Media Studies A Level Coursework

What I have noticed about the majority of magazine covers advertising TV shows is that very often it is the characters - and by extension the actors/stars - that are being sold to the audience. The images of the characters can be reflective of the style of the show, for example in a crime show the character(s) shown may be holding a weapon, and the characters are usually in costume, but the photoshoots are definitely about the people more than they are about the narrative of the show, which is just how celebrity culture works: people are interested in watching their favourite stars in a show, so advertising the stars is simply good marketing. Most of the time, the show's name is displayed in large text that contrasts the background, which draws in audiences' attention to the show itself. The image to the right is not of a lifestyle magazine like the brief asks me to create but is of a TV guide magazine, but I thought I would include it here because I think it's interesting...

Learner's Name: Michael Quigley-Smith Word Count: 405 I have decided to make a psychological thriller that utilises striking visuals and an unstable sense of reality channelled through the protagonist to create an unnerving drama that also contains the suspense and mystery elements of crime shows. My programme will jump between reality and the protagonist’s dreamscapes, and the latter will be indicated with block-colour lighting and odd camera angles, which will act to disorient the audience, offering them a unique viewing experience. During a scene where the main character is running from an unknown something, the cuts will be rapid and the camerawork shaky, creating tension, and when the protagonist is haunted by visions of one of the killer’s victims taunting him, the camera will move slowly and smoothly in binary opposition to the running scene, which will vary the show’s pace and in turn maintain the interest of the audience. Conversely, reality will be shown in a mor...

Title Torn Logline In the suburb of Taughn, a cop, haunted by obscure and horrific dreams of the victims of the serial killer on the loose, searches for the killer as seemingly unconnected bodies continue turning up. Genre Psychological thriller Audience 18-35 millennials, ABC1, horror fans drawn in USP The show is enigmatic to the state of reality it's in, pushing the boundaries of the sense of the unknown that modern crime audiences love. Convergence

Second Draft For this draft, I have changed the first scene, stylising it in what I think is a more interesting way, and adding some heavy contrast in both the audio and the visuals. I think that the broken pacing this version of the scene creates fits nicely into my genre, because it leaves audiences on edge due to its fragmented, uncommon nature.  I haven't really made much progress in cutting the dialogue down in the real-world scene, so that's what I'll be working on next.

Soundscape One of the key elements of making a dream sequence is the transition back to the real world. It has to be smooth enough not to take audiences out of the story, but, in my case anyway, it also has to be jarring enough to make audiences feel uneasy. Because I knew that getting this right would be difficult, I decided to try out making just the audio for the transition first and imagining the visuals that would match (these visuals will be storyboarded soon, so no-one else needs to 'picture' the scene). This was partly to make sure I knew what I was going for, and partly to make sure that I didn't waste my time shooting something properly only to go into post-production and realise what I have didn't work. The reason I think that I can make a soundscape for this particular section is because the audio is the key element of the transition. The sound of Scott's phone ringing is the link between the dream world and the real world. In the former world, lo...

First Draft Link Above is a link to the first draft for my coursework script. The script itself contains many problems, not least of which is the fact that it runs to well over 3 minutes, which means that I will have to cut it considerably in order for it to work. I think that I will definitely need to make cuts from the scenes of dialogue, as I think it's better to leave in the mostly visual storytelling of the dream sequence. I also have not yet found a good way of transitioning between the dream sequence and reality; this is something that I am working on at the moment. Currently, my idea is to use a sound bridge and have the sound of a phone ringing in the dream, but make it sound far-off and distant. Then, I can use this sound to transition into reality, where a phone actually is ringing.  Furthermore, some of the shots and techniques that I am looking to do are as of now only ideas, and I think that it would be wise - for some of the stranger moments in the dre...