Meetings

We have scheduled some meetings as before we were just meeting up informally during breaks and lunch but now to make sure we are more organised, as team leader I think we should meet more formally.

In these meetings I will write up the meetings, note doen any action that needs taking and make sure we have a thorough plan.

I have already given members of the groups a calendare with key dates on there so we know what to achieve and when.

Our first formal meeting will be for 30 mins after college tomorrow.

Casting

We have only 3 main characters.

I will play the cop's colleague.

Bob's brother Sid will play the werewolf/cop but if he is busy, Bob will do it instead.

The wife will be played by a girl in our class called Aisha.

There might be a few other characters and bit parts needed but I think we should be able to get a few more people on board.

Step outline and storyboard

Over the last few days our group has completed these.

I have worked with Bob on the storyboard whilst Phillis and Miguel have worked on a really detailed step outline.

I can't scan them in on here but everyone in the group has a photocopied.

We are now on version 3 of the storyboard as the teacher thought it wasn't detailed enough and a bit short.

The second version was quite good but after Miguel and Phillis looked at it we discussed how we could vary the shots and reorder it a bit.

The final version is quite good although it has been hard to work out the duration of the shots.

I am now going to scan these and then the JPEGs can be imported into Final Cut so I can do an offline edit and work out the timings of the clip. Bob will do this with me as he is the editor.

Analysis of questionnaire results

It seems to me that most people would like to see a flawed and messed up main character as people seem to like a protagonist which isn't that straightforward and soemtimes not even that likeable.

Also most people said they'd like a twist on a crime drama. This could be because Life on Mars was so popular.

I asked a range of people, male and female and all ages but most people were 16-18 or 19-21.

I think I'll ask people what type of 'monster' they'd like their character to be.

Refined idea

After a meeting earlier Miguel came up with a great idea:

The cop, Jim McIntyre is in fact an werewolf.

This will be visually revealed at the end of our opening sequence when he has to run away from his colleague as the full moon means he will turn into the werewolf.

I really like this and as crime dramas usually attract an older audience than my group is, I reckon this might attract a younger audience (16-19) as werewolves and creatures like this are very popular.

Strengths and Weaknesses

I thought it'd be useful to think about what is going well and what isn't so I can reflect on this before we go any further.

Strengths
The group are all contributing well and everyone has pitched in with ideas and seems to be willing to go above and beyond. In every lesson everyone has been doing their own research or mind mapping and has soemthing new to offer.


I personally feel really organised with this and as team leader have made sure I write down every decision and make sure we all have small tasks to be getting on with.

Areas for improvement
Our idea is abit vague still at the moment. I think we probably need another meeting so we can refine it.

Our idea is a bit cliched too and is a bit derivative of things like Flashforward and Paradox.

Audience questionniare

These questions are designed to get people's opinions and heopfully guide us with our planning. I have printed some out to hand out to my tutor group, my family and some teachers but also ask that my blog follwers fill it in too.

1) Are you male or female?

2) What age group are you?

16-18, 19- 21, 21 - 25, 25+

3) For the opening sequence for a brand new crime drama, would you prefer

a straight forward detective story

a twist on the genre, e.g. sci-fi or spernatural elements

an unconventional beginning that concentrated on the visuals more than the narrative

4) Do you have favourite crime drama?

5) Would you prefer to watch a crime drama where the crime drama has a character who:

is a criminal themselves?

is not very good at their job?

is brilliant at their job?

has emotional/anger problems?

Roles

We have decided on our roles.

I am the director and team leader. This means I need to encourage everyone to input their ideas and keep quite a tight rein on things. Obviously when we are filming, I will direct the actors and make sure we set up efficiently and that everyone knows what they are doing.

Bob is the editor - he volunteered and we all agreed as he has done this before and felt he had some good ideas already.

Phillis is doing the sound - she has written scripts before so will write out the dialogue needed for the voice overs and has already started researched appropriate music (we have decided to use classical music a lot, especially when we see the dead body and there is montage sequence)

Miguel is the cinematographer - he hasn't done this before but I think he'll be good at this as he does photography so this might help.

Other crime dramas

I have done some research on some crime dramas and have made a mind map of all the codes and conventions used.

I have also noted down the techincal codes and analysed the opening sequence of these.

This clip is from Silent Witness and the most interesting thing for me was the editing techniques used, specifically fade to indicate a passing of time but mainly the cross cutting between 2 locations to show the gangs and the cops.

I also looked at The Shield. The handheld camera is a device I would like to use in our drama. The mise-en-scene in this would be good to replicate too, especially the police station and the macho but flawed cop. This is a really interesting clip and we all feel that it is soemthing to aspire to...

Refining the idea

For the first 3 mins we have come up with an idea we finally all agree on:

The cop (Jim) wakes up in his office where he has been sleeping (his wife has kicked him out). He has clearly been drinking and the office is a mess. He is called to look at a crime scene. At the crime scene he has a strange 'turn' and sees 'visions'. He discusses these things with his colleague and they start to put together an evidence board. We then see him trying to talk to his wife but she rejects him. He sits in his office in the dark and is suicidal. Suddenly he gets another 'vision'. He calls his colleague and they go out at nigght and dsicover a 'lockup' that he saw in his vision. They break in and it they doscover a cage where the criminal clearly keeps his victims before killing them. The leave but are clearly being watched.

This is not very detailed yet but the main idea is there.

Getting creative

Today we worked on how to come up with more creative ideas for our drama.

We used De Bono's 6 thinking hats.

This is because it allows more effective thinking and an exploration of all avenues. We put loads of ideas onto a large piece of paper and thought about

The person wearing the:

-white hat looked at what we already knew and if there were any gaps in our knowledge

-red hat used their intuition and went with their gut feeling about things

-black hat tried to highlight the weaker points so we could rethink them

- yellow hat looked at the value of all the suggestions

- green hat was creative in their thinking and 'freewheeled' with their ideas

-blue hat was the leader. This was me. My job was to encourage the others to contribute their ideas, especially when things ran dry.

Initial idea

We have just had a quick meeting about our ideas and this is our rough ouotline so far:

It's a twist on the genre so has a bit of a supernatural element. Our main detective is a flawed guy, he gambles and drinks and is unfaithful to his wife. He is a really good cop though, in fact he has some sort of sense that gives him visions of parts of the crime. His only problem is pieceing together the clues as he is not always in the right frame of mind to think clearly. He will have partner copy (the cop buddy genre) who is more clued up. One will be aggressive and unorthodox whilst the other will be more straigh laced.

This is our idea for the whole drama. We haven't quite worked out what we'd see in the first 3 mins or a new episode.

We have decided it important to hook the viewer and get them excited.

The Brief

We were given our brief today. I am very excited about this as I already have a few ideas and my group seem really up for the challenge.

We have to make the first 3 mins of a crime drama. I don't watch that many crime dramas so the first thing I'm going to do is check some out online and look back at my notes from class as I quite liked The Shield so something like that might be fun.

My group are: Me, Bob, Phillis and Miguel