P1 - AUDIENCE PLEASURES

ESCAPISM/DIVERSION

WATCHING SOMETHING IN ORDER TO ESCAPE FROM REALITY, FOR GRATIFICATION OR A DISTRACTION. 

EG. PHINEAS AND FERB

Phineas and Ferb is a show about two brothers finding bizarre ways to spend their summer, and the lives of those around them. I think it's really charming and funny, it definitely used to keep my mind off reality for a while.


SURVEILLANCE

A WINDOW INTO THE LIVES OF OTHERS, OR THE WIDER WORLD. VIEWERS LEARN FROM CONSUMING MEDIA THIS WAY.

EG. HORRIBLE HISTORIES

Horrible Histories is a popular longstanding show that allows us a look into the lives of historical figures. Many people, myself included, have grown up with it.

PERSONAL IDENTITY

VIEWERS MAY RELATE TO THE CHARACTERS OR SITUATIONS DEPICTED IN THE MEDIA.

EG. THE GOOD PLACE

The Good Place is a show about the afterlife and morals. It's known for its diverse cast and deeply relatable themes. As such, many people find themselves in these characters.


PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS

VIEWERS MAY:

• USE THE MEDIA AS A TALKING POINT WITH OTHERS IN THEIR LIVES.
• FORM A BOND WITH THE CHARACTERS DEPICTED IN THE MEDIA.

EG. SPOOKS

Spooks is a show following the various lives of MI5 agents. I remember it being very unpredictable and keeping me on my toes throughout.
I formed a bond with the characters in this show over the course of each series, which meant each death came as a heavier blow. It really makes you care about them I also watched the show with my parents, which made it a topic of conversation and more of an experience than just a show.

L01 - MEDIA SECTORS

MEDIA SECTORS

A category of the industry dictated by the medium of media they create.

In each sector, these are some different companies and their products/brands.

FILM

An audiovisual medium. 
EXAMPLE.
DISNEY owns the animated film CINDERELLA in 1950. 

TELEVISION
An audiovisual medium.
EXAMPLE.

THE BBC owns the show SHERLOCK.

                          

RADIO
An audio medium.

EXAMPLE.
BBC RADIO 2 owns THE ZOE BALL SHOW.

VIDEO GAMES

EXAMPLE.

CAPCOM owns the game MONSTER HUNTER WORLD. 

PRINT AND PUBLISHING

EXAMPLE.
THE GUARDIAN MEDIA GROUP owns THE GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER.

WEB AND ONLINE TECHNOLOGY

EXAMPLE.
THE BBC owns BBC IPLAYER.

MUSIC
EXAMPLE.
SHADY RECORDS owns EMINEM.

OWNERSHIP MODELS

CROSS MEDIA COMPANY - OPERATES IN/PRODUCING IN MULTIPLE SECTORS

CONGLOMERATE

LARGE ORGANISATIONS OWNING OTHER COMPANIES - AN OVERALL PARENT COMPANY OWNS VARIOUS SUBSIDIARY COMPANIES BELOW IT.

EG. SONY, DISNEY

DISNEY OWNS MANY DIFFERENT SUBSIDIARIES.

INDEPENDENT COMPANIES

FREE TO CONTROL ITS OWN CREATIVE ENDEAVOURS AND PRODUCTIONS BUT COLLABORATE WITH OTHER COMPANIES TO DISTRIBUTE THEIR FILMS. THEY USE JOINT VENTURE TO GET FILMS DISTRIBUTED.
EG. WIGWAM FILMS

FOR THEIR FILM 'IBOY', WIGWAM COLLABORATED WITH NETFLIX AS DISTRIBUTORS FOR THE MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL GOAL OF ENSURING PEOPLE SEE IT. NETFLIX GET CONTENT AND WIGWAM GET DISTRIBUTION.

FUNDING/REVENUE MODEL:

OTHER INDEPENDENT COMPANIES OF NOTE (AS OF NOW):

• WARP FILMS
• CALAMITY PRODUCTIONS

PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTERS

COMPANIES THAT EXIST TO PROVIDE AND PRODUCE AN OUTPUT THAT INFORMS, EDUCATES AND ENTERTAINS RATHER THAN JUST FOR COMMERCIAL GAIN. IN THE UK, THERE ARE FIVE OF THESE PUBLIC SERVICES.
EG. THE BBC, ITV, CHANNEL 3 SERVICES, CHANNEL 4, CHANNEL 5

FUNDING/REVENUE MODEL:

• TELEVISION LICENSE (BBC)
• ADVERTISING (OTHERS)

THE ILLUSION OF CHOICE
WE ARE IN A SITUATION, IN THE MODERN DAY, WHEREIN WE BELIEVE WE ARE MAKING CHOICES ABOUT THE MEDIA WE CONSUME. HOWEVER, WE CAN'T ALWAYS KNOW WHO IS CREATING IT BECAUSE COMPANIES CHANGE AND BUY EACH OTHER. AMERICA'S MEDIA TODAY IS OWNED BY SIX BIG CONGLOMERATES:

RUPERT MURDOCH OWNS A LOT OF THE MEDIA IN AMERICA AND THE UK.



THE BBC
A public service broadcaster and a conglomerate with one mission statement:

• To educate

• To inform

• To entertain

The BBC has its finger in lots of theoretical pies.
BBC WORLD
BBC SPORT
BBC ARABIC
ETC.

BBC3 PROFILE 
 PREVIOUSLY BBC CHOICE.

• BBC 3 is now online because its target audience is mostly online - 16-34 YEAR OLDS.

JOINT-VENTURE
Independent companies will work with others in order to produce and distribute their films because they're expensive and risky. Most films are joint ventures.

SPECIALIST PROVIDERS
Companies that work within one particular media sector, such as Universal Records with music or Capcom with games.

CROSS-MEDIA COMPANIES

Companies that work within multiple media sectors, such as Disney or The BBC.


HORIZONTAL INTEGRATION
When a company owns media in multiple sectors, they are horizontally integrated. This means that they can cover more ground and promote their media to wider audiences. You could, for example, advertise your film on your TV channel for children and then publish a soundtrack to go along with it. 
eg. Disney make films, TV, books, games, websites, music etc.

VERTICAL INTEGRATION
When a company owns all steps of the production process to make something, they are vertically integrated. This allows the company to be self-sufficient and wealthy, because less people have to be paid. There is also no reliance here on 3rd parties.
eg. Coca Cola mine their own aluminium and distill their own water in their production process.

SYNERGY (AND DISNEY)

This is the result of a company with horizontal and vertical integration - it means 'greater than the sum of its parts'. It could refer to a chain effect such as: 
create film -> advertise film on other sectors -> sell soundtrack and books

THE IMPORTANCE OF DISTRIBUTORS
The distributors of any type of media are very important - they determine who goes to see films or buys games. They are in charge of marketing and advertising .

PADDINGTON 2 CASE STUDY - DISTRIBUTION

Paddington 2 did really well in the box office and it was produced by an English company, Heyday Studios, who made the Harry Potter films. Its distributors likely played a huge part in this.

DISTRIBUTORS:

OTHER COMPANIES:

P1 - IDEA GENERATION

DRAMA IS AN EPISODIC GENRE OF NARRATIVE OR SEMI-FICTION INTENDED TO BE MORE SERIOUS THAN HUMOROUS IN TONE.
IT HAS MANY SUBGENRES:

• LEGAL DRAMA
• DOMESTIC DRAMA
• TEEN DRAMA
• COMEDY DRAMA

GET STUFFED! - introduction activity

The basis of this activity was to draw prompt cards and create a drama scenario around them.

I worked on this initial idea with Theo Cryer.

These were the cards we drew.

This was my initial mindmap.

This was my page of ideas after that.

Our synopsis:

Alister is a nervous taxidermist determined to follow in his father's footsteps and make it in the big city. When his boss receives a big order from a rich client, Alister is forced to brave the most terrifying thing of all: other people.

TARGET AUDIENCE:

We decided our idea would be best aimed at 15 - 21 year olds as an audience. 

***

CONSIDERING & INTERPRETING THE BRIEF

EDUCATE, ENTERTAIN, INFORM

CLIENT REQUIREMENTS & INITIAL IDEAS

• A BBC3 DRAMA
• AIMED AT 15-21 YR OLDS
• 6 EPISODES

• TACKLING SOCIAL ISSUES?
• METAPHORS FOR SOCIAL ISSUES?
• DOWN TO EARTH?
• WACKY AND STRANGE?
• ESCAPIST

COMPETITORS AND RIVAL AUDIENCES

• NETFLIX Owns a lot of different types and genres of entertainment, so quite difficult to compete with. Has a mass audience, but most prominently our own target audience of 15-21 year olds. Owns quite a few supernatural dramas such as:

• Sabrina The Teenage Witch
• Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
• Magic for Humans 

I think there's a gap in BBC3's market for weird, supernatural or magic-themed shows. There are ways of theming shows around magic without huge effects, perhaps by focusing on the mysterious elements of magic or its effects on people. The magic in this theoretical show could be subtle or silly to make up for a lack of budget.

Netflix also owns a lot of detective and mystery-focused dramas. BBC3 does have some detective dramas, but less so aimed at our target audience of 15-21 year olds. Netflix' mystery dramas include:

• Luther 
• Wormwood 
• Riverdale 

• ITV Owns mostly reality or celebrity shows rather than dramas, so the competition here isn't quite as relevant. The dramas they do offer are often aimed at older audiences, such as:

• Midsomer Murders
• Endeavor 
• Cold Feet 

I think ITV can be mostly overlooked as a real competitor if we are aiming our drama at 15-21 year olds. However, it's always good to research other dramas and their audiences because you'll likely get some overlap.

• CHANNEL 4

• HULU 

GAPS IN THE MARKET?

• SOMETHING LESS DOWN TO EARTH, SOMETHING STRANGE. The dramas on BBC3 at the moment all tackle real world issues in a very forthright and real way - I think there's a gap in the market for something weirder to compete with Netflix and ITV.

CLIENT

BBC3 RESEARCH

BBC3 is part of the multimedia conglomerate BBC, a public service broadcaster with the intention to inform, educate and entertain. The BBC owns intellectual property in areas such as television, radio, magazines and online.  

BBc3 in particular is the home of "documentaries, comedy, videos and articles" with the tagline "makes you think, makes you laugh". It's an online television platform because their audience, generally 16-34 year olds, is largely online rather than watching actual TV. Their focus is on producing shows rather than radio. They have more of a niche audience than other sectors of the BBC.

WHAT DOES WELL ON THE BBC?

Here we can see that Good Omens was BBC2's most popular show of the last week. However, when you add ITV into the mix:

We can see here that Love Island trumps all of these shows in terms of popularity.

FURTHER RESEARCH

The above article details that Ofcom have found an issue with the future of the BBC. It may be losing its audience to competitors online because of the younger generation shifting interest.


AUDIENCE RESEARCH
MARKET RESEARCH
PRODUCTION RESEARCH

psychographic interest??

How can we collect audience data?
Creating a questionnaire


Some potential questions:

What is your age?
What gender do you identify with?
What is your nationality?
What sexuality do you identify with?

What is the last TV drama you watched?
What devices do you prefer to watch
What genre do you like?
What channel do you like to watch?
What themes do you like?
What about dramas engages you?
What character do you identify with?

L04 - TARGET AUDIENCE

NOTES ON TARGET AUDIENCE

NICHE AUDIENCES

A niche audience is a small group of people that enjoy something that isn't considered to be mainstream or meets a specific interest.

Aimed at (some more niche than others):

• Certain ages
• Certain genders
• Certain ethnicities
• Certain cultures and languages

eg.

MASS AUDIENCES

A mass audience is a larger group of people that enjoy something, therefore making it mainstream. Aimed at:

• Wide age range 
• Any gender 
• Any ethnicity
• Certain cultures and languages

eg.

DEMOGRAPHICS & IMAGINARY ENTITIES

To create imaginary entities, you must make sweeping generalisations. 

PSYCHOGRAPHICS - Profiling people based on generalisations to create an average audience member, however avoiding oversimplifications (such as "all people in the countryside are poor farmers").

GEODEMOGRAPHICS - Profiling people based on their location (such as "people from Brighton").

IMAGINARY ENTITIES

DR WHO FAN

• 
  
• Our fan is named Harry Houghton.
• He is male.
• He is white.
• He is unmarried.
• He is a 19 year old student in the UK.
• He visits his family regularly. He likes to watch Dr. Who with them when he visits, as he grew up with it. 
• He studies sciences. 
• He likes comics.
• He doesn't mind other sci-fi shows, but he loves Dr. Who the most.
• He is in the C1 social class.

DAILY MAIL READER

• Our fan is named Joanna Reading-Pickles.
• She is female.
• She is white.
• She is twice married.
• She is heterosexual.
• She is right wing.
• She is older than 50.
• She is interested in journalism and politics.
• She is in the B social class.
• She has two small dogs.

• She would be advertised expensive supermarkets, Waitrose, cushions, interior design, gardening supplies.

SOCIAL GRADE SYSTEM

USES AND GRATIFICATION SYSTEM

1960, more active audiences
actively made decision to watch a thing or do a thing
FOR REASONS


What do people get from media products?

• escapism/diversion - gratification, distraction, something different from real life 
• surveillance - window into others' lives, learning about the world (news etc) 
• personal identity - identifying with characters, learn behaviour and values 
• personal relationships - watching to talk about with others, connect with character
• Education

EXAMPLES:

ESCAPISM - Looking for Alaska
A series where people can forget their
lives and become invested in the story.













SURVEILLANCE - Blindboy Undestroys The World 
The subject of the show explores the world 
and informs the audience of people/their experiences.

PERSONAL IDENTITY - Shrill
The main character can be relatable 
or a role model to the audience.

PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS - RuPaul's Drag Race 
Lots of people talk about this
show and also you may identify
with the contestants.

AUDIENCE THEORIES

AUDIENCES SHAPE WHAT THINGS BECOME - THEORIES HAVE TO BE UPDATED BECAUSE AUDIENCES ARE VOLATILE.


ACTIVE AND PASSIVE AUDIENCES

ACTIVE AUDIENCE MEMBER

Directly interacting with a media product, such as

a video game, documentary, game show etc. You are

being physically, or intellectually active.

PASSIVE AUDIENCE MEMBER

Just absorbing and consuming the media product,

not challenging it or interacting in any way. You 

aren't being physically or intellectually 

active.

RECEPTION THEORY

Stuart Hall noted that creators put media into the world with their own meaning, and then that media is free to be interpreted in certain ways. It's always subject to the audience.

DOMINANT/PREFERRED READING

You see the media as intended by the creator.

OPPOSITIONAL READING

The audience rejects the preferred reading and creates their own.

NEGOTIATED READING

The audience takes part of the preferred reading but has their own interpretation of certain parts.

HYPODERMIC NEEDLE THEORY

The idea that audiences are passive and will believe whatever they are told, because the media said it and it must therefore be true. Predominantly used to describe  the 30s and 40s when new forms of media and Hollywood popped up. Nowadays it is mostly discredited, but we can still see its effects in articles telling us that video games cause violence and such. Parents are prone to believing this theory, in the interest of protecting their children. The term was coined by American political scientist Harold Lasswell in the 1920s.

GAMER THEORY

The idea of four types of people that play games, and that you can market towards them:

ACHIEVERS - People who strive to unlock things and play for achievements. This will reard

EXPLORERS - People who like to find things in games and, as the name implies, explore. It will reward game designers and publishers who include large worlds or secret things.

SOCIALISERS - People who like to play games to talk to people and meet others.

KILLERS - People who like to destroy things in games.

D1 - EVALUATION

P5 - EDITING PROCESS

Hazel was our editor for this project. Natasha and I helped with the process of editing with suggestions and acted as another two pairs of eyes to catch any mistakes or bad edits. We started by adding the song into the timeline as an audio file and building up the structure for the full video.

ASSEMBLY 1




This process consisted of adding the relevant footage where it was required in the storyboard and filling in any gaps with placeholders. We had to split our editing into two sections: the first with half of our footage, the second with the rest of the footage. This was because we edited between filming dates to ensure we were on track.


Without having to worry about the colours of each shot early on, we could all focus on the sequence of shots we were arranging in order to illustrate the song in an interesting way. Hazel decided that we would switch around a few shots from the initial storyboard, such as the extreme closeup of my mouth.
We also had to factor in the fact that the artist wanted to remain relatively anonymous and so we worked out a way to keep a single element of the performance that you'll see in the second cut, where we show his hand strumming a guitar rather than an ECU of his face.

M3 - CODES AND CONVENTIONS

CONVENTIONS 
The typical conventions for all indie/rock music videos are as following:

Performance:

1. Typical for a live performance of the band or artist to be present.
2. About the passion of music rather than the success of the artists.
3. If the video is a narrative, elements of performance are added in throughout.

Narrative:

1. Narratives are used to tell a story by using sequences of clips, matching the lyrics of the song to help the audience along, linking to Goodwin's theory of illustration.
2. They keep your attention as what is on screen is constantly changing so the audience is constantly entertained. 
3. Leaves a lot to the imagination, for the audience to discover for themselves. 

Mise en scene:

1. Mise en scene plays a big role as it helps the music videos have their own iconography, traits and overall look. This is the reason why most indie/rock videos look so contrasting to one another.
2. Make-up, props and costumes are also major components as they help indicate the themes further, as well as the era they're meant to be in. 
3. Clothing is normally with many layers.

Sound:

1. Other sounds before the music video actually starts.
2. Effects to the sounds (distortion, echo, fade).

Camera: 

1. Full-length shots are normally used, along with wides and prolonged stills of individual objects or characters to establish them from the beginning. Normally to show clothing or surroundings, helping with characterisation. 
2. Establishing shots and location are primarily one of the first shots you see in these types of music videos. 
3. Different angles are constantly switched between. 
4. Extreme close-ups are used to get the idea of the feelings of a character and interpret inner emotions. 

Editing:

1. Old fashioned, dry, vibrant colour scheme. Meaning that filters are used commonly to give the videos a sense of another time. Special effects are added to sometimes make the video more exciting and memorable. 
2. Fast and slow cuts between the shots often reflect the pace of the music, creating either quick or slow atmosphere and pacing. 
3. Videotape filters are used regularly as well as ones that look like an old TV, creating voyeurism. 

The typical indie genre conventions tend to be out in the open in nature with easy-access, low budget locations. The normal colours are quite natural to match with striking colours on certain items or clothing. As with Mumford and Son's videos, these bright colours from a darkened background are quite prominently presented.

Because of this, we chose to enhance the colour saturation and exposure of the scarf and coat, making the outside area less colourful so the eye would be drawn more to the character.

Our music video

We used lots of important iconographies of the rabbit throughout, showing (via mise-en-scene) a slow development, portraying a lot of emotions, despite it being a mask and not showing any different facial expressions, by body language. The character is really expressive and over-the-top.

Mumford and Sons

We made sure to include some elements of performance, even though it wasn't our main aim, as it is a very large aspect of the indie/rock genres.

Additionally, the composition of the shots in our music videos are on the cross points of the third lines to make the composition stronger at every point and every shot composition. We used lead-in-lines to direct the gaze of the audience/viewer towards the most prominent parts of the shot, which are mostly the character.

Another thing we tried to do was to play with the contrast between darkness and light, taking conventions from the rock music videos (as they have darker themes and are often shrouded in darkness). Darkness and lack of light is obvious in many of our shots (the alleyways, the tunnel, the graveyard).

As many other indie/rock music videos show slow or fast tilts from an object to another object or the sky, we decided to do the same to keep it firmly within this genre. I looked previously at 'Hopeless Wanderer' by Mumford and Sons which shows a similar transition (examples below).

-------

---------

The shot types used throughout our video are also conventions of the indie/rock genre because we kept it at wide shots and close-ups, flicking between wider shots and getting gradually closer as time goes on. We used low and high angles frequently due to the genre conventions of this genre.

However, our lack of 

Rabbits can represent:

• Innocence, naivety and childlike curiosity. The white rabbit from The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll) embodies a lot of this as the titular character, Alice, follows him. He may represent her curiosity and is now well known and recognised in pop culture.
• In some circles, rabbits may be seen as lucky creatures or a symbol of good fortune. The white of the rabbit we're representing in the video links to purity - perhaps perfection to a degree that's slightly eerie.
• Rabbits are also associated with spring, Easter and fertility. This could link to the idea of rebirth, new life or vitality. 
• Childishness. This rabbit could represent a child dealing with loss.

Buster from the cartoon 'Arthur and Friends' is a character made to be appealing to children. He's made up of rounded, unthreatening shapes and this plays into the childish innocence of the rabbit archetype in the media at large.






This Covergirl fashion magazine cover plays into the cuteness and innocence of the rabbit - it emphasises the aspect of femininity or fertility we see sometimes in the representation of rabbits in media. It also plays with the perfect and pure image they project, perhaps a hint at the nature of makeup advertisement - typically, it pushes people to aspire for perfection.








This typical Beatrix Potter sort of scene with rabbits takes us away from the white, pure image of rabbits to more of a maternal, domestic vision. It plays on the fertility and innocence of rabbits by, again, anthropomorphising them and giving them human values.

This is a different kind of advertising, aimed at parents and children. It's bright, the bunny is active and lively, and the company would like to appeal to people in an innocent way.






As I've mentioned, the White Rabbit from Alice In Wonderland is very widespread as a character. They're meant to be a little unsettling in this particular image, contributing to the overall eeriness or oddness of the story.






The were-rabbit from Wallace and Gromit plays on the age-old contrast between innocence and violence. Rabbits are expected to be small and silly, which adds to the element of comedy.