The Story of Tracy Beaker

2002 onwards  - british children's TV drama - CBBC

Uses both people and cartoon animation, shows only the main actors and actresses as actual people, therefore showing they are more important. Very colourful and bright, will attract audience into watching the program as it is eye catching. Cartoon and animation is also linked with childrens television, therefore making sense for it to be in the opening. 

Fast editing as is used in a lot of other children TV drama openings. Children are being typical children, running riot and making mess, and also shows that the show is child dominated as the shot of the orphanage in which they all live in is shown with them all in it. 

Again the music is upbeat, fun and youthful to attract target audience. Main actors seem to be females, slightly female orientated, especially as it is 'The Tracy Beaker Show'. 

Camera establishes setting, (orphanage), and characters, keeps Tracy Beaker focus of the opening as she is the focus of the program, always centralised in shot.  

Sabrina the teenage witch

Series started in 1996 - american television program.

Starts with looking through her bedroom window, and then an animation of the world behind it, showing an insight into her world, because its different than the one we live in, full of majic

etc. children could relate as often they make their own world and pretend to be a superhero etc.

Very much women orientated, showing the main female character, and the other actresses names all come up before the actors names, subverting stereotype of male dominance in television. I could subvert typical codes and conventions in my own piece, putting female characters before the male characters, to show a more modern society.  

Sense of magic as she is presented in a setting that seems to be 'the unknown', emphasising the importance of magic and mystery in the program, shown through the use of special effects. 

Female lead is a teenager, children that are slightly younger than the specific target audience could be intrigued as it would be seeing into an older persons life - curiosity. 

Upbeat music, emphasises the fun and youthful vibe of this show, a convention commonly used in a lot of children's TV drama openings, emphasises that it is aimed at a younger audience.

Special effects used  - the magic of her changing outfits.  Animation is also normally associated with kids television, most animations are aimed at children, for example disney pixar films, or  cartoons like 'Scooby Doo' etc.

Editing - shot doesn't change, focuses on her to keep audiences focus more on the character than anything else, shows her importance to the narrative and program.

Even Stevens

Series started in 2000 - disney channel - american children's TV drama.

Establishes the setting of where program will be set at the start, shows typical family life, brother

and sister fighting, dad washing the car, mum working, target audience can relate to own family life.

The opening also takes the viewer completely around the house whilst havoc is being raised by

the 2 children of the household, showing that they are important in the narrative of the story, 

as they are also centralised and have the most air time.

Upbeat music used as is in most Children's TV Drama, depending on sub genre shown, for example

this Children's TV Drama is a comedic type. Shows energy, which children are known to be restless

and active, wanting to be occupied at all times, having music that will attract their attention will make

it more likely they will watch the program.

Editing is also fast paced to fit the narrative and the music, this is to keep it interesting, as again a child

doesn't have a good attention span and so if the program does not use conventions such as these,

then their targeted audience will most probably loose interest.

Use of animation shows kiddish charm, cartoons are instantly related to children, therefore targeting 

their audience. Typical of boy character to make the mess, female character being annoyed at actions.

Children can recognise and relate to the actions that are shown, for example the 2 children characters

fight with light sabers, due to the similarity in target audience in the movie star wars and the program.

Research into my chosen idea - children's TV drama.

I will be researching into what goes into an opening and therefore get ideas into what can go into my own, 

identifying their codes and conventions, differences and similarities and their restrictions.  This was the first opening

that I have found that represents a children's TV drama. What I liked about this title sequence is the use of shapes 

that over lap and are also used as windows to show the actors names.

Also, having the different shapes and objects flying around shows that the program will be of a younger generation,

for example a football and skateboard are shown to symbolise that the program is targeted at a younger audience.

Saved by the bell was released in 1989 in the USA, aimed at a young teenage audience, from about 13 years old to 

about 16 years old. This era of time is shown through the conventions that are used in this opening, 

for example the bright colours', the 80's were all about being bright and bold, and for the younger generation it was

all about having scruffy big hair and wearing baggy colourful clothing, which again is shown when seeing the

characters in this introduction. So if I were to make my title sequence of a certain era, I would have to research

upon that era and use stereotypical symbolic objects etc. to represent that it is set in that particular time.

This title sequence uses bubbly, happy music, therefore creating a fun, energetic vibe, the editing also fits in with this

throughout the whole extract, therefore targeting their specific younger children audience. Mid-shots of the actors are 

used and all of them are shown individually, centralising each of them to show their significance and this will engage the

audience straight away and let them relate to a certain or numerous amount of characters. The extract uses clips from

past episodes to introduce each character, therefore again reinforcing the engagement of the audience. Each character

has a different personality, the men in this particular extract are more out there, funny, active, while the women characters

are more conserved, representing the social stereotypes, that women are more mature whilst men are more immature.

The use of flying objects of footballs, skateboards, surf shorts, convertable cars, guitars, shows what at the time the 

program is set, a typical teenager liked, as if it were set in a more modern time, the objects shown would most probably

be things like televisions, computers, mobile phones as we live in a technological age. Also, the sunglasses graphic 

stays centralised on screen as it then establishes setting, of it being in a school, which then shows that each character

has a role, for example male characters in a school will probably include a nerd, bully, or class clown, whilst females

will probably take the roles of shy girl. bossy girl or the straight A student, and maybe if the program is aimed at a teenage 

audience, like 'Saved by the Bell' will have the pretty popular girl everyone wants to be like or be with. If I chose to

use graphics and drawings in my own piece, representing my own characters for my piece, I would have to use the 

more modern objects that I have listed. On the screen, this would make my title sequence more interesting and 

make it more recognisable that it is aimed at children and maybe more appealing to watch from the audiences perspective.

Book reference of research : - Teaching TV Drama by Jeremy Points.

I found from using this book that there are certain conventions used that will keep an audience watching,

for example 'Doctor Who' will use for it's mise en scene CGI effects as it is a drama that is based on time travel, 

therefore based in a futuristic time where he can travel through any galaxy. which means the audience 

will expect aliens and other odd creations of a different world as this is what will attract the audience to watch it.

Keeping the main character, the doctor, engaging also is important, there will be an expected costume for him

to wear as this will match his personality, scruffy clothing, red converses, messy hair. An expectancy of a

narrative of good versus evil is also common in TV dramas, this has been used in children's TV dramas, 

but are normally of a much milder problem than on a normal TV drama. Also a love interest or story are used in

TV dramas, again I have seen this been used in children's TV drama, but is an innocent narrative usually used

where the character is liking the person from afar. Representations of females and males are normally stereotypical,

women being the inferior sex whilst the males dominate, in a children's TV drama a stereotype for a girl can be varied

as different roles can be given because of the environment they are in, for example if the children's TV drama was

based in a school, there would be a nerdy girl, a bossy girl, a shy girl. This is the same with males, there would be

a nerdy boy, a stupid boy, the class bully is normally played by a butch young boy, and the class clown. I would 

have to include stereotypes into my own piece depending on the environment I decide to base my title sequence on

and if I decide on including real kids into my title sequence.

Final Decision.

I have decided that I will make a children's TV drama. This is because I believe, in knowing my skills, this was the best option for me as it will enable me to make a short trailer, meaning it would not be too technically based and complicated. Also, as no-one has made a children's TV drama before, it will allow me to start from scratch and make my own vision, using my own ideas. I will now have to research into different children's TV dramas' so that I can identify what conventions are used in them and therefore then use these conventions in my own piece, this will also help me to find ideas of what I could base my title sequence of a children's TV drama on, as I need to figure out a basic genre of story that I can then represent through my title sequence. 

First Media Lesson.

In the first lesson back we were given the options for our coursework, in 2 weeks time we have to decide what option we are going to choose to then develop on by ourselves. I have to make sure that I choose an option that will be suited to my skills, but will also let me develop on some new skills, especially in the technological area, as that is my weaker point. Choosing an option I beleive will be a hard thing, I need to be able to come up with an idea that will work with the piece, I need to insure that I have resources around me that will help with the development of my project, so taking this into account, I will have to try and come up with ideas for the piece when deciding what option I want to do, which I am also enthusiastic about, so that I have a basic idea on what I want to do.