Tuesday, 12 June 2018

Coursework: Science Fiction television brief

The coursework briefs have been released and we can now turn our attention to the most creative side of the course.

The coursework unit is worth 30% of your GCSE so it's a brilliant opportunity to put marks in the bank before the final exams at the end of next year.

Coursework brief: Science Fiction TV drama

The brief we have selected is Brief 5: Science fiction television drama. The requirements are:

Create a two-minute sequence for an episode of a new television sci-fi drama series, which includes a narrative enigma. This series is aimed at a family audience.

You need to submit a 300-word Statement of Intent and a two-minute completed video production to finish this coursework.

Full details are available in the AQA NEA Student Booklet.

We will have the first eight weeks of next year to complete the work.

The first part of this project is a preliminary exercise which will teach the basics of filming and editing prior to working on the final production.


Introduction to Science Fiction

The Science Fiction genre has a long history of hugely popular films and TV programmes from Back to the Future and Bladerunner to Stranger Things on Netflix. We now need to create our own Science Fiction TV drama and make a two-minute extract from the show.

Science Fiction conventions

The key conventions of the Science Fiction genre are well established:
  • Colours: silver, green and blue in lighting, setting and costume
  • Music: electronic, tense / dramatic
  • Robots / Artificial intelligence
  • Settings: Futuristic / Time travel / different realms or planets
  • Advanced Technology
  • Doppelgangers / future self
  • Time travel
  • Science experiments such as regeneration / cloning
  • Synthetics
  • Epidemics
  • Props that reflect the genre such as spacesuits, gadgets etc.

Science Fiction clips

Watch these science fiction clips and identify at least three of the conventions of the Science Fiction genre for each:

Doctor Who - Amy Pond meets Amelia Pond




Humans - Season 3 trailer




Stranger Things - Eleven/Goodbye Mike



Use these clips as inspiration for your preliminary exercise AND your actual coursework production. Good luck!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Industries: Ownership and control

Most media companies are owned by one of five or six massive conglomerates that dominate the media industry. As GCSE Media students, we ne...