How TV Drama works
with Tim Holloway
Breakdown of Day
9.30-9.40 Introductions
9.40-10.30 Idea to Screen: overview
10.50-11.50 Development and prep-
production
11.50-12.50 Production and Post
12.50-1.40 Lunch
1.40-3pm Practical workshop
Focus of today
Understanding how Television
Drama gets made
Exploring processes from
development to Post
production
Practical skills
Introductions
Me and You
Who am I?
Teacher of Media Studies
Teacher of English
BAFTA TV jury member
ex-Film Maker
ex-Director and Producer of
TV Drama
TV
Series Producer - Byker Grove 2006 (BAFTA
CV
Nominated 2007)
Head of Kids Drama development, Zenith
Entertainment - 2005/6
Producer - Casualty (BBC1) 2000-2002
Director - The Bill, Casualty, Brookside, Peak
Practice, Dangerfield 1997-2003
Film
Director - Tilt Films films 1995-7 (several awards)
Script Reader - Handmade Films 1995
Film school - Polish National Film School 1992/4 and
NSFTV - 1991-2
Who are you?
What do you watch?
When do you watch?
How do you watch?
Do you watch?
Why do you watch?
How much do you watch?
Is making important to you?
Do you make anything?
What would you make if you had the chance?
Who do you want to talk to?
What production skills do you have?
Pair up and discuss the questions
What about students?
What do our students watch and create?
How do they interact with the Media?
TV Drama is part of the OCR AS spec but
is it relevant to the students?
KEY ROLES
in the Development Processes
star
producer commissioner
writer
director
executive
producer
script editor
researcher
agent
Who works with who?
fitting all the pieces together
TV as a writer’s medium
where movies are often seen as
the directors medium and let’s
face it who has heard of any of
the writers outside the industry -
TV drama is a writer’s medium:
Paul Abbott, Russell T Davies,
Dennis Potter, Alan Bennett, Abi
Morgan, Sally Wainright, David
Chase all author series and single
dramas which are partly or
wholly sold and promoted on
their name.
Writer’s have the power to get
projects ‘greenlit’.
producers
They come in various shapes and sizes,
what do they do?
executive
development
series
episodic
line
independent
in-house
freelance
agents
ICM, William Morris, CCA, Cassarotto
Ramsay....
their role is to promote and protect
their clients
they also take a hand in packaging
projects including several of their
clients
they are a badge of honour or shame
for their clients depending on their
kudos within the industry
GOOD AGENT MEANS BETTER
WORK FOR BETTER MONEY AND
MORE POWER OVER THE
PRODUCT.
directors
in TV they arrive late to the project
and leave early (in the US after 3
days in the edit!)
they have little or no involvement
with the development of the script
they are tasked with creating the
vision of the writer and executive
producer and not screwing it up
Directors in TV are almost invisible
as Mal Young ex-head of BBC TV
drama series once said, ‘glorified
camera pushers’!
In the classroom
What roles will your students have to fulfil?
What role will you have to fulfil?
Why is it important to have some grasp of
these labyrinthine structures?
What forms of TV
drama
List all the programme formats you can
think of for drama.
eg. continuing drama series (soap)
Drama formats
What is TV drama? You might have had
written down some or all of the following?
Different forms: theatrical release, TV movie,
single, serial, series, continuing series (soap),
children’s, hybrid (docudrama, factual drama,
dramedy, online/interactive...?)
And there are new forms being piloted each
year.
What genres
List as many genres as you can think of in a
minute.
example: cops show
Can you classify these shows?
Life on Mars
Coronation Street
The Street
Mad Men
Torchwood
Outnumbered
Skins
Shameless
Sherlock
Merlin
Britz
Casualty
Doctor Who
Hustle
First Light
Five Days
Benidorm
Spooks
Waterloo Road
This is England ’86
Compare your answers
did you agree?
what words did you use?
is classification easy or difficult?
how would GCSE students do at this
type of exercise?
what about A level?
Creating a New Show
Useful words?
Sci-fi fantasy romantic mystery
crime epic thriller mythological
medical dystopian horror scientific
comedy period political extra-terrestrial
domestic contemporary classical musical
interactive magical puppet animation
CG feel-good time-travel procedural
precinct star-vehicle police hospital
working class animal apocalyptic biographical
rock relationship sporting school
Creating new drama
In pairs you have 3 minutes to create three new drama
series ideas.
Rules:
Use 2 to 5 words from the sheet to describe each one.
Think of a cracking title for the show.
First Pitch
Choosing the writer
You have a great idea but now you need to
find the right writer to create your vision.
Use the writer’s sheet for some suggestions.
Who will you choose and why?
Writers
Aaron Sorkin Andy Hamilton
David Chase Steven Moffat Alan Bennett
The West Wing/The Social Outnumbered/Drop the
The Sopranos Sherlock/Coupling/Dr Who Talking Heads/History Boys
Network Dead Donkey
Andrew Davies
Dennis Potter Paul Abbott Alan Bleasdale Jimmy McGovern
Bleak House/Pride and
The Singing detective State of Play/Shameless Boys from the Blackstuff Cracker/The Street
Prejudice
A best selling female
A team of 16-21 year old The unknown middle-aged Peter Moffat
Coronation Street fantasy novellist whose
kids picked from writing writer of a spec script you Criminal
writing team books rival Dan Brown for
comp. think is a work of genius. Justice/Shakespeare re-told
sales.
Graham Lineham David Peace Russell T Davies
David Simon Joel Surnow
The IT Crowd/Father Red Riding/The Damned Queer as Folk/Dr Who/The
The Wire 24
Ted/Black Books United Second Coming
A hot shot film school Peter Morgan
Joss Whedon Abi Morgan Your sister because she read
graduate with a Cannes The Deal/Last King of
Buffy/Angel/Toy Story Sex Traffic/White Girl you idea and really got it.
winning short film Scotland
Tony Jordan
Tim Kring Heidi Thomas Shane Meadows Phil Redmond
Life on
Heroes Cranford/Soldier Soldier This is England ’86 Grange Hill/Brookside
Mars/Hustle/Eastenders
writers research
Choose your writer and figure out
what they are going to bring to the
show
Here’s the rub -
If you chose a really big name you’ll
get the show commissioned but you
might get the chop
Choose a minnow and you may not
get the commission at all
If you don’t like the names listed find
someone else....
You have 5 minutes
Did you change anything from the original idea?
Commissioning
The process of getting your idea commissioned is a tricky one.
BBC, C4, ITV
Independent Production Companies
Slots
Audience
Channel profile and requirements
Schedule
Tariff
Timescale
relationships
Commissioning is about matching relationships with
product.
You may have the product but not the relationships to make
it happen.
You may have the relationships but no product at that time.
So who gets the commissions?
Production Companies
Tiger Aspect
Talkback Thames Shine
The Deep/Secret Dairy of a Call
The Bill/Capturing Mary Merlin/Hex/Sugar Rush
Girl/Robin Hood
Shed Media
World Productions Kudos
Waterloo Road/Bad Girls/Footballer’s
No Angels/Outlaws Spooks/Lip Service/Hustle
Wives
BBC in house
Wall to Wall Company Pictures
75% of all BBC drama inc. Soaps/Dr
New Tricks/Man on a Wire Skins/Wild at heart/Shameless
Who/State of Play
Imagine Entertainment
24 Hat Trick Granada Media
Bad Robot Bodies/God on Trial/Outnumbered Corrie/Prime Suspect/Housewife 49
Lost/Alias/Six Degree
Or start your own...
Development
You have your idea, you have the writer and
the production company.
Now develop the pitch.
24 words or less
Plus a 250 word synopsis
Plenary
Move round the tables and read the other groups work.
As you read their pitches and synopses try to think what
went well (www) and even better if (ebi)
These two means of positive evaluation can really make
a difference to the student’s development
Write you www and ebi and box it out to one side
Do this for at least three pitches and synopses.
Plenary
Read the feedback
How will you improve your pitch?
UK Drama Quiz
Which form of drama rates the highest audiences?
Which form of drama has the highest oversees sales?
Which drama format costs the most per hour?
Which channel broadcasts the cheapest dramas?
Who makes the most drama in the UK?
What is state of the nation drama? Give an example.
Why doesn’t our ‘soap’ sell well abroad?
Why was The Bill cancelled?
Which are the most popular US drama imports?
Why is Spooks called MI5 in the US?
Who is the most powerful person in UK drama?
Answers
Continuing drama series
Period Drama adaptations/Murder mystery
Period Drama
BBC 4
BBC Drama
One which explore fundamental issues in society: State of Play
regional accents
Poor ratings, didn’t make successful transition to 9pm slot
It changes each season.
‘Spooks’ is a derogatory term for black people
Ben Stephenson
Fashion
Drama follows fashion
TV drama like all forms of reflective and
representative media must address the issues, debates
and fashions of its time.
What are the current obsessions in our society?
What debates trouble us?
What fears do we have as a society?
What innovations are we obsessed with?
Sources
book/play adaptations
original
news (both print and web)
internet stories
films
research
Channels
who takes what, when and how?
Where
Main players:
BBC - up to 75 % commissioned in house (min 25%
independent)
ITV - all independent but used to have strong
production arm
C4 - all independent
C5 - as C4 (now part of same grouping)
Sky - mainly independent commisioning
Casting
Stage 2 - Ideal Casting
Choose one of your ideas.
Now from your knowledge and experience as
consumers of TV drama and movies - cast the main
characters from the show.
Tip. Say what other work the actors have done, you
can look them up online if you need to.
Pre-production
what you need to have and what you don’t...
List
• make a check list for what you think might
be necessary pre-production for a short film
shoot.
• work in groups of three or four
Think as a student...!
• What do you think your average GCSE
student will do by way of pre-production
for a Coursework assignment?
• So what iare the absolute MUST DOs?
working without sound
• Tip
• working without sound free the students to focus on camera work and mise
en scene
• giving them this freedom will lead to better shots, less naff a dialogue and
overall better films.
• It also allows you to teach sound as post production.
• As you will discover sound acquisition can be problematic without excellent
mics, mixer etc. Most domestic videos are NOT built for good sound
acquisition.
• With this in mind, digital stills cameras with HD video mode are as good for
production often as Camcorders.
• Older style DV camcorders with Manual focus are better still (Canon XM1/2
etc)
Shooting Schedules
• Shooting schedules
• All film and TV shoots have them and they are a vital part of production
• Encourage all groups to produce one and stick to it.
• The information on it can be basic but will help avoid confusion:
• Dates and time of shoot, sunrise/sunset
• Locations, props, actors, costume, make-up, equipment needed
• Scenes to be shot, in which order with start and finish times
• Shots to be achieved each day.
• Whose involved
• Telephone numbers of EVERYONE, roles and responsibilities
Storyboards v shot-list
v overhead plan
• I believe in all three and encouraging students to
think in 2D and 3D space is important.
• Plans of sets are important for design
• Shot-lists and plans help lighting and design
• Storyboards help, editors, design and camera
• All help production and director
Task
• In groups of 3/4
• Write a short scene - one page only - set in a school
• Plan your shoot - storyboard, shot list and overhead plans.
• To do this you have 15minutes to walk around the school site with cameras,
take photos and discuss your idea, adapt your script.
• Then back in the classroom, make overhead plans, storyboard and shot-list.
• Then create a draft shooting schedule for your script.
