Your summer project contains compulsory and optional elements; everybody will be researching TV drama trailers, investigating their chosen drama genre, creating a TV drama concept, writing a first draft Statement of Intent and presenting this to class as an Ignite presentation in September. However, if you wish to also plan and film your production over the summer while you have time and actors available we would fully support you in this approach.
Summer project tasks
Complete the following tasks on a blogpost on your coursework blog called 'Summer Project: coursework planning':
1) Research: TV drama trailer analysis
You need to write detailed 250-word close-textual analyses of six TV drama trailers in your chosen genre. For each trailer, focus on a different aspect of media language, and embed each one on your blog:
TV drama trailer 1: Narrative and genre
How is narrative and genre communicated quickly and clearly to the audience?
TV drama trailer 2: Mise-en-scene
What do you notice about the use of mise-en-scene to create meanings for the audience? Think CLAMPS.
TV drama trailer 3: Camerawork
Here you are looking for particular camera shots and movement. E.g. Are close-ups used to introduce key characters to the audience? How are establishing shots used?
TV drama trailer 4: Editing
Analyse pace, transitions, number of shots and juxtaposition e.g. eyeline matches. Does the pace speed up towards the end of the trailer?
TV drama trailer 5: Sound
Analyse both diegetic and non-diegetic sound - music, dialogue, voiceover, SFX, background or foley sound etc.
TV drama trailer 6: Trailer conventions, graphics, text-on-screen etc.
Here you need to explore trailer conventions - what does this trailer have that you've spotted in all the trailers you have analysed so far? Look for things like text on screen, graphics, title, release date, social media links and more.
You can find a range of TV drama trailer examples in this blogpost.
2) Planning: TV drama concept
In order to produce a successful trailer, you will need to plan out the overall narrative arc for the whole season or series of your drama. This will include the number of episodes, the narrative conflict driving the main protagonist, episodic narratives and cliffhangers and more. This overall picture of the drama will inform both your TV trailer and culture magazine feature.
Complete this TV drama pitch template to plan these elements (you can copy the questions into your blog or complete on Word and link from your blog) to demonstrate you have planned a complete TV drama series in your chosen genre.
3) Statement of Intent
Write the first draft for your genuine 500-word Statement of Intent. This will be submitted to the exam board alongside your media products 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 questions to consider document too.
4) Ignite presentation
Prepare a 5-minute, 20-slide presentation using the Ignite format in which you present your coursework project. In effect, this is your statement of intent in presentation format. You must cover:
- Your TV drama concept: title, tagline, genre, narrative, character etc.
- Media language: how you will use conventions, camerawork, editing, mise-en-scene and sound to create an effective TV drama trailer.
- Media representations: how you will use or subvert stereotypes; representation theory.
- Media audiences: your target audience demographics and psychographics; audience pleasures; audience theory.
- Media industries and digital convergence: the potential companies or organisations that could produce or broadcast your TV drama; how your trailer will encourage audiences to discuss your new TV drama on social media.
Your Ignite presentation will be marked out of 30 on the following criteria (each worth a possible 5 marks):
1) Research (through presentation AND blog)
2) Concept
3) Language: terminology and theory
4) Representations
5) Audience and Industry
6) Delivery
You can find more information about Ignite presentations - including examples - in this Ignite presentation blogpost here.
Summer project deadline: all tasks above due in first week back in September
Summer project: optional extensions
Pre-production tasks
Some students have already expressed an interest in filming their TV drama trailers 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 read this Guardian feature on how to create a film trailer and then complete the following aspects of pre-production:
Script
Write a script for your TV drama trailer. There is some debate with regards to whether trailers have scripts (the script would obviously be for the full TV drama series) but you absolutely need to plan out every aspect of your production and a script seems the most logical way to do it. It may well be that your trailer script contains a lot of stage directions/description but there will be dialogue (and possibly voiceover) in there too. You'll find guidance for writing a script in the BBC Writers' Room (click on the Script Library to read real examples of professional TV drama scripts from recent BBC drama productions).
Storyboard
Sketch out a range of critical shots from your trailer, take a photo of the storyboard and upload it to your blogpost. What visual style are you trying to create? Storyboard sheets are available in DF07 or you can download and print out an AQA storyboard template from here.
Shot list
Write a shot list containing EVERY shot you plan to film for the trailer 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. It makes sense to organise your shot list by scene or location rather than a huge list of every shot in the trailer in chronological order.
Mise-en-scene
What iconography are you including to ensure your audience understands the genre you have chosen? 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 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 (both TV drama trailer and culture magazine). 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 in Year 13.
Production: Filming and photography
Once you have completed your pre-production tasks, you can film or carry out photoshoots as you wish.
Good luck!
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