P2 Initial Ideas

 I have been tasked with creating 10-15 minutes of Script for the drama that I pitched earlier this year for BBC3.  I will have to decide which scenes would work best to gain interest of my series with the target audience.  I will then have to develop a screenplay for a chosen sequence.  Here below is a mind map of my six initial ideas.  The series will be six episodes long and will have many scenes for each episode to create a vast detailed story.  The purpose of this series is to properly effect the young target audience and let them know that there have always been empowered young people throughout history.  The target audience will be 16-21 as I am making this drama for BBC 3 and it has the same initial target audience.

The aims of this campaign is to create a new media Product to the market, as of writing, BBC 3 is mainly  comprised of modern day comedies and dramas relating to either crime of young life, this media campaign will create a spin to BBC 3's repetitive ideas by presenting young life during the war but also them overcoming a threat and I believe that will be quite popular by the viewers of BBC 3 as of how it will stand out from the other shows.

I must consider the rules of making a script for film and television for example, the font must always be in courier font so each page will last to around a minute.  Another factor i must take into account is legal and ethical issues such as Copyright, age restricted content and the use of intellectual property which is of course is different to Copyright.  

Copyright is the fact that someone owns something that could literally be anything like the rights to a name of a brand or the footage of a film etc.  It is highly illegal to use these copyrights in anyway without the permission of the owners of the copyright, for example using a music soundtrack for a series without the permission of the owner of the copyright and so a way I will avoid copyrighted material will be creating my own music soundtrack for the series to avoid having to use said copyright music.

Age restricted content is very important when it comes to creating any form of media and Ofcom is the organisation that manages it all.  They rate TV shows different ratings for how mature they are for example a U (Universal) is for all ages and there is nothing that can endanger a child or someone with a mental illness by the media product.  A PG (Parental Guidance) means that the product isn't that bad for a child but parental guidance is advised and then there is 12A which means that children 12 and over can watch this media product but children younger must be accompanied by an adult. A 12 is easy to understand, only 12 year olds and older should watch this and its the same for 15 and 18.  There is finally R18 which is basically just adult content that can be shown by 18 year olds and older however its there to let people know what the content is before viewing.  The age rating for this series will be a 15 as it complies with BBC 3's target audience 15-21.  If its any higher than that then half of the target audience will be excluded from watching the series.

Intellectual Property my seem to be like Copyright however it is not, it is the idea of an individual that is not a product and if a Producer was going to use another persons intellectual Property then they must ask for their permission and credit them for the idea.  In the making of the script, if I come across any Intellectual Property I will credit the creator and ask for their permission.

Here below is a brief description of what this mind map entails:

Idea 1, Reveal of the mayor:  The scene includes three main characters Xander, Rosie and the Mayor.  Xander and Rosie enter the town hall full of explosives and the mayor is there, a gripping gunfight ensues however the mayor escapes and the duo run to foil the spies plans.

Idea 2, The Prologue: This scene is very important as it introduces the characters and must keep the the audience captivated.  We have many characters in this group of scenes, including our main protagonists, Xander and Rosie.  They both have their own problems that we can show the audience for example Xander is mourning the death of his brother and Rosie is struggling with her father with shellshock.  There is the mayor who is our false hero, he is speaking to the people of the town, explaining that any with boats should use them for the evacuation of Dunkirk.  Finally at the end of this group of scenes a small german plane lands in a field and some men exit it with one of them unknown.  That will be our main antagonists.

Idea 3, The Meeting:  This groups of scenes Involves quite a few characters, there is are two protagonists Xander and Rosie, a mate of Rosie, a fascist speaker, many extras and our main protagonist that gets revealed in this scene.  It first starts off in the town when the duo start hanging out and they meet a friend of Rosie who talks of a youth club.  Cut to them at the club and they soon realise its a nazi sympathiser meeting.  After some time of ranting from a speaker, a man is discovered eavesdropping and is shot by the revealed antagonist.  Cut to credits.

Idea 4, The Epilogue:  This is the end of the series.  the main threat is gone but the mayor still lives, this could be a hint to another series.  Our two main protagonists, Xander and Rosie are in a relationship now which will settle audience pleasures and ends a good story.  You can see them in this part, no longer struggling from their setbacks.

Idea 5, Foiling the nazi plan:  This will be the part where there is a massive battle to destroy the explosives targeted at the town and the RAF base.  This part involves Xander, Rosie and The main antagonist who gets engulfed in flames at the end.  There will be a lot of explosions so there will need to be a lot of special effects during this group of scenes.

Idea 6, Escaping the spies:  This group of scenes is set a day after the Nazi meeting and it involves Rosie and Xander but also a bunch of extras chasing them and looking for them.  These scenes will mostly be filmed on the moor of Ilkey.

M2 Answering Questions

 Self Evaluation

On a scale of 1-10 i would give my self a 7 on this pitch.  Throughout my practice pitch I was confident and did not stumble that much but overall my pitch was two long and i think would of made the client loose interest and become bored.  The pitch as well was unfinished which is unprofessional and the storyline was detailed but lasted at least 5 minutes to describe and needed a more organised episode structure.  As improvement I have changed the story explanation into a structure of episodes that will make the story easier to be explained. 

Additional Potential Questions

Here are some additional questions that I think could have been asked in my Pitch.

How would my series fit with BBC 3's Target audience (16-21)?  

My Series is targeted at the same audience (16-21) but i will need to ensure that I make it appealing to them as for example the majority of BBC 3's audience enjoy comedy the most but the third biggest majority like dramas and so my series will fit with a big percentage.  Also the fact that the two main protagonists in this show are 17 will make the show more appealing to the audience as the majority of BBC3's audience is 17 and so the audience will be able to connect with the characters more.

How would my series set in the 40s be inclusive to a diverse cast even though this is a time of mass oppression and discrimination?

Well at the time when this series is set Britain and especially the north was an are area of mass inclusivity and immigration.  Bradford a city near the town the series is set was known as little Germany because of the immigration of many german immigrants at the time.  During the war an African American soldier described the British as treating him Royally and the UK's Ethnic minorities was growing in population at the time.

Questions in the Video

In the Proposal it says a member of any ethnicity can apply for any role but would it actually be acceptable for an ethnic minority to be a nazi?  Of course we will be realistic with the nazis and other characters but overall the characters where there wont be historical inaccuracies we will be inclusive to all races and ethnicities.  

How will you avoid offending anyone of any ethnic Minority by the fact there are nazis in your show that discriminate against anyone that isn't White?  Now of course any series or film with the Nazis in it will be disturbing and offensive to anyone watching as they where truly awful people but my series ensures that the audience knows that these people where the bad guys and show what they did was wrong.

In film there are many great examples of war films for example Dunkirk, how is your series different to any other series based in the war?  Now of course there are loads of great WW2 films and series' but overall what makes my series different is the fact that my series has protagonists aged 17 which is quite uncommon and the show is set in a remote area in the UK not somewhere abroad in Europe.

P3 Creating a Pitch

Here below is my original Proposal draft:

This is the Proposal draft i used to do my Practice Pitch in. front of my Peers and Media teacher.  Shown below is my Practice Pitch Video.

 Here below is my final draft of my Proposal that i have made after my advise and questions.

P2 proposal

Here is an example of my finished proposal:

P1 Analysis of Audience Research

Audience Research

Before you make any plan for a TV drama series you must do research about the audience you are targeting and how you could appeal to them.  The statistics had 133 people involved.

Some of the basic research i have done at first is the demographics of people that watch BBC 3.  The first demographic is age which is a range of 14 years or younger to 20 or older.  The majority of people that watch BBC 3 are 17 year olds with 62 people of the audience, followed closely by 16 year olds at 57.  18 year olds hold 13 of the audience and 20 year olds and older had just 1.  14 years and younger, 15 year olds and 19 year olds are all 0.  This overall shows that the audience is predominately 16-17 year olds and that is why the target audience the client has told me to appeal to is 16 - 21 year olds.  

The next statistic is gender with 70 viewers being female, 55 viewers being male and the other 8 being other and prefer not to say.  This shows that the majority of the audience will be female so i will have to appeal to them in some way, like for example there being a lead female role and female influenced factors.  Of course a massive amount is also male and so we have to appeal to them too, this is why i am going to have a story with two protagonists, one male, one female.

Next statistic is race and ethnicity.  The majority of responses was white (British) people with 116 viewers and 3 people of white (other) ethnicity.  Then there is the next group which is Asian (British) with 5 viewers and 2 asian (Pakistani), 1 Asian (Bangladeshi) and one Asian (other).  The other ethnicities are Mixed Heritage (Asian and White) with 3 people and Hispanic/Latino with 1 viewer.  1 viewer Preferred not to say.  Overall this shows that the majority of the audience is White but there are a few minorities we must appeal to as well to increase the amount of minorities watching BBC 3.

The next statistic is Sexuality with sexual preferences like Heterosexual, Homosexual, Bisexual, Asexual, Unsure, Other and Prefer not to say.  the majority of viewers where heterosexual with a number of 99, the next biggest sexuality was bisexual with 12 viewers, then there is unsure and Prefer not to say with both 6 viewers each, homosexual with 4 viewers and asexual and other with both 3 viewers each.

Audience Pleasures

Now that we have talked about the target audience and who they are and what they are.  Let's talk about the audience pleasures.  There are four parts of audience pleasures; Personal Relationships, Surveillance, Personal Identity and Diversion.  Here below are descriptions of each one.

Personal Relationships:

The audience finds a series appealing when they see how a character maintains their relationships with other characters.  Viewers find this appealing as they compare their relationships with the character and also connect more with other viewers.

Surveillance:

The audience finds pleasure by seeing how other people live their lives and how they can compare their lives with the character.

Personal Identity:

The audience finds pleasure by being able to identify with characters which overall helps them make sense out of their identity.

Diversion:

The audience also finds pleasure by curtain diversions to the plot like pure entertainment, action and even sexual excitement.  

P1 Interpreting the Brief

Shown above is the Brief i have been given for this unit and it tells me that i have to make and plan a Drama Series for the new awakening BBC 3 that left TV a while ago.  BBC 3 will be a channel that is targeted at 16 - 21 year olds and have asked my to make an idea for a series based at that age group.  A way I could do that is with having young characters and unorthodox stories to appeal to the younger audience that we have targeted.  The client has asked me to make an original idea and i will have to support it by creating a proposal and a client documentation to support my idea.  A proposal will be very beneficial as it can give me the criticism i need to create a good idea and so i can know how to make a good show targeted at 16 - 21 year olds.  The client has told me that the production budget will be low so I will have to ensure that i can keep costs low and that could be met with factors such as filming in an area that isn't as expensive as down south (so the north) and also hiring unknown or new actors for the series, this will be a lot cheaper than hiring actors that are famous and very well known as they will expect a high income.

M1 Swot analysis

 Conclusion and what Idea I have chosen

After much consideration i have decided to go with the WW2 Style Series as it will be much more doable and a lot less expensive to make because of factors to do with Costumes, special effects and most importantly; The target audience as it is targeted from 16 - 21 and the other ideas, I think, will not be that appealing to me as the WW2 style one.  The WW2 style series will be called Defend our Island and will have two main protagonists 1 male and 1 female of any race and ethnicity whatsoever.  This will be great for BBC 3 as it will be appealing to their ideology of being inclusive.