P1 IDEAS GENERATION

Natasha and I were doing a class pair activity where we were given a couple of cards, 5, with a random wildcard, genre, rules, goal and environment. 

Wildcard: Multiplayer

Genre: Racing

Rules: Limited time

Goal: Rescue

Environment: Ocean

So, we created this.  It's a dark comedy. A story involving an ambiguous main character, their name is Sid, (which could be shortened from Sidney or just be their name). They are in their early 20s and the characteristics we gave to them were as followed, 'Resilient, panicked, selfless, self-sacrificing, groaning and self narrating.' The vague plot is as followed:

Sid wakes up, a yoghurt in hand and a harrowing headache. As they try and walk, they realise this isn't pavement, no, it's water and it's just ruined their brand new set of Naddias trainers. Bit annoying. It doesn't take them long to realise that they're on a boat as it's pretty obvious, cabins, decks, lifebuoys and struggling to breathe children. Uh-oh. He continues onwards, collecting children in a humongous conga line up the decks to the lifeboats on level 5, losing orphans one by one in horrible, brutal accidents, one involving an electric eel, another involving a steering wheel, a metal rod and a ham sandwich. 

The tagline we came up with was, 

'They didn't know if the orphans could swim, but Sid couldn't just let them all die. They weren't that cold.'

The title could have something do boats or orphans, maybe a mix of both. Floating Orphans, perhaps.

INTERPRETING THE BRIEF.

BBC 3 has told us that the show we are making is a low budget, BBC3 tv series, aimed at BBC3 audiences but specifically 15-21 yr olds, it has to work with the BBC ethos (entertain, inform, educate) and to fit in with the BBC3 brand, not shying away from tackling the tougher issues, not talking down to it's age demographic, 16-34 year olds.

So what I'm thinking is to use close to home and very realistic, very normal locations as booking out locations would use a lot of money anyway, and using very homely and not fake/pretend locations would help to go along with the BBC3 brand! 

The characters for the drama would have to be considered using the other shows currently on BBC3 like 'Looking for Alaska', which uses teenage characters and is presented as a near to realistic, slice of life, situation, intensified obviously for dramatic purposes. The shows aren't patronising to their younger target audience and present a large diversity range for it, showing different ethnicities, sexualities and ways of life to be inclusive for everybody.

Some issues that BBC3 addresses currently in their shows are mental health, drugs, homelessness, sex and more. Most of the shows have a 'ripple effect' structure, proving one seemingly minor mistake at the time, returning to haunt the character and effect the rest of their choices throughout the show. A good example of this is Fleabag. 

CLIENT

WHO ARE THE BBC?

- BBC is a public service and is also a conglomerate. It was founded on the 18th of October 1922 in London and is now the world's leading public service broadcaster. BBC has subsidiaries because it doesn't just work in television or short films, it also works in radio, magazines, games and websites. 

BBC3 is a purely online streaming platform subsidiary of the BBC. It launched initially on the 9th of February 2003 as a replacement for BBC Choice; their plan, to utilise technology and new modern talent to advertise and appeal to the youth. On the 16th of February 2016, BBC3 transferred completely online to move along with its own target audience. BBC3 focuses on comedy, dramas and documentaries. 

GOOD BBC3 SHOWS

All shows are somewhat education in some way. They drive to be transgressive, showing us issues that we might not be able to find on other streaming platforms, such as transgender issues or prostitution.

According to The Telegraph, Don't tell the Bride, Little Britain, Gavin and Stacey and Torchwood are the best shows to have ever have aired on BBC3. For an episode of Torchwood: Children of Earth, 5.9 million viewers tuned in to watch it. Now one of the most popular shows on there is Shrill.

WHAT IS A TELEVISION DRAMA?

They are episodic, meaning that we are able to focus on different narrative strands in each episode, you could leave things on a cliffhanger and tie them up later, in a future episode.

A soap opera is not a television drama, the definition of a tv drama is defined by Wikipedia, 'Drama is a genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone.'

BFI states that a tv drama is, 'Television dramas are the fictional recreation of real life stories. The best television dramas engage the audience because we believe in the characters and the worlds they create, even if those worlds and characters are seemingly unbelievable, for example, Dr Who.'

COMPETITION

Netflix is quite a competitor, along with ITV2, as they are both aiming for younger audiences, not shying away from other more taboo issues (especially Netflix.) By the end of 2019, 167million paying customers owned Netflix.

CONVENTIONS OF A TV DRAMA

The characters tend to be stereotyped to show the audience very quickly who they are and what they might stand for. They are majority normal characters apart from a small exception that tends to make them individuals. There's realistic lighting, making it not look either flashy nor like a hand-held shaky iPhone filmed the entire thing. They're dialogue based, with sound effects.

Ofcom recently stated that the BBC is dying as it can't really appeal to the youth and what their interests are, but with more surprise successes like Fleabag, it is possible for it to make a very prominent comeback.