Directions Unit - TV Drama Research - Broadchurch

I decided to watch the first series of broadchurch as one of my tv dramas as I think I can take a lot from the show. The program is a British crime drama originally aired on ITV back in March 2003 and stars David Tennant and Olivia Coleman. The drama focuses on the murder of 11 year old Danny Lattimer and how the family and small town deal with the grief and media frenzy that surround the core question of who killed him. With many suspects and rising motives the audience are left to hedge their guesses all the way through till the very end.

Here below is an entire round up of the first series (spoilers):

I picked this as I love the way the director has taken an interesting yet impactful approach to the aid of suspense. Whilst we dont know who killed the boy till the last moments of the 8 episode drama, all the way through we kept on our toes and wanting more and more. The series does this through reavling little pieces to the viewers and this is something I have analysed when watching it as my film has a very big revel moment. The thing I noticed was it always catches you off guard. You are fed information by what you are seeing on screen and the director cleverly tricks the audience into thinking one thing and then revealing that this is not the case at all. In my film I want the audience to feel tricked into believing that everything if fine and then slowly shock the audience by showing everything is not how it seems with the blood. With these scenes and the right music put into place I believe I can acheive this effectivly.

Broadchurch has a certain style in terms of the cinematography used. There are always beautiful backdrops that establish the program in terms of setting a mood. Shadows are used alot against them to show the darkness of people surrounded by something so beautiful. I like this idea and I want to show something similar in my work.

Camera movements are often very dreamy and slow moving when the characters aren't in shadow and its accompanied by beautiful lighting. There are scences that do use hand held cameras in the intense rows and arguements between the family of the boy but these scenes are mixed up with a lot of visionary shots paired with non diegetic audio to give an emotional effect with the viewers. This is also something I would like to encorporate into my film.

Overall the series has a very stylised and artistic approach to the way its been filmed. Everything has been done for a purpose and thats what I want to carry through to my production.