IT CROWD - AUDIENCE PLEASURES

The characters present audience pleasures as they offer a recognisable and familiar stereotype which all members of the audience are aware of. The audience feels reassured as the very stereotypical characters possess qualities that most people share and therefore feel at ease when a character makes a mistake or a fool of themselves as they do not worry as much about social pressure.

Jen - She is constructed as an optimistic young woman who is practically completely helpless when it comes to computers and technology. She is friendly and seems to be capable of making friends instantly. Although her IT skills are lacking she doesn't come across as a stereotypical 'blonde bimbo' - she is relatively intelligent, yet does still possess many stereotypical female qualities/ characteristics. Yet still isn’t an appropriate choice to be made ‘Head of IT’. She is sociable and does her best to make new acquaintances and almost guide the boys into being what is classified as ‘normal’ on a social level.

Roy - He is quite a sloth-like human and spends a lot of his time at the IT desk answering the phone with the same bored voice. He is represented as the sort of guy who is unlucky with love and unable to hold onto a girlfriend. He does attempt to impress women but fails quite dramatically. Although he is rude to customers he does seem to be an all-round nice guy.

Moss - He is constructed as a very stereotypical geek. Both Moss and Roy alienate the customers but Moss' approach is not rude, in fact he confuses them by being too helpful and using complicated IT terms. He doesn't understand any form of flirting and seems to be confused by anything to do with relationships. He is very awkward and this makes his character very comical as he also is unfamiliar with the concept of sarcasm.

CREATING AN IDENT

29/01/15 | CONSTRUCTION | CREATING AN IDENT

During our most recent media lesson, Eleanor, Harriet and I decided to create our production company ident. This involved using iStop-Motion to display a vault door locking. Our production company is called ‘Vault 15 Productions’ and so we cut out an image of a vault door along with the text and filmed frame by frame. We had to do a few takes to get the right lighting and to make sure the camera was fully focused.

We ended up with a successful ident which is short and displays a vault door which the handle spinning displaying it locking. We decided on the name as the ‘Vault’ is relevant as it where things are safely kept and this is our project that we need to keep safe. The 15 comes from our ages as were all 15 years old so decided that it can be vault number 15. 

INSTITUTIONS: QI & THE IT CROWD

Institutional contexts:

• The media channels‘/stations’ brand identities
•  The media channels’/stations’ ethos and histories (only relevant if they affect programmes)
• Regulatory (eg Public Service Broadcasting) requirements
• The media channels’/stations’ target audiences.
• Institutional contexts need only be discussed insofar as they illuminate the institutions’ choice of texts; they should not be studied independently of The IT Crowd and QI.

QI is broadcast on two channels, one being 'Dave' and the other being 'BBC Two'. BBC Two shows the television programme on Thursday nights at 10pm and Friday nights at around 11pm. The brand identify of BBC is to 'inform, educate and entertain' the audience. BBC Two is also quite family orientated and also shows a large amount of Tv drama shows. QI suits the brand identify and it's target audience as it provides comical yet factual discussions about a large variety of subjects, including: history; art; science; culture and more. QI is currently on series 'L' and the BBC premieres the new episodes, whereas 'Dave' shows older repeats of the show. 

BBC 2's remit is 'to be a mixed-genre channel appealing to a broad adult audience with programmes of depth and substance. It should carry the greatest amount and range of knowledge building programming of any BBC television channel, complemented by distinctive comedy, drama and arts programming.'

The channel Dave was originally known as 'UKTV', but was re-branded with a new brand identity. Dave predominantly targets men between the ages of 15 and 45 as is named because 'everybody knows a bloke called Dave'. Therefore making the channel relatable and familiar to audiences. The slogan to the channel is 'the home of witty banter' informing audiences that the shows are primarily comical. Dave broadcasts QI at a wider range of times in comparison to BBC Two. It can be shown between 8pm and 3am unlike the regular 10/11pm slots.

THE IT CROWD ANALYSIS

On Friday we read through the script of an episode from the IT Crowd entitled "Yesterday's Jam". We deconstructed part of the script during class and then analysed further for homework. 

Character Construction:

• Jen - She is constructed as a optimistic young women who is practically completely helpless when it comes to computers and technology. She is friendly and seems to be capable of making friends instantly. Although her IT skills are lacking she doesn't come across as a stereotypical 'blonde bimbo' - she is relatively intelligent, yet does still possess many stereotypical female qualities/ characteristics. 
• Roy - He is quite a sloth-like human and spends a lot of his time at the IT desk answering the phone with the same bored voice. He is represented as the sort of guy who is unlucky with love and unable to hold onto a girlfriend. He does attempt to impress women but fails quite dramatically. Although he is rude to customers he does seem to be a all round nice guy.
• Moss - He is constructed as a very stereotypical geek. Both Moss and Roy alienate the customers but Moss' approach is not rude, in fact he confuses them by being too helpful and using complicated IT terms. He doesn't understand any form of flirting and seems to be confused by anything to do with relationships. He is very awkward and this makes his character very comical. 

QI AUDIENCE PLEASURES

I went on the BBC Official Homepage (BBC website link here) and typed into the search bar "QI clips". This lead me to a large collection of small clips from shows. I watched a few of these and found one called 'Who or what is a long-necked Karen' from series 'K'. 

The clip I watched is here.

Audience Pleasures:
In this extract you see the familiar faces of Stephen Fry and Alan Davies who are in every episode. Stephen plays to role of the superior intellectual quiz-master and Alan acts as the fool (also known as a scapegoat). We develop on-screen relationships with these TV personalities. Relationships are one of the four categories for media consumption and it allows audiences to form connections with the comedians. In this clip there is physical and verbal humour when Alan Davies is messing around and acting out how your head wouldn't be supported by a long neck. The other panellists contribute to the verbal humour by making silly comments. This clip is light-hearted and comical and so provides pleasure to the audience. 

CHRISTMAS WORK

3/1/15 | PRODUCTION | FILMING

Eleanor, Harriet and I found time over the Christmas holidays to film some scenes for our thriller opening, Erica. We asked our friend Nicola to help us as Niamh - who was originally playing Faith - was unavailable and we needed another person to assist us in filming and also to play the role of Faith. We used Harriet's house as our location and used torches and street lights to create an eerie, night-time look as well as a Canon 550D to film. I did the make-up and Eleanor did the hair styling and also did some casting as she helped find us a new Faith. Harriet took on the role of filming, however we all took turns filming and contributing yet also had certain roles which were our own. 

BFI EXIT POLLS

18/10/14 | RESEARCH | BFI EXIT POLLS

I looked at the BFI website and read through their exit polls. The website says “We carry out exit poll surveys for the films we support through our Distribution Fund. Exit Polls are standard practice for major releases, but much less so for smaller or independent films.”

Here is the link: BFI website

I wanted to find out about audiences and therefore develop my target audience profile. I read through some surveys from films in the same genre. I researched five separate films as case studies that I have looked at in chart form. I also conducted some qualitative research using IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes.
Here are my case studies showing BFI Exit Polls and Rotten Tomatoes reviews:

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Host 

Monsters

The Skin I Live In

West is West