Why is British TV Drama popular?

British TV Drama continues to attract large viewing audiences- many of which watch programmes as a one-off at peak-time broadcasts: this provides evidence that we are not consuming all of our media, and that we are instead turning to YouTube or other online services for all of our media.
British Dramas such as Coronation Street and Lewis attracted audiences in excess of 12 Million viewers, with programmes such as Call the Midwife attrracting 8.71 Million viewers. Call the Midwife is a BBC period drama set in East London that has been shown from 2012 to the present. A medical drama in a series of episodes, the programme is one of the most popular nationwide.
I think TV Drama is popular for a number of reasons- firstly, people may be able to relate to certain incidents recreated in the programmes, although they are often over-dramaticsed, or just find them exciting or entertaining. The programmes may form some kind of distraction from other activities and become part of a daily routine for many people nationwide.

Evaluation - Question 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Evaluation - Question 3 (Draft)

Evaluation - Question 2 - Draft

How does your Media Product represent particular social groups?

http://prezi.com/sbi1ael9wkqg/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Evaluation - Question 4

Who Would Be The Audience for your Media Product?

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Evaluation - Question 1 (Updated)

In what ways does your Media Product use, develop or challenge forms + conventions of Real Media Products?

http://padlet.com/wall/rm32gw7h3n

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Thriller Opening Sequence - Final Cut - "The Case of Charlotte Adams"

This is the Final Cut of our groups' Thriller's opening sequence, "The Case of Charlotte Adams". For the changes we made to the sequence and why, see here.

Joe, Beth, Ellie and Bethany.

Changes from the Rough Cut to the Final Cut

After the rough screening of our Thriller Opening Sequence we constructed a questionnaire for audience feedback, which entailed:

• Gender and Age
• Opinions on Thrillers?
• How do you view Thrillers?
• Was the Soundtrack effective? If not, why?
• Did the opening sequence appeal to you and make you want to watch the movie further?
• Were the titles used effectively?
• Could you spot any continuity errors, if so where?
• Any improvements?

We gave the questionnaire to each member of each group in the class and gained valuable feedback in each area. The class all fall under our Target audience which the first question highlights, and so hopefully, for the Evaluation's sake, we would have wholly positive feedback with a few minor improvements, which we received. The majority of the class gave feedback with no improvements to make other than fine-tuning certain aspects, such as the Soundtrack, and making the last scene flow more. We found the audience were intrigued by the opening and would watch it more, but a few said that having the title at the end makes it seem like a trailer, and we should instead place it over an image.

With this feedback, we proceeded to change a few aspects of our thriller to the final cut. First, we moved the title text and transition at the end ("The Case of Charlotte Adams") so it appeared over the last shot of the Detective looking around the room with the notes on it. This also helped to create a link between what was in the room and the title, i.e. the Case, so the editing allowed for the meaning to be slightly more apparent to the audience. We then edited the final scene of the forest/chase segment, where the Detective is spinning. Our feedback and personal judgement resulted in us concluding the shot was too blurry and went on for too long to be effective, so instead we replicated the shot where he spins at first, with the two shades standing in a semi circle in front of him, and reversed it, so he spins one way and then spins back. Ellie added a transition here that resulted in the Shades being strecthed and distorted, to make them appear like entities. This could be considered similar to in our inspiration films, Shutter Island and Seven, where characters are envisioned and their appearances are distorted (i.e. the children in Shutter Island at the Concentration Camp), and also similar to the Dementors from Harry Potter that I mentioned in the character profile. Not only did this cut the overall time of the sequence by several seconds, it made it flow more and become more conventional.

My attention then turned to the Soundtrack. Beth and Ellie went into the Soundproof room to record a gasping sound effect for when the Detective wakes up (with the help of a member of another group, as it had to be a male) whilst I fine-tuned the Soundtrack around the action. This invovled getting the timings of the loud crashes to exactly match the Shades appearances in both the Street section (First Encounter) and then in the field (Final Encounter). I also made the section where the faster pace kicks in, after the Ribbon is picked up, much quieter. Not only does this emphasise the difference when the Shade appears, it builds suspense as the kicks in the pattern are subtle enough to be almost like a heartbeat, and adds to the dramatic effect of the sequence. I changed the tempo of various sections to ensure that timings were correct and also adjusted volume levels of small layers of the soundtrack, such as the piano note when the Ribbon is picked up. We then added the gasp effect in Final Cut, as after several attemps in Audacity, even though it was at the correct timing, the exported version had the gasp in an entirely different location. In Final Cut, we then reduced the volume to make it more realistic and sound as if the character is more startled rather than completely exaggerated and fake.

This was all we had to correct to reach a completed version that we were happy with, and as a group are very happy with the outcome.

Approaching the Evaluation - Methods of Presentation

In today's lesson we started looking at the Evaluation process and how to approach each of the Evaluation questions. There are seven questions to be answered in total, and I intend to answer each of them through a different media. The questions are:

- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

At first I considered doing a podcast or commentary to do this question, but I feel a form of media such as Padlet would be effective to build a "Wall" on all the different aspects this question involves, such as the impact of research, and how different parts of my thriller adhere to different conventions, i.e. location, costumes, narrative and so on.

- How does your media product represent particular social groups?

For this question I feel a visual method such as Prezi would be suitable, as here I could separate individual groups, Young Adults and Young Girls in the instance of my thriller and discuss stereotypes used, costumes, and why I chose that with reference to other thriller films. Alternatively I could use SlideShare to produce a presentation on this.

- What kind of media institutions might distribute my media product and why?
This question is relatively short compared to the others with a lack of extensive material to discuss - who distributes thrillers, who I would like to distribute thrillers, where it could be distributed, and why - for this reason I thought a suitable medium would be Gliffy or similar software to create a flowchart to show how decisions influence another and so on to explain my choices.

- Who is my Audience for my Thriller?

For this question I need to focus on who my audience is with reference to my previously conducted Audience Research during the planning phase - the age range, their interests, why it relates to thrillers, and so on. I could discuss this question in a directors commentary or use another simple method of presentation to create a poster on who my audience is. I feel this would be more suitable as there would be more to discuss in the next question, how I attracted my audience.

- How did I attract my audience?

In this question I would discuss with reference to my thriller and research examples of things I included from my research in my thriller. I feel the best method to present this would be an edited video or commentary, where I can make a point and then back it up with screenshots from existing thrillers and my own thriller. 

- What have I learnt about technologies from the process of Constructing the Thriller?

This question will entail me focusing on different softwares and equipment that I have used in the production of the thriller - I can discuss Final Cut, Audacity, the equipment itself in the filming process and so on, and how I learned to use these technologies.  One way of presenting this answer could be through a podcast or voiceover, of myself discussing the advances I have made and the influence of technology on producing media products, yet I could use screenshots or other images to show myself working on the software itself, such as in Audacity and Final Cut. Alternatively therefore I could use a presentation software such as AuthorStream or EverNote.

- Looking back at the Pre-liminary task, what progression have I made to end up producing my Thriller?

In this question I will answer how I avoided making similar mistakes to in my pre-liminary task, with anything including continuity, soundtrack, characters and so on, as well as editing and the improvements made to my knowledge of the techniques. As with the previous question I could do a podcast or commentary to highlight my use of better planning, storyboarding, decision making, creativity, and production, or use software such as Word It Out / Wordle to produce a concept map highlight each area of progression.