Television Production

Character Study. In order to develop my characters in a way that can be recognised by the audience, I'm going to look into characters that I admire to break down how they are represented to the audience. I am going to be focusing on 2 characters: Scott Pilgrim from Scott Pilgrim vs. The World , and Juno from Juno . I have chosen these characters because they are quite exaggerated characters, and their personalities are made very clear to the audience. Both Scott Pilgrim and Juno also share some similarities to the characters I'm developing for Deadline. Scott Pilgrim Scott Pilgrim is the main protagonist of comedy-comic book-style film Scott Pilgrim vs. The World . The film is based on the graphic novel of the same name and follows Scott battling off the 7 exes of Ramona Flowers to win her love. Scott's character is an awkward nerd-type but with unintentional wit. We can tell this physically because he wears t-shirts with references to arcade games. He also uses...

Scripting. Scripting for any screenplay is generally the same process, with some formatting changes. However, there are also 'rules' around how to write for short film. I want to improve on my writing skills, and to do so, I'll be researching script writing specifically for short film. Short films Screencraft points out that short films are the most important moment in a character's life. "These minutes, hours or days decide everything." [1] With short film, because you don't have long to put across your point, you have to really prioritise every action. That the character does, and everything they say. everything has to move the story on. They also mention, although it's obvious, that film is a visual medium. It can be easy to forget to make a script about what the audience will see, because as a writer you're focused on what will be read. However, showrunners are responsible for all of these aspects of production, so it works well to ...

Misfits. Misfits is a British Channel 4 programme that follows 5 young adults who are on probation together. A storm hits that gives them all special powers that they learn to deal with together. For the purpose of this post I'm focusing on season one, as the group of characters changes in different seasons.  Scripting The scripting of Misfits is informal, and we immediately know the personalities of the characters more from the script than their appearance or representation on screen. Simon is softly and well-spoken, but Kelly has a strong London accent that is occasionally hard to understand. This adds to their character because the audience is able to make assumptions about them based on what they hear from the characters. The audience assumes that Simon is introverted because he's quietly spoken, and we know Nathan has always been the 'joker' because he never takes anything seriously, making lewd jokes even when talking about the dead probation officer. Mi...

Showrunners. Showrunners, also known as executive producers, are considered to be involved in the writing, producing, and creative direction of a project. The showrunner is the chief creative voice behind the writing of the project. According to Business Insider, the showrunner protects the the show's creative vision. By this, they mean that the showrunner will be involved in every part of production to maintain the style of production. Business Insider's Jethro Nededog interviewed Remi Aubuchon, the showrunner for Playstation Network's Powers . "A showrunner has to advocate for the creative aspect of the show, and that's harder than it looks sometimes, especially when I have to sign the budget every week" ... "And the tendency, especially in the production world, is to want to simplify and go for the easiest and less expensive version of that, and my job is to actually say, 'No, no, no, I want it to be like this, and we need to figure out a way ...

Characters. Character development is an aspect of this project that I want to explore. Here are the 4 characters that I have created for Deadline, our zombie short film. Character Moodboards On the moodboards, I focused on particular colours that I felt conveyed their character more clearly. This visual representation of each person helps me to understand their personality in a deeper sense. Moreover, as I only have a short time within which to give the viewer an idea of the characters, the moodboards give me ideas of how to represent their character in a more visual way as opposed to using their speech to develop relationships with the audience. In relation to Deadline, I'll be focusing on physical traits to make the character relatable to the audience, such as costume, tattoos, piercings, hair (as much as possible), and physical quirks such as nervous ticks (i.e. biting nails). I'll be further developing this aspect of each character as the script is ...

Transition The Brief "This unit provides students with the opportunity to begin the process of focusing their own practice within a chosen production role and context, ready for the transition into their final year of study. Independent study, research and critical analysis will inform and underpin the project. Students are encouraged to focus on a chosen role (Writer, Producer, Director, Director of Photography or Editor) and a particular output (Drama, documentary, current affairs, entertainment or similar). Using an existing source of material (for example a Television drama series or a documentary) students will be asked to re-interpret an aspect of the work from the perspective of their chosen skillset." For this project, I will be focusing on the role of a showrunner- a role that combines the tasks of a producer and scriptwriter. I will be responsible for creating characters, a script, and producing a short film for a crew to then film 5 minutes of. Id...

Critical Reflection. For this project I was required to take on the role as producer. I had to create and produce a 30 minute as live television programme with the rest of the class. In this post, I will be reflecting on my role, how I fulfilled the role, what went well and what could have gone better. The show The show that I pitched is called Mission Control. It is a children's game show aimed towards 7-13 year olds and to be broadcast on CBBC. It consists of a presenter and a team of 4 who must work together to solve 4 tasks in order to repair the spaceship and fly it back home. The main goal with the show was to develop a highly stylised programme that fit within the broadcasting remit of CBBC. Pre production During the pre production, my role involved writing the script, delegating jobs, holding production meetings, and driving production forward.  What went well? The pre production stage was the most busy for me. I had to write the script, which took a long ti...

Commissioning Children's TV. Children's TV is commissioned differently to 'adult' TV as the requirements and regulations of the programmes are much different. This is in part to protect younger audiences from inappropriate content, but is also due to the unique style of children's TV and how much it varies from 'adult' TV. If Mission Control were to be commissioned, I pitched the programme to be broadcast on CBBC. This is because I felt it was unique enough to stand out among programmes that are on the channel, but is also exciting enough to fit in. For this reason, I will be using the BBC Children's Commissioning Guide for my information, as this is most relevant for Mission Control. They have different regulations for programmes that are aimed towards 0-6 year olds, and programmes aimed towards 6-16. For the purpose of relevance to Mission Control, I will be focusing on the guidelines for 6-16 year olds, as the target audience for Mission C...

Producing. With the role of Producer for this project, I'll have a lot of responsibility revolving around much of the project. My job is to oversee the project as a whole and to delegate jobs to other members of the team. I have control over the content, style, and contributors on the show. To get a better idea of what my role involves, I've researched into the role and reflected on how I filled the role. The Role of the Producer Project Development During the production development stage, I worked on building the programme into something that was interesting and unique but also manageable. I pitched the idea to a panel who ultimately chose my idea to create. I got my inspiration from an app game, SpaceTeam , which I began to develop into games that could be played by children. I considered the viability for the set design team to make the games, which changed my initial plans but eventually developed the programme into a more dynamic idea. My initial game plans ...