:00pm

Logline – one sentence that sums up the whole TV drama series and hooks people in (25 words or

fewer):  A group of teens develop powers which seperate them from the rest of the world.

Other successful TV dramas that are similar to yours:

Impulse, misfits

Narrative arc – what happens in the overall series and in what order:

A group of teens learn they have powers and are tracked down by a mentor figure who helps them learn and understand the way they use their powers, however not everyone is happy about people having special abilities.

Episodic narratives – what will happen in each episode?

Some episodes will be in a school environment and some may be outdoors in west London using their powers for their own gain, there is love interests and conflicts as well, adding a variety to the show.

Main protagonist – their motivation, conflicts etc.:

protagonists: Artur, 

The two protagonists are two high school boys who become enveloped in their powers growing in obsession, they become more powerful as the show continues and they turn to a life of crime. They have conflicts within school against other students, teachers, police. They both have love interests which a dynamic is shown.

Other characters, their narrative role and their audience appeal:

Secret agents track the two boy’s movements after a series of unexplained crimes take place. The agents are a big appeal as they counter the boys actions, they also appeal as the show has very conflicted characters. Some people may be against the protagonists where as some would view the agents as being the people in the wrong, overall the role of antagonists shifts very often which makes my TV drama that much more interesting.

Target audience for your TV drama (note brief – family audience, pre-watershed broadcast etc.):

My target audience range from 11-17; also it can appeal to a family audience as well.

Age, gender, social class, interests, psychographic groups etc.

My show can apply to all classes however working class may be the fondest of the show as it can show potential struggle of being raised in a torn and tough environment, also the interests of the audience will be regular teenage interest such as rap music, films, video games, Netflix, MCU, and DCEU.