D1 Met the Requirements

For this project I was asked to create a screenplay for a short (10–15 minute) dramatised sequence of my TV drama, for the purpose of promoting it to the target audience of 15-21 year olds. This meant it needed to be exciting and gripping in order to create interest among the audience.

Genre and Conflict:

One key convention of a TV drama is they are episodic, meaning the storyline is broken down into a series of around 30 minutes to an hour long episodes. This means that it is designed for a home audience as they can choose to watch it as the episodes are released or in their own timescale. In order to accommodate this, each episode of a TV drama needs to include exciting events and events that drive the plot forward so that the audience stay interested and want to keep watching. In my TV drama, each episode is around 50 minutes long. The extract I chose to write is from the start of episode 3, I made it gripping for the audience by revealing hints about aspects of the show without giving too much away and leaving the ending on a cliff hanger. 

Conflict is required in TV dramas in order to create a narrative that will be interesting for the audience. The primary conflict in my series is through the protagonist’s struggle with mental health, his decision between helping the police and committing crimes and the people around him giving him a hard time. I demonstrated conflict in the extract through the protagonist going to school and being made fun of by his fellow classmates, leading to him having a panic attack.  

The sub-genre of my series is crime drama. Crime dramas typically include themes such as solving crimes, drugs and violence. My TV drama is slightly different to a typical crime drama due to the fact it is set from the perspective of a criminal rather than the police. Throughout the series the protagonist is planning a crime whilst helping the police solve other crimes, thus meaning it follows the convention of revolving around crime. In the extract the audience sees some hints towards what crime he’s planning but we don’t find out what it is until the end of the series. 

Todorov’s Narrative Theory states that there are five stages to every narrative: equilibrium, disruption, recognition, repair and new equilibrium. Whilst my screenplay is only a short extract, it includes some of the stages. The start of the extract is the equilibrium, the audience sees the protagonist in his home and going to school. When he arrives at school, he faces people making fun of him which is part of the equilibrium as it is established earlier in the series that he is treated badly by the people around him. The disruption occurs when he is kicked out of his maths class and has a panic attack. The remaining stages would happen throughout the rest of the episode. The extract ends on somewhat of a cliff-hanger as the audience doesn’t find out what happens to him after the panic attack.

Hinting towards crime

In this part of the series, the protagonist has just let a criminal free due to blackmail and is concerned that his relationship with the police has been tainted, for this reason despite his overall positive transformation arc at this stage he falls slightly back to his original ways. This is shown in the extract through the use of voiceovers and the idea that he is planning a crime at the beginning. 

Promotion:

In order to attract the interest of the audience to watch the whole series, I have included gripping aspects of my series and hinted towards wider themes which may appeal to the target audience. This includes mental health; the target audience of 15-21 year olds may relate to this theme and therefore become interested in watching the series. The conflict in my extract comes between the protagonist and the people at school who make fun of him. This is another aspect of the series which can appeal to the audience because many teenagers experience bullying in their life or feel they can relate to the personality of the protagonist.

Protagonist being bullied

The opening scene of the extract where Seth is planning something is the hook because the audience doesn't explicitly find out what he's doing but they do see small hints towards it which would make them want to watch the series to find out what he's doing. 

In order to conform to the BBFC's regulations for what is suitable for anyone aged 15, I have not included any extreme violence, promotion of drug usage or explicit sexual activity. There may be some use of drugs within the series as it relates to crime however this will be portrayed in a negative light to avoid glorifying it to the audience. Furthermore, it will include strong language due to the fact many of the characters are teenagers and therefore likely to use this language, this is permitted under the restrictions of the BBFC. Legal factors that need to be considered when producing a product include defamation and copyright. To avoid any legal issues, I will not include real life brands or products in my series and all characters involved are fictional so no one can be slandered. The groups I am representing in my series, such as the police, will be portrayed in a positive way. 

Target Audience:

The target audience for my series is 15-21 year olds in the UK as this is the demographic of BBC3. More specifically, it is primarily aimed at a male audience in the B-C2 social grade. This is a fairly niche audience which is typical of a BBC3 drama due to their younger audience. 

One way in which my series satisfies the Uses and Gratifications theory is through escapism. Throughout the show, there are various exciting and gripping incidents between the protagonist and other characters. For example, Seth has various interactions with criminals as well as solving the crimes they committed, this would allow the audience to escape and become invested in a different world from their own. 

Similarly, the show also satisfies surveillance through the fact many of the events that occur are abnormal to many teenagers lives. The protagonist, Seth, lives on his own in a caravan and is incredibly intelligent for his age. This is something much of the audience wouldn't be able to relate to and therefore by watching the show they can learn about a different lifestyle to their own. 

My series satisfies personal identity through the protagonist. In the show, the protagonist is a socially awkward, lonely teenager who struggles with his mental health.

Socially awkward

Despite his differences to the average teenager, he is alike to many who face similar struggles. This will allow the audience to relate to some of his experiences and therefore feel more accepted and recognised.

Lastly, the series satisfies personal relationships through the different relationships between the protagonist and the other characters. For example, Seth's relationship with his mother is shown to be difficult and flawed. Some of the audience may be able to relate to this theme and feel as though their personal problems are more normalised and they aren't alone. 

The majority of my characters are teenagers, similarly to the target demographic, thus meaning the audience can relate to their experiences and therefore feel connected to the show. The teenage characters are all different, for example the protagonist is shy and awkward whereas he makes friends with Ruby who's more confident, this allows the audience to relate more to certain characters who they perhaps feel represent them better. 

Ruby's personality

In addition to the relatability of the characters, the protagonist is abnormal in a sense which makes him more interesting than simply being an average teenager and therefore more exciting to watch. His lifestyle as a minor criminal as well as helping the police is unique and the audience will gain an insight into something likely unfamiliar to them.

My show is set in the modern day in a small town. Whilst this isn't necessarily relatable to the entire audience, in the UK it is very common so it is likely to represent many people's homes or places they've visited. The protagonist's home is a caravan park by the sea, his caravan is old and slightly run-down to show his lack of wealth and the sea symbolises his dream for freedom. Throughout the series Seth goes to sit and watch the sea and whilst we aren't explicitly told what he's thinking it is implied that he wants to escape his life and move far away.

Seaside location

Another key location in the series is Seth's school. The school is fairly modern and the pupils around him are clearly much wealthier than Seth, as shown by their clothing compared to his. This creates a clear sense of the protagonist's situation, again we aren't explicitly told but it will be implied in the series that Seth is at the school on a scholarship due to his high level of intelligence. 

Duration:

Due to the use of industry standard formatting, one page of screenplay roughly equals one minute of screen time. This means that my script is approximately 11 minutes in length which fits the brief of it needing to be between 10 and 15 minutes. In total my script has 12 pages due to the additional title page at the beginning. In order to comply with the conventions of script formatting, I used 12pt courier font and the typical alignment. Action blocks are aligned to the far left with the character names centralised (and capitalised) and the dialogue slightly left below the names. Important information is capitalised to ensure it is included. 

Formatting

Feedback:

After being given initial feedback, I have made improvements to my script. Much of this feedback was based around more description being needed. For example, instead of saying 'school' or 'caravan', adding descriptive words to create a better image of what it should look like.

Feedback

Improvement

Another area of feedback I was given was to add transitions such as 'cut to' in between scenes, when editing my final draft I made sure to do this where necessary. 

Feedback

Improvement

I was given feedback to add more detail to certain interactions between characters in order to further develop their relationship and make it more meaningful. In order to act on this I included more dialogue and description in some of the scenes. Lastly, it was suggested I could include camera instructions. I went through and added specific shot types and camera movements to add further interest to the shots and reflect certain emotions. 

Improvement

Feedback

Overall, I feel I succeeded in establishing interesting characters who the audience can sympathise with or dislike. This may entice them to watch the show based on the extract because they feel a connection to the characters and want to know more. In addition, I believe I have created a gripping extract that will create intrigue and leave the audience excited to watch the series to learn more. Lastly, I feel I succeeded in meeting the brief and created an industry standard, correctly formatted extract. 

I could further improve my extract by improving the actual interactions between the characters to be more realistic. I had little idea about the personality of many of the secondary characters so I could consider this and make adaptations to the dialogue. Another improvement I could make is perhaps making more happen within each scene so that each part is properly developed.