Unit 1: A1: Formats

Series:
A series is a collection of episode which follows a storyline however this varies depending on the nature of the storyline. Some examples of Series are Eastenders, Prison Break and Empire.
An example of a series is Eastenders, In Eastenders, the characters always remain the same however the storyline constanly changes whether its another problem occurs in another characters life or just something else in general happens in the next episode.

The Benefits of having a Series TV Show are as follows;

• Guarenteed viewers in the sense that due to the fact that there is more than one episode, the audience are more incline to come back to find out whats going to happen in the next episode due to the fact that all Episodes are generally unfinished therefore meaning that they have a guarenteed audience who will come back for more for instance in Eastenders which ends with a Cliffhanger, the audience is enticed which the idea of wanting to find out who is next.

• Social interaction: Series enable the audience to be able to conversate with friends or socialise whether it may be on social media platforms or things of such sort so that they are able to speak about their views on the episode and even what they think will happen next therefore enabling them to speak to their peers.

• Allows suspense to be created, you are left to let your mind flow and think about alternatives which is much more exciting to some compared to just having a story told to you which some may find a bit boring.

Eastenders is a excellent example of a Series and this is because the director like to make the audience have some sort of suspense due to the way it ends and have a storyline that makes the audience come back to see what happens next every week rather than continously have a storyline which remains constant and have no dynamic sense to it.



Serial:
A Serial has a story-line it is often described as a serialisation from a book or a specific event which was created. Some examples of Serial's include Sherlock, Game of Thrones and True Dectectives.

The benefits of Serials are the following;

• Unmissible in the sense that you could could miss an episode however you wouldn't be lost because the storyline is constant therefore it allows the audience to be able to go with the flow in a sense without knowing what happened before
• The same aim and objective are possessed throughout but they bring something different and it allows the audience to engage as it won't be the same as the week before and they may just enjoy this week and may not enjoy the week before.

A series such as Sherlock which is a Great example of a series is because the storyline is set therefore the audience is able to familiarize theirselves with everything in the story which aids personal identifictions but also allows the audience enjoy as sometimes it may be a bit irritating to get use to a character which some may find very distracting or adapt to a storyline which doesn't seem to make sense.

However an disadvantage of this is that the audience may get bored of the same old storyline over a long period of time which may listen the audience and in addition, the director may run out of ideas for the storyline as there is only so much you can do with a storyline until it becomes quite hard to change.




One-Off:
Examples:

1. Murdered by my boyfriend
2. Eric and Ernie
3. My Murder

A One-Off usually does not last anymore than a day or the full length of an original episode and only come on once and are never streamed again. A great example of this is 'Murdered by my boyfriend' which was a one-off format which came on in BBC THREE however didnt have any follow ups to it or any following episode except from this singular which told a story
of what happens to a teenage girl when she falls in love with the wrong man, The love story turns dark and sinister when the charming stranger seeks to dominate every aspect of the young woman's life and leads to her tragic murder. 

Some benefits of One-Off Series;

• They usually attract a large audience due to the fact they only occur once and do not have follow ups.
• Enable Social interactions to occur due to the fact that they may leave lots of questions and grey areas which may be topics of discussions in order to clarify and also enable interactions to be created as people can discuss what happened.

However one of the biggest disadvantages is that it is only shown once which may be a bit frustrating as the audience is unable to come back for me even if they desire to and also, it may be an issues which the viewer is really into or curious to know more able however the fact that this is the first and final episode may leave a grey area and answered questions which will not be answered.

The effect of a One-off or Single Drama is that through the fact that its broadcasted but only once, it provides a presentation of real life. It is often based on topics or issues that are more appropriate for television than in contrast to cinema based therefore being an options to those who may be more serious about life and wish to know about other issues, this enables the audience to become more familar about stories or issues such as the one shown and may enable personal identication and escapism.