Location Still

A home environment & a school setting :) real life childrens TV drama.

Questionaire Evaluation

From my questionaire i managed to gain information as to what my target age group are interested in within TV drama. In addition to this, i founf that the most popular childrens TV dramas at the moment are: Tracy Beaker and Doctor Who, from this information i can assess that children enjoy both fantasy and real life within their programmes of choice. Furthermore, i founf that the most popular genre in itself were Drama and Comedy, again a wide spectrum. Within an actual opening the favourite aspect was On Screen Action, helping me within my planning and the choices i am going to have to make in order to create my piece. As for favourite character and setting, Schools and 'human' characters were chosen as the favourite. Lastly, my target audience aged from 7-12 mainly prefer it when real life issues are presented within TV drama, again helping me within my planning.

21st September Planning- to be continued...

Today i decided to brainstorm further ideas for my childrens TV drama opening.
Ideas that i thought of were:

• Setting the drama within a school environment with a 'real life' theme.
• Creating a title sequence which is engaging to a younger audience and also longer than on-screen action.
• Making the plot relate strongly to real life issues.

Furthermore, i have decided to think about the sort of character that i would like to include in my opening- maybe a stereotypical character that is only seen for a second (elaborated further later). I would most probably only have one character shown- but with extras.

By making these decisions i am using themes/ideas that are present within other childrens TV drama's such as 'grange hill' and 'the demon headmaster'.

Film Noir

Within todays lesson we viewed a television extract on Film Noir. From doing this i have learned that genre is created through stylistic conventions such as lighting, narrative and structure. Also, about characterisation and how it is used to re-enforce conceptual ideas.

Here are some of the things i noticed within 'Film Noir':

• There is dark lighting, and on-screen action is always shot in black and white.
• Women are powerful within a sexual manner and men are through power and violence.
• There is always a dark storyline to be followed.
• Media culture has literary influences.
• Voice overs are used to connect charcter and audience.
• As are phychological messages and effects.
• From 'Film Noir' iconic music was founded.
• There is always a build up of suspence.
• Framing of character challenged conventions at the time.
• Artificial lighting was used.

Although i cannot directly use all of these factors within my Childrens Tv Drama opening i can develop a couple in order to make my piece original. For example:

• Using some artificial lighting.
• Framing characters in a different way- challenging conventions.
• Representing the way children live in a different way than the norm.

IDEA'S FOR OPENING (so far):

• A 'Grange Hill' type of opening but futurised/ modernised to present day.
• A horror theme e.g. Goosebumps.

Audience Research

Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods

The things i will need to discover in order to complete my audience research:

1. Gender of audience

Would help me decide whether i want to target my opening at one specific gender or to generalize it to both male and females.

2. Age

Aid me within which age to target my TV drama at, and which age group watches children's TV drama.

3. Which shows they watch/ have watched

Help me within my decisions about what to include within my opening.

4. Favorite/ most enjoyable and why

Most popular.

5. Favorite genre e.g. animated

Would also help me within my decision about what to include within my opening. 

6. In an opening what they enjoy the most e.g. music

Let me see which factor is the most important within an opening- what to focus the most attention on.

7. What type of story line do you enjoy most

Which genre is the most popular, and which sort of story line to focus on.

8. When watching a TV drama what would make you change channel

See what factors to avoid within my opening.

9. Preferred setting

Where to set my opening.

10. What type of character would you expect e.g student, talking animal

What characters to include.

11. What are your top 5 favorite children's TV dramas 

Which dramas are most popular, see if i want to subvert stereotypes. 

12. Do you prefer it when real life issues are shown within children's TV drama e.g. bullying

If any issues are to be included within my opening, see if it will include moral messages.

Through gathering data from these questions i will be able to advance my planning further and think of new ideas for my TV drama opening.

The Breakfast Club...

In order for me to start making desicions about my childrens TV drama introduction i need to take into account past childrens TV drama programmes and films.
I have used 'The Rat Pack' as it represents teenage girls in an expremely stereotypical way- much like many other children's TV dramas. This will also aid my understanding of how i will subvert key concepts.

THE BREAKFAST CLUB INFO- IMDB DATABASE

OFCOM

The issues within what can be presented in children's TV drama and how it can influence a young audience.

- The new broadcasting code

The new Ofcom broadcasting code was put into place to protect the 'under 18's' from offense or possible harm. Within my children's TV drama i will have to carefully take these rules into account.