1. We think the
most important ingredients of successful television crime shows the following:
·
engaging and fast paced narratives
·
maverick heroes/heroines
·
conflict in the characters’ lives
From your
viewing of TV crime shows, how far do you think these features are reasons for
their success? (15 marks)
In all cases, make sure you refer to shows you have
seen or read about. The question could well be something like this; however, you
will need to refer to other possible reasons for success – and here, you ought
to refer to the visual style of some shows.
2. Let’s have your pitch for the pilot for your
own TV crime show. You need to include:
·
an appealing and suitable title
·
a setting and location
·
a brief synopsis
·
three brief character profiles - try to make a point about representation
·
its unique selling point
(15 marks)
Where
possible, refer to the way your show uses Propp’s character theory and Todorov’s
narrative theory and Levi-Strauss’ theory of binary opposites so the conflict
can engage the audience and move the show forward.
3. Tell us
why your pitch will be successful. You need to explain why it will be popular
with the target audience and how it meets the demands of our brief.
(15 marks)
Again, where
possible, allude to features and character traits from existing shows,
stressing that your show is using these conventions to maximise the potential for
reaching a wide audience. You could refer to your own audience survey to point
out how your show has features that the survey found popular. Think how visual
style is one of the key factors in the success of Sherlock and CSI – your show
needs to cash in on these sort of ideas to appeal to a younger audience. It’s pre-watershed? What’s on the other channels? Soaps? Reality
TV? Hospital shows? Cookery shows?
Wildlife documentaries? It would help if you had the names of some shows
during this time slot so you could refer to them by name. You are also going to
have explain WHY your show needs to be popular – remember, it’s a commercial
cable/satellite channel, so it will need to be popular enough to attract
advertisers to help finance the channel. Make a brief comment about the public
fear of TV crime shows influencing vulnerable sections of the public and how
you have toned down the violence for a pre-Watershed audience that will
probably include children – but also make the point that you believe audiences
are active consumers of media texts and hat they develop strategies to deal
with problematical material – refer to gauntlet, Buckingham or Uses and
Gratifications. You won’t have a lot of time to this, but it will get you marks
if you show awareness of the fact.
4. We need
to know how you could market your pilot.
·
Either create a 30 second television trailer to
promote your film, using the ten frame storyboard sheet enclosed.
·
Or create the homepage for this website. You should
use the A3 design sheet enclosed.
(15 marks)
I would advise you to do both, just to be sure, but
the basic question suggests you need a written section on the various methods
used to promote a show like this, so even if you do the storyboards, discuss
the advantages of using the internet.
Look at the CSI and Sherlock
websites and note the various features used to market the show, especially the
interactive ones, which will give the audience a sense of ownership and may
help convince them to continue watching.
When designing your own website, base it on one of those and give it the
same kind of features and links, but remember to link it to the TV channel so
there will be cross promotion! Finally, think about the use of social network
links and various gimmicks to promote your show virally and make some reference
to the ability of the audience to access material on their smartphones.
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