Summer project tasks

 1) Research: Fantasy TV drama extracts

Watch the following fantasy TV drama clips and write an NCIS analysis of each one.

Clip 1: His Dark Materials

Narrative and genre: What is the story here? How is the narrative communicated to the audience? How does this fit the fantasy genre? 

The story is about a girl called lyra who is destined to liberate the world from the magisterium  who use magic to cause problems for different people.

In his dark materials the  narrative  is communicated between different characters and bring up events and characters which  have affected  the world through its/there  actions.

This show fantasy genre with it including magic and and exploring the idea of parallel worlds.

  

Technical codes: What camera shots do you notice and what do they communicate to the audience? How is sound used to create atmosphere? What aspects of mise-en-scene (CLAMPS) help to communicate meaning to the audience? 

 the close up shot in this scene is very useful as we  are  able to see the emotion in a characters   face. sound helps you picture and feel the emotional tone of the scene.  the costume they are wearing allows you to be able to identify  what type character they and you are able to guess there  personality.

Representations: What representations can you find in this clip - does it reinforce or subvert stereotypes? How? 

   the gender respiration is subverted as  women is the one who is chasing more power  than  the male well this coming a more popular troupe its still less frequent than within male characters.

Clip 2: Charmed

Narrative and genre: What is the story here? How is the narrative communicated to the audience? How does this fit the fantasy genre?  

In this clip we see  a girl talking to a doctor about demons.

The narrative is explained  by mc (main character)  which is good so we have context within the clip.

this fantasy genre this tackles otherworldly topics  such as demons.

Technical codes: What camera shots do you notice and what do they communicate to the audience? How is sound used to create atmosphere? What aspects of mise-en-scene (CLAMPS) help to communicate meaning to the audience? what really stood out to me was the pan to all the bodies  on the floor after the demon attacked this really allowed us to see the destruction caused by the demon.

Representations: What representations can you find in this clip - does it reinforce or subvert stereotypes? How?  In  this clip was able to find 

Clip 3: Shadow and Bone

Narrative and genre: What is the story here? How is the narrative communicated to the audience? How does this fit the fantasy genre? 

 The story is about a girl who claims to be a map maker but is something called a sun summoner a being which can bend light and take power from the sun.  

Everything is explained to the audience through dialogue and through different character interactions.

this fits the fantasy genre as the main character has  other worldly ability to ben light and the sun which is one of the main troupes of fantasy genre being things that are unachievable in the real world as e.g. magic.

Technical codes: What camera shots do you notice and what do they communicate to the audience? How is sound used to create atmosphere? What aspects of mise-en-scene (CLAMPS) help to communicate meaning to the audience?

there are two shots that I really like in this clip which is the close up shot and a over the shoulder shot: close up or should I say extreme close up shot is  a great which is used which allows us to see the emphasis's of this thing which  is forbidden and what's also good about this shot  is that its followed up by a pan of everyone's reaction and the massive beam of  light  this show us the scale of how this will effect the world.  the part of miss en scene that sticks out to me  is  costume from the costume i was easily able to tell what type fantasy  show we were in without knowing the plot or what's going on

Representations: What representations can you find in this clip - does it reinforce or subvert stereotypes? How?

 shadow and bone  subverts the stereotype of having a male lead and has a female lead and yes  I know having a female lead is becoming more popular with more shows e.g. his dark materials and the new season of doctor who which has a female lead but the amount of male leads out ways the male lead by a landslide. so this subverts stereotypes 

Additional research: optional extension

Depending on your coursework plan and the type of TV drama sequence you wish to create, you may want to research additional TV drama extracts. Focus on the fantasy genre of TV drama - this article on the best 10 fantasy TV shows may be useful. 

Whatever you watch, make sure you write some additional notes or bullet points about these fantasy TV dramas on your blog so you are documenting your research.

2) TV drama planning 

Plan out the title and narrative for your new, original fantasy TV drama so you know how your extract will fit into the overall series.

Complete this TV drama pitch document with your NEW original idea for a fantasy TV drama aimed at a family audience. Copy and paste the questions from the Google doc into your blog. 

Title: The other side

Logline – one sentence that sums up the plot of your TV drama and hooks people in (25 words or fewer): Insane alchemist causes worlds to eventually collide now up to two friends to figure out  why its happening and fix it.

Other successful TV dramas are similar to yours:  Fringe, his dark materials.

 

Narrative – what is the main storyline in your TV drama: 

There are two parallel universes near enough identical to each other.  One day alchemist  did a experiment with the intention to open a gateway to another universe when  something went wrong in the experiment causing the two planets  to eventually  collide.  a alchemist  came  to realise that these two planets would merge into one planet causing the worlds inhabitants to have duplicates  of themselves  and live amongst each other. 20 Years later two best friends  were    outside going to buy  something from the shop   when the friends leaves to go to the shop when the alternate version of  the the friends from the parallel universe arrives confuse why there are people   who look exactly  them the two  come to conclusion that these two are duplicates. confused by this the two try figure out why this happened triggering  a crazy adventure.

 

Genre – how will your TV drama fit the fantasy genre?

 This will  fit the fantasy genre due to having parallel worlds  and   have magic and alchemists.

 

Narrative disruption – what will happen in your scene to develop the narrative? What will the audience learn about the characters or story?

 In my scene  my characters will go on to discover there  duplicates.

Information about the two locations/settings that you are using and why you have chosen them:  kitchen (sicentist lab) street corner

 

Information about the main character e.g character type (hero/heroine) their desires, the conflicts they encounter etc.:

 The main characters are hero's who  are tying to  figure out what's going on  with the duplicates and how to fix it.

 

Costume/props that you require for filming: 

phone.

 

How you are aiming your product at the specified family target audience: 

I think that it being a fantasy genre and it deriving from something which is not real makes it family friendly since it using fun concepts such as parallel  worlds and alchemist

3) Statement of Intent

On the same Summer Project blogpost, write the rough first draft of your genuine 300-word Statement of Intent for the two-minute sequence you plan to create. The final draft of this document will be submitted to the exam board alongside your fantasy TV drama extract 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 suggested content document too. 

Statement of intent:

My fantasy tv drama is called The Other Side. Broadcast will be on Prime, audience targeted at families. My two-minute tv drama brief takes place at the beginning of the first episode of my series. Introduction will be two minutes long and summarises my drama as an insane alchemist causing worlds to eventually collide and it is up to two friends to figure out why it’s happening and fix it. 

The narrative disruption of my fantasy tv drama will be alchemist realisation, two worlds end up colliding. Through this, the audience will learn how it affects the world and characters within.  

In my fantasy tv drama there are 3 shots I would like to use, over the shoulder shot; I will be able to show dialogue from a different perspective, Pov shot to show what a character sees and last is medium shot for dialogue. I think costumes will be a good way to display differences between the two worlds as they are different earths, similar but not the same. The actors would be the same in both worlds but wearing different eras of clothes. Last would be the setting, again similar in both worlds. For non-diegetic sound I’ll include foley background noise and diegetic sound with music. 

The other side will challenge subvert stereotypes such as representations of the roles of characters, example the alchemist is female which subverts the idea of the crazy scientist or alchemist being male another subversion is of the race and ethnicity of the main leads being from black an Indian heritage. 

The other side is meant for family audience, mid teenagers to adults and mainly suited to fit mainstream families. Shows like my own are Fringe as it also fits the unrealistic type of scenario making it easier for family audiences to watch. 

Summer project deadline: all tasks above due in the second lesson back in September.

Summer project: optional extensions

Pre-production tasks

Some students have already expressed an interest in filming their TV drama over the summer break. This makes a huge amount of sense - far more availability of actors, much more time to schedule filming etc. However, if you want to do this, you need to complete the following aspects of pre-production and make sure you have parental permission to do this:

Script

Write a script for your TV drama extract. You'll find guidance and professional examples of TV  drama scripts on the BBC Writers' Room website.

Shot list

Write a shot list containing EVERY shot you plan to film for your drama scene AND additional shots to create flexibility when editing. These additional shots are often close-ups, cutaways, alternative angles or similar. I advise using a simple table on Microsoft Word to set out your shot list - you can find an example here for a student film shot list. It makes sense to write your shot list by scene or location rather than a huge list of every shot in the extract in chronological order. 

Mise-en-scene

What iconography or mise-en-scene are you including to ensure your audience understands the genre and narrative of your TV drama? Plan your cast, costume, make-up, props, lighting and setting. This can be simply completed using your blog or Microsoft Word - the key aspect is to have planned all the critical details. 

Shooting schedule 

Plan a shooting schedule for your filming over the summer. Include when, where, who is required and what shots you will complete at each time/location. Again, this can be on Google Docs / Word or Excel or you could simply use your blog. The most important thing is that you've planned it!

Non-assessed participants

You will need to provide a written record of all non-assessed participants in your production work. Keep a record of everyone involved - actors, camerawork, sound etc. You will also need a keep a record of any non-original sound you used and note it on the Candidate Record Form. Keep these on your blog for easy reference when submitting your work later this year.

Production: Filming 

Once you have completed your pre-production tasks, you can film as planned. If you are unable to film over the summer, we will have time to film this production in September.