Ideas for my thriller programme

 

Ideas for media coursework:

 IDEA 1- a big city male middle-aged detective investigates a series of murders and on each of the bodies there is reference to the detectives past and personal life. He must race against the clock to discover who the criminal mastermind is before he is the next target or more people get hurt.

Positives- typical conventions of a thriller such as a middle-aged male detective, a wicked antagonist and a race against time makes it identifiable as part of the thriller genre. The detective thriller has been repeated lots of times so the audience would be familiar with the storyline and characters which allows them to better understand the narrative when they watch it.

Negatives- the target audience of 16–25-year-olds would not relate to the protagonist because of his age. When looking at Uses and Gratification theory, they would not get the personal identity satisfaction from viewing this show as they cannot relate to the detective because of the generational split. Additionally, because the story is centered around the of the theme of violence the posters shown on a bus station billboard may not be appropriate as they can scare young children. If the posters did feature themes of extreme violence, they would not get along with ASA rulings.

 

IDEA 2- a detective and a teenager pair up to uncover the mystery behind the disappearances of several other teenagers with nothing but their phones left at the disappearances sights and the same app installed on each of their phones. The teenager is very tech savvy and when the unlikely duo pair up, they break the age divide and face threat, identity theft and attempted murder. All takes place in a rural village surrounded by woodlands and could be a six-part series.

Positives- this would be a detective thriller which is one of the most popular subgenres of the thriller that gets a lot of audience spectatorship. The character of the detective would be recognizable as a convention of a crime thriller however by including a teenager as an unlikely partner this engages the 16–25-year-old target audience. They can find some sense personal identity when watching the show as they can resonate with the troubles this character goes through. Teenagers are growing up in a media saturated world, so the element of technology featured in the show makes them interested and invested in the series. When the posters for the billboards are created then the use of the unknown can be used as the problem the protagonists will be facing is disappearances which aren’t necessarily violent.

Negatives- differs from the traditional detective thriller tropes and this may cause a drop in spectatorship as an older audience would be looking for themes of violence and they may see this show as childish.