Summer Project: coursework planning

1) Research: TV drama trailer analysis 

You need to write detailed 250-word close-textual analyses of six TV drama trailers in your chosen genre. For each trailer, focus on a different aspect of media language, and embed each one on your blog:

TV drama trailer 1: Narrative and genre
How is narrative and genre communicated quickly and clearly to the audience?

                                     

In the beginning of the trailer they introduce the trailer with people in red suit and in a really weird face mask. This is a very unusual concept and if a person was to see this they may be curious as to what they are wearing so they may carry on watching the trailer because of their curiosity. This may attract their target audience. The music creates a connotation that the genre is a crime and thriller drama because of the suspenseful non diegetic sound that has been edited in. There is also a dialogue that has been used in which is “things are going to get real ugly” this attracts a more wider audience as this creates that dramatic effect towards the audience this makes them want to watch more of the trailer. There is a lot of prop use of the guns. The gun connotes danger and this would usually be in a crime and action film that they will use the prop of a gun in it. The narrative suggests that money heist is surrounding money, robbers and the cops. This also denotes that there may be a sense of mystery perhaps as a genre for this trailer. There is a suggesting that money heist have used Roland and Barthes theory which is action and enigma codes. For they're costume they are wearing red which could connote they are dangerous as the colour red usually connotes danger or blood. 

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 starts with a female looking directly towards the camera. There also looks like there is a crack on the screen in the mise-en-scene. This could connote that there is maybe a suggestion that the female is hurt emotionally. Then in the next shot she points her finger which kind of gives the audience the feel that she is directly pointing at the audience, her finger is also on the crack bit of the mirror this could suggest that she may be the solution in solving the disequilibrium. Then there is another shot of a female that is dressed in an upper-class costume with the make-up done very simple. The setting is very upper and wealthy old household such as the bed pillars which are mostly seen in upper class families houses. There is seen in where there are a bunch of people sitting around a table which looks like in a meeting room. The lady that has dark curly hair looks like the protagonist she is wearing a long coat with a blazer and a shirt. The long coat usually suggests the idea that she may be with the MI5. They setting that they are in is clearly London which is clearly shown by the red buses and the red telephone boxes. The villain in the story is the lady with the blonde hair and she has light makeup on her face. 

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?

Peaky blinders a tv drama show that is shown on BBC one. The trailer starts off with a long shot of a setting area which looks like it is somewhere in a field during the windy winter times. This is suggested through the paper flying around and dead leaves flying. There seems to be a man on the cross and a man sitting down with his face towards the ground. This suggests he is going through some kind of distress times. The next shot is where there is a medium shot of a character who I think is the protagonist as he has been shown a lot throughout the trailer. The next shot then after the transition is there are a group of people dressed in very upper-class clothing which is shown through the lady wearing a fur and a hat with long coat and the men in suits with flat caps. Then there is a long shot of 5 characters that were used in the previous shot but them moving forward. They have a sense of importance by the way they are moving towards the camera with their heads held high up. Which shows a sense of power. In between the trailer there has been a use of long shot where in the right-hand corner there seems to be a fire on what seems to be a motorbike. The protagonist is in the middle and looking up shows he is going through some hard pain in the show. He seems to be holding a child which suggests he has a child in the drama.

TV drama trailer 4: Editing
Analyse pace, transitions, number of shots and juxtaposition e.g. eyeline matches. Does the pace speed up towards the end of the trailer? 

Luther comes on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. The trailer starts off with a very fast pace with very different shots. This automatically catches the attention of the audience as they would want to watch the trailer for longer to find out what was in the shots that went so fast. There has been approximately 97 shots used in this trailer. Towards the end the trailer starts to speed up again to build up the tension, suspense and thriller which persuades the audience to watch Luther. There is a man in a long coat walking in to what seems like an office. He is wearing a button shirt with a red tie and long coat. This suggests that he is with maybe the MI5 or with high top police officers working with them. The non-diegetic sound edited in the trailer helps the audience start to build up a connection with the protagonist, Luther.

TV drama trailer 5: Sound
Analyse both diegetic and non-diegetic sound - music, dialogue, voiceover, SFX, background or foley sound etc.

Riverdale is a show that can be seen on Netflix. In the Riverdale trailer there has been a lot of varieties of non-diegetic and diegetic sound. They have been used to persuade and make the audience want to watch more and more of the trailer because of their in sound choice. The trailer starts off with a very smooth calming music then there is a shot in where it says is as it seems that changes up the whole tension of the trailer to a very dark side with a very dark themed song. Then there is a use of non-diegetic sound with police sirens. This connotes that Riverdale is a crime and mystery genre. The trailer starts to speed up the soundtrack towards the end. In which then they leave the trailer in suspense. This makes the audience want to watch the drama series as they may want to know who the murderer is.

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 screen, graphics, title, release date, social media links and more.
Bodyguard Official trailer

Bodyguard is a Netflix series that is a crime genre. This is a Netflix original series of Netflix. This trailer has the logo of Netflix to the right-hand corner at the bottom the whole time. This is to make sure the audience knows where to watch the drama at all times. There is a shot in where they have a close up to the gun. This once again goes back to show that the TV drama is an action and crime TV drama. This trailer does not have much text in the trailer apart from when they are introducing the cast of the characters after their shot. There is also a text during the middle of the trailer, the text being ‘who will you trust?’. There is also text at the end with the title of the TV drama series and then it goes to the shot of the Netflix logo. There is a lot of non-diegetic sound that builds up suspense and tension. 

You can find a range of TV drama trailer examples in this blogpost.

2) Planning: TV drama concept

In order to produce a successful trailer, you will need to plan out the overall narrative arc for the whole season or series of your drama. This will include the number of episodes, the narrative conflict driving the main protagonist, episodic narratives and cliffhangers and more. This overall picture of the drama will inform both your TV trailer and culture magazine feature.

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

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: Anonymous

Tagline: Watch your back, you don't know who's looking...

Genre (and sub-genre/hybrid genre if applicable):

• Crime
• Mystery & comedy; sub-genre

Setting (note brief – at least two locations): 

• Corner shop
• Park
• Home

Number of episodes:
6 EPISODES

Channel and time/day of broadcast (note brief – prime-time, pre-watershed, family audience):
This TV drama will be shown at 8pm.

Logline – one sentence that sums up the whole TV drama series and hooks people in (25 words or fewer):
Group of girls find money. But have an unexpected turn of events.

Other successful TV dramas that are similar to yours:

• Luther
• Bodyguard

Episodic narratives – what will happen in each episode?
Ep 1: Introduction
Ep2: Finding the cash in the park by the 3 girls.
Ep3: Spending all of the cash.
Ep4-Weird messages coming to the 3 girls.
Ep5-Ashley's murder.
Ep6-Trying to find the killer and where they are getting the messages from.

Main protagonist – their motivation, conflicts etc.:
Meri-main protagonist

Other characters, their narrative role and their audience appeal:
Sara, Jules.

Target audience for your TV drama (note brief – family audience, pre-watershed broadcast etc.): age, gender, social class, interests, psychographic groups etc.
Age: 15-23
Gender:Females
Social Class: Middle class
Interest: love exploring and watching new crime dramas.
Psychographic group: Explorers and Aspirers

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.

Guidance is provided by AQA in their NEA Student Booklet but we strongly recommend you also look at our Statement of Intent questions to consider document too.

Draft of Statement of Intent

The genre I have decided to do is a crime drama and to meet this criteria I will be having more than two locations. One of the location would be inside a corner shop, the other location would be in a bedroom. My story is about 3 girls and they have just found a bag full of money in the park. Seeing this they take it with them and spend out most of the money that was in the bag. Then they start to get really creepy messages being sent to them on post it notes, letters and text messages. This then leads to a murder happening of Sara’s because of them ignoring them messages. Now it is their mission to find out who was behind all of it and whether that same person killed Sara or not. The protagonist in the narrative is Meri. The trailer will be 90 seconds long.

I will be using a lot music effects to persuade and make the audience want to watch TV drama series. This will be by the use of different camera angles such as close ups to introduce the characters and long shots to introduce the settings with. There will be a lot of non-diegetic sound put in to create more effective especially with the dialogues that the characters have. I will show that the TV drama series will be shown on BBC One. I will leave the trailer off with a dramatic sound which will leave the audience wanting to watch more of the show. This will create more awareness of my trailer called Anonymous.

My characters are Meri, Sara, Jules, , 2 bunglers and a corner-shop man. Meri is the protagonist she is from an Asian background. This means I can put some Asian stereotypes in such as the Father of Meri’s owns a lot of corner shops in the U.K. They only care about Meri if she is going to be a Doctor if she does not then the family wants nothing to do with her. This would be a stereotype that Asian’s have.

This show would be shown on prime time pre-watershed. This will mean I cannot put explicit scenes in. This TV drama will be broadcasted on BBC One.  The psychographic group I will be aiming at is explorers and aspirers. Anonymous would have a social media page on Instagram and a hashtag which will create more awareness for the TV drama series. This TV drama will be aimed at teenage girls. The other TV dramas that my audience would enjoy is shows like Luther and bodyguard because of their genres which is crime and because their story line is some way links with my narrative. My trailer will know about more of the show as the TV drama will have social media platforms such as an instagram, hash tag and twitter. The hash tag which is #A1 allow the audience to know about what may happen in the forthcoming shows.

4) Ignite presentation

Prepare a 5-minute, 20-slide presentation using the Ignite format in which you present your coursework project. In effect, this is your statement of intent in presentation format. You must cover:

• Your TV drama concept: title, tagline, genre, narrative, character etc.
• Media language: how you will use conventions, camerawork, editing, mise-en-scene and sound to create an effective TV drama trailer.
• Media representations: how you will use or subvert stereotypes; representation theory.
• Media audiences: your target audience demographics and psychographics; audience pleasures; audience theory.
• Media industries and digital convergence: the potential companies or organisations that could produce or broadcast your TV drama; how your trailer will encourage audiences to discuss your new TV drama on social media.

Ignite presentations have very specific rules: you must create exactly 20 slides with each slide set to 15-second auto-advance. This means your presentation will be exactly five minutes followed by questions and comments from the class. You will deliver your presentation on your coursework planning in the first week back in September.

Your Ignite presentation will be marked out of 30 on the following criteria (each worth a possible 5 marks):

1) Research (through presentation AND blog) 
2) Concept
3) Language: terminology and theory
4) Representations
5) Audience and Industry
6) Delivery

You can find more information about Ignite presentations - including examples - in this Ignite presentation blogpost here.