Audience Research- Made In Chelsea

This secondary resource has given me extended evidence on the age range for my target audience for my reality programme. By basing the research on structured reality programmes it will enable me to take some of the information and use it for my own benefit. For example, by knowing the audience for Made In Chelsea is mostly females under 18, I can fit that in with my programme and use that as an advantage. Again, this supports evidence that reality programmes appeal to females and a young audience. This is because the graph shows that the ones who watch the show the most are females who are aged under 18. As well as this, the second most popular audience is females aged 18-29, which is the second youngest audience, suggesting further to young audience who watch reality programmes.

Storyboard

                                                                     Medium Shot

2s

Characters are in centre of the shot, and are placed by myself for the constructed reality.

Sound is diegetic (talking)

Medium shot

2s

Another character is added within the shot.

Diegetic dialogue (talking) Most of the scene is as it is and not constructed/scripted.

Medium shot

2s

Diegetic dialogue (talking)

Low Angle shot and two-shot

2s

Diegetic sound (talking and background noise- door opening)

Again, this flowing clip lasts 13s (including the end which is below) but does change slightly with characters moving at angles. Although, the angle of the shot does not change. Sound is diegetic throughout.

Close up

1s

Diegetic sound (background noise- sniffling, coughing)

Very Long shot (VLS)

2s

Diegetic sound (talking)

Long shot and a cutaway shot.

2s

Diegetic sound (talking)

Medium shot

2s

Diegetic sound (talking)

Original clip is 13s but the clip throughout is the same, with angles and sound not changing. Only the movement of the character is slight facial movement, head movement and hand movement but does not affect angle of shot.

Medium shot and cut-away

2s

Diegetic sound (talking)

Original clip is 4s but angles and shots are all the same throughout this clip.

Audience Research- The Only Way Is Essex

This secondary resource can allow me to identify and further my knowledge on my own target audience for my reality TV programme. This graph shows that the audiences who watch The Only Way Is Essex are primarily females, with most of the results being that the female audience is twice as more as the male audience. According to this graph the age who watch Towie the most is 18-29 year olds which gives evidence to reality programmes having young audiences. The graph shows that females aged 18-29 are the ones who watch this show the most and therefore support the gendered and age argument over reality programmes, particulary ones who are structured. Although, this graph does show that older viewers watch the show too just not as much as younger views, who are pimary audience for this show.

Broadcast Research- Keeping Up With The Kardashians

It is an American reality TV series starting on October 14th 2007 on E! Which features the Kardashian and Jenner family who are known for the drama in their family, with the people involved being: Kris Jenner mum of (Kourtney, Kim, Khloé, Rob Kardashian and, Kendall and Kylie Jenner) Bruce Jenner being the step-dad to the Kardashian sisters and Rob, but being the biological father to Kendall and Kylie. Not only is Bruce the father to Kendall and Kylie Jenner with Kris, but also has other children from previous marriages to Christy Crownover, with whom he had a son, Burt, and a daughter, Casey. He was also married to Linda Thompson, with whom he had sons Brandon and Brody. It also features Kourtney's boyfriend Scott Disick, who have 2 children together- Mason and Penelope. It also features Khloé's husband basketball player Lamar Odom, and in newer episodes Kim's boyfriend Kanye West who recently gave a birth to a baby girl- North West. The programme is very popular still to this day where it reaches near to 2 million or over each episode. Although the programme has dropped ratings compared to 2009, where the programmed seemed to be more popular. Even though the show seems to be rated quite highly, there are a lot of critisms about the show, with allegations that they fabricate the storylines to create more drama and entertainment. Throughout the criticisms the family still continue to film episodes, with Ryan Seacrest being the main executive producer who once saw the family knew they would entertain audiences, so made the show. Whatever critics they get, they will always have the fame as the show has made them worth a net of $80M.

Keeping up with the Kardashians is often known for its dramas and are often circulated out of the show also. Some of the well-known dramas include Scott's behaviour towards the family where he often says that he doesn't enjoy their company and would much rather spend it with his friends. Also a massive drama is a more recent one with accusations that Khloè and husband Lamar are divorcing as he faced being in rehab after drug scandals. Another well known drama is Kim's pregnancy and also the trouble with Khloè becoming pregnant. A recent trip to Greece saw Kendall have a break down which became a hit with the media. Another recent drama in which the paparazzi are being dangerous towards the family as there is so many of them, especially now Kim has a baby where not only Kim but also boyfriend Kanye are worried for their daughter's safety.

This show is another inspiration for my own work. The show gives me inspirations because of the layout of the cameras and how their lives are portrayed. A similiar idea founded by myself for my reality TV show. The camera angles in the Kardashians are at times focusing on their expressions, which would be a close up on their faces; medium close up. When there is emotion portrayed the cameras interestingly, zoom in, this captures all the drama and emotion from the show. By zooming right in to the face, it can connect the audience with the emotion and may even make them feel the same. The trailer for season 9 shows clips of some of the episodes, the most dramatic and emotional ones. This is because the trailer needs to capture all of the drama, so the audience will want to watch it. The audience for this TV show is normally teenagers to young adults, but some of the mums of the teenagers watch it, which are the secondary audience. In the show, the location is usually at their homes, but sometimes features holiday destinations around the world, Bora Bora being an example of one of their holidays as a family. By publisising their holidays, it shows they rarely have privacy, which viewers can find interesting and the fact that it will contain drama and moments that should be private but aren't. Within the title sequence, it has a theme tune, which features on every episode. The theme tune is quite upbeat, and also features the family posing at the start of the scene. They portray the family as 'happy' and try to convey a bit of all of their personalities. For example, Kim is shown to be late as this is like her in real life, but it is also showing how she comes into the scene priming her hair and checking to see if she looks right, showing Kim's personality. The text comes in right to the end, but is emphasised because of its colour, purple; quite a bright, cheerful colour to show how the show is supposed to be like its logo.

Hollyoaks Opening Sequence Analysis

This title sequence of the soap Hollyoaks is of inspiration to what my title sequence might be. The introduction of all the characters of the show and a backdrop of their personality has also given me inspiration to what I could put into my sequence. The colours are bright and vibrant which could be to portray a sense of drama and to give a sense of what's coming on the episode. With the title sequence there is different backdrops to represent the different character's and their personalities. This in interesting because if one of the character's is a 'bad guy' then his personality would be portrayed as dark, dull and seemingly scary. This would show the audience what type of people are on the show and how stereotypes are used. This appeals to what I'm doing because I am interested in the camera angles and the title sequence, where the characters have small scenes to show bits of their personality. I would like to feature something similiar to this in my title sequence, where I will feature a backdrop and various shots to capture each character's personality of my show. As well as this, the non-diegetic sound featured would be of similar use because I would feature non-diegetic sound throughout the title sequence and then let it fade out when the title sequence is finished.

Broadcast Research- Institutions

Channel 4 is a British television broadcaster, and began its first transmission in November 1982. The channel relies on adverts and popular controversial programmesfor the funding of the channel, ultimately it is publicly owned. With the conversion of the Wenvoe transmitter group in Wales to digital in March 2010, Channel 4 became an entirely UK-wide TV channel for the first time.

The channel was established to provide a fourth television service to the United Kingdom in addition to the television licence-funded BBC's two services and the single commercial broadcasting network, ITV. After control of the station passed from the Channel Four Television Company to the Channel Four Television Corporation in 1993, a shift in broadcasting style took place. Instead of aiming for the fringes of society, it began to focus on the edges of the mainstream, and the centre of the mass market itself. It began to show many US programmes in peak viewing time, far more than it had previously done. It premièred such shows as Friends and ER.

In the early 2000s, Channel 4 began broadcasting reality formats such as Big Brother and obtained the rights to broadcast mass appeal sporting events like cricket and horse racing. This new direction increased ratings and revenues. Channel 4 has raised concerns over how it might finance its public service obligations after digital switch-over. However, some certainty lies in the announcement in April 2006 that Channel 4's digital switch-over costs would be paid for by licence fee revenues.

On 28 March 2007, Channel 4 announced plans to launch a music channel "4Music" as a joint venture with British media company EMAP which would include carriage on the Freeview platform. On 15 August 2008, 4Music was launched across the UK. Recently, Channel 4 have announced interest in launching a high-definition version of Film4 on Freeview, to coincide with the launch of Channel 4 HD, however the fourth HD slot was given to Channel 5 instead. Channel 4 has since acquired a 50% stake in EMAP's TV business for a reported £28 million.

Public Service remit

The preamble of the remit as per the Communications Act 2003 states that:

"The public service remit for Channel 4 is the provision of a broad range of high quality and diverse programming which, in particular: demonstrates innovation, experiment and creativity in the form and content of programmes; appeals to the tastes and interests of a culturally diverse society; makes a significant contribution to meeting the need for the licensed public service channels to include programmes of an educational nature and other programmes of educative value; and exhibits a distinctive character." This would suggest that the shows they air would need to appeal to wide audiences, but also that they are unique so that audience will want to watch.

Channel 4 has many channels which it is associated with, including: 4seven, Film4, E4, More4, 4Music, Heat, Kerrang! Kiss, Magic, Smash Hits and The Box. This channel is an appropriate channel to feature my reality TV programme, because it is known for its controversial reality programmes. This would suit my programme because my programme features these characteristics. 

E4 is a British digital television channel, launched as a pay-TV companion to Channel 4 on 18 January 2001. The "E" stands for entertainment, and the channel is mainly aimed at the lucrative 15–35 age group. Programming includes U.S. imports such as The Cleveland Show, The O.C., Smallville, Veronica Mars, Everwood, What About Brian?, Desperate Housewives, How I Met Your Mother, 90210, One Tree Hill, Ugly Betty, Scrubs, Rules of Engagement, The Big Bang Theory, 2 Broke Girls, Revenge, and formerly Friends. Other programming includes British shows such as Misfits, The Ricky Gervais Show, Shameless, Hollyoaks, Skins, The Inbetweeners, Made in Chelsea, and My Mad Fat Diary. Some U.S. imports, such as Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty are screened on E4 up to one week ahead of their Channel 4 broadcasts. Its most successful broadcast to date was on 11 October 2010 when an episode of The Inbetweeners pulled in over 3.7 million viewers.

Promotions

E4 has become somewhat notorious for its strange promotion campaigns, initially narrated by the ‘voice of E4’, Patrick Allen. Since Allen's death in 2006, the similar voice of Peter Dickson has been used. Trailers often make use of dry humour and phrases which, at first, do not appear to make any sense. Past examples include: 

• “Big shiny films in your dinky little home!”
• “Coming to you, straight into your telly box”
• “Second chance Sunday — not just a bunch of repeats, honest”

Programme trailers sometimes have the narrator repeating things that characters have said, such as, in a trailer for Ugly Betty that includes one character asking Betty "Why are you crying in the bathroom?", the narrator immediately asks "Why is Betty crying in the bathroom?!". And on another occasion, he says "Oh No! Kerry Katona must be double booked." commenting on a cameo by Victoria Beckham. Sometimes the narrator appears to interact with the characters of the programme, especially notable in recent trailers for Miss Match and What About Brian.

E4's continuity sends up the channel's Friends-reliant schedule - while in the past, announcements would generally be the same for example "Now it's time to relax with Friends", more recently the announcers have been more inventive with phrases such as "....after an episode of Friends we've shown so many times the tape's gone a bit wobbly" before a Series 1 episode which indeed had a distorted soundtrack. There have only been a handful of days since the creation of E4 when Friends hasn't been shown. It was announced on 10 February 2010 that E4 and Channel 4 would stop airing the programme in autumn 2011.This channel is the most appropriate channel to feature my programme because this is the channel which has featured the most reality, controversial programmes. As well as this, their audience demographic is suited well to my programme; 15-35 years old.

E! (formally "E!: Entertainment Television") is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by the NBCUniversal Cable division of NBCUniversal. It features entertainment-related programming, reality television, feature films and occasionally series and specials unrelated to the entertainment industry. As of August 2013, E! has an audience reach of approximately 96,472,000 American households (84.48% of households) and 600 million international homes.E! Online is the online arm of E!, featuring live updates on entertainment news stories; the website includes an online-only entertainment news bulletin titled E! News Now, which is updated each weekday. The website also provides live streaming video of major red carpet events including movie premieres and award shows such as the Academy Awards and the Emmys, along with some blogs involving shows such as The Soup. I chose to research this channel because I made some analysis of one of the shows its primarily advertises, Keeping Up With The Kardashians. The reason I analysed that programme was because it is one of the most popular and controversial reality TV programmes (which is similar to my programme- fly on the wall family series, with the cameras featured anywhere and everywhere). This would help to know what kind of camera angles and shots to use, but also give me an idea of what other similar programmes are out there.

Statement of Intent

Statement of Intent

I intend to produce a piece of film, which will compare similar to a trailer. My piece fits into brief one, which will be a reality TV programme. My broadcast piece will be aimed at a target audience of 15-35 year olds and predominantly at the audience demographic of C and below. This target audience matches that of E4’s audience, which my programme is supposedly part of (E4). The sequence will be approximately 2 minutes, including the editing and filming. The print platform will consist of a souvenir magazine of a front cover and two inside pages.  I will ensure that I place focus on the target audience and the conventions of the reality genre throughout production of my chosen platforms; Broadcast and Print.

Research

I intend to evaluate existing products within my genre, as well as focusing on particular media concepts that will link in within my production pieces and link to my target audience. I will be evaluating existing products of both the Print and Broadcast platforms because these are the two platforms I have chosen. The evaluation of these existing products will give me an insight, inspiration and help influence my ideas for the creation of my own products. Also, I intend to research into different institutions which feature similar programmes and magazines to my genre. By doing this it will give me a better insight and understanding into the ‘Reality’ genre and what is expected of those institutions and why the ‘Reality’ genre is featured within those institutions.

Audience

After the research I have done and evaluation of that I should be able to come up with a target audience for my piece, taking into consideration my briefs suggestion. I should be able to say why I have chosen the specific target audience for my production and link that in with media products that I have researched. As well as this, I should be able to identify the needs expectations of that particular audience in relation to the genre and products.

Planning

After firm research and after understanding the audience and their needs within the ‘Reality’ genre I should be able to make a decision on the product that I want to create. After having a firm idea on the product I want to create I should consider certain aspects within the planning of my product. These include storyboards which will be an initial plan of what I want the broadcast to plan out like. Scripts (if any) which will indicate the parts of diegetic sound which need to be scripted beforehand. Considering the Print I should make a draft design whether hand or on the computer of initial ideas. Throughout these ideas I should ensure to refer to research made prior to choices. I should be able to justify why I’ve made these choices and how these affect the audience and their interpretation of the product. At the end of the initial designs I should be able to pick the most appropriate design to ensure the audience take the product in as a realistic reality magazine.

Reality TV inspirations and ideas

This shapes my ideas because the programmes give me insight of the certain programmes I could base my coursework on. The annotations are what I think each show is about and certain characteristics about each show. For example The Only Way Is Essex is a reality based popular TV show which features all kinds of drama, some of which has been scripted. Not only that the show is seen to be glamorous, with a lot of glitter, high heels and parties. This conveys the typical stereotypes of Essex and the adults within that lifestyle. It shows the continuous dramas and conflicts between the cast members, these would usually end in emotions throughout some of the characters. These emotions would be exaggerated to make the show seem more dramatic and interesting, these of which are shown with close ups of the camera angles on the characters faces. Other characteristics such as costume and location also affect the effectiveness of the drama of the show. For example, most of the show is filmed in clubs and bars to show the party, stereotypical lifestyle and to convey more dramatic scenes and emotions. Costumes are usually extravagant to show the lifestyle they lead, and would also mirror the drama of their life or whats to come in the show. This compares with the location which is as stated usually clubs which the dressy outfits outlines and contrasts with, again to show the dramatic and emotional scenes that are to come.