Coursework Evaluation

My taskI was tasked with creating a 2 minute Television segment to be aired on E4 pre-watershed, for ‘Silver Lining Productions’ . In addition to filming this, I had to construct a website for the show I created that encouraged audience interactivity and communication. To prepare for this task, I began research into audiences and production as to understand the requirements more clearly and produce a better quality product.

How successful were your products? Did you fulfill the intentions set out at the beginning of

the assignment?

Our products were successful in terms of what we were capable of producing. For our first project, I believe that we created a good quality piece of work that understood and adhered to the intentions that we set out to complete. We intended to created two strong features, the website and the TV segment, which were both finished to the best possible standard. The fansite is a well presented first attempt at creating a website, we intended for it to be easy to navigate, visually appealing, interesting to read and helpful to our audience, and I believe we accomplished this, which reflects in our work. Our audience feedback reinforces this, as we were commended for its ‘simplicity and design’ and its ‘user friendly’ interface. This feedback compliments the intentions of an easy to navigate site that looks appealing and helpful, furthermore, we gained positive feedback on the ‘character’ page, which indicates that it was interesting to read. Thanks to the audience feedback that we gathered, I can clearly see that the site met the intentions. The only criticism was the colour scheme, however, those who completed the survey complimented how it followed the shows themes, which was our intention as a group. The overwhelming positive feedback indicates the websites success and in turn reflects the fulfilment of the original intentions.

Our film itself met the criteria successfully and looked how we intended it to look. We intended to create a piece of film that had interesting characters, an engaging story and a sense of tension throughout. Quotes from our feedback show that we accomplished these intentions.

In answer to the question:

“What did you LIKE most about the clip you just watched?”

I think due to the feedback and evaluating the work myself, I am able to conclude that our film was very successful in terms of intended outcome and final cut.

What genre were you working in

and how was this apparent to your

audience?

Our show: SnowsHill is a Science-fiction drama. We were sure to make this apparent and be prominent within our products. For example, our website contains a lot of graphology that indicates drama/science-fiction. Features such as the synopsis, outline the science-fiction storyline and setting that this product has, by making reference to alien life, weapons and invasion. Because we intended for the show to be gritty and dark, the themes of the website were quite harsh colours and images. Including these things meant the intention of the shows appearance was met, making it easy for our target audience to understand the genre. To accomplish a similar effect in the show itself, we turned down the aperture of the camera to create a darker image, the actors also carried weapons. These things emphasise the dramatic nature of the genre by connoting danger and threat, something very necessary for aiding the audience in understanding the genre.

(The theme from our fansite. Gives the page a more harsh and gritty appearance, complimenting our intentions to create science-fiction drama)

How well did you target your audience?

I think we targeted our audience very well. We did detailed research into the audience that we were targeting and outlined important details such as: age, gender and opinions. From this research, we were able to clarify exactly what we needed to include to best appeal to our target audience. For example, from the research, we concluded that, because our audience being predominantly male, we chose to include features that males would generally gravitate to. Features such as weapons, a majority male cast and a dark storyline are used specifically to attract males to our show. However, we didn’t completely exclude the possibility of appealing to females, so we tried to include more female friendly aspects to the products, such as a female cast member, emotional character relationships and interesting story. Our female cast member and her role in the group is somewhat of a reflection of the roles of women in society, and how it can be considered a very patriarchal society even in times of trouble, such as the apocalypse.

How successful were each of your products

in communicating their key ideas and

concepts?

The TV segment is an opening sequence, so there we decided to follow a structure of equilibrium (characters taking part in their day to day life) to the final disruption (bang at the gate). We studied Todorov’s narrative theory to best understand how exactly we were going to go about constructing our scene. We decided to incorporate the disruption early in the show because we wanted to create an enigma, according to Roland Barthe’s theory, that would subsequently prompt an audience reaction after the scene: who/what banged on the gate? This was a key concept to us, as our genre contains dramatic elements that are essential for the communication from producers to audience. Something that we learned during pre production was the ‘real’ factor. We wanted the show to touch on real life issues, real relationships and real settings. Despite the shows science fiction conventions, we achieved the ‘real’ factor by including these things. Our show contained very little ambient sound, which reinforced the idea of a post-apocalyptic world, as in such an event, things such as cars and radios would be scarce and therefore not included in out product.

The webpage communicates our ideas and concepts well, as it mirrors the show itself, and also presents its own features that communicate to the audience. Features like the synopsis bring forth a more broad explanation of our show and therefore reveals our key concepts and ideas in more detail.

What kind of ideologies and values did the

productionspromote/attack?

I think that the basis of the entire show is the value of friendship. This is due to the relationships the audience is introduced to throughout the show, and how characters live and thrive in an environment based around a secular unit, with a close relationship. I don’t think that the show is neither promoting nor attacked any values or ideologies, and instead explored them in greater detail. For example, despite the storyline telling the story of a character experiencing a close relative’s death, it was not attacked for being a negative thing, it was instead explored by revealing the character in more detail and showing the relationships he has despite the experience.

If the productions were to promote anything, it would be the need for strong relationships with others. This is promoted by showing how a close group of friends battle threat and live safely with one another. Furthermore, the show contains ideologies of survival, which is inherently linked to the need for relationships to survive. Our female cast member and her role in the group is somewhat of a reflection of the roles of women in society, and how it can be considered a very patriarchal society even in times of trouble, such as the apocalypse. This ideology presents our narrative as closely related to real life society, yet very different in terms of setting and state of the country.

What kind of representations do

the productions raise?

Our product follows the convention that the one of the main protagonists must be a dominant, white, Caucasian male. This turned out to be the character Dan. I think that this is a significant representation, due to the majority of TV shows having white male/female protagonists (Dead Set, Misfits, Skins). The males were represented as dominant and in control, due to the majority of the cast being male and having them hold weapons that put them in a place of power.

The only female character followed the convention of being inferior to the male characters, however this is juxtaposed with the fact that she too carries a weapon. This is slightly unconventional, as it puts her in a position of power, which is indeed unconventional in most science-fiction dramas. However, she is still represented as inferior and below the male characters in the SnowsHill hierarchy. Our female cast member and her role in the group is somewhat of a reflection of the roles of women in society, and how it can be considered a very patriarchal society even in times of trouble, such as the apocalypse.

However, despite this representation of the woman being in power, the website enforces the idea of inferiority by describing her as “optimistic and always cheerful”. This shows that even though she is in control of a firearm, she still has the same traits of a typical woman character represented across many genres (drama, fairy tale etc)

How might you apply your ideas to a third media

platform?

There are a lot of potential third media platforms for our products to be on, to be considered. Perhaps the most well recognised and utilised are the print media platforms. For example, we could put up a billboard advertising our show. When studying E4, I noticed that they used this particular platform to advertise one of our example shows ‘Skins’. This is conventional in institutions and would therefore be a good thing to incorporate our product in.

Due to our show being science-fiction drama, after researching TV shows and films of a similar genre, I discovered an interesting technique of presenting shows in the poster platform. For example, when 28 Days Later began its release campaign, the producers had a large projection image saying “Contaminated KEEP OUT” projected onto the White Cliffs of Dover. This is a good technique as it engages an audience strongly, and also relates to the science-fiction genre, by making the narrative of the show incorporate into real life. This way of presenting a poster is interesting and successful when made, as it reinforces the concept of escapism and allows the audience to link reality and fiction.

I think due to these observations and their apparent success, I would attempt to replicate these advertising techniques when advertising my own show. I would set up billboards containing images of our main characters posed in their costumes in the appropriate setting, followed by a tag line that would imply the narrative set around an apocalypse. This would be accompanied by a broadcast date for my show. This advertisement would give passers by a basic understanding of my show and let them know when to tune in and catch it. Using this technique can allow me to bring in a pre-determined audience of people who have previously enjoyed science-fiction/drama, therefore boosting the shows audience share. To coincide with its initial broadcast, I would do a similar advertisement to 28 Days Later, by setting up posters and other print media to imply a state of nationwide emergency. This would enforce the apocalyptic narrative and science-fiction genre of the show, therefore gaining a larger following and more recognition.