Unit 3: Research Techniques in The Creative Media
Unit 24: Writing for Television
Task 4
Treatment
I will create a TV script and a show that is based on the genre of comedy, drama and crime. The show will be aimed at audiences which are generally teenagers and young adults. Because as they are targeted, I don’t have to be careful with the language included in the show (like swear words) but I will have to be cautious with censorship in the show (like explicit adult content).
By doing this, I will create 3 main characters in the show that will be featured and will develop those character further based on their personality, character design, aspiration and how will they be in the show. Each of the main characters I plan gets an equal amount of screentime in the show, and their relationships will develop throughout the show.
Proposal
The reason why I wanted to create a Drama, Comedy and Crime show is that they are they are the most popular TV show genre from my research. I wanted to have 3 main characters in my show because I wanted to have multiple main characters that share an equal amount of screentime like Friends where 6 main characters share the same amount of screentime.
I want to make the show similar to Friends because Friends was the most popular TV show from my research except I’ll be adding the genre of crime in the show. This show will be similar to Friends because of the comedy of the show and personality of my characters will be similar to the 6 characters of Friends.
The show would be able to meet the genre of comedy, drama and crime because in each episode, half of the duration will be a different criminal case as well as the other half of the episode includes the stories outside the criminal case. Towards the end of the season, there will be a huge crime case that will take 2 full episodes.
Defining market and Audience
Target Audience
The target audience of my TV show will be ages 16-35 years old because I want my audiences to be wide, 34.8% of the respondents from my survey would be ages 16-18. Despite my research shows that 65.2% of the respondents from middle school, I will go with having my target audience ages 16-35 years old because audiences at that ages have more range than audiences ages between 10-16 years old. Also, I rather not try to avoid adult content in the show.
Gender doesn’t matter too much because any gender can watch the TV show; If I picked a gender, the target audiences will be very narrow. Despite my research showing the majority of my respondents are female, I will go with both genders to make my target audience broader.
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In terms of income through the socio-economic group, it doesn’t matter as long as audiences have a TV since the show will be broadcasted terrestrial. However, I can aim the show towards audiences in the middle class and above because they not only able to afford a TV but also afford other types of the viewing platform.
Race and religion don’t matter because the show will not likely going to offend anyone as it is very unethical to do so. The occupation would be students or tertiary industry workers since are likely going to spend more time and have more interest in watching TV shows instead of older occupation.
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In terms of their psychographic, I would broadcast it once a week since according to my research, it shows that more audiences prefer scheduled release than timed release. This way, It can keep the audience's excited waiting to watching the next episode. And also my research also suggests that they prefer watching TV over the weekend.
Genre
When creating my TV show, the genre I want it to be based from my task 3 is going to be a comedy, action, drama and crime because those were the top 4 most popular from my primary research back in task 1. Initially, I was planning to make it just comedy, action and drama but now I decided to add the genre of crime because I want to make my show more unique and want to make it more stand out to the competition. Although the genre “Superhero” was also most voted, I don’t want to do this genre because if I come to filming the TV show, It isn’t viable to do so.
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I decided that I want to brainstorm genres so that I can make sure that my show will meet the genre and also what to avoid as well. From my research, the respondents say that they don’t like Horror films and Period Dramas because they were the least vote (“anime” was also least vote, however that goes under the animation genre). After brainstorming my genre, whilst brainstorming I decided not to include elements of action genre because I couldn’t think of anything relating to this genre. Therefore, here is what I’d expect when creating my TV show.
Competitors
When creating my TV show, I would like to compete with shows that have a similar genre to what I decided to go with. I would compete with shows like Brooklyn nine-nine (a comedy and crime show that was mentioned twice from my research), Friends (a drama and comedy show that was mentioned several times from my research) and Sherlock (a crime and drama show that was mentioned twice from my research).
Production requirement
Content
The content is what will my show be about. It is important that I understand the content of my TV show. I will also bring important pre-production documents with me such as storyboard so that I know at all times what am I going to shoot in order to make my work less complicated and making sure that my work is up to professional standard. ​
Cost
I will have to consider the budgeting when filming; how much budget do I need for the pilot and what will cost me to get any types of equipment/actors required for the show.
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I might need some money to create any props or equipment required for the TV show. I also might need to pay actors to become actors and for them to star in my TV show (or act as a background/recurring character). It is so that I can pay them for the trouble and hard work. ​
Talent
Talent is a production requirement to consider about because the actor could be skilled at something in which they can perform what they are skilled at in the pilot.
There are no specific talents required when acting for my TV show. However, they do need to be able to read and understand the content of the show as well as their role in the TV show so that they can know how to act when being filmed.
Supplier
I will have to consider the supplier for the pilot of the show; who will supply the equipment that I need for the show.
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Some of the equipment that is needed to shoot the TV show will be supplied by the KGV Media AV department and some equipment like props may either be supplied by myself or have to go to a shop to buy them.
Locations
I will have to consider the locations when shooting the pilot. Where will I shot my scenes and whether those locations are accessible or not? This is where pre-production documents like location scout are important to use, so that I can assess the surroundings of my location and whether the locations are allowed to film.
I will have my locations set in various places around Hong Kong to shoot the TV show. Some of the scenes may be needed to record in the KGV Media AV studio such as voice-overs when creating the TV show. The show will have a main location taken place where the show will set at that location in most episodes, like Friends where the main characters always go to the coffee shop and their location is mostly set there.
Equipment
I will need to consider equipment for my pilot show. This is where pre-production documents like equipment list are important to create; so that I can identify what equipments I need to create my pilot and where am I going to get the equipment I need for the production.
The most important thing I need to shoot my TV show is equipment. I will need equipment such as camera, tripod or sound recorder to be able to shoot the TV show.
Viability
When taking viability into consideration, I think that it is most viable to film my pilot. If I ever come across any elements in my pilot where it is not viable to create, I will try to figure out a way in which I can make a scene more viable to shoot. If I still couldn't find a way to tackle the situation, I either may need to go around the situation or think of something else to shoot to progress the TV story.
Schedule
When creating a product, It is important to have a schedule so that you so that you can keep up to date with any pre-production or production elements needed to create your product.
When filming, I will try to make sure that my actors are all free when filming. If I happen to go back and decide that my scenes are not professional enough, I may need to call my actors out again to reshoot a scene which I don’t think is up to professional standard.
Costume
This is not absolutely necessary but something to consider when filming is costumes. I have to consider If there’s anything specific I want my actors to wear and look. If there’s anything specific my actors need to look, I could apply makeup on my actors.
For my TV show, there are some scenes where I want my actors we wear something specific. Such as uniform if they are going to act as a police officer. Also, I might want to apply makeup to some actors to make them look attractive. To get the costume I wanted, I might need to go and buy them or ask my actor to see if they have any costumes/clothing I wanted them to wear.
Creative concept
For my TV show, I think I wanted to have 3 main characters. Here are details of their development. The plot is taken place in the present days of 2018.
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His name is Ben, he is British-Chinese aged 29 years old. He lives in an apartment and applying to become a crime detective 10 years of studying who studied crime. He is very athletic and funny. He enjoys learning and goes to the library when he has time but dislikes history as he tends to fall asleep when learning about history. He is fit, short hair and is 170cm tall but has a hairy facial feature.
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When he is introduced, the time will be in the morning at 10:59 am where the sun will shine brightly. The weather will be sunny at the beginning. He then will go and attend a reunion that Yui and Sam plan to have.
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His parents have both passed away when he was 19 years old (10 years prior to the story). He has 2 other childhood friend that he grew up with: a girl and a boy, the girl’s name is Yui and the boy’s name is Sam.
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The character’s aspiration is to become the head of the criminal and justice department in Hong Kong, by doing this, he aims to start his career off by applying to become the crime detective
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However, what prevents him from getting what he wants is being a klutz, he usually can be clumsy and late because of his clumsiness. To get what he wants, he has to manage his weakness and make sure that it doesn’t come between his aspiration.
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Her name is Yui, she is Japanese-Chinese aged 28 years old. Her nickname is “Yuiringo” (Yui combined with “Ringo”, Japanese for “Apple” because of her love for apples). She lives in a house up in Sai Kung and she wants to join the show business career but for a living, she is a vice-head of the Hong Kong crime and justice department. She is very funny, feminist, she enjoys watching movies as a hobby and loves apple. However, she dislikes being disrespected and also dislikes swimming due to an incident that happened when she was young. She is pretty with long hair and bangs, has a good sense of fashion and has makeup on.
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When she was introduced, she will be seen in her job, busting a crime scene where it is a chase scene between her and a drug dealer. The setting will be in an alleyway at daytime.
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She has strict parents who want her to become a police because they were both police. She has 2 childhood friend where she split paths with them at the age of 18, 10 years prior to the show. She also has an older brother who is a lawyer and is successful, this has made Yui's parents liking Yui's brother more.
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Her aim is to join the show business career and quit the law enforcement career so that she wants people to see her as talented.
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However, her parents stop her getting what she wants as they wanted her to stay in the law enforcement career. Her character weakness is that she can be OCD and sometimes can be absent-minded.
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His name is Sam, he is Chinese aged 30 years old. He wanted to be multi-talented. He currently does not have a place to live; therefore he lives in a hotel temporarily. He is charismatic, confident and weird. However, he dislikes horror and animals. He has a black, short hair, with a black eye, big eyes and lips.
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When he is introduced, he will be introduced at the end of the pilot where he surprises the other 2 main characters by showing up in their apartment. The other 2 character would be surprised by his appearance because they thought that he died a long time ago.
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He has made several connections with people around the world. He can be resourceful. He has 2 other childhood friend.
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His aim is to travel around the world. Right now, he is taking a break from that and decides to stay in Hong Kong for a while. While he’s at it, he tries to find a job. He is very educated and has a masters in science.
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However, he is short on money to travel, which is why he needs a job where he can get enough money to travel again. His character weakness is a heavy drinker and sometimes can be overconfident.
Character drawings are credicted to Emma So
For the title of the TV show, I decided to call the TV show “Team D3” because “D” sounds like “the” and “3” means the 3 main character of the show, as well as the names of each character, has 3 letters.