M3: Show an understanding of feedback and be able to respond to questions
Self Evaluation of pitch: Looking back at my pitch, I think I did reasonably well considering how nervous I was and how uncomfortable I was that I was presenting on my own. Throughout the pitch I made a lot of eye contact with my clients and made sure I wasn't constantly reading off of my notes or the board.
At the beginning of the pitch I spoke clearly, loudly and at a good pace, however I noticed as the pitch continued I would start speaking faster, making it hard for the client to understand what I was saying. This could be because I was nervous to present and in turn rushed through the pitch. I think if I kept up with my pace I would be able to speak every point I made clearly and make sure I didn't miss any points. I noticed that when I was speaking fast I missed out a lot of key points that I would've liked to include. Another thing that I noticed in the pitch was that even though I stayed in one place all the time, I would sway my body ever so slightly. I think the next time I do a pitch I should be conscious of the way I move as I realized that the swaying could be a bit distracting. Another thing I realized was that I fumbled a lot on my notes, this was because I didn't organize my notes well enough. I think in the future I will organzie my notes in a orderly manner just so I won't waste time fumbling through my notes.
I think if I was really presenting to a BBC 3 executive they would like someone to be very confident in their idea and the way they present it, which in turn would mean that if I was really confident and comfortable my stance would be different and so would the way I would speak. I think to improve my confidence I should practice more in presenting in large groups.
Questions that were asked At the end of my pitch, the client asked the following questions
Where is your program set?
I responded to this question by giving examples of where I would like my location would be set. I gave an example of Fulbourn and explained why that would be an ideal place for location, also going into what I want from my location as well. I used Fulbourn as an example location, mainly because it it's a village with lots of fields in it so it'll be really good for scenic shots, however it is also really close to the city Cambridge so I can film some city shots if I need any. This means that I can get 2 different locations that doesn't affect the budget a lot as they are both near each other. This means I can comply to the client requirement of having a low budget.
Your main character is from an American university, did you purposely add in an American character to appeal to a wider audience?
In response to this question, I explained how I purposely added in an American character as it added more depth to Greg's background and how that adds in a mysterious side to him that I think would appeal to the audience. I also explained how by having a American character it would also appeal to a global and wider audience as it shows that not all the characters are British. This shows that I thought of my target audience and how to appeal to a global and wider audience. However, I think it would be even more beneficial to me if I had a focus group of my target audience and ask them their thoughts on Greg's background and see if he would appeal to them.
In terms of budget, because your drama is in the supernatural genre how are you going to confine to the budget restrictions?
For this question I responded with how the supernatural elements wouldn't cost a lot to make as that all I would need would be voodoo dolls and fake blood. This showed that I understood the client brief as it shows that I thought about the supernatural elements and thought of ways I could follow the budget restraint. I think though, that I should've researched more into how much the props and equipment would cost as it would show to my client that I have researched into the budget and worked out how much the supernatural elements would cost.
With locations, would there be a lot of sets as you have mentioned that there will be both rural and city based locations. So would that cost a lot of money?
With this question I explained how majority of my locations can be built within a studio which in turn would mean less money. I think that it would've been beneficial for me if I explained that for my outdoor shoots I should find a location where everything I need is already there and easily accessible. However, I think the way I answered this question would satisfy my client as I said that the locations and sets I needed wouldn't cost a lot of money as majority of the sets can all be built in one studio or easily found around in one city; following the client brief of the drama being low budget.
Within rules and regulation, did you consider the appropriation of culture when it comes to your storyline?
I answered this question quite briefly, by saying that as long as I made it clear to the audience that everything with regards to voodoo is make belief and fantasy there wouldn't be much issues with it. I think however I should've researched into this regulation as I didn't really consider it when looking into codes and regulations.I think I would need to go back worth my team and look into OFCOM's rules and regulations just so I am complying to their regulations and making sure my program is fit for broadcast.
Why should your program be made, linking it with the BBC remit
In response to this question, I said that it would entertain the audience through the supernatural elements of the drama and it would educate and inform the audience through the main characters themselves.I think with this I should've explained in a bit more detail how the characters would educate and entertain the audience. However it think my answer would satisfy my client as I made sure to follow BBC's remit so that it can be aired on BBC 3.
Due to one of the clients being ill and not being able to attend my pitch, they watched my pitch and emailed in some questions.
How many viewers do you think we could get? What evidence do you have for these figures?
In response to this question, I think if I marketed the drama well enough and generated enough interest I could get maybe half a million views from the start. This is a guessed figure as I looked into BBC 3's views on teen dramas and the average was 2.4m on a well established drama.
What do you think is the demographic profile of your target audience and why? How did you use this to shape your program idea?
Researching into the target audience (15-21), the demographic profile would be group E (students). This is because my target audience age would be student in secondary, sixth form and university. They would also be aspirers and explores as well when it comes to psychographics. This is because when looking into the psychographic groups, the groups aspirers and explorers would relate to my drama even more as the themes, characters and storylines in my drama would appeal to them more. I used this information to shape my program because I knew what my audience is and what my audience have. Because the audience would normally be aspirers I made sure that my main characters are characters that the audience can aspire to become or be like. This in turn would appeal and engage my target audience as they would like the characters, storylines and themes and would more likely watch the drama as it would have elements that would relate and appeal to them.
With regards to the themes in your drama, you said that themes in your drama are the same themes as other teen dramas. What would you do to make the themes in your drama unique to other teen dramas?
The main themes in my drama are crime and teens like most popular teen dramas however, I have other smaller themes that run through the drama such as the voodoo doll theme. I think to make sure that my drama and its themes within it is unique I am going to have to go back to my team and discuss possible new themes that haven't been seen before or to add more to the current and popular themes to make them seem unique.
D1: Discuss the client considerations for the creation of the product from the pitch
From the pitch, I have received a lot of useful feedback that I would use to help improve and shape my idea to become better.
Set:
Where is your program set?
With locations, would there be a lot of sets as you have mentioned that there will be both rural and city based locations. So would that cost a lot of money?
I was questioned a lot about my location, mainly because I didn't really talk about it during my presentation. One of the questions that were asked were quite useful as it made me think more about location and the budget. The question of where my program is set however wasn't very useful, mainly because I have already thought about that in my proposal; where I said I would have the program in an area that has both city and rural settings in. I think the reason I was asked about this question though was because I didn't really explain it well or show this in my presentation. The question about having both rural and city sets and how that would affect the budget was useful though, as it was one thing I didn't consider. This means that I think I'm going to have to go back to my team and discuss about how am I going to stick to the budget restraint whilst still having the sets I want. I think I'm going to have to get rid of some the sets that I had in my mind, like having a field as although it would add a lot to the program, it isn't an important setting to have. By getting rid of some of the set/location ideas I am comforming to the budget. I think that the sets I am no longer using could later be used for the next season when maybe the drama gets a bigger budget.
Characters:
Your main character is from an American university, did you purposely add in an American character to appeal to a wider audience?
I think this is an important question that I was asked as it made me think about my global audience a bit more; in the beginning I was mainly thinking about the audience in the UK and not globally. I made my program with the UK audience in mind and added in things that would appeal to them and wouldn't perhaps appeal to a global audience, this question made me think a bit more of my global audience and how to appeal and attract them. I unintentionally made one of my characters American, mainly because I thought that it would a bit more diversity to the program, but after the question was asked it made me think a bit more of the global appeal of my program. Because this question has made me think about my global audience, I think I'm going to have to add in certain storylines, characters to appeal to the global audience and get them to watch my drama.
Budget:
In terms of budget, because your drama is in the supernatural genre how are you going to confine to the budget restrictions?
I don't think this is a very important question mainly because I have already thought about budget in my proposal and explained a bit of it in my presentation; where I said that that with the supernatural elements I will make sure I won't go over board and to not include things like visual and special effects during the first season. I am however thinking that if the drama is successful then I will add in visual and special effects during the second season when the drama generates enough money and money can be spent on the drama. In response to this question I answered that the only supernatural elements that would require money would be the voodoo dolls themselves which wouldn't cost a lot to make, as they can just be made out of straw. To make the client reassured that I won't be overspending the budget through the supernatural elements I may now need to write up my budget plan and show the client. I may also need to go back to my team and discuss the supernatural elements we would want in the drama and how we can make sure that it doesn't go over budget; if some supernatural elements don't fit the budget plan it may need to be saved until the next season where there will be a lot more money.
Rules, regulations and BBC remit:
Within rules and regulation of OFCOM, did you consider the appropriation of culture when it comes to your storyline?
Why should your program be made, linking it with the BBC remit
I think the first question that was asked about OFCOM is important as I haven't really thought about OFCOM and their rules when I was talking about rules and regulations in my proposal and presentation; I mainly thought about BBC's rules and BBFC. This question in particular is important as I do need to consider OFCOM as they regulate TV shows, even though my program won't be aired on TV there is a chance that it could, as from research I have found that popular BBC 3 TV shows do sometimes air on BBC 1. Because of this I need to be aware of OFCOM's rules and making sure I abide to it. One rule that OFCOM has that may pose a potential hindrance is section 2 Harm and Offence, where it says "2.4 Programmes must not include material (whether in individual programmes or in programmes taken together) which, taking into account the context, condones or glamorises violent, dangerous or seriously antisocial behaviour and is likely to encourage others to copy such behaviour." I need to be careful about this rule as in my drama there will be some violence, so I need to make sure that I am not glamourising it and not encouraging the audience to do this. I think with the violence aspects of my drama I am going to have to make sure I don't linger and focus too much on it this is more for the passive audience, as they could easily be influenced to copy a characters behaviour. With the rule of appropriation of culture, I need to take this into consideration and talk to my team about it as in my TV drama voodoo dolls comes from African culture, so I need to be careful on the way I presented this theme. I would now need to research a lot on voodoo dolls and their culture just so it is is as accurate as it could and so that it seen as offensive. I think I may need to change some of my ideas just so I won't offend anyone and the culture. I may also need to make sure to the audience that everything they are watching from the program is fictional and non of it is true, just so they don't get a wrong idea of voodoo dolls and their culture. I think the second question, with regards to the BBC remit isn't very important and I don't think I need to take it into consideration as much as I have already explained in my proposal on how the drama relates and conforms to the BBC remit. I think the reason why I was asked this question as because I didn't really go into detail about it in during the presentation. This is something I'm going to have to include in my presentation if I was going to present it to the BBC bosses. Target Audience:
What do you think is the demographic profile of your target audience and why? How did you use this to shape your program idea?
This question has some importance as the client wanted to be reassured that the drama would appeal to their target audience and would be successful to their target audience demographic. I think they asked this question mainly because I didn't really talk about it during the presentation, however the information about the target audience demographic is in my proposal where I said that the psychographic groups I would aim and appeal to would be the aspires and explorers. Because of that I didn't really find this question quite important as it didn't really give me an idea on how to improve my drama even more. I could however do a bit more research about the target audience and find out what kind of things they are interested in and maybe incorporate that into my drama.
Viewers and figures:
How many viewers do you think we could get? What evidence do you have for these figures?
When this question was asked I didn't find it particularly useful, mainly because it didn't really gave me any ideas on how to improve my drama. However, this question did make me think about the viewership of my program and how many viewers I would want, it gave me something to aim for. Therefore I think I'm going to have to go back to my research and search how much views BBC 3 program gets and figure out how much views I would want.
Unique Selling point:
With regards to the themes in your drama, you said that themes in your drama are the same themes as other teen dramas. What would you do to make the themes in your drama unique to other teen dramas?
I responded to this question with that I'm going back to my team to discuss it. This question is really important as it made me think about my unique selling point and the fact that if I take away the voodoo doll aspect to it my drama is like any other teen drama out there. Because of this I am going to have to go back to my proposal and change some of the themes that run it, I think for possible themes I am going to try and add in relevant and different themes that haven't been shown on TV before to make it unique. For example, maybe have a theme on social media and how teens are addicted to it or a theme on stress and how teenagers these days find themselves facing stress a lot more. I think I'm going to have to go back into my audience research on what affects them and what kind of themes they haven't seen on dramas and incorporate their answers into my drama. I think I am also going to have to make sure I don't include any themes that are over used a lot in teen dramas such as teen pregnancies as they have been seen a lot and the audience wouldn't find them as exciting. However, I think that I will use some themes that are over used a lot like relationships mainly because they are themes teenagers enjoy and like watching.