Coursework: Preliminary exercise

1) State the genre you have chosen for your TV drama - family or crime drama.

Crime2) Choose at least three TV dramas similar to your concept and watch the trailer and one scene from each. Make bullet-point notes on everything you watch, commenting on camerawork, editing, sound and mise-en-scene.

Deception:

Handheld camera shots - reflect realism 

Montage sequence - typical convention of trailers ( fade to black)

Introduction to main characters and clearly distinguishable character types 

Female FBI agent - subvert traditional characters of secret agents as well as stereotypes of women being fragile and less intelligent than men 

Narrator ( Voice Over)- traditionally a movie convention so it’s unique for a trailer to use it 

Clearly established hybrid genre of crime, comedy and drama- with quick remarks from main protagonist (The illusionist)

Uses clips/ scenes from actual drama to create the trailer- helps build intrigue with the enigma 

Established colour scheme of black, red and gold- magic related colours 

We see narrative strands that blend together 

significantly longer length than conventional trailers 

Stunts - reflect main themes (magic and illusion) of the series 

Captions appear towards the end of the trailer- perhaps to build and inform audiences more about the show 

Editing- pace picks up as captions are introduced , as well as action 

Character relationships introduced 

Character personalities introduced 

Breaking bad:

• Lighting and mise-en-scene reflect the lifestyle of protagonist - dark lighting and typical home setting suggest he has a normal life
• Hand held camera- reflects raw home life and suggests how this series is based on a single characters life events 
• Caption design (editing) hint to the main theme of the series
•  Wide shots and establishing shots- show the lifestyle and comfort of the protagonist 
• Simple sentences for the captions- easy to understand and and read 
• Montage sequence- conventional 
• Disequilibrium shown in the middle of the trailer- balance 
• Mise-en-scene and lighting shows change in character 
• Fast paced editing and straight cuts to show the impact of the drug lifestyle
• Zoom out from gun shot - enigma - Who is he shooting at ? 
• Shots from past life to present life-contrast 
• Music in the background intensifies as the disequilibrium takes place-editing matches with the pace of the music 
• End credits show up at the end 

Peaky blinders:

• Slow paced editing/ scenes at the start- establish setting and characters 
• Dark lighting- dull and gloomy lifestyles and character backgrounds
• Closeups of documents- link to character identities 
• Closeup of money- theme of series 
• Props - miseenscene- hat has a significance- macguffin? 
• Birds eye view shots - secrecy  
• Music intensifies as plot intensifies 
• Extreme closeups - character expressions
• Closeups of protagonist face- show his character type 
• Period drama - costume and setting effectively reflect post war 
• Dark colour scheme- darkness within the series ? 
• Fire is heavily shown
• Music-matches pace of editing towards the end 
• End credits shown right at the end - convention 

3) Write a script for your TV drama scene. 

Mid day afternoon in an underground alleyway. CHLOE and MIA walk up to LUCIFER who is doing some card tricks. Both attentions are caught with a flashy cardistry move. The pair approach LUCIFER. The familiar sound of passing cars are heard in the background.

MIA

Hey, can we see a trick?

LUCIFER

Yeah sure. Why not? Okay, let’s start, would you like to shuffle the deck or do you trust me enough to shuffle it?

MIA

I’m no good with shuffling, let Chloe shuffle it.

[LUCIFER hands the deck over to CHLOE who gives it a few cuts] [CHLOE then hands the deck back over]

LUCIFER

Okay, let’s take the first card of the deck. [Double lift to reveal the second card] [Flips it back over] Chloe what card is this? 

CHLOE

The ‘whatever the double lifted card is’ 

[LUCIFER points at MIA]

MIA

Mia.

LUCIFER

Can you bring out your hand and hold onto the ‘repeat the double lifted card’. Now Chloe,can you hold onto the rest of the deck?

CHLOE

Yeah. [takes out a palm and LUCIFER places the rest of the deck on her palm]

LUCIFER

Just to make sure I get nowhere near those cards [V grip on CHLOE’s phone in pocket] put your other hand on top and squeeze tightly and I want you to go a few steps away.

CHLOE

[Takes a few quick steps back while her phone slips out of her  pocket] Is this far enough?

[LUCIFER quickly pockets the phone]{LUCIFER then clicks on top of the card]

LUCIFER

And it’s done.

MIA & CHLOE

What’s done?

LUCIFER

The trick. Mia, slowly take away your hand and flip over the card. [She does as told and is shocked to see a different card on her hand]

MIA

What… Just… Happened…? [Confused look]

Now Chloe can you slowly lift your palm and show us the top card of the deck that I have not touched since giving it to you. [CHLOE also does as told to see the original card now sitting at the top of the deck]

CHLOE

I had this is my hands the whole time though [confused look]

{the two parties part ways and LUCIFER waves the phone around behind their back]

4) Write a shot list containing EVERY shot you plan to film 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.

Shot Number	Shot	Filmed?	Used?
1	Mid shot of cardistry flourish	Yes	No
2	Long shot of the 2 girls walking down	Yes	Yes
3	Over the shoulder when Mia asks to see a trick	Yes	Yes
4	Close up of Chloe shuffling the cards	Yes	Yes
5	Mid shot of the first part of the trick	Yes	Yes
6	Mid shot of passing the deck over to Chloe and moving her out of the way	Yes	Yes
7	Close up of Lucifer’s hand in Chloe’s pocket	Yes	Yes
8	Close up of the phone slipping out and Lucifer pocketing it	Yes	Yes
9	Tracking shot of Chloe walking her few steps away	Yes	Yes
10	Close up of the click on top of the cards	Yes	Yes
11	Mid shot of Mia reaction	Yes	Yes
12	Zoom out reaction of both Mia and Chloe	Yes	Yes
13	Long shot of Lucifer walking away with the phone in his hand.	Yes	No

5) Plan your mise-en-scene: what iconography are you including to ensure your audience understands the genre? Plan your cast, costume, make-up, props, lighting and setting. For this preliminary task, use just one location to keep it simple.

The use of colour reflects the type of person each character is. With characters like lucifer wearing all black to show that sense of mystery and with Chloe and Mia wearing coloured clothing allows a more vibrant and cheerful vibe coming from them

Lucifer looks a bit like the matrix, not intentional but gives it a nice ‘cool’ vibe to it

Deck of cards is key as it is the initial trigger to the entire encounter to lead to the actions
that were taken place 

The setting is in Northolt inside one of the underpasses. This gives it a raw feeling and the setting defines the type of areas the character Lucifer likes to stay in to find easy targets to pick pocket.

6) Plan a shooting schedule that will ensure everything is filmed by the deadline

All shots within the shot list are filmed in Northolt underpass and will be filmed on the 10th October 2019 

Will have Daisy Roscoe and Tamzin Martin starring , alongside Eric Wong