Coursework: Summer Project 2019
1) Research: TV drama trailer analysis
TV drama trailer 1: Narrative and genre
The establishing shot is of a welcome board of Riverdale that establishes a clear narrative that will surround the town of Riverdale. The trailer uses traditional trailer conventions such as on-screen text to add suspense, enigma and action codes. The trailer introduces a love interest as well as the main protagonist (Archie Andrews), as the trailer quickly develops a plot twist emerges and the main ‘disequilibrium’ is established: the death/murder of a character, the audio also communicates a disruption in the supposed “happy” atmosphere that is first initiated. From this point in the trailer more major and minor characters are introduced and the audience can establish the characters personalities and or intentions (good or bad) through this montage of characters. Throughout this, a voice-over is dubbed over to introduce more enigma codes such as “every corpse has a tale to tell… and this one has the touch of evil” these lines establish a mystery that needs to be uncovered and the characters shown after are the ones that are going to solve it, Furthermore, each character has their own personal narrative that yet all seem to intertwine with each other as well as a reoccurring romance disequilibrium between the main protagonists. The crime aspect is heavily emphasized towards the end with police, red string on board and flashlights.
Breaking bad has unique camerawork for specific shots, most of the camerawork has handheld shots to emphasise the realism in the show. The establishing shots help establish the protagonist and his role/ life before the disequilibrium and after- e.g. the first shot with the close up of the protagonist's feet and his face whilst he is doing exercise in his house, the contrasts heavily with the shot of him in a makeshift drug lab. There is a moment in the trailer where as soon as the drug making is introduced the handheld camera is used less and more fixed close-ups are used – this is possibly done to point out the drastic change of lifestyle in Walter White. There are also many ‘vlog’ types in this trailer which are specifically used to show effects on characters and again to add realism. Another unique shot is where the camera zooms out from the view of a gun to a wide shot of the protagonist in a desert location, this helps with enigma and suspense as the audience needs to watch the show to see who the gun is being pointed to.
TV drama trailer 5: Sound
As the trailer begins various sound effects are used such as the sound of the car engine being driven as well as the muffled voice that comes from the back of the two ‘crooks’ car. The sound in Stumptown is most uniquely used when music is turned on in a car that is, at first, diegetic sound however as the trailer develops the blur between diegetic and non-diegetic sound as the music becomes the soundtrack for which the trailer plays through, the pace neither. The music is also contrapuntal to the trailer as the music is a smooth track whereas the trailer is very chaotic. The use of SFX continues and as the chaos increases as the car swerve through the traffic, the sound of car horns and skidding wheels are heard to build up the intensity as the music does not focus to do so.
sherlock is a conventional trailer as it has text on the screen as each scene plays through, these strings of text vaguely explain the narrative which adds various amounts of enigma. This is used for many trailers as they are easy and simple and they also help communicate to audiences quickly and efficiently. Another noticeable convention is closeups on protagonists faces as well as wide shots and montages that introduce their life story- for sherlock, we see the past life of john Watson, that is introduced at the very start, who is an ex-army soldier. The use of handheld shots is common also as they make the drama more personal and more realistic as if the narrative is happening in real-time. Trailers often also have the similar montage (dissolve) sequence that plays through as well as end credits that show at the end of the clip- these contain the title, actors, release dates as well as social media links and hashtags that are associated with the drama
TV drama trailer 1: Narrative and genre
How are narrative and genre communicated quickly and clearly to the audience?
The establishing shot is of a welcome board of Riverdale that establishes a clear narrative that will surround the town of Riverdale. The trailer uses traditional trailer conventions such as on-screen text to add suspense, enigma and action codes. The trailer introduces a love interest as well as the main protagonist (Archie Andrews), as the trailer quickly develops a plot twist emerges and the main ‘disequilibrium’ is established: the death/murder of a character, the audio also communicates a disruption in the supposed “happy” atmosphere that is first initiated. From this point in the trailer more major and minor characters are introduced and the audience can establish the characters personalities and or intentions (good or bad) through this montage of characters. Throughout this, a voice-over is dubbed over to introduce more enigma codes such as “every corpse has a tale to tell… and this one has the touch of evil” these lines establish a mystery that needs to be uncovered and the characters shown after are the ones that are going to solve it, Furthermore, each character has their own personal narrative that yet all seem to intertwine with each other as well as a reoccurring romance disequilibrium between the main protagonists. The crime aspect is heavily emphasized towards the end with police, red string on board and flashlights.
TV drama trailer 2: Mise-en-scene
What do you notice about the use of mise-en-scene to create meanings for the audience? Think CLAMPS.
The trailer from mindhunter is set in 1977—in the early days of criminal psychology and criminal profiling and in terms of mise-en-scene (CLAMPS) the trailer has heavily had to adapt to fit the setting.
Costume- the costume has strong 70-80s fashion from glasses style to facial hair. The costume of the criminals to the investigators is specifically tailored to fit both their status and the era of living they are in.
Lighting- High-key lighting is mainly used in this trailer this is used to add realism and reflect day to day life in the late 70s, but specific scenes such as the tape recording uses low-key lighting to create heavy contrast and dramatic shadows—this makes the audience infer that tape recording and other equipment like this are going to be a key part in this series as most focus of lighting is placed here
Actor- the actors are placed in specific job roles, most of which are FBI investigators or antagonists and the main protagonist is obviously focused on the most
Makeup- Makeup isn’t particularly significant as the cast consists of a strong male cast thus meaning the makeup style isn’t significant, this has other contextual and social reasons such as not many men in the mainstream spotlight were seen wearing makeup, therefore, the show must reflect this to be historically accurate
Props- as this is a crime TV trailer many police/Investigatory props are used such as tape recorders and Polaroid images, however, the most significant prop is the old TIME magazine style with a black and white image, etc…
Setting- The setting is key to the trailer communicating what genre of drama it’s going to be- crime- and the prison, offices and classic diner settings all clearly communicate what drama this is going to be and what era it is set in
Costume- the costume has strong 70-80s fashion from glasses style to facial hair. The costume of the criminals to the investigators is specifically tailored to fit both their status and the era of living they are in.
Lighting- High-key lighting is mainly used in this trailer this is used to add realism and reflect day to day life in the late 70s, but specific scenes such as the tape recording uses low-key lighting to create heavy contrast and dramatic shadows—this makes the audience infer that tape recording and other equipment like this are going to be a key part in this series as most focus of lighting is placed here
Actor- the actors are placed in specific job roles, most of which are FBI investigators or antagonists and the main protagonist is obviously focused on the most
Makeup- Makeup isn’t particularly significant as the cast consists of a strong male cast thus meaning the makeup style isn’t significant, this has other contextual and social reasons such as not many men in the mainstream spotlight were seen wearing makeup, therefore, the show must reflect this to be historically accurate
Props- as this is a crime TV trailer many police/Investigatory props are used such as tape recorders and Polaroid images, however, the most significant prop is the old TIME magazine style with a black and white image, etc…
Setting- The setting is key to the trailer communicating what genre of drama it’s going to be- crime- and the prison, offices and classic diner settings all clearly communicate what drama this is going to be and what era it is set in
TV drama trailer 3: Camerawork
Here you are looking for particular camera shots and movement. E.g. Are close-ups used to introduce key characters to the audience? How are establishing shots used?
Breaking bad has unique camerawork for specific shots, most of the camerawork has handheld shots to emphasise the realism in the show. The establishing shots help establish the protagonist and his role/ life before the disequilibrium and after- e.g. the first shot with the close up of the protagonist's feet and his face whilst he is doing exercise in his house, the contrasts heavily with the shot of him in a makeshift drug lab. There is a moment in the trailer where as soon as the drug making is introduced the handheld camera is used less and more fixed close-ups are used – this is possibly done to point out the drastic change of lifestyle in Walter White. There are also many ‘vlog’ types in this trailer which are specifically used to show effects on characters and again to add realism. Another unique shot is where the camera zooms out from the view of a gun to a wide shot of the protagonist in a desert location, this helps with enigma and suspense as the audience needs to watch the show to see who the gun is being pointed to.
TV drama trailer 4: Editing
Analyse pace, transitions, number of shots and juxtaposition e.g. eye-line matches. Does the pace speed up towards the end of the trailer?
The editing for Luther is deliberately done to make the protagonist, Luther, look more powerful. The trailer contains many eye-line matches such as when there is an ‘interrogation’ like the scene between Luther and Alice, these let the audience have the POV experience of each character and it also builds up to extreme tension as the shots are close-ups. Most shots have him in full focus and the editing just enhances his characters strong presence as well as build up tension when there is, for example, intense activities such as when Luther is seen throwing a man on to car- this scene has multiple straight cuts in it to emphasise the intensity and how quick-paced this moment is. It also shines a light on Luther’s dominating character. When the trailer intensifies, from this point, the pace increases and the editing becomes a lot quicker – this helps to add further intensity and anticipation to the trailer. Another editing moment is when Luther is seen walking down a street whilst disguising himself, this moment is full straight cuts that build up to a climax of Luther once again initiating action and violence. There are no juxtaposing shots as the tracks behind the shots all match the mood of each moment in the trailers in when the scenes get more intense so does the music.
TV drama trailer 5: Sound
Analyse both diegetic and non-diegetic sound - music, dialogue, voiceover, SFX, background or foley sound, etc.
As the trailer begins various sound effects are used such as the sound of the car engine being driven as well as the muffled voice that comes from the back of the two ‘crooks’ car. The sound in Stumptown is most uniquely used when music is turned on in a car that is, at first, diegetic sound however as the trailer develops the blur between diegetic and non-diegetic sound as the music becomes the soundtrack for which the trailer plays through, the pace neither. The music is also contrapuntal to the trailer as the music is a smooth track whereas the trailer is very chaotic. The use of SFX continues and as the chaos increases as the car swerve through the traffic, the sound of car horns and skidding wheels are heard to build up the intensity as the music does not focus to do so.
TV drama trailer 6: Trailer conventions, graphics, text-on-screen etc.
Here you need to explore trailer conventions - what does this trailer have that you've spotted in all the trailers you have analysed so far? Look for things like text on the screen, graphics, title, release date, social media links and more.
sherlock is a conventional trailer as it has text on the screen as each scene plays through, these strings of text vaguely explain the narrative which adds various amounts of enigma. This is used for many trailers as they are easy and simple and they also help communicate to audiences quickly and efficiently. Another noticeable convention is closeups on protagonists faces as well as wide shots and montages that introduce their life story- for sherlock, we see the past life of john Watson, that is introduced at the very start, who is an ex-army soldier. The use of handheld shots is common also as they make the drama more personal and more realistic as if the narrative is happening in real-time. Trailers often also have the similar montage (dissolve) sequence that plays through as well as end credits that show at the end of the clip- these contain the title, actors, release dates as well as social media links and hashtags that are associated with the drama
2) Planning: TV drama concept
Complete this TV drama pitch template to plan these elements (you can copy the questions into your blog or complete on Word and link from your blog) to demonstrate you have planned a complete TV drama series in your chosen genre.
A Level Media NEA – Brief 5: TV drama trailer and culture magazine
A Level Media NEA – Brief 5: TV drama trailer and culture magazine
TV drama concept
Our coursework brief requires us to create our own TV drama trailer and culture magazine for an original TV drama in the crime or family drama genres. Plan the following:
Title:TBC
Tagline: Is Blood Always Thicker Than Water?
Genre (and sub-genre/hybrid genre if applicable): I would like to create a trailer of the crime genre and possibly make it a hybrid of comedy- this hybrid will be very subtle with quick remarks added into the script of the trailer to shine a unique light on conventional theft dramas
Setting (note brief – at least two locations): Northolt, West Drayton, Central London, Greenford and possibly Reading
Number of episodes: 3
Channel and time/day of broadcast (note brief – prime-time, pre-watershed, family audience): channel 4 shown at around 6pm-7pm
Logline – one sentence that sums up the whole TV drama series and hooks people in (25 words or fewer): This is a 3 part crime drama where a set of twins go against each other and struggle to overcome what is more important: justice or family?
Other successful TV dramas that are similar to yours: Thieves, Killing Eve, Sherlock and money heist (Netflix)
Narrative arc – what happens in the overall series and in what order:
there will be a police officer who will act as veer's 'right hand man'-they will be the supportive character who will work to comfort and protect Veer when she needs to
The target audience for your TV drama (note brief – family audience, pre-watershed broadcast etc.): age, gender, social class, interests, psychographic groups etc.
This drama will focus on these characters
Our coursework brief requires us to create our own TV drama trailer and culture magazine for an original TV drama in the crime or family drama genres. Plan the following:
Title:TBC
Tagline: Is Blood Always Thicker Than Water?
Genre (and sub-genre/hybrid genre if applicable): I would like to create a trailer of the crime genre and possibly make it a hybrid of comedy- this hybrid will be very subtle with quick remarks added into the script of the trailer to shine a unique light on conventional theft dramas
Setting (note brief – at least two locations): Northolt, West Drayton, Central London, Greenford and possibly Reading
Number of episodes: 3
Channel and time/day of broadcast (note brief – prime-time, pre-watershed, family audience): channel 4 shown at around 6pm-7pm
Logline – one sentence that sums up the whole TV drama series and hooks people in (25 words or fewer): This is a 3 part crime drama where a set of twins go against each other and struggle to overcome what is more important: justice or family?
Other successful TV dramas that are similar to yours: Thieves, Killing Eve, Sherlock and money heist (Netflix)
Narrative arc – what happens in the overall series and in what order:
- We are introduced to two protagonists who are sisters and one sister will be a very successful mi5 agent and the other will be a significantly less wealthy sibling, both characters are polar opposites in that one sister is full of sin and transgression whereas the other is full of justice and equity
- the transgressive twin has a desire to cyber steal a mass amount of money (anywhere between £100million-£1 billion) but the good sister works for the MI5 and has been tracking her sister for a significant amount of time
- audiences will watch a double narrative that will play parallel to each other that will cover both sides of the villain and hero
- both sides are faced at a "standoff" where we see, for the first time, the sisters talk in real life and unfortunately, the good sister will be killed off by her sister - this will add the unconventional twist on the typical 'good vs bad' narrative
Episodic narratives – what will happen in each episode?
- episode one: we meet both characters, Veer and Raja, and learn of their background, relationship to one another aswell as the fact that their parents are both dead and left all their wealth to the good sister (veer) as Raja was always a delinquent child and less favoured
- episode two: we learn of Raja's wealthy fantasy aswell as her intelligence, she establishes a plan to steal/hack a large sum of money from the dark web (cybercrime) which is a very serious crime and find out that Veer also shares Raja's extreme intelligence and figures out her plan - Veer works under mi5 to stop her
- episode three: the twins both carry out their plans but they still haven't seen each other IRL yet, Raja goes to collect a USB with confidential files that contain important data for her robbery, she successfully gets it, this all happens whilst Veer is working to stop her. Veer goes to chase Raja in a car chase and we see Raja defeating her sister whilst walking off with her money
- The main protagonists are going to be the twins and they will be of Indian ethnicity
- one (VEER ) will be a very successful mi5 agent and the other will be a significantly less wealthy sibling (RAJA), both characters are polar opposites in that one twin is full of sin and transgression whereas the other is full of justice and equity
- their parents are both dead and left all their wealth to the good sister (veer) as Raja was always a delinquent child and less favoured
- Raja's wealthy fantasy aswell as her intelligence, she establishes a plan to steal/hack a large sum of money from the dark web (cybercrime) which is a very serious crime and find out that Veer also shares Raja's extreme intelligence and figures out her plan - Veer works under mi5 to stop her
The target audience for your TV drama (note brief – family audience, pre-watershed broadcast etc.): age, gender, social class, interests, psychographic groups etc.
This drama will focus on these characters
- The target audience for this tv drama will be for families who enjoy watching crime-related content and those who enjoy working for themselves to figure out the answer to mysteries and make educated guesses and apply educated knowledge to the drama
- The TV drama will not contain extreme strong language nor will it have extreme violence and it will not have sex nudity etcetera to help fit in with the pre-watershed guidelines
- Research suggests that females enjoy more crime-related content as opposed to males, therefore, this drama shines a light on females and female empowerment
- This drama would cater towards females/family audiences of a working/upper-middle social class
- Explorers: Energy - autonomy, experience, challenge, new frontiers. Brand choice highlights difference, sensation, adventure, indulgence and instant effect - the first to try new brands. (Younger - student)
- Reformers: Freedom from restriction, personal growth, social awareness, value for time, independent judgement, tolerance of complexity, anti-materialistic but intolerant of bad taste. Curious and enquiring, support the growth of new product categories. Select brands for intrinsic quality, favouring natural simplicity, small is beautiful. (Higher Education)
3) Statement of Intent
Write the first draft for your genuine 500-word Statement of Intent. This will be submitted to the exam board alongside your media products and is worth 10 marks of the overall 60 marks available.
For my cross-media production, I plan to create a crime trailer alongside a culture magazine. The crime trailer will feature four main locations: Northolt, Central London, West Drayton, Greenford and possibly Reading. These locations will reflect the real-time living situations for the characters, the locations such as Central London and Reading will reflect the high profile lives and wealth which are some main themes in the trailer. Following Todorov's narrative theory on an equilibrium, disequilibrium and a new equilibrium; my narrative will have a twist on a conventional crime/theft drama as the ‘hero’ (Propp) will be killed off as opposed to the ‘villain’.My narrative is simply a conflict between two sisters that are polar opposites to each other and audiences get taken through a 3 part crime drama where they, and the characters, figure out what is more important: justice or family? This helps engage the family target audience as the audience will be free to solve this mystery as the drama plays through -This is because of the fact that many people, especially young growing minds, enjoy crime/mystery-solving content in which they can feel apart of and be gratified with personal relationships and identities. The main protagonists will be 2 young females from a BAME background, played by one actress, as I would like this trailer to reflect the diversity within London as well as break the traditional stereotype of a hyper-masculine male criminal mastermind, and police investigator, that often star in these crime/theft type dramas. As the main protagonists will be female, I am not limiting nor am I reinforcing the beauty and or fashion standards that society implements on women and I would like to push androgyny in the characters to further emphasise their strength and ability to break traditional gender stereotypes, as well as provide evidence to disprove Mulvey's theory on the ‘Male gaze’.Throughout the narrative, I am going to add enigma codes that will indicate to the audience the key plot points of the drama, these enigma codes will allow audiences to make their own interpretations (Stuart hall reception theory) on characters and situations the characters are faced with. In terms of the culture magazine, I will encompass the conventions of a traditional magazine with a front cover that will have a title, cover lines to hint to what the magazine contents are, a central cover star, who will be from the TV drama, a selling price and dateline. The internal pages will have a content page that will include some visuals to emphasise the aesthetic (house style) of the genre of the magazine, a Q&A format interview with the cast from the drama. Digital convergence will also be a part of the creative process of my final product, the audience would engage via watching the drama on channel 4 as the drama fits the ethos and is similar to other content shown on there. Social media links will be shown at the end of the trailer and in the internal pages of the culture magazine, this will help spread the word of the new upcoming drama as hashtags and accounts could be set up on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook which could end up trending nationally. Lastly, the use of algorithms would also boost the popularity of the drama.
For my cross-media production, I plan to create a crime trailer alongside a culture magazine. The crime trailer will feature four main locations: Northolt, Central London, West Drayton, Greenford and possibly Reading. These locations will reflect the real-time living situations for the characters, the locations such as Central London and Reading will reflect the high profile lives and wealth which are some main themes in the trailer. Following Todorov's narrative theory on an equilibrium, disequilibrium and a new equilibrium; my narrative will have a twist on a conventional crime/theft drama as the ‘hero’ (Propp) will be killed off as opposed to the ‘villain’.My narrative is simply a conflict between two sisters that are polar opposites to each other and audiences get taken through a 3 part crime drama where they, and the characters, figure out what is more important: justice or family? This helps engage the family target audience as the audience will be free to solve this mystery as the drama plays through -This is because of the fact that many people, especially young growing minds, enjoy crime/mystery-solving content in which they can feel apart of and be gratified with personal relationships and identities. The main protagonists will be 2 young females from a BAME background, played by one actress, as I would like this trailer to reflect the diversity within London as well as break the traditional stereotype of a hyper-masculine male criminal mastermind, and police investigator, that often star in these crime/theft type dramas. As the main protagonists will be female, I am not limiting nor am I reinforcing the beauty and or fashion standards that society implements on women and I would like to push androgyny in the characters to further emphasise their strength and ability to break traditional gender stereotypes, as well as provide evidence to disprove Mulvey's theory on the ‘Male gaze’.Throughout the narrative, I am going to add enigma codes that will indicate to the audience the key plot points of the drama, these enigma codes will allow audiences to make their own interpretations (Stuart hall reception theory) on characters and situations the characters are faced with. In terms of the culture magazine, I will encompass the conventions of a traditional magazine with a front cover that will have a title, cover lines to hint to what the magazine contents are, a central cover star, who will be from the TV drama, a selling price and dateline. The internal pages will have a content page that will include some visuals to emphasise the aesthetic (house style) of the genre of the magazine, a Q&A format interview with the cast from the drama. Digital convergence will also be a part of the creative process of my final product, the audience would engage via watching the drama on channel 4 as the drama fits the ethos and is similar to other content shown on there. Social media links will be shown at the end of the trailer and in the internal pages of the culture magazine, this will help spread the word of the new upcoming drama as hashtags and accounts could be set up on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook which could end up trending nationally. Lastly, the use of algorithms would also boost the popularity of the drama.
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