Research Texts

About BBC writers room

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

‘At writersroom, the most important thing is our relationship with writers - and our ability, no matter how long it takes, to help them get their work commissioned and made.’

The TV listings show that most dramas like Eastenders are on around the 7.30 to 8.00pm time in the evenings , a competition drama from  another channel is ITV’s Downton Abbey.

Sherlock is a BBC Crime/Detective Drama, it’s a renovated version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes.

“Sherlock depicts "consulting detective" Holmes, assisting the Metropolitan Police Service, primarily DI Greg Lestrade (Rupert Graves), in solving various crimes. Holmes is assisted by his flatmate, Dr John Watson, who has returned from military service in Afghanistan. Although the series depicts a variety of crimes and perpetrators, Holmes' conflict with his archnemesis Jim Moriarty is a recurring feature. Pathologist Molly Hooper assists Holmes in her laboratory. “

Other characters are Mrs. Hudson, Holmes and Watson's landlady; Sgt. Sally Donovan; and Sherlock's brother, Mycroft Holmes.



More BBC Dramas are:

- Parade's End (Period Drama)

- Silent Witness (Crime Drama)

- Doctor Who (Science Fiction Drama)

- Call The Midwife (Medical Drama)

Silent Witness: Choices

In the opening scene ainsley modest and his girlfriend helen were sitting in a car talking about her engagement ring then they got out and she went to talk to Simone Campbell outside the club then a dark car drives up winds down the window and  opens fire on the people in line for the club.

The characters involved in this scene are

-Ainesly Modest

-Helen (Modest's girlfriend)

-Simone Campbell                       

-People in line for club

-Bouncers

I think the primary audience for this programme is from about 35 to 55ish because it's on at 9pm and this particular episode was about guns and drugs so its not aimed at children.

I think the secondary audience for this programme is from about 25 to 34 because they also may like crime dramas.

Sherlock: A Scandle in Belgravia

In the opening scene Sherlock, John and Moriarty are at the swimming pool, it shows a recap of the last episode of the first series where John is strapped to a bomb and sherlock takes it off of him after Moriarty leaves the room then he comes back deciding they can't live then he gets a phone call and leaves then you see Irene Adler hanging up the phone. Then they we're in the appartment talking to people who are asking them to solve their cases for them.

Characters involved in the opening scene:

-Sherlock Holmes

-Dr. John Watson

-Jim Moriarty

-Irene Adler

I think the primary audience for Sherlock is from about 15 to 30 year olds and the secondary audience is from about 30 to 50.

In this episode I liked the on screen text and the scene where Sherlock is talking Irene through the case and it goes from her lounge into the field and the clever deduction bits.

Edge of Darkness: Compassionate Leave

In the opening scene they are talking about voting and a political party and then her dad comes to pick her up and then as they'ge going to walk upto their house when she gets shot.

Characters involved in the opening scene:

-Ronald Craven

-Emma Craven

-Extras in the political room

I think the primary audience for edge of darkness is from about 40 to 55 and the secondary audience is about 30 to 40.

the things about this episode I didn't like was the whole thing was quite slow paced and some parts didn't make sense and wasn't really interesting.

Parade's End: Episode 1

In the opening seen Christopher and Sylvia are on their way to their wedding, it has flashbacks showing how they met and got to be getting married, christopher isn't sure if the child is his and sylvia is in her own car with her mother and a preist and her mother is talking about christopher is a god send.

Characters involved in the openeing scene:

-Christopher Teitjens

-Sylvia Tietjens

-Sylvia's mother

-Macmasters

-Father Consett

I think the target audience is from about 25 - 40 and also people who are fans of the books or like period dramas and the secondary could be 40 - 50.

The things I liked about Parade's End was that it was well written and interesting.

Eastenders

It starts with a christmas fare then man and his son are opening presents of glow in the dark stars and then he says he's so sorry. A man and some woman are talking about a cake and their wedding and honeymoon.

Characters involved in the opening scene:

-Alfie Moon

-A Child (probably his son)

- Max(?)

-A Woman

I think the target audience for eastenders is from about 25 to 50 and the secondary audience could be 50+

I didn't like that because i haven't watched this programme before and i didn't really know who was who or what some of the things going on were.

Understanding the requirements of working to a brief

There are lots of different ways briefs can be presented, one is contractual. Contractual is when the brief is outlined in an employment contract, an example of this is when Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat pitched their idea about revamping Sherlock Holmes to the BBC and they had meetings and talked about it and wrote up a contract to sign to show what they had agreed on.

Negotiated is when you need to work collaboratively with someone to create a brief and discuss and agree things together. Formal is when a client explains what they want and their requirements to you in a meeting where as an informal brief would be when the client discusses these over the phone or email. A commission is when a person is requested and they sign a contract. Tender is when companies are sent briefs via post or email and you are asked to respond with your ideas and put up against ideas from other companies and people. Also you can enter competitions which give you briefs about what the client wants from you. There also Cooperative briefs where different companies work together.

The E4 brief said the Esting needed to be 10 seconds long and it also had the deadline of Friday the 9th of November 2012, these were important because they didn't want them to take up too much time when they were on tv between shows and also if they were too short they would be less noticeable. There was a deadline of Friday the 9th of November because they needed a set time for all of them to be in so they could choose which ones to use for the TV. 

For consulting the client/ my tutor, I made a blog post with my Esting idea ( http://ralvarezbtec.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/planning-estign.html ) and had my tutor check it to make sure it was ok. The brief was strict on the amount of time the Esting had to be and when it had to be in but apart from that we were allowed to do anything with it within reason as long as it was appropriate fort the channel and brief. The constraints of making the E Sting were that I couldn't use whatever music I wanted because of copyright but E4 did provide clips of music to use for E stings on their website. I didn't find any problems with my E Sting that was affected by ethics or regulatory bodies because my idea was appropriate for anyone to view during day time TV. I received feedback via questionnaires, reviews on youtube and from a focus group we held in class, the things I needed to improve on were to shorten it a bit because it went over the time allotted in the brief and also make the superheros arm move when he threw the purple blobs at the villain. So I went back and re-shot some things and this is my improved ESting:

I didn't have to make amendments to the budget as the college had paid for the equipment, plasticine, pipe cleaners etc, already. Also I didn't need to change the time scale I did it in as I met the deadline and I also didn't have to make any amendment to fees as I didn't have any but if this was being done on a larger scale in the industry not for a competition to do yourself I may have had them.

Doing this task there were lots of opportunities for self-development, I learned alot about animation and how claymation is done and I found it really enjoyable to create the characters, sets and think of ideas to do for my Esting. I may use this in the future for my music video, or segments of it, at the end of the year. The new skills I learned was how to make the modles and how to shoot claymation and put it into a video to make it work, I had to multi-skill at times to keep the characters where I wanted them and try keep my hand out of shot whilst I took the next frame for the animation. I feel I contributed to the brief because I had my own idea of what I wanted to do that kept to the target audience for E4 and no one else in class did the same thing, I kept to the 10 seconds in my improved version and I got my video done in time for the deadline.