Edge of Darkness

In the opening scene to the first episode of the mini-series Edge of Darkness, it shows the main character Ronald Craven and Godbolt having a conversation about Craven's detective inquiry. in a community center.

   The characters involved in the opening scene are Ronald Craven and James Godbolt.

    I think the primary audience for this mini-series is males of an age of around 35-55. The reason I think this is because it is very dark and graphic but very slow for younger audiences.
I think the secondary audience is young adults in the 18-30 age range as they may like to see a dark themed TV show.
I really liked the dark themes of the show as it made it more brutal and exciting. However the thing I didn't like about it was it was very slow paced.

Sherlock

 

In the opening scene for Sherlock Holmes - A Scandal in Belgravia it starts with a re-cap of what happened in the last episode of series one. After this it shows people coming to see Sherlock as they need his help with investigations but Sherlock is not interested in any of them.

 The characters involved in the opening scene are Sherlock Holmes, Dr. John Watson, the people that need his help

I think the primary audience for Sherlock is older teenagers and young adults of both genders. The reason I think this is because it is very stylishly edited and a lot of the humor is suited for that age range.

The secondary audience for the show is older adults as they will enjoy the suspense and they may be Sherlock fans from the past TV shows, films and maybe books.

I really liked the stylish editing and shots used in the show as it fitted with the modernized Sherlock Holmes. I also liked the acting as it was solid throughout including main characters and supporting actors.

However I found that the episode was slightly confusing to follow and it was very long for a TV show so people may lose interest as it is 90 minutes long. 

Breaking Bad

 

In the opening scene for the Pilot episode of Breaking Bad, Walter White is driving an RV through the desert. There are two dead bodies lying on the RV floor. Walter White and his partner in crime, Jesse Pinkman (who is unconscious), are wearing gas masks. The RV crashes into a ditch and Walter jumps out. He gets a video camera out and films a confession to his wife and family about crimes he has committed. Walter walks into the road as he hears a siren. He takes out a pistol and pulls it out in front of him ready to fire.
 The characters involved in the opening scene are Walter White and Jesse Pinkman.
I think the target audience for this show is young adults and teenager 18 years old or over. The reason I think this is that it is very dark and the themes are very adult.
The secondary audience in my opinion is males that are 30-50 years old. The reason I think this is because they may be able to relate to Walter White as he starts of as an average chemistry teacher that hasn't achieved a lot with his life.
I really liked the way the episode was shot as it is stylish and very unique as they tend to focus on objects that would normally just be in the background such as a fly.
The thing I disliked about the show is that it was slow in parts and there are only action scene occasionally, most of the show is dialogue.

Life on Mars

 

In the opening scene to episode one of Life On Mars, DCI Sam Tyler (John Simm) is hunting for a killer of a girl. He catches the person he suspects committed the murders but he is told he is wrong. His suspect is released but later kills Sam's office romance. Sam drives away from the crime scene and pulls up in his car. He steps out and gets hit by a speeding car. As he wakes up he finds himself in 1973.
The characters involved in the opening scene are DCI Sam Tyler, Colin Raimes, Sam's Girlfriend and Raimes' Social Worker and Lawyer.
I think the primary audience for Life On Mars is people that used to watch cop shows in the 1970s. However I think the secondary audience was young adults and older teenagers as it is stylishly filmed and edited.
I liked the way they used music from the 1970s for the soundtrack as it gives the show a good style and fit really well.
The thing I disliked about the episode was that his girlfriend dies only after a few minutes of screen time so you don't have any sympathy for her or Sam Tyler.

Research Texts

We were given the task of watching Silent Witness - Choices, written by Doug Milburn and directed by Andy Hay. In the opening scene we see a man named Ainsley Modest drop his girl-friend, Helen Roach, off at a nightclub. After he has dropped her off he parks the car and steps out. As he is walking towards the nightclub a car drives past and fires a machine gun at the nightclub. During the drive by two people are killed, Modest's girlfriend and a civilian.

The characters involved in the opening scene are; Ainsley Modest, Helen Roach, the doorman and the shooters who are unknown during the opening scene.


I think the primary audience for this television programme are both middle-aged males and females. The reason I think this is mainly due to the time that it is broadcast. It is broadcasted at 9pm which is when younger audiences will have gone to bed and just adults will be watching TV. Due to the themes and stories of the programme I think the age range for the primary audience is around 35-55. The stories are about crimes and murders which young people may find scary and older people may have no interest in.

I think the secondary audience for this programme are families and couples who may all watch TV together. I think the age of the secondary audience is around 18-30. The reason I think this is because anyone older than 55 may not have any interest in this programme and anyone younger than 18 may find the themes too horrifying.

The main thing I liked about the episode was the pacing of the story. It wasn't a very big story but they kept it moving for the run-time of around two hours. Due to it being a serial they have probably done a lot of stories before, when writing the script for my drama it is going to be a one-off so the ideas may appear more fresh than what they did for this show that was up to episode 63 when part 1 of the story started.

I really disliked most of the acting in this episode. The main characters were mostly well acted but the supporting actors were very poor that made the script look bad. I think if the lines were better delivered than it would have made the script look a lot better. I also disliked that they gave the audience big clues that made the suspect obvious. I think if the clues were a lot more subtle, when the suspect is revealed it will be a bigger shock to the audience. 

Screenplay Research

The BBC writers rooms aims are to find writing talent for all BBC platforms and to help bond a better relationship with the writers. People can send their scripts to the BBC writers room to be considered for a one-off or serial programme if the ‘window is open’.

‘giving you access to commissioners and production departments but most importantly to the skills and experience of established writers.’[1]

TV drama is normally shown at 9:00pm or after as this is usually when the target audience is watching TV and it is after the watershed so more action and subtle swearing can be broadcasted.

Here are the listings for the top 10 most watched last week on BBC1. 6 out of 10 of the programmes are dramas. The competition for dramas is mainly reality TV shows such as The X-Factor (2004-?) and Strictly Come Dancing (2004-?) [2]

Here is a list of various BBC Dramas;

-Doctor Who (Davies, 2005)

-Luther (Cross, 2010)

-Sherlock (Gatiss, 2010)

-Robin Hood (Allan, 2006)

-Holby City (Quarshie, 1999)

-Jonathan Creek (Johnson, 1997)

-Torchwood (Davies, 2006)

-Waking the Dead (Machin, 2000)

Doctor Who (Davies, 2005) is a Sci-Fi/Drama produced by the BBC. The show is currently on its seventh series which is a long time for a British drama show. The show is about the adventures of The Doctor who is a Time Lord, as he travels through space and time in his ship, The TARDIS. The show has received recognition from critics and the public as one of the finest British television programmes. It has received awards for best drama series, best actor as well as others.

Here is the trailer for Doctor Who: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrEUBl2pacU

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[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/about/what-we-do

[2] http://www.barb.co.uk/viewing/weekly-top-10?