D2 - Explain technical and aesthetic Properties

Here above is a copy of the Brief that was given to me by my client at BBC 3 to make an advertising campaign for the BBC 3 Production Defend Our Island.  When creating the advertisements for the show my team and I had to make sure that we followed the brief to a strict amount, to ensure that the client is completely satisfied with our work.  

Overall the brief told us to create a cross media advertising campaign that would appeal to the target audience of BBC 3 which is 15-21 year olds.  But that s the more broad side of things to this campaign, what I'm going to discuss is about the technical side to this.

The TV Trailer

Technical aspects

The TV trailer had a lot of technical properties in it that my team and I had to consider and work on.  The quality of the TV Trailer was one thing we talked about and overall we decided that for the TV Trailer we would create it with the highest possible resolution that w could to ensure that people are not displeased or uncomfortable when watching the advertisements for the show. We also considered the quality of the sound and decided the best possible quality was best to show the audience so again, they don't feel uncomfortable or displeased especially if they are wearing headphones!  Overall we decided to go with a resolution of 1920x1080p, frames per seconds of 25fps, a video quality of 1080p with a stereo sound quality of 48KHz this is also to ensure that the TV Trailer is Broadcast standard and applies to every other form of media to a good enough extent.  The 1080p Video quality gives a high quality filmic look because of how progressive the quality is and how far it has improved over the years.  The resolution of 1920x1080p conforms to broadcast standards so that the trailer can be shown on conventional TVs by the BBC.  25fps ensures that the trailer follows the standards of broadcasting as 25fps is the broadcasting standard for Europe and therefor the UK.  We ensured that the sound quality would be and is 48KHz as this is broadcasting standard for the UK and ensures a high quality sound for the trailer.

Here below is a screenshot of the technical aspects of the TV Trailer we exported for Broadcasting use on Television,  this version of the TV trailer was much bigger than the Online version as it was meant for actual television and broadcasting on TVs around the world that will have many different resolutions 

Here below is a screenshot of the Technical aspects of the TV Trailer that we exported for Online use for sites such as YouTube and Instagram.  These sites are viewed by people mostly on there portable devises instead of TVs therefor a extra high resolution will not be needed for online use as well as the fact that the size of the trailer will be to big for online use most likely.  

Aesthetic Aspects

During the production of the TV trailer, my team and I had to make sure that the trailer would be aesthetically pleasing to the target audience.  Therefore we made sure that the trailer would as appealing as possible so the most amount of people in the target audience would watch the trailer.  Overall the trailer did appeal to the Target audience in my opinion as overall the trailer has been receiving a lot of views, on YouTube BBC1, 2 and 3 as well as iPlayer, etc.  But this is probably because of the mystery around the trailer as well as the fact that there many voiceovers that show the tense period drama-action show that the show will be as these voiceovers are from a lot of different people in the show including the main protagonists and antagonist.  

When making the trailer we ensured that there would be a key message that would be a key message for it that would be to watch the show on BBC 3 as well as iPlayer by showing the Ident next to the Logos of both sites.  This Key message ensured that the audience, from watching this trailer, will be hyped up to watch the show when it comes out and will watch it on the said platforms.  The aims of the trailer was to introduce a new product to the market which would compete with other shows made by competitors to get the most views, another aim was to attract a vast amount of the target audience to watch the show, Defend Our Island when it comes out and to encourage the target audience to find out more of the show.  Overall however the main aim is to attract the audience to watch the show therefor the show can compete with other shows and produce a high income when it comes out.  The Key message for the target audience from the trailer is to watch Defend Our Island, episode 1 and more when the show comes out on the 27th of May this year and that they will really enjoy the tense setting and story.  This Key message will ensure that the target audience will be excited to watch the show when it premiers later this month.

The colour scheme for the trailer was a mixture of black and white as to overall show the setting of the trailer.  It shows that this show is based in a time where technology wasn't that efficient and the fact that the colour of the shots mixes to full colour in the show, shows that the world in this show is changing for the better.  This use of black and white and colour is consistent in the trailer to make it clear in the target audiences' mind that that this trailer and other media advertisements like it are adverts for our show and they will have it stuck in their minds to watch this show as the theme is consistent.  The font we used for the majority of the media sectors is consistent as well to ensure that, as I said before that the image of the show is clear for the target audience.  The font is Gill Sans MT which is a font that was used a lot in the 1940s, in newspapers and other daily things.  This made the trailer look aesthetically pleasing as it adds a bit more detail to the fact the show is based in a curtain time period.  

Overall the TV has worked out pretty well for the us with the fact that viewership is rising for it, but there were a few things that didn't go to plan for example the fact that there aren't any actors in the shots at all and overall this may be a downside for the trailer as there is no one for the target audience to interact and identify with in the show, however this doesn't matter because of the fact that overall there are voiceovers that are meaningful and there are still some physical scenes from the show that have been used to give sense of the setting.

Radio Trailer

Technical Aspects

When we had finally finished the production for the radio trailer we made sure that all technical aspects of releasing the trailer was ok for broadcasting online and on radios themselves.  We made sure that there was no 'illegal' audio tracks that where above -6 decibels so that all audio didn't sound crunchy and loud as well as making sure that the entire radio trailer was 48KHz.

Here below is a screenshot of the technical aspects that we used to export the radio trailer to be used online as an MP4.  For online purposes, for sites such as YouTube and Instagram the Radio Trailer must be an MP4 so it can be used as a video and can actually be used online.  Therefore we have put the ident and BBC 3 and iPlayer logos on the screen for it so for the online version it isn't just a black screen for the video as that will not be appealing.  When exporting for an actual radio broadcast we had to export the radio trailer to an MP3 which is just an audio track without the footage with the ident and logos on it.  This is obviously because you can only hear stuff on radios and you can't see any of it.

Aesthetic Aspects 

Overall we made sure that the Radio trailer would sound aesthetically pleasing to the target audience.  We did this by making sure that our aims for the radio trailer were on point when creating the trailer.  The aims for the Radio trailer where to advertise via radio or online an all sound radio trailer for BBC 3's new product Defend Our Island to compete with other shows and products when it is released on the 27th by having a high viewership and profit from advertising to the target audience with this trailer.  This ensured that we all knew what we were doing and how we could reach that aim and overall it made this trailer more successful.  The key message to the target audience from this trailer was for people to go watch the show, Defend Our Island when it premieres on BBC 3 and iPlayer on the 27th as it says that the first episode will be available then at the end of the trailer.  

Overall for this advertisement, the Radio trailer was one of the few adverts that pretty much stuck to the same plan throughout the production period.  Overall the radio trailer went well and was still epic and informative even with the fact that you couldn't see anything.  There was no parts of it that we couldn't add in for technical reasons it all went well and I'm very happy with this advertisement.

Poster

Technical Aspects

When exporting the poster we had to ensure that many of the technical aspects were made to the exporting of the poster.  For example when exporting the poster we wanted the poster to be exported with an A3 Format so that the poster was big enough for people to see as well as the fact that bigger means better!  Another factor when exporting that we had to talk about was the fact that the poster had to have a resolution of 300dpi so its to print standard and it won't look blurry or pixilated when the posters are displayed on bus and train stations.

Aesthetic Aspects 

When creating the poster we ensured that overall the poster would look aesthetically pleasing to the target audience like every other advert we made and to do so we believed that a simplistic design will be most appealing with a clear colour scheme and consistent font for the Ident. When creating the poster we went with a similar colour scheme to the other adverts that is a mostly dark theme as well as some red and white which represents the fire and ideologies represented in this show.  The font was consistent as well as the colour scheme as for the Entire advertisement campaign even the Poster we used Gill Sans MT which, as I said before the most popular font in 1940s newspapers to create an accurate feeling of the setting of the show.  There was no slogan/tagline that was featured in the poster, this is because we wanted the poster to be surrounded in a bit of mystery (not to much for the audience to not know what the show was, of course!) so the target audience can figure out what the show is by looking further, there is some description of the show however and this is by the map that is shown on the poster, it shows that this is a period drama with real conflict in it.  The key message for the poster was to go watch the show on BBC 3 and iPlayer as the logos of both platforms were on the poster.  This ensured that the aims of the poster where met as well as the aims where to create a poster that would advertise BBC 3's new show to the market so it can compete with other shows and gain profit by more people of the target audience being directed to the show from the advertisements such as the Poster.  

Overall this poster, like the Radio Trailer went on pretty well during and after production and overall I am very impressed with how it went out.  As of right now there are many posters being displayed at bus and train stations and it is believed that they are increasing the number of viewers for the show from looking at many polls YouGov have produced.  There was one issue with the poster however and that is the fact that there was no date on it that would tell the target audience when the show would premier and sadly that is a bit of flaw however it can be changed in time for the premier and one thing to mention is that many will see the posters anyway and will be attracted to watch the show anyway because of the fact that the poster is aesthetically pleasing.

Social Media

Technical Aspects 

When creating the social media account on Instagram we had to make sure that everything was made to a good standard so that the viewers where appealed by the posts and the language on the account.  When creating the social media account we ensured that overall the language was inviting and persuasive to to engage and attract the audience so the they can furthermore, watch the show when it comes out on the 27th of May.  The language was important because it helped add detail to the posts, it added flavour to what be a random looking spam account if there was no language.  Some of the language we used was inviting like, "Check out Defend Our Island's new poster! #DefendOurIsland #27thMay".  This language would encourage the audience to look at the poster or any other form of media we put on the account.  There are a lot of hashtags on the account as well so people can see what is trending with each hashtags and they can join discussions on each topic that we or the audience make hashtags for, overall this will attract more people to watch the show when it releases.  

Aesthetics

When creating the social media account on Instagram we had to make sure that the account was aesthetically pleasing to the audience.  To do this we made sure that the social media account had one main look to it with a curtain colour scheme, the colour scheme was black, a lot of black, but also some white and red because black is boring unless the show is for Batman, but I digress.  The colour scheme was important because it made those colours resonate with the show in the minds of the audience and so if a member of the audience saw the trailer on YouTube or a poster at a bus station then they will instantly know that it is for Defend Our Island.

With the Instagram account, it did live up to it's use and has been gaining quite a few followers in the last few weeks, therefor it is safe to say that the account has appealed to the target audience. However it could be said that the target audience where appealed to by the fact of the frequency of posts being uploaded as well as the fact that there was a lot of content being posted on the account.  One thing we worked on when creating the account is that we needed key messages to ensure that people would look at the account as well as overall watching the show when it premiers.  Some of the key messages where; 'Check out the new poster for Defend Our Island', 'Check out the new Teaser trailer', 'Like and Follow for more!' and of course 'Watch the first episode of Defend Our Island on the 27th of May, Only on BBC 3 and iPlayer'.  These key messages have been key to spreading the word of the show around the internet and have overall made it so there are a bunch of people in and even outside of the target audience gunning to watch the show when it comes out.  We made these key messages because they stand out and they are simple and easy to read and make someone follow what these messages are saying.  Overall the aims of the Account is to be a successfully, good looking site for there to be updates and cool posts that would help the show thrive as this account will be posting weekly to keep a constant flow of information and entertainment of the show.  When possible in the posts we made sure that the font was in Gill sans MT as this is the font that is used a lot in the show and advertisements because of the fact that this font was used a lot of in the 1940s, in newspapers, etc.  For the account we didn't make a slogan/tagline which some people may believe might be a bad decision but overall it was meant to be as we wanted the audience to figure out what the show was by seeing the title, the Morse code underneath it and the themes of the account etc.  This would entice the audience to figure out what they where looking at.

Overall the Final product has ended up well done and I'm impressed on what my team and I have done with it to ensure that the target audience would appeal to it.  There may be a few things that could have been better like us making more original and funny memes from the show to make the account not to fixed on one message that this show is cool, but with a message that this is a good show that is funny at times.  However overall the Instagram account did well to attract the target audience to potentially view the show when it comes out on the 27th as the follower base is increasing by the day.

P4 Write up

 Legal and Ethical Issues

Talent Consent Forms

When filming and creating all different types of advertisements for Defend Our Island, we had to ensure that many Legal and Ethical issues where sorted out to ensure that the production process goes smoothly.  First thing we had to work on was consent forms for all actors that will be involved in the show and advertisements.   This is just a small procedure that makes sure that every actor has given permission for them to be filmed by us or audio-recorded.  Here is one consent form that was used for the advertisement.

Risk Assessment

Before filming anything with a full cast we had to ensure that the areas we where filming would be safe and if they were not, we also had to make sure how to prevent any possible actions.  We looked at many possible risks like falling of the roof of a house to overall catching COVID which was still a bit of a threat at the time of filming.  Overall we found the risked and did our best to prevent accident.  Here is a risk assessment we came up with.

Even though COVID may still have been a minor threat and we did still take precautions to make sure that no one would contract COVID, we did not break any laws and regulations while filming as by the time of filming all COVID restrictions had been lifted therefor we could have as many actors and crew in one place as possible without breaking the law, however we still made precautions like regular testing and discouraged meaningless mingling that can help the spread of COVID.   

Permission to Film

When planning to film, we had to find a suitable area to film, luckily through knowing a few contacts we managed to meet with a local noble man who owned a lovely estate named Earl Sir Marcus Wheeler III of the Wharfe.  After some discussions in person and email he decided that it will be beneficial for both us, the team and also him if we filmed on his property.  Here bellow is an email that I sent to Sir Wheeler just before he agreed in person and email.

Copyright issues

When editing the TV Trailer there was some copyrighted material that we used that furthermore needed permission to use for example many Wartime footage with audio that was owned by the British Pathe.  We got permission from every owner of every asset we used to use their clips and audio.  We also managed to get assets that are not copyrighted and owned so we didn't need to ask for permission to use them.  We put together an asset table of all owned and not owned assets we used here bellow.

Representation.

Overall in these trailers we are not really representing any particular group of people besides the British as a whole who have been represented quite ok as a whole with nothing that would offend anyone I don't think.  However these advertisements also represent Germans, not to a big amount overall as there is only one reference of them in the trailers however there is also a Nazi Officer with a German accent as well.  Overall even though the Germans may be shown in a negative light its a brief and short time they are presented at all so it will not cause a riot.  Now of course even though the time is brief with the negative stereotype of the Germans being Nazis, we at IGS Creative ensure that we do not believe these stereotypes are real and are only showing them for historical meaning as many Germans were Nazis due to the influence the nazis had on the education system and their power to intimidate.   

What software did I use?

When creating all the different assets for the campaign I had to use a variety of different software that I had to learn to use and overall I Believe that I have done a good job of this.  For the TV and Radio trailer I used the software FinalCutPro which is a software overall made for editing movies together.  It was very useful and easy to learn how to use.  FinalCut can be used to make all sorts of movies, such as radio clips and trailers as well as entire movies and episodes as well as trailers of course in my case.  

To make the TV Trailer I used FinalCut to edit in the soundtrack I made for the show as well as transitioning all the different shots and videos used by downloading them as assets and dragging them on the timeline you can see how I did this in the screenshot below.  

To make the Radio Trailer it was very similar to the production of the TV Trailer, I had to download the audio from my rushes folder as assets on FinalCut and drag the audio on the timeline like I did with the footage on the TV Trailer.  The audio was more important to this however therefor I added more audio that was original and made by my team and I.  When creating both the Radio and TV trailers I had many tools at my disposal that helped me create my trailers such as the select tool that helped me drag clips and shots to the timeline, there was the trim tool as well which helped me crop out different parts of footage in a shot or clip.  There was also the blade tool that I used the most and that tool separated shots in two or more so you can move them around to different parts as well as deleting sections that have just been separated. Here is a screenshot of the production of the radio trailer.

Here below are screenshots of the tools I used for final cut pro, there is a select tool of course in which I have already talked about as well as the trim, blade and zoom tool which I have also talked about, there are other tools like the position, range selection and hand tools but I have to be honest I never used these tools.  

Here are the some of the transitions that are on final cut pro. I mainly used the fade to colour transition that I will talk about how I used them in the screenshot below.

This is an example of the transitions I used to make the end title fade in and out of blackness at the end of the show.  You can see that the grey boxes on either side of the shot are transitions and they are on both sides of the shot to show that the shot fades in and out.

To make my Poster for the show I used a very useful software called Affinity which is great for making visual designs like posters and billboards, in my case of course I made a poster and it was quite easy to learn how to use as well because all of the tools at my disposal to make the poster such as the Move tool that helped my co-ordinate around the poster.  There was the Fill tool which could fill up an entire area group with a curtain colour as well as zoom tool that also helped me co-ordinate around the poster by zooming in and out.  These are a few of many different tools in Affinity that I used and they helped me a lot to create a visually Satisfying poster.  Here is a screenshot of the placement of the tools and how Affinity works.  

When creating the Social media account for this show.  I didn't really use any proper software except for Instagram which I guess can be classed as a software as it is a platform where I can edit and publish posts to a detailed amount. However the main software that I guess could be said was used for social media as well could be Final cut pro and Affinity as used them for the trailers and posters and idents that are now on the social media site.  Here is a screenshot of the production of a post on the Instagram post and you can see we can do a few things like edit the description and change the filters on the picture as well as adding a location.

P4 TV Trailer

Here is my Finished TV Trailer 

Here Below is the script:

P2 Campaign Schedule

Here above is the campaign schedule that I made for the advertisement campaign to ensure that the release of all assets for all media sectors are released accordingly to a plan that ensures the highest amount of viewers of the target audience watch the show when it comes out on the 27th of May.  As you can see on the table I have put the different mediums in different sections to show what will be done more clearer for each sector.  Social media will be the first media sector to release content to the public with most posts being released on Mondays and Fridays in every week to ensure a constant flow of interest in the target audience.  The content for the social media has been labelled as many things such as the poster, the TV trailer, Radio Trailer and a bunch of funny memes and clips for the show that will appeal to the target audience to watch the show.  The next Media sector to release content is the TV side of media in which on the Thursday of the first week, the TV trailer will be released on BBC 1, YouTube and iPlayer. BBC 2 and BBC 3 will release the trailer on their platforms in the coming 2 weeks.  The first release of the radio trailer will be on the first Saturday of campaigning and the next radio platforms will have the trailer released every Saturday in order of Radio 1 to 4.  We will advertise in this order of radio stations because of the target audiences of every radio station.  Radio 1 targeted for young people, Radio 2 being targeted for middle aged people etc.  The posters will be set up on the Monday of the second week and will be on display for the rest of the campaign time to ensure that people going on with their normal lives will see these advertisements and will remember the show.  Overall that wraps up all of the schedule and what it involves, we ensured that it would be organised in a way to ensure that as many people as possible are appealed to and will watch the show when it comes out on the 27th of May.

D1 - Legal and Ethical Constraints

Here above is the TV Trailer that was made for this campaign, you can refer to this for any statements I make with the legal and ethical constraints my team and I had to work with.

Here above is the Radio Trailer that was made for this campaign, you also can refer to this for any statements I make with the legal and ethical constraints my team and I had to work with.

When planning and creating my advertisement campaign for Defend Our Island, a BBC 3 drama, I was cautious and aware of the legal and ethical constraints imposed on how I create my ads and I made sure that I followed these constraints to make sure my advertisements were Legal, Honest, Truthful and Decent as all British adverts should be in the UK to deter false advertising to the British People.  Now to ensure this, I checked with the legal advise that the BCAP Code has provided to all TV advertisers and also with the CAP code with my Non TV advertisements.  I also could have approached Clearcast, a private organisation created by many popular broadcasters such as ITV and Channel 4.  The have designated themselves as the main helpers for UK broadcasters to approve all forms of advertisement.  To seek approval to them I would have had to give them a full written draft of the script before production and what it would have in the ad like dialogue and imagery.  However I did not submit to this process because overall I know the legal and ethical constraints I have to abide by and I also do not want to spend a substantial amount of my funding to the subscription costs.  One way I managed to understand the codes of ASA was going on there website and understanding what is legal and what isn't.  Overall We made sure not to break the rules and regulations of ASA by following their codes that they provided to every advertisement which I will discuss later in this blog post, these codes are the CAP code for Broadcasting advertisements as well as the BCAP codes.

What is ASA and CAP?

The Advertisement Standards Authority or ASA for short, is the UK's main advertisement regulator for all UK advertisements across all media therefor it will be them who decide if the advertisement my team and I have created is suitable for public use.  They make sure that all ads in the UK are responsible and that they do not mislead the public in terms of experience, price etc.  Through there Sister Organisation, The Committee for Advertisement Practice or CAP for short. In 2017, they made 389,289 forms of advise through seminars and webinars for a range of different companies, free of charge to reduce the amount of irresponsible ads being released to the British Public.  To make sure my Media advertisements are suitable for their regulations I must make sure that my team and I follow the regulatory codes that ASA has provided for the British media industry.  The types of codes, ASA has made are listed below.   ASA can make us take down or change any of our adverts if they have to, and they will regulate, TV, Radio, Print and all other forms of advertisements.  

BCAP and CAP codes.

ASA has set up codes for all companies of the media industry to follow and they are the BCAP and CAP codes.  The BCAP code consists of regulations for the development and the release of all TV and Radio adverts to make sure that these ads are Legal, Honest, Truthful and Decent.  The same can be said for the CAP codes how ever they are used for all sorts of print advertisements like billboards, posters and magazines.  The CAP code also consists of regulations in which prevent Print Media adverts from misleading the public and making them Legal, Honest, Truthful and Decent.  To ensure these codes are met by my advertisement campaign I must ensure that I have thoroughly looked at both codes to ensure the advertisement campaign is not in breach of them.

Ofcom

In the past I have also spoken about Ofcom and how they regulate media.  They are used to age restrict all forms of TV advertisement and media, and the way they do it is age restricting media products that may not be suitable for younger audiences.  For example a media Product with lots of foul language, blood and gore and sexual acts will most likely be restricted to only 18+ year olds whereas if a media product did not have any of these it will be rated U for a universal audience.  My client has asked my to ensure that this advertisement campaign is rated 15 maximum as the target audience for BBC 3 is 15-21 year olds therefor I must take to account the conventions of a 15 rating and ensure the footage of the ads will not breach there conventions to rate the ads higher. 

The BBFC

The British Board of Film Classification is similar to Ofcom in which it is an age regulator for media however it's main function is the age classification of Films instead of TV.  Because my ads will be viewed mostly on TV, radio and print.  I wont have to comply with them in terms with meeting their conventions however it will be useful to read there codes to ensure that a similar rating will be given to us by Ofcom and other regulatory bodies.

What will I had to consider when planning the advertisement campaign.

After I was made aware of the different regulatory bodies that may prevent the adverts in this campaign from being released to the public I made sure to research and understand each form of regulations that each type of media may have to make sure funding and time is not wasted making these ads.  A few examples of making sure there are no breach of regulations, are; reducing the amount of blood to zero in the ads, making sure there is no foul language and of course making sure there is nothing that will mislead the public for example 'this show will make you a superhero' because it won't.  Overall in the advertisements that were made for this campaign, there was no statements at all that where made that could mislead the public as there was no statements at all in the advertisements.  You can check this in both the TV and Radio Trailers at the top of this blog post above.

Understanding Representation 

Now after understanding all the different regulations and codes that are all included in the Legal part of creating advertisements I had to also understand the Ethical side to Advertising as well, one noticeable part being representation.  Representation is basically how the media re-presents curtain people or groups in the way they want you, the audience to see them for example the media advertising cleaning products with women or presenting politicians as straight, white, rich, old men etc.  In the advertisements for Defend Our Island I must make sure that we are representing all people and groups fairly, this can be done by being careful when presenting the audience with curtain characters of curtain groups and what they have to say in the advertisements.  In Defend Our Island there is one group of people that are not really shown in a good light, this group of people are the Germans as this show is based in WW2.  Now in the radio and TV trailers there is only one instance of a German speaking and its only him saying 'what's your name' so their is not really that much representation of the Germans however it must be said that in the series as a whole the word 'Germany' is only used once (I'm referring back to Unit 22) and the word 'Germans' is not used at all, instead the enemy are referred as Nazis as not all of them were German and of course not all Germans were Nazis.  So overall in the advertisement campaign my team and I have made sure that all types of people are represented fairly as in the advertisements we have been careful to not represent any culture or peoples unfairly and in the instance of a curtain person of a curtain culture is speaking it is only for a small instance at the start of both the radio trailer and TV trailer. 

Risk Assessment

To meet all legal and ethical constraints I must make sure that overall the shooting area is safe and secure of any risks such as injury to persons from props or settings and also risks such as infection outbreaks of COVID on the set.  COVID is one of the more important risks we had to deal with even though at the time of filming the COVID lockdown rules had come to an end and overall was less of a risk as everyone on set was vaccinated or already had the virus before and therefor at least some resistance to the virus.  What we did to make sure that no one would be infected with COVID is that we made sure that social distancing was apparent on the set at all times as well mask wearing as well when there was no need not to wear one.  These rules in place not only ensured the health and safety of the actors and crew but also ensured that the production process wouldn't be delayed like many other productions during the COVID pandemic.  Overall, all risks where taken into account before the production of the show and we made sure that all crew and actors were made clear of these risks to ensure that they don't get injured or infected in the production of the advertisements and also so we don't have to deal with any future lawsuits for the potential injuries that could happen.

Consent Forms

Another way we made sure that all legal and ethical constraints were worked with and met was that we ensured that every actor involved in the advertisements signed a talent consent form and if they where under 18 their legal guardian would sign it on behalf of them to ensure that the child's welfare and health is ok and that their parents are ok with them in the advertisements.  If they were not under 18 they could sign it themselves and furthermore ensuring that they agree to being recorded for the show.  This will also ensure that all no one states that they never gave permission to be recorded and furthermore suing us on the account of that as they have already signed a form that shows that they gave permission to be audio recorded and filmed.  Here is an example of one of the consent forms we made for a member of the crew.

D1 - Requirements Met

Here is a screenshot of a section from my script to give further understanding on what I say in this post.

What I was tasked to do:

I was tasked with making a short-dramatized sequence that is up to 10-15 minutes.  This will involve the script draft of my two main ideas for Defend Our Island, a Period drama-action hybrid series for BBC 3.  This will overall help promote the show.  Because of the courier font each page of script will add up to a minute therefor I aimed to create around 10-15 pages of script also, in the end I made 14 pages overall for the screenplay and that will add up to approximately 13-14 minutes.  I was tasked by the client to conform with the genre by using conventions that are used in other dramas with the same genre such as language, culture etc.  It must also appeal to the target audience which is 15-21.  BBC 3 does this with their other shows by mostly creating unorthodox and mind challenging stories that tends to open the audiences' eyes.  I however, have been tasked with working on a show that is a period drama-action hybrid which in the eyes of BBC 3's audience, maybe not that unorthodox compared to the other shows.  That is why I have decided to add issues to the script like growing up, sexism and moral issues.  There must be three drafts of the script and they must all be an improvement of the the one before it, which I have done so, you can see these drafts in P4 on the right-hand side.  When making the script I made sure that the script was formatted correctly by making sure that the Action Blocks are written correctly and are in the right place, you can see in the screenshot above that there are correctly aligned and written action blocks that start on the left hand side of the page and not the middle like dialogue.  I also made sure that Dialogue was formatted correctly as Dialogue should be positioned a bit further right from where action blocks are positioned, you can see this in the screenshot of the script above.  Character Names should be in the centre of a script and should always be in full Capitols.  If a Character is named for the first time in an action Block their name must also be in full capitols in the action block however afterwards there name is always normal.  As you can see in the screenshot, I have used a few Sluglines to explain what the setting is for the scene for example; 'EXT. OUTSIDE TOWNHALL. DAY.'  Sluglines must be in all capitols as well as at the furthest left of the script like the action blocks.  You can see that for the first Character name, there is an OS in brackets next to it.  This shows that the character is speaking Off Screen.  These examples are some of the many ways I managed to format the script correctly.

How I met Requirements:

As I have been tasked with creating a screenplay of the drama, Defend our Island I had to learn the conventions of making a screenplay and the genre it was made in.  Now this show has been designed to be watched at home by the audience like all other dramas are made for, it is not made for the cinema but instead used to watch on demand, like on BBC3 and when it is scheduled on TV, when BBC3 returns to TV.  Like most dramas, there is a continuing narrative in which as each episode progresses the next episode will start where the last one left off.  I have followed this convention when planning this screenplay, by coming up with a story that is closely linked to Todorov's Narrative Theory.  I have done this by planning to create a progressive story that has an Equilibrium, disruption, recognition of disruption, repairing the disruption and finally a new equilibrium.  These are the conventions of Todorov's Narrative Theory and when planning the screenplay, I have done my best to conform to them.

Usually, a drama has a serious conflict involved in it in which Todorov refers to as a disruption.  Obviously Defend our Island is based in the biggest conflict of all time, World War Two but that's just the equilibrium at first!  The conflict will be espionage and moral issues at the time that involve the clashing of ideologies such as Fascism. I have planned that there will be a serious mental and physical struggle the protagonists must endure and that is not trusting anyone and fighting the main antagonist, Agent Smith who is no way related to one of the antagonists in the Matrix, as there would be a legal and story-based issue on our hands if that was the case.  Overall, the show will involve gunfights but also tackle the stigma of mental health at the time as PTSD wasn't truly classed as a medical condition until 1980.  In the screenplay I have created we are introduced to all the characters as i have involved the prologue and the reveal of the main antagonist in it.  So, it shows only what is about to happen in the fact of serious conflict however there is the introduction of some key issues that will be presented in the screenplay in which will become more apparent when the show is released.

Defend our Island is a Period drama-action hybrid with themes of espionage and a pinch of thriller.  I have conformed to this Genre and it's subgenres by creating the screenplay with understanding the culture and language of the time.  In the first draft of the script, the language I had written for the characters was a bit too modern for the tongue of a 1940s Englishman therefor it was advised by the client to improve the language in the next two drafts.  Of course, as well if one of the sub genres is action, there must be a few gunfights and some epic scenes, so that's why I had planned the main antagonist to die in a dramatic style of explosions and blazing glory as an example of how I have conformed to the sub-genre.  As I said there are hints of thriller as it is one of the subgenres in this show, one way I have conformed to the conventions of thrillers is by creating the secret Nazi meeting scene in which the main antagonist is revealed and kills someone out of cold blood, the main protagonists view this and there is meant to be a great feeling of suspense and tension.  

Coming back to Todorov's Narrative Theory, when planning this screenplay, I came up with several ideas that would help me work out what would be the best story for the screenplay so the several ideas I made, I made them in chronological order and created the ideas that in which would be the story of the entire show and I made them based off Todorov's Theory.  You can see these ideas in P2 - Initial Ideas of this unit.  Now as I have said before, I had only been tasked with creating a 10–15-minute screenplay and therefor there will not be enough space to write up all of these ideas, so I picked the two best ones which where the Prologue and the Secret Nazi Meeting.  These scenes show the Equilibrium, the Disruption and the Recognition of the Disruption from Todorov's Theory and they have been created to an extent to show a clear story progression that can be used to promote Defend Our Island to a sufficient extent.  The show includes the equilibrium at the start of the show because there is an introduction to all of the characters and what normal issues they face during the prologue, we are introduced to both main characters and their struggles, we also see what situation everyone is in at the start as we see what is normal for the people back then as there is constant feeling of uneasiness in everyone in the script due to the war as we are introduced to the mayor as well who is pretty much the anti hero in the show.  By the end of the prologue and also the equilibrium, we are introduced to the main antagonists in the show, Agent Smith who is a German spy with a mission to cause unrest in the north of England we don't see his face and we only hear him explaining his fake background story, this is the start of the Disruption and end of the Prologue and Equilibrium.  In the next part of the script we see the recognition of the Disruption in a different scene to the prologue.  In this scene, things start to get weird as people act stranger now.  The two main protagonists are mates now in this part of the story and they are persuaded by an old friend to go to a youth club which ends up being a massive gathering of people discussing some unorthodox things such as fascism.  Obviously the whole thing is an event set up by the Main antagonist and overall it is the recognition of the disruption for us and the main protagonists as they witness the reveal of the Main antagonists as he shoots an innocent man.  Overall those are the parts of the show my script covers and they show to a detailed extent that there are different stages to the show in an exciting fashion.

Overall...

Now that I have discussed all the technical and important points to do with how the screenplay was written and what theories I followed to make the script, I will now discuss the way this script is narratively appealing to the target audience by making sure the audience pleasures are met.  Overall you can see that the script has many different things happening in it at first for example in the first part of the script, the prologue, there are a bunch of different characters being set up to start their arcs and so the audience can learn to appeal to them.  These characters all have their own struggles to deal with, for example with Xander, its the death of his Brother, with Rosie, its the fact she has to look after her father with PTSD.  These setups of these characters make the audience learn to sympathise with them and furthermore appeal to the script when the characters learn and change for the better in their respective arcs.  Another thing to mention is that these characters are 17 year olds which will appeal to the target audience also, as the characters are a similar age to the target audience which is 15-21 year olds.  An appealing part of the story in the screenplay is that it ends with a cliff hanger, this is meant to represent the end of an episode also as the main antagonist is revealed to the main protagonists.  The cliff hanger is when the main antagonist shoots the old man from the prologue as the old man speaks against the secret Nazi meeting.  The gunshot blast creates a flash that quickly shows the main antagonists face to everyone and that is when the scene ends and overall it will be very appealing to the audience as this is when the recognition of the disruption begins and it shows the audience how much of a threat the main antagonist is and over all a well written villain is one of the most important parts of a script and the fact that it ends on a cliff hanger will appeal to the audience more as they will want to see what happens next!  Overall when the screenplay and furthermore a future episode ends there are a few questions that are meant to be going through the target audiences heads and they are, 'what's happening next?' 'do they get out?' 'who's the villain?' 'when's the next episode out.'  and that is overall because of the cliff hanger that is shown to the audience and overall will make them want to watch more.

M3 - Met Codes and Conventions.

When creating the advertisement for defend our island I have had to make clear what where the conventions of the show are and how to keep to them to make a realistic and noticeable advertisement campaign that would help the target audience understand what the adverts are for.  Defend Our Island is a Period-Action Drama hybrid with some instances of thriller and therefor I must make it clear that the show is part of those genres in the advertisements.  Just to make it clear, the advertisement components I used in this campaign are a TV Trailer, Radio Trailer, a poster and an Instagram account for social media.  I will discuss the conventions of each component below:

TV Trailer:  

Here is my TV trailer I have created that I will add here as well for easier analysis.

When Creating the TV trailer in shooting and editing I made sure that my team and I followed the conventions of TV Trailers.  This was really important as we really needed the audience to understand what this trailer was about also the fact that it was a trailer in the first place!  Now of course these trailers are for the Defend Our Island series that is being released on the 27th of May and this show belongs to the period drama, action hybrid genre therefor we must make sure that there are clips in the trailer that shows that the show is set in a curtain time period.  One convention of TV Trailers is that the trailer is normally summed up with a montage of different clips in the show.  We have done this also in this TV Trailer with a montage of photos and clips form the show including newspaper covers of the events before Dunkirk as well as overall clips from the show and from news from the time.  This will show the target audience what the trailer is about and what it is advertising and will ensure a high viewership.  One other convention that is used in TV Trailers is that the title is normally shown at the end so the audience, after they have an amazing time watching the trailer finally find out what to watch and then search it up and find where to watch it.  In the TV trailer I also ensured that overall the music and sound effects where up to broadcasting standards by making sure the sound is at a normal 48KHz when it is published as well as the fact that I also added lots of music and sound effects in the trailer.  For the TV Trailer I made a composition (that was also made for my A level music) that plays in the majority of the trailer.  This adds a greater affect of professionality to the trailer as there is an actual theme for the show and the trailers.  I also had sound effects like gunshots and explosions to set the scene and understanding of what situation the characters are in.  For example as the newspapers show up there are a lot more explosions and weapon sounds.

Here are two screenshots of a clips from the trailer for Defend Our Island it shows that I have used many different clips for the show like other trailers and have also shown the shows title at the end like other trailers. Here below is a screenshot of a clip for Star Wars Episode Three, Revenge of the Sith.  You can watch the trailer and see the montage of clips and use of the title at the end of the show I am talking about with this link; (1103) Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith - Trailer - YouTube

This shows that we have taken to account the conventions of there being a montage of clips in a TV or film Trailer and also the title at the end of the trailer like in Revenge of the Sith.  This also overall shows that we have done a lot of research and understand how to entice the audience into watching our product.

Radio Trailer:  

Here is my radio trailer I have created that I will add here as well for easier analysis.

When creating this radio trailer, my team and I also had to conform to conventions of the genre and also overall radio trailers.  There are many conventions in radio trailers one of which being a voice over at the start and end of a radio trailer and the fact that they may say 'new to BBC 3' like it does in my trailer and at the end it says when the date the show is being released and on what program and platform.  Like in our trailer it says 'Defend Our Island, first episodes streaming 27th of May, only on BBC 3 and iPlayer.'  this a convention we met in the making of this trailer.  Another convention of radio trailers we met was the fact that a montage of different audio clips from the show was added on this a prime example of us following the conventions of radio trailers.  When creating the Radio trailer on FinalCut (which is the same software I used for the TV Trailer), I made sure that all the audio was up to broadcasting standards, which is 48KHz.  In the Radio trailer I involved more audio rushes than the TV trailer and overall more information that is shared through these rushes because you can only hear not see.  Involved in the rushes is another part of my composition I made for the show which is a much slower and moving part of the musical piece.  There was also the use of more dialogue including another voiceover that wasn't used in the TV Trailer.  s there was more dialogue there was also the voice of the other main protagonist being used where he says 'Im pretty curtain'  and another audio excerpt that is him saying that they can't trust anyone.  Overall this shows that  have met some of the codes and conventions as I have used more audio rushes and made them into a montage just like other Radio Trailers. Here below is an example of many conventions that are used in radio trailers, in this video there are examples of radio trailers like His Dark Materials and many more.  you can see that they also use voiceovers and a montage of different audio clips from the show.

This Therefor shows we while making and finishing the radio trailer for Defend Our Island followed and conformed to the conventions of radio trailers.

Poster:

Here is my Poster I have created that I will add here as well for easier analysis.

When creating this poster we ensured that most conventions where met including a detailed title and an image that makes the audience understand what this show is about.  I took a map of the channel to show what the feeling of the show would be and you can see that in the war, Britain wasn't that far away from the Nazis as well as not that far from an invasion!  This poster may be simple however it shows the audience the genre, with the flags representing the war and the period drama genre as well as the flames in the middle representing the action genre.  The flames also foreshadows the fate of the main antagonist in fire and pain.  In the title you can see there are dashes and dots underneath it.  This is Morse code and it entices the audience to look up what it means and keeps the idea of Defend Our Island in their head.  The Morse code translates to Imposter representing the fact that the Mayor is the imposter of the show and that he is the anti hero.  

This is one of the many posters made for Game Of Thrones and it is a good example of a poster as it is similar to mine, its simple however has a lot meaning.  Now of course like the poster we made for Defend Our Island this Poster has the nicely detailed ident on it, near the bottom.  It easily represents the genre of the show which is fantasy, the gold represents the royalty of the people fighting for the throne as well as the font being fancy to represent the fantasy genre.  The ident in the poster we made represents a lot as well, of course there is the Morse code that I already covered.  The font is Gill Sans MT which was a popular font used in British newspapers and advertisements back in WW2 which shows the representation of the period genre.  In This poster there is also the use of fire like we used in our poster.  The fire represents war and the sub genre of action that is present in the show just like how fire is shown in our poster.  The use of the hand holding the crown is a simple way of showing the balance of power in the Kingdoms set in Game of Thrones and is similar in the way we used the map of England and France to show the instability of war between the UK and Nazi Germany.  One convention that both the creators of this poster and we conformed to is that it shows where to watch the shows the posters are advertising for example HBO for Game Of Thrones as well as BBC3 for Defend Our Island.  This overall shows that we conformed to most conventions in the making of trailers.  Also one more thing to add is that in the Game of Thrones Poster you can see that there is a tagline 'War Is Coming'  This is a good way for the audience to find out what the show is and what it is about, with that tagline the audience knows that there is going to be fighting and bloodshed apart of the action genre.  I decided not to add a tagline to my poster because I believed that it would add to much to the poster and overall make the poster overcrowded.  Now even though taglines may be good to tell the audience a bit about what the show will be about, however because my show has themes of espionage I wanted to add more mystery as well to the advertisement and this is furthermore strengthened with the Morse code in the ident.

Social Media

Here are some screenshots of the set up of the Instagram account for the series, Defend Our Island.  You can see that we have followed some of the conventions of a social media account as we have used the Ident of our show for the profile pic.  The ident of a show is usually used in the profile pic to show the audience that this is the social media account for the show.  we have also added our first of many posts that is in fact a repurposed version of our poster we made.  This is one of the conventions we conformed to as many social media accounts for shows repurpose posters for their accounts.  Some social media accounts are just entire tributes to many posters for the show/film!

Here is an example of the use of social media for advertisement in TV.  Using His Dark Materials as an example again you can see that they have also repurposed their poster that they made as well as using their ident of there profile pic just like we did therefor this shows that we have followed and conformed to most conventions of social media accounts. 

Symbolic Codes Used

In the making of the advertisements of this show there where many symbolic codes we considered in the making of these adverts.  One of the first symbolic codes we considered and used was the choice of setting.  Overall we decided to go with a northern setting.  In a show about espionage in WW2 it would be a fitting idea for an enemy of Britain to at least try and cause resistance in the north of England as it is an area that has been underfunded and underdeveloped for generations and till recently in the early 20th century has there been a north - south divide in the country which has caused a slight indifference of cultures.  The setting of the north shows that the people of the area will not see eye to eye with the people down in Westminster and will be easy to used as a way to cause resistance in the north of England during the war.  

While shooting and editing we considered the meaning of Mise En Scene which is how a shot creates meaning with how it looks.  In the TV trailer we made a shot that we used in the trailer that is a panning up, establishing shot of the landscape of the town the show is set in.  We added filters to the shot to make it look gloomy and dark to show a corruption falling over the town which represented the Nazis brainwashing the people of the town.  The use of old footage worked a treat as well as it showed the real events happening at the time the show is set, with the destruction of that town with the Police officer carrying the boy out of the rubble really showed the horror that was going on at the same time.  These scenes were also filmed in black of white of course which added the greater effect of darkness and backwardness to the scenes.  The colour tone of the advertisements where dark colours to represent the old age style black and white as well as some bright colours like the colours of fire to show the war feeling.

Written Codes

The text in the advertisements that where written for the show was all written in one Font which is Gill Sans MT which was the most popular Font used by newspapers and advertisers in the time of World War Two.  This was to show historic meaning and give the feeling of the time period of the show and make it more nostalgic to the time. 

Dialogue Codes

Some dialogue choices we came up with were created to entice the audience as well as let them understand the main story of the show without spoiling them.  For example there was a few instances of the use of the main antagonist Agent Smith in which he speaks with an intimidating southern accent as well as saying 'don't try stop me, you'll regret it!' this shows the audience that there is a proper threat in the show that will entertain the audience as the main protagonists will have to overcome this great threat.