The Commissioning Process (unfinished)

Content & Audiences 
of the
BBC

BBC 1: Content

BBC 1 Has quite broad and Scripted Content. They commandeer to family and the general public so the comedy is mostly Situation based and larger then life comedy that relate to the ordinary man. a few examples of this are Mrs Browns Boys,  Not Going Out and Outnumbered.

BBC 1: Audience 

BBC 1's audience is mainstream and general. more specifically C1 class (the most common level of jobs in the UK)   This means there programming shows on BBC are more family friendly.



BBC 2: Content
BBC 2 has distinctive and varied content. This is where they put there most unique and valued work (pioneering perhaps) and see if they grab a wide enough audience to put on the primary channel (BBC 1) some examples of this are Count Arthur Strong, Harry & Paul and The Trip To Italy.

BBC 2: Audience
BBC 2's audience are very appreciative of comedy and this channel's content. The audience class I believe is B class (the minimal level of managerial  professionals.) the're quite responsive too as this is the show where the BBC test there more unique shows.


BBC 3: Content
BBC 3 has intensive and experimental content (including adult humor) , BBC three audience requires some more relatable programming such as Cuckoo,  Bad Education and Some Girls. these have situational comedy  elements with adult content and appropriate age range characters.

BBC 3: Audience

BBC 3's audience are young adults and teenagers. most likely the E class (lowest class of worker)
where the characters are of that demographer.




Links:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/briefs/tv/browse-by-genre/comedy/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/briefs/tv/browse-by-genre/comedy/comedy-on-bbc-one-1.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/briefs/tv/browse-by-genre/comedy/comedy-on-bbc-two-1.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/briefs/tv/browse-by-genre/comedy/comedy-on-three.shtml


End of Blog.

Role of the writer: Big Bang Theory (unfinished)

Big BANG

How does writing a scene for a series filmed in front of a live audience change how you write or re-write dialogue?

think about 

• Fans role in wanting certain outcomes for their favourite characters
• discussions had with the actors about dialogue
• re-writing when an audience does not laugh

With a show about a group of scientists (and an engineer) needed to include some actual science facts in order to strengthen the character of the scientists, without losing the audience (the lowest common denominator.) This needed careful timing and clever writing from the show’s creators, with the help of some Science / Science Fiction consultants. Science fiction consultants where needed too because facts about the Science fiction (the main characters favourite genre) needed to be present to be coherent.  

The Role of the Writer: (LOTR)

The Lord of the Rings had a lot of work done with the screenplay during production. Here is what the the writers primary added/changed during creation of the screenplay.

The original books had very few  female characters, and  any that showed up had small roles in the overall story. In order to create more audience for the films they added essential female roles to the story. They where Arwen, (her role was created with only a poem from the original book) Elanor Gamgee and Galadriel.


Tom Bombadil was a character that was unfortunately removed from the film. This was to move the story along as he slowed it down and was not part of the ring's journey. Screen-writers often make sacrifices like this and the most common reason for it is to move the story along. Most film's are only a couple of  hours long so a  lot of good storytelling has to be removed from great story's to have enough time to tell it.  This unfortunately  was one of them. Glorfindel was another character who instead had his role  shortened in order to allow Arwin a bit  more screen time.


Exposition is one of the screen writers best friends. A big part of history and story telling shortened to a few lines of dialogue is a great tool when working with large story's. Lots of writers know this and it was used in The Lord of the Rings. A more  common method of exposition often shown  in fantasy and sci-fi films are told though a single character. Gandalf was this character.


Not all dialogue is  relied on the writer to create. Some writers have the actors help them out. Since the actors have to do some research in the first place, anything they find out about how a particular character speaks/ acts could help out the writers create some better dialogue. This was used to help the dwarf and elf roles of the trilogy.

Deconstructing a Script

For our first task we looked at a script and deconstructed it on a basic level.

Here is what I produced:

Script from Avatar (2009)