Through the creation of my screenplay, I believe I was able to fulfil all of the requirements put forward by the client brief, whilst still being able to tell a short and complete story which is able to hook viewers in to a wider series. Firstly, the brief specified that I must write a “short dramatised sequence” to be used as the promotional extract. To do this I analysed the common conventions of TV dramas, specifically detective dramas which I selected as a sub-genre, as it is the genre I enjoy the most and what I believed would be the most interesting to write. In order to conform to this genre, I wrote a story about crime which focused on the opposition and battle between an archetypal detective and criminal character, telling the story through the finding and analysing of clues , as well as through making deductions at the same time as the audience does. Similar to other tv dramas, the stories are driven by conflict, and so the extract focuses on the small-scale conflict of solving one crime, while building the large scale conflict of the growing tensions between Flynn and Dawson, which will build through the episodes, keeping audiences who watch all of the episodes intrigued. Since this is an early extract in the show, the extract lies in Todorov’s stage of the equilibrium, establishing the characters status quo which would change and evolve as the show continued to develop. However, this extract still lies hints for later stages by revealing how characters have become tired or strained by the equilibrium, showing how things are soon to change and revealing some of the characters deeper thoughts and feelings. At this point in the story, we see two of the main characters at different points in their arcs, witch Flynn not yet having begun his growth arc, still fully consumed by his work to the point of shamelessness and neglecting himself the moment his work isn’t going perfectly, whereas Dawson has already gone slightly along his fall arc, becoming more irritable and displeased by his work with Flynn.
In order to follow the brief, I also needed to make sure that the extract could be used to promote the full TV drama. In order to do this I made sure that the extract fit in with the tone and themes of the full drama, interspersing exaggerated detective work with realistic personal conflicts and seeing how overworking and obsession is able to hurt people. I also made sure that the conflict between Flynn and Dawson later in the show is already being set up, and that people can be hooked in by the established nemesis relationship between Flynn and the conductor, which establishes the idea of further crimes and mysteries to be solved in the wider show. In order to use this as marketing I also considered the legal issues which come from making this show, making sure to keep the show within television age guidelines, and making sure nothing in the show was too similar to real people or other media properties, so that there is no defamation or copyright infringement present.
In order to gain interest from my target audience of 15-21 year olds I chose to focus on slightly more mature themes of crime as well as using more morally grey characters than younger children's media, whilst still remaining suitable and entertaining for slightly younger audiences. I chose to focus on a niche audience through my focus on detective stories and rapid and detailed style of storytelling, as I believe our best business model is to try and build a small and invested audience than a larger but more diluted one. I also tried to do this through the use of the historical setting, which chooses to deviate from the more popular idea of using the modern day for the sake of style and tone, which I believe that a niche fan base would appreciate. In terms of the uses and gratifications theory I am choosing to focus on two sectors, focusing on escapism due to the extravagant world and focus on outlandish situations and slapstick comedy, as well as focusing on personal relationships through the more relatable and complex characters which occupy this world and drive the narrative forwards.
Finally, the brief specified that the duration of the extract had to be between 10-15 minutes of screen time. In order to do this, I made sure that the screenplay fit within all industry technical standards, using left aligned 12 point for all writing. Using this, every page of the script lines up to roughly 1 minute of screen time. Through this I was able to make sure that my amount of pages stayed within this range, with me ending up with 12 pages which roughly translates to 12 minutes of screen time, fitting within the range which I was instructed to fall within.
Throughout the production of my script, I received multiple pieces of verbal live feedback, pointing out changes to make whilst reading through the script, which I tried to incorporate into my continuing production. The main price of feedback that I received was that I needed to make sure that each stage of my mystery was deduced by the characters using objective and physical evidence, both so that the mystery can be solved by the audience along with the characters, as well as not making it seem like the characters are able to magically know everything. Through this feedback, I was able to go through my entire script and find the moments of deduction, and then go back to make sure that each moment was preceded by gathering enough evidence for the audience to also figure out what’s going on. When making my script, I feel that one of my greatest strengths was the ability to write in an entertaining and engaging way, as I believe that I was able to fit a lot into my script, without it ever feeling overwhelming, as well as me being able to keep the audience engaged by the entertaining characters and plot throughout. However, I believe that my greatest weakness in this project was time management, as I constantly seemed to be rushing to finish the script. If I ever write a screenplay again, I will try to Allow myself more time to write, so that I won’t ever have to rush in order to meet a deadline.
Despite this, I still am sure that I was able to fully fit the brief that I was given, being able to Create a short extract which advertises the series on a wider scale, whilst also being able to serve as a standalone promotional short film. When I return to this tv show idea, in order to create marketing materials, I will use this script as a guideline for how I want the tone and style of the show to be, and which sections and scenes of the show I will wish to advertise.
