Media producers create products for specific audiences in this case in
television programmes. For this assignment I have chosen the television show
‘The Inbetweeners UK’ for my chosen product for a specific audience. For this assignment
I have picked ‘The Inbetweeners UK’ series one episode one containing the first
6 minute but with a age and gender of males of the ages of the episode. Like lots of
television shows by their producers they use selection of content, construction
of content and codes and conventions to demonstrate how they suit and target a specific
audience.
The Inbeetweeners was
directed by Gordon Anderson and Ben Palmer and created by Damon Beesley and Ian
Morris it aired on channel four in the UK for viewers to watch. The Inbetweeners
genre is being a cringe comedy and sitcom which is targeted to specific
targeted audiences. The specific audience for the Inbetweeners is people who
like cringe comedy and laughter but with a age and gender of males of the age
fifteen to twenty five year olds.
The audience targeted for The Inbetweeners is age range from fifteen to
twenty five year olds mostly teenagers which was set at first due to the cringe
comedy and laughter but because of the success of the show and movies created
it was found that the target audience had risen and grown and has now had a
much bigger age range with adults up to their forties liking it including both
genders male and female liking it in parts of the show. It was also found young
teenage boys would like it more because it’s stereotypical of teenage boys by the
crude humour and the use of topics generally talked about for instance in the
scene I have picked it had three of the characters in the toilet having a
conversation on how girls like sexual activity from Jay.
With the scene I’ve picked it sets up the story of a new boy called Will
McKenzie who is starting at a new school to him ‘common’. He has to go to a new
school because his mum is newly divorced and can’t afford his private school
tuition funds. Audience watching this product can relate to this when parents’
divorce and have to change their life because of financial responds also with joining a new school with people he doesn’t
know and making you feel out of your comfort zone things Audiences can relate
to when joining a new school. In the scene the character of Will walks around
the school to different classes he goes in smart for his first day like you
would but everyone in the school takes punts at him whilst he is walking
through the school corridors audiences can relate to this because it happens at
school people judge one another on appearance not personality.
With the scene I have picked which is six minutes long there is
selection of content for instance with props. One prop used is the use of
phones. It’s a common thing in this day and age for school pupils to have
phones to speak to their mates mostly on social media websites. In the scene
there used to take and see pictures of Will in the school toilets then used in
the school corridors as posters to all take the Mick out of him.
In the scene they use a school
used for the setting with the cast actors and actresses present they all have
typical clothing you would expect to see at a school but individually pupils have
it in their own way of style which is very ordinary to day to day life. Also
with clothing the headmaster is wearing his suit as a headmaster which teachers
wear day to day to be formal.
Construction-
Enigma is used during the scene by the narrative of the story; the
narrative is what the audience are seeing on the screen by the acting but also
by the narrative which in this case is narrated by Will Mckenzie’s by a voice
over in the background directing the audience on what’s happening during
dialogue. From the narrative it brings
humour to the episode and engages the audience to listen to Will’s character on
his story.
In the scene I have picked it doesn’t have any indents but has Music at
the beginning of the scene which is used for every episode of the Inbeetweeners
UK the song played is by Morning Runner called Gone up in flames.
Codes and conventions-
The Inbeetweeners uses linear with the scene in hand it starts from the beginning
to the middle to the end. In the scene it does have flash-forwards which show
what will happen to Will’s Character in the series ahead for instance the
friends and people he meets. It also has a flashback showing that his Mum and
Dad have divorced and now he’s going to a common school. With this particular
sequence these would be non-linear however.
With the flash forward and flash back it gives the audience something in
store with the episode and series ahead including stories that have happened. In
the sequence there is use of language used in the scene which is cringe humour
which isn’t for young kids to watch. There are also references of sex and slang
in the scene as well all things audiences expect to see with teenager
confrontations to the target audience which in this case is particularly male teenagers.
The setting and location of the scene is at Rudge Park Comprehensive School. Which would have been
asked to use for the setting and location of a school it would have also got
permission to have children to be filmed to make it seem real at a school like
normal day to day life.
With the locations on the scene it is set at Rudge Park Comprehensive
School it is also set inside the school set in the school toilet where we see
the four characters; Will, Simon, Neil, Jay and the two bullies. We also visit
the Sixth Form Common room, classrooms and school corridors all things you
would notice in a school to see and expect.
Through conventions the audience know what to expect from The
Inbetweeners because it’s a sitcom audiences would expect laughter in the
episode which it does do and like a sitcom it’s duration to be approximately
thirty minutes long, which the Inbetweeners delivers this desire in twenty five
minutes which can keep an audience engaged and entertained. In the Inbeetweeners there are a few
characters in the short scene I picked.
It has the headmaster, Will McKenzie, Jay, Neil, Simon and two school
bullies with extras being the school children.
Most of the camera shots used in the
scene is medium shots and long shots, medium close ups and cutaway shots. The
cutaway shot focuses on other things for instance other students than just Will
when walking around the corridors. Also in the scene it uses medium shots and
long shots it focuses on the whole character in parts but not from a long
distance and also sometimes the character or characters from the upper body.
From this assignment The Inbetweeners producers can create products for
specific audience with selection of content, construction of content and codes
and conventions.
The second television show I have
chosen for this assignment is ‘The Flash’ a television show which started in 2014
for the UK's channel Sky One and in the USA/ Canada for The CW.
For The Flash I have picked the first episode of the first series which
was a pilot episode. For this episode I have used the first eight minutes to
show how media products are created for specific audiences. Like many
television shows The Flash uses selection of content, construction of content
and codes and conventions to demonstrate how producers suit and target specific
audience.
The Flash is an American
television series which is developed by writer/producers Greg Berlanti,
Andrew Kreisberg and Geoff John and stars Grant Gustin as The Flash character
name Barry Allen.
The series is based on the Dc Comics on
the character of The Flash hence the title. The character of Flash is played by
the character name Barry Allen who is a costumed superhero crime fighter with
the power to move at superhuman speed.
The Flash is a spin-off from the
television series 'The Arrow ' which is in the same existing universe
which is an important factor in the audience The Flash gets. The reason
for this is audiences who like DC Comics will watch The Flash because they’re
interested in Dc comics turning to a television show or films. People who love
Superhero films and comics might like to watch it because it’s similar and like
the genre being superheroes.
Fans of Arrow will stay tuned to
The Flash because the character of Barry Allen had crossover episodes with
Arrow. So people would watch The Flash to see what happened to from Arrow episodes
into The Flash episodes.
Also Arrow’s character as well
was going to be in the first episode of The Flash so Arrow fans would watch for
that purpose to know why he's there for storyline purposes.
People would know of this because the writers
and directors said that there will be various crossover episodes between the
two programmes also because of the trailers realised. People would also watch
superhero television series like The Flash because heroes are often something
people aspire to be.
With the writers and producers of The Flash
they wanted their target audience to be aged 18- 34 also to reach comic book
fans and game enthusiasts to reach comic book fans and game enthusiasts,
plus fans of The Flash as a character.
In the scene I have picked it
uses a narrative which is used from the start where it engages the audience to
watch and listen whilst the character Barry Allen speaks on a voice over
introducing himself to the audience.
The Flash brings indents and subtitles to the
scene this is used to understand the story of the time and year it's
set. In the scene you see '14 years ago' and then’ present today'. It’s clever
because Barry Allen is running as a boy in the past and then plays to him
running in the present as a young adult. By this it addresses the audience for
understanding of time set.
Another scene has police cars at a cold
case crime scene they would have to use police cars for the scene for props and
also needed clearance and a road block for the location. For other props
the detectives would have badges representing their job also uniform which
looks suitable and ordinary clothes for a detective and CSI operatives. In the
scene as well they would have needed a criminal photo which would be used in
real life.
In The Flash
It uses light humour when it’s during an important situation in place dealing
with crime. For instance when Barry Allen is late he always has an excuse
for being late and the detective knows so covers for him for being late to
other detectives. For instance one detective sees to him "what's the
excuse this time Barry?" the last time he was late because of car trouble
but he didn’t have a car. This time he got a chocolate cake for his
friendly detective as cover. As said above The Flash brings light humour.
At the crime
scene it would have needed a body bag as another prop in the scene and the set
up of a cold crime scene. In another scene Barry Allen knows what is happening
at the scene by dirt tracks and comes to the audience’s knowledge by screen
titles on what he's thinking. Another scene has a girl called Iris West who is
a love interest to Barry Allen which you would expect to see in a superhero
story. The hero always has a love interest and in this case it’s a good friend
of his he likes. The Location of the scene is at Central City Police
Department which is used for the setting in The Flash.
The Flash is
Non realist it's not real and like ordinary day to day life, In this scene The
Flash is linear it starts from the beginning to the middle and end it
doesn’t start from the end. The Flash contains Flashbacks in the episode
particularly for this scene I used it was used for Barry Allen’s character as a
child to show what happened to his mum and dad and when he was at school
getting bullied.
In the Flash
there is use of technology and selection of content they use for instance
phones to communicate and computer systems too. In The Flash you expect to see
a character that has super speed as it is said in the title as it's a superhero
series you expect the good guy to have a love interest which he has and some
sort of special abilities.
In a
superhero non realist series you expect to see a villain which you
see by a criminal photo and that he is always dangerous and in this case has
special abilities.
Therefore from The Flash producers
they can create products for specific audience with selection of content,
construction of content and codes and conventions.
Contrast-
For both television shows
explained above they both have very different target audiences. For instance
The Flash being for people who like Superhero television shows, DC Comics or
superhero comics turning from Comics into television series now, fans of Arrow
now watching the Flash because one it is similar and two both series connect
with the characters in the shows with the storylines. Also game
enthusiasts and fans of The Flash as a
character will watch The Flash too with the age range being 18 – 34 year olds.
But with the Inbetweeners it is very different in contrast to the Flash
because The Inbetweeners is targeted to the age range of which is different
firstly. Secondly the Inbetweeners is targeted to people who like cringe
comedy, humor and sitcoms way different to the The Flash.
The audience of Inbetweeners changed massively compared to The Flash
because the Inbetweeners went from teenagers and still teenagers but to an
older age from 18- 25 but now more because of the success overall this is one
of the factors both shows are very different to one another because of the
approaches targeted for their audiences.
Another factor that both shows differ to one another is the genre of the
shows because of this factors the television show producers target their
audience by the genre for Inbetweeners a sitcom and cringe humor and for The
Flash being an action, adventure, drama science fiction mystery series.
Because of the genre; time is different with a sitcom you would expect
it to be no longer than thirty minutes to keep the audience engaged but with
The Flash’s concept it is expected to be no more than an hour being thirty
minutes wouldn’t be enough for The Flash to fit everything in to suit it’s
audience.
Both use a narrative for their scenes which direct the audience on the
story during dialogue they both interest audiences but in their own way as said
above. They also use selection of content, construction of content and codes
and conventions to suit specific audiences but do it different with the
language used and props, one prop they
used the same is technology with the use of phones. They also both use
flashbacks and flash-forwards in the scene where they show a story before the
present and show scenes for the future.
Feedback from focus group-
From the audience focus group feedback on the two chosen television
programs The Flash and The Inbetweeners I received feedback back from two
individuals on what they felt within the programs and what is aimed at them.
Person 1-
The Flash- said that they really enjoy the flash it’s a very interesting
television series with the storylines. It suited him because it’s interesting
to him because he use to read the comics and his favorite character of DC was
The Flash and couldn’t wait for it to be a series.
The Inbetweeners-On the
Inbetweeners he said he liked the cringe comedy which suited him and made him
laugh being entertained throughout and not bored he liked the development of
the story of Will on his life and appealed to his humor of age.
Person 2-
The Flash-
Said they liked The Flash but it hasn’t reached its fall potential yet
it needs to have more action sequences than all talking sequence as it is a
little boring. He was pleased The Flash came as a series because it suited him
because he likes DC as a whole and as The Flash was DC he was interested to see
what the producers and directors did with the show. He also enjoyed the fact
that The Flash’s character Barry Allen was the Flash because he was in Arrow Episodes
which person 2 had watched and liked this because he gets to see more of him
and Arrows Character Oliver Queen because there are crossover episodes.
The Inbeetweeners-
With The Inbetweeners person two liked it because it reminds him of the
conversations he has with his friends which made him laugh watching it in a
television show but with more exaggeration.
Conclusion- Therefore
from this feedback it gives very different views on two media products that
audience get from it for instance what they like what they didn’t like,
improvements and why they watched it for particular reasons.
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