Evaluation

First of all, in preparation for writing my script, I collected all my initial ideas on a piece of paper for what my TV Drama could be about. It was set out in the form of a mind map. This helped me to find a topic to base my Drama on which later on would help me know what to put in my scripts, what characters to include, the location for the Drama etc.

Secondly, I created a questionnaire of 10 questions to find out what the public wanted in the new TV Drama. The questions included setting, character types and storylines. I asked 15 people for their opinions and from this I was able to find out what the people wanted in a new TV Drama. I then did a small summary of all the questions so that it was easy to see at a glance which of the options was a clear winner and what this meant. This helped me in writing my script as I now had all of the background information needed and all I needed now was the character’s speech.

I then typed up my first draft of the script. This helped me get the basic storylines and character’s speech laid out so that I could improve it and make it look and read more like a script at a later date. It also helped me to figure out the different storylines that would be going on in the Drama.

Next, I got two examples of TV Drama scripts so that I could analyse them to find out the generic conventions of a script so that I could make my script look more like a script. I found out how scripts are set out, how to show a character speaking off set, how to show character’s as a voice over and how to show interruptions in speech. I also found out how to show a scene has changed. This all helped me when writing my final draft as my script contains these things.

Then I watched ten minutes of two TV Dramas to see what moves the narratives along, how often they change scenes and how they do it and how new characters are introduced. This helped me to update my script in the second draft as I knew how often I should change scenes and how I can use the character’s speech to move the narrative along. This also helped me perfect my final draft.

I did a focus group of five people on the second draft of my script so that I could see what the public thought of my TV Drama so far and to find out what they suggested as improvements. They suggested that I make the speech and the stage directions separate so that the people reading the scripts wouldn’t get confused but overall the ideas were interesting and that the use of comedy between characters creates a TV Drama that should be interesting to watch.

Next, I wrote the third draft of my script and edited it so that the speech and the stage directions were separated so that in my final draft it would be easier to read. I also added in a few more stage directions so that the characters weren’t just standing still while talking but were actually doing actions.

Then I did some internet research and found out how to properly format slug lines. This helped in my final draft so that I could properly show whether the scene is inside or outside, the location of the scene and the time of day that the scene takes place. I found out how to show phone calls and how to include speech of the other person on the phone by using a voice over. I also found out how to cut off speech mid sentence. This helped my final draft of my script look more like a professional script. I then made all these changes on my fourth draft.

Next I got a few people to act out my script so that I could hear it being read out loud and pick up where the faults were in the script, where there were bits that the readers didn’t understand and where there could be improvements. I found that more stage directions needed to be added to large amounts of speech so there was more action and that there were a few grammatical errors which were corrected in my final draft.

Finally I made the format of my script look like a professional script by tabbing the speech to the centre of the page and I put it into a font that is commonly used in scripts. I read over the final draft of the script to check for any mistakes too.

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