Evaluation
For my sequence I decided to make a typical crime drama for ITV which targeted young adults. The unique selling point to my piece was about how the audience is positioned with the serial killer and how you see her committing the crimes. Combined with this the audience doesn’t detest her even though she is the ‘villain’, instead they feel empathy for her, understanding her motives to kill.
I aimed to do this by creating a backstory behind the character following the idea that her mum, who had mental issues, was struggling to cope with these issues which resulted in her death. After her death the main character: Tanya, finds it difficult to process what has happened and is in denial about what ‘really’ happened – the audience doesn’t find out what did happen, however everyone around Tanya (the audience’s point of view) tell Tanya that she’s the crazy one for misunderstanding. Tanya thinks everyone else is in the wrong as they drove her mother to her death, whereas they all tell Tanya that her mum killed herself.
In terms of this narrative I think I was able to effectively portray a sense of what was happening through the dialogue and when receiving feedback from others they also were able to follow along. As well as this there was a link between some of the things that happened to her mum (which is heard through the dialogue) such as hearing voices and the audience or Tanya who also hears repetitive voices which is seen in the therapy scene; this links the relationship between mother and daughter together as she is experiencing what her mother did, but you don’t know if her reality is real or not.
I wanted Tanya to be seen as a powerful psychotic female who refuses to listen to other because she knows the truth, this entire mindset is what leads to her killings. She can kill anyone in her path no matter how close they are to her eg her childhood friend, Sophie. I think I was somewhat able to portray this by Sophie being pushed into the river, inferring that she drowns or injures herself, however the audience does not see this (match on action). This factor almost weakens her actions because you’re not shocked to see the sudden push as you don’t see an pain from the victim or there are no shown consequences or aftermath, therefore not impacting the audience as much. For the main character I wanted her actions, body language and dialogue to be angry, over the top and accusative to really capture her emotions taking over, however due to being in a public place I didn’t think this was appropriate. As well as this the actors weren’t able understand their emotions fully as they almost weren’t fully developed or clear in the script – why did she push her in? What did she do?
Similarly, I originally wish to create a hybrid between crime drama and horror as there was going to to be graphic, death scenes filled with iconography of blood and a murder weapon etc. This would build on the characteristics of Tanya being a psycho as the gruesome picture and scenes would paint the picture of someone who is heartless and does not care for the victim, as Tanya only cares about her mother.
One big factor that limited my creative process was the difficulties I had with my settings/locations as I had to find new locations meaning I redid storyboards, scripts etc. The main ideas behind my setting was that I wanted something familiar to the audience, somewhere everyone has been. Originally, I wanted to film on the guided busway because it’s both a busy area as well as a deserted area. However, I concluded that it may not be the safest of area to film, plus we’d have to take the camera gear there and the actual filming may take up the entire pathway which isn’t good for the public. I then decided that I wanted to film at a park, somewhere that can be filled with life with children playing and laughing and then slowly die out to an abandoned set of equipment. I was set on filming at a park because I enjoyed the idea of something horrific (a murder) happening in a place usually filled with joy – the contrast would build on the disruption to a normal equilibrium.
In the end my main setting was an opening which overlooked the River Cam, which overall looked aesthetically pleasing and set the scene of the city Cambridge. A weakness to this was how the sun was behind the characters which meant that their faces weren’t clear or bright and I wasn’t able to film from behind/ the other side as there was a river in the way. I was able to change the colouration, saturation and brightness post-production but some areas were over exposed etc making it difficult for a finished look. I wanted it to look naturalistic but have a warmth to the piece as the emotions were building – this would subvert typical crime drama aesthetics which are cold with blues, greys and whites. The lighting also changed as we continued to film which again had to be edited to be more fluid.
One key factor that really tied the piece together was the music which allowed the audience to understand when emotions were rising or getting heated (which may not be clear through the acting or dialogue). I think this is what made the ending of the push more impactful as there is the build in the music and then the final high pitched drop as you see the ripples in the water.
The audio in my piece did slightly mess up meaning I had to boost a lot of audio clips as they were to quite, however this meant that the background noise also could be heard. There were times when you could hear the boom mic moving, static or cars in the background, which sure could set the scene, however it also wasn’t consistent in the clips which may be distracting for the audience. Fortunately, a lot of this was covered by the soundtrack over the top but it still can be heard in some places.
Next time if I did this again I would make sure to stress a focus on my script writing and what I clearly wanted. By doing this I feel like I would aim to achieve that goal, whereas this time I had vague ideas of the whole concept but how I was going to portray it was blurred. I would want to build on the character development of someone psychotic and angered with more explicit and shocking death scenes. Instead of the piece being dialogue heavy to portray the narrative I would want to visually present the ideas as well as presenting more about the main characters emotions. Audiences need to sympathise with her therefore there needs to even be scenes of her mother or showing an emotionally weak side to contrast against the heartless murders.
I was able to create a psychology drama which builds on the emotions of the characters and what they’re going through effectively.
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I think both my front cover and double-page spread effectively reflected that of a lifestyle magazine. This is because both the main images and coverlines lines reflected the sort of magazine I was going for by presenting fashion, beauty as well as TV show and films (Ocean8 and Killing Eve). These coverlines target my audience of females well as it is female orientated and covers topics that they may be interested in. The double-page spread includes photoshoot images as well as a behind the scenes photo, which can make the audience feel more connected to the actor and the making of the show.
To improve my print texts I would have had brighter lights when taking the photo for the front cover as the actresses arm covers her face darkening that area. Again, I was able to edit this in Photoshop however there are overly-constrasted areas to the right of the face which are blasted out.
Another thing I may change is the arrangement of text as I'd want to write more about the show at the beginning to set the concept for new audiences.
I aimed to do this by creating a backstory behind the character following the idea that her mum, who had mental issues, was struggling to cope with these issues which resulted in her death. After her death the main character: Tanya, finds it difficult to process what has happened and is in denial about what ‘really’ happened – the audience doesn’t find out what did happen, however everyone around Tanya (the audience’s point of view) tell Tanya that she’s the crazy one for misunderstanding. Tanya thinks everyone else is in the wrong as they drove her mother to her death, whereas they all tell Tanya that her mum killed herself.
In terms of this narrative I think I was able to effectively portray a sense of what was happening through the dialogue and when receiving feedback from others they also were able to follow along. As well as this there was a link between some of the things that happened to her mum (which is heard through the dialogue) such as hearing voices and the audience or Tanya who also hears repetitive voices which is seen in the therapy scene; this links the relationship between mother and daughter together as she is experiencing what her mother did, but you don’t know if her reality is real or not.
I wanted Tanya to be seen as a powerful psychotic female who refuses to listen to other because she knows the truth, this entire mindset is what leads to her killings. She can kill anyone in her path no matter how close they are to her eg her childhood friend, Sophie. I think I was somewhat able to portray this by Sophie being pushed into the river, inferring that she drowns or injures herself, however the audience does not see this (match on action). This factor almost weakens her actions because you’re not shocked to see the sudden push as you don’t see an pain from the victim or there are no shown consequences or aftermath, therefore not impacting the audience as much. For the main character I wanted her actions, body language and dialogue to be angry, over the top and accusative to really capture her emotions taking over, however due to being in a public place I didn’t think this was appropriate. As well as this the actors weren’t able understand their emotions fully as they almost weren’t fully developed or clear in the script – why did she push her in? What did she do?
Similarly, I originally wish to create a hybrid between crime drama and horror as there was going to to be graphic, death scenes filled with iconography of blood and a murder weapon etc. This would build on the characteristics of Tanya being a psycho as the gruesome picture and scenes would paint the picture of someone who is heartless and does not care for the victim, as Tanya only cares about her mother.
One big factor that limited my creative process was the difficulties I had with my settings/locations as I had to find new locations meaning I redid storyboards, scripts etc. The main ideas behind my setting was that I wanted something familiar to the audience, somewhere everyone has been. Originally, I wanted to film on the guided busway because it’s both a busy area as well as a deserted area. However, I concluded that it may not be the safest of area to film, plus we’d have to take the camera gear there and the actual filming may take up the entire pathway which isn’t good for the public. I then decided that I wanted to film at a park, somewhere that can be filled with life with children playing and laughing and then slowly die out to an abandoned set of equipment. I was set on filming at a park because I enjoyed the idea of something horrific (a murder) happening in a place usually filled with joy – the contrast would build on the disruption to a normal equilibrium.
In the end my main setting was an opening which overlooked the River Cam, which overall looked aesthetically pleasing and set the scene of the city Cambridge. A weakness to this was how the sun was behind the characters which meant that their faces weren’t clear or bright and I wasn’t able to film from behind/ the other side as there was a river in the way. I was able to change the colouration, saturation and brightness post-production but some areas were over exposed etc making it difficult for a finished look. I wanted it to look naturalistic but have a warmth to the piece as the emotions were building – this would subvert typical crime drama aesthetics which are cold with blues, greys and whites. The lighting also changed as we continued to film which again had to be edited to be more fluid.
One key factor that really tied the piece together was the music which allowed the audience to understand when emotions were rising or getting heated (which may not be clear through the acting or dialogue). I think this is what made the ending of the push more impactful as there is the build in the music and then the final high pitched drop as you see the ripples in the water.
The audio in my piece did slightly mess up meaning I had to boost a lot of audio clips as they were to quite, however this meant that the background noise also could be heard. There were times when you could hear the boom mic moving, static or cars in the background, which sure could set the scene, however it also wasn’t consistent in the clips which may be distracting for the audience. Fortunately, a lot of this was covered by the soundtrack over the top but it still can be heard in some places.
Next time if I did this again I would make sure to stress a focus on my script writing and what I clearly wanted. By doing this I feel like I would aim to achieve that goal, whereas this time I had vague ideas of the whole concept but how I was going to portray it was blurred. I would want to build on the character development of someone psychotic and angered with more explicit and shocking death scenes. Instead of the piece being dialogue heavy to portray the narrative I would want to visually present the ideas as well as presenting more about the main characters emotions. Audiences need to sympathise with her therefore there needs to even be scenes of her mother or showing an emotionally weak side to contrast against the heartless murders.
I was able to create a psychology drama which builds on the emotions of the characters and what they’re going through effectively.
-
I think both my front cover and double-page spread effectively reflected that of a lifestyle magazine. This is because both the main images and coverlines lines reflected the sort of magazine I was going for by presenting fashion, beauty as well as TV show and films (Ocean8 and Killing Eve). These coverlines target my audience of females well as it is female orientated and covers topics that they may be interested in. The double-page spread includes photoshoot images as well as a behind the scenes photo, which can make the audience feel more connected to the actor and the making of the show.
To improve my print texts I would have had brighter lights when taking the photo for the front cover as the actresses arm covers her face darkening that area. Again, I was able to edit this in Photoshop however there are overly-constrasted areas to the right of the face which are blasted out.
Another thing I may change is the arrangement of text as I'd want to write more about the show at the beginning to set the concept for new audiences.
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