A2; Conflicting Media Theories

I have chosen to study The Male Gaze (Mulvey) - the idea that media is shown in the eyes of a white heterosexual man. There is plenty of evidence such as through products like Coca Cola. The curves of the bottle are meant to reassemble a woman body - or at least how a man wishes a woman body to look like.
The Male Gaze is also shown in films such as James Bond where the woman is used mainly as an erotic object but has no real effect on the story line of the film itself.

However there are theories that conflict with these ideas. For example; The Female Gaze. The Female Gaze is the idea that media is shown through the eyes of a woman - something which is becoming slowly more popular. An example of this can be found in the children's animated film Madagascar 2. Gloria the hippo looks like you would expect a normal hippo too look, as do all the other female hippos. However the male hippo, Motto Motto, emerges out of the water with bushy eyebrows and a strong stomach.

http://youtu.be/_-4uV-CdT1o

Double page spread

Print; First Draft

Complete first draft of the print side of my coursework (including front cover and double page spread) made on Photoshop.

After Dark - Final Video

First draft at our completed media broadcast. This was made on Windows Movie Maker - we tried iMovie but it didn't support the format of our videos.


I did try to re-edit this however Movie Maker kept crashing when I opened it, if it would let me I would have added subtitles.


 

Potential Souvenir Magazine Cover

I used Photoshop to attempt a front cover for my souvenir magazine.

I used the burn tool too darken the sky and the landscape and the dodge tool to highlight all the characters on the cover. I researched some other souvenir magazines ( some for reality tv such as The X Factor) and found that a lot of them have "stickers" that say "first look" and "exclusive" on them so I added one too to intrigue an audience into buying it. The sticker and the triangle in the corner were both originally bright colours but I darkened them to go with the "thriller" genre of the show. As this is a new show I set the price low but it is more expensive than weekly magazines. I have also included a bar-code and both our logo for Silver Linings Productions (the company) and E4 (the channel it will air on) as they are the two institutions involved. The name of the show "After Dark" is rising upwards like the word "after" denotes and the slogan "What happens when the lights go out?" is used so an audience can recognize After Dark when they hear or see it. It can be seen as both a scary slogan as darkness connotes fear, and a comedic slogan as it sounds like a sexual innuendo. This shows both sides of the "comedy-thriller" genre.  

Photos for Print

On Wednesday, the After Dark group and I went back to our location to take photos for print. There are a few photos which I am particularly proud of:

The first is a group photo of the contestants from a high angle shot (looking down). The effect of this angle makes the contestants look smaller and more scared and to an audience it could look like the audience can easily be in control of them. The grave stones in the background help to set the scene.

The second picture is the complete opposite of the previous one. By having a low angle shot (looking up) it makes the contestants look more powerful as if they are ready to take on the challenges laid before them. It gives an audience a sense of fear and insecurity, who is psychologically dominated by the characters. This goes with the "thriller" side of our genre of  "comedy-thriller".  You can see part of the church in the background which is the location for our show. The tree also adds to the thriller side as it looks as it is looming over both the contestants and who ever is viewing the photo.

The next two pictures are similar however we have both sets of costume on as I have not decided which picture to use in my print yet however it will most likely be the first photo. By having a long shot of the hosts in the foreground and a very long shot of the contestants in the background, the audience is able to see every bit of us. It makes the hosts look more powerful and in control of the contestants who look smaller. However due to the audience being able to see our whole bodies it makes them feel like they are in control of everyone. A very long shot allows people to focus on the characters as well as to see what is in the background as well whereas the very long shot of the contestants is meant to give off a general impression of them as opposed to specific information, this could potentially leave an audience wanting to find out more. An audience will clearly be able to see the grave stones on either side and the Church in the background, allowing them to have an insight into what our reality program is about. Due to having all of this in one picture I believe it would make a good front cover picture to a magazine.

We also took some photos of the setting in case we wanted to use it as the background to our souvenir magazines. 

 

Finally we took individual pictures of characters in both their sets of costumes so you get an outline into their personalty's. Medium shots allow audiences to really focus on what is happening in the shot. I sorted out the costumes for the girls and my partner did the boy's costume. Check my post on Character Profiles (http://mediamademedoit.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/character-profiles.html) for information on each one.

Lucy Right is the fun (but sometimes annoying) character therefore she is wearing bright green trousers and has a giant cat on her t-shirt which some members of an audience could consider annoying and some could find cute and fun.

In her night clothes she looks fearless and ready to take on any challenge. 

The photo of her tripping up adds to the "comedy" side of our genre of "comedy-thriller"

Sienna Parnell is used to more of an upper-class society hence why she is in a floral buttoned blouse, simple blue skirt and has her hair tidied up into a bun. 

In her night clothes she looks as though she is above all of this, as if nothing is able to scare her, however in the show this may not actually be true.

Ashley Jenson is the main girl in our program. She is wearing the most short and revealing clothes and in our show is the most stupid therefore she is an archetype of blonde women in the media.

In her night clothes all she cares about is how she looks, she does not take winning very seriously as appearance is of the utmost importance to her. She is the type to get scared easily.

Our last contestant is Mason Cole. He is wearing blue which is a colour that is stereotypical as it tends to be associated with the gender of males.

He is laughing in his individual photo as his character is known for being a "class-clown". Unfortunately we had some issues with this actors costume as even though we constantly reminded him to bring different clothes to change into for the different pictures he still didn't, therefore the best we could do for the night photos was zip his coat up and try not to get his bottom half in it too much so it does not look as if he is wearing the same trousers. I am sure I can Photoshop his jacket to look darker in the second picture.

Of course I still need to Photoshop the background to look darker in all the photos where the contestants are wearing darker clothes as I have with the following pictures for the title sequence:

A before and after picture is available on this post:

 http://mediamademedoit.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/light-to-dark.html 

Of course I wont be able to include all these pictures but it's better to have taken a lot and chose from them later than not to have taken enough pictures.

Souvenir Magazine

Part of my brief is to write an article for a souvenir magazine. Recently I went to see David Tennant in a Shakespearean play called Richard II up in London and I bought a souvenir magazine for it. It cost me £4 however because our reality tv show is new and is not quite as sophisticated as a Shakespearean play, I think the price will be a little less (£2 or £3 maybe). The front of the magazine looks like this:

It consists of the title of the play, the author of the play, an image including the main character, and the two institutions involved (Barbican and RSC). The only thing missing that I would include is a bar-code label and a price, they did not include them because they sold them outside the theater by hand. 

The inside of the magazine consists of history on the play:

An interview on the play by two of the actors: 

Backstage photos:

Profiles on the cast:

And a lot more.

In my two page spread magazine I will include exclusive photos, character profiles and an interview and maybe a bit on the history of the Church - only two or three sentences though.

The magazine itself is made of card and stapled together in the middle. I might use the same material for my magazine as well. 

Diary Room

This is part of our Reality TV show that uses continuity to give the clip a more consistent flow. The non-diegetic sounds of the music are there to show the comedic side of the fight that the two contestants are having in the diary room, the non-diegetic music at the end is the theme music for our show, and there is also a non-diegetic sound of a voice over at the end. The only diegetic sounds are the voices of Ashley, Sienna and the caretaker. We were originally going to have the task (Ashley and Sienna in the woods) at the end of the diary room scene however the diary room scene did not flow as when I edited it together I had to keep cropping parts out from where the actors where laughing or had forgotten their lines therefore by adding the task scenes in between the diary room scene, it flowed a lot better and I found it made the whole scene a lot more comedic. The task scenes are in black and white as it is not happening at that present time they are talking in the diary room, it is reflecting on what will happen. Also the landscape was very bright when we filmed it and even when I turned the brightness down as low as it could on Movie Maker, it was still obvious that it was day time so using the research I had conducted a while ago about how to film in the dark, I used the black and white technique to make it imply that it is night time. The whole scene put together at the end was originally 1 and a half minutes long however the whole project is suppose to be two minutes long therefore I have cut a few lines out to make the length just 34 seconds. This worked to our advantage as we found the shorter the script was for the diary room, the more smoothly the scene went.

Diary Room and Voice Over

One of the most well-known reality TV shows is Big Brother. They have an iconic "Diary Room" which is now used in other popular reality shows such as I'm A Celebrity therefore our show will consist of one too. A place where people let out their true thoughts and feelings to the public or a place people go before they have to do a task. On Big Brother they also have a voice over as they do on many reality shows such as Come Dine With Me. We will also be including a voice over in our show.

Costume Research

I have researched the different clothes that people wear on Reality TV shows.

On the reality game show Britain's Got Talent, the hosts (Ant and Dec) they are both wearing smart casual clothes. They are not dressed to fancy which would make the audience like them more as they seem more down-to-earth however they are not scruffy which means they still look presentable to host a popular game show.

Another example of hosts wearing smart casual clothes are the two hosts on E4's Tool Academy. Both hosts look tidy however they are not over-doing it. 

Our hosts will also be wearing smart casual clothes.

We also have an archetype as one of our contestants. Ashley Jenson is a stereotypical blonde who is not very clever. 

As shown by Helen Flanagan from I'm A Celebrity, she only cares about her appearance and tends to wear very short clothes which is what we will portray in Ashley Jensons character.

Light to Dark

Using Photoshop I have edited a picture of one of our characters (Mason Cole) to make the landscape look more dark. It still needs some work in the top left hand corner and I need to blur his outline a bit to make it look more natural. 

Filming

Using my partners video camera, we recorded most of our project. I placed the camera in different areas around the room to create some fly on the wall shots. We also used medium close-ups and long shots. At the moment I am editing the photos for the title sequence using Photoshop as I need to make some of the photos darker to make it looks more like night time. When my partner has sent me the videos I will also edit them to make it look darker/lighter and put it all together as well as adding voice overs.

Basic Script

[Cold open. HOSTS are in front of the outside location in their "daytime" costumes. Medium close-up]
Alex: 4 Contestants
Sanny: One week in a haunted house
Alex: Who will face their fears?
Sanny: For a chance to win £13000.
Alex: Who goes? You decide.
Sanny: What happens when the lights go out?
Alex: Welcome to After Dark

*** Title Sequence ***

[HOSTS are in front of the outside location in their "daytime" costumes. Medium close-up]
Alex: We have searched the country for our perfect contestants
Sanny: They are fearless, brave and up for anything
Alex: ...Maybe they're not the perfect contestants then
Sanny: Let’s see what happened when they met for the first time in the living room.

[CONTESTENTS are gathered together in the indoor location. They all shake hands and exchange names and pleasantries. Fly on the wall shot]
Voice Over: In the living room
Ashley: There is like nothing in here! I don’t even see a mirror!!
Lucy: Well yeah it’s not a 5 star hotel!
Sienna: What do you think we will be expecting from this competition?
Lucy: I don’t know but I hope it’s fun!!!
Sienna: Yes well...as long as there are not spiders involved it should be splendid.
Lucy: Of course there will be spiders, it’s a scary show!
Mason: What the hell have we signed ourselves up for? People have just gotta pull their weight and it will work!
Ashley: I'm with that Sienna girl; I’m not going anywhere near spiders or anything that will ruin my make-up or hair.
Sienna: God forbid!
Mason: You look good though.
Sienna: That’s because she is caked in make-up...
Lucy: Haha that is true
[ASHLEY runs off.]
Sienna: [sarcastically] was it something I said?
Mason: This is gonna be 50 shades of cray

[Image of the moon is shown to show that it is dark. HOSTS are in front of the Church in their 'night time' clothes. Long Shot]
Alex: Lets see which of our competitors will be doing the first task
Sanny: This will help you to decide who to vote out later tonight
[HOSTS walk towards the church]

[HOSTS enter the room with the CONTESTANTS. Everyone is now in their 'night time' clothes. Very long shot]
Mason: Here they comeee
Alex: Hello all!
Sanny: This first challenge is called Garden Of Terror
Alex: Alright folks, this challenge will test your speed as well as your hunting skills. You will be collecting the five items around the garden, but be warned...you will be chased by the crazy caretaker.
Sanny: You will be looking around the garden for five envelopes; each will contain a luxury that will make your stay here a little more comfortable and a little less basic.
Alex: Well, as comfortable as you could get here.
Sanny: The two contestants completing the first challenge are...
[5 second pause, extreme close up on each contestant per second]
Alex: Sienna and Ashley.
[ASHLEY is shocked]
Sanny: We will see you in one hour.
[HOSTS leave the room]
Mason: Make sure you get the envelopes!
Sienna: Oh don't worry, I intend too.
Ashley: What if there are spiders and cobwebs or if something falls in my hair, I don’t want to do it!
Lucy: Well you have to!

[ASHLEY and SIENNA are sat in the Diary Room in their "challenge" clothes. Medium close-up]
Sienna: We will complete this task effortlessly
Ashley: What??? Are you kidding?? I don’t even want to do this task!!!
Sienna: Well we have to for the good of the team; it's just searching around a garden. Shouldn't be hard.
Ashley: I'm not going anywhere near mud! You can shove your snobby nose into it but I’m not!
Sienna: Well I say! How dare you insult me like that! Just because I am far more intellectual than you!
Ashley: Intellectual?
Sienna...clever
Ashley: At least I’m pretty! It looks like you've just come from a Halloween party!
Sienna: Brains before beauty. I'm going to complete this task while you will be sitting there screaming like a big cry baby!
Ashley: Shut up I'll find the envelops before you...I just need to avoid the spiders. Hopefully one of the luxuries will be some hair straighteners
Voice over: Coming up after the break

[Preview of ASHLEY and SIENNA in the garden completing the challenge. Fly on the wall shot]
Sienna: I've got one! Go get that!
Ashley: No there’s spiders!
[CREEPY CARETAKER starts chasing ASHLEY. ASHLEY screams and falls over]
Sienna: Oh My Goodness!

***Title Break***

Character Profiles

We went to the outdoor location of a church that I decided for our reality show and using my high quality 720p camera I took pictures of all of the characters ready for the title sequence. I chose these actors and actresses as I feel they are best suited to the role and I know them well so it is easy to communicate with them as they will not get embarrassed. I was in charge of sorting out the girls and their costumes and my partner was in charge of sorting out the boys. We did have a second boy however he dropped out so we had to compromise so I tried to fit his characters profile into the other boys character.

These are the characters that we will be including in our project:

Sienna Parnell is one of our female characters who is 17 years old. She is of an upper class and has a high demographic profile (A or B whereas the rest of the characters are no higher than a C) therefore is more posh than the others hence she believes that she is better than everyone else and tends to pose judgement on others. 

***

We will start a conflict between Sienna Parnell and Ashley Jenson as part of the Uses and Gratification theory as an audience tends to get entertained when they see others arguing therefore this will bring them satisfaction. 

Ashley Jenson is a 17 year old character that we are stereo typically representing in our show. She is an archetype as she is a typical blonde who wears short clothes and lots of make-up as she feels her looks are the most important factor therefore she is not as clever as most. We will over exaggerate her role and make her too scared to do any challenges and always over exaggerates little things (much like Helen Flanagan off of I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here 2012) and she tries to do as little work as she possibly can (like Amy Willerton off of I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here 2013). 

Our final female contestant is Lucy Right (we were hoping for someone who was short as short people can be stereo typically seen as being annoying however the actress is not short but she can do everything else to fit the role). She can be annoying at times when she talks loudly but she does speak her mind (and therefore may be saying what the audience is thinking) therefore she is liked by some but not by all. She is 16 years of age.

Our final contestant is Mason Cole. He is the "class clown" and therefore keeps the other contestants (and audience) entertained as he is the funny one. He is athletic and the good-looking one. However he likes to show off as he thinks that he is the best so he tries to take control. When things do not go his way he is easily tempered so anything could set him off. He is 18 years old.

Finally we have our hosts. Sanny Hoskins (on the left) and Alex Black (on the right). A lot of good reality TV game shows have two hosts as they can work well together to entertain an audience. They have good chemistry and are funny therefore the audience will not get tired of watching them. They will also be voice overs in some parts of the show. They are both 17 years old.

Questionnaire

We will distribute the questionnaire to people from different ages and personality's (such as students, older parents, teenagers etc..) and with the results that we will collect from these questionnaires, we will be able to identify the most appropriate demographic and psychographic audience for our Reality TV show.  

***

This questionnaire will help us decide what audience is better fitted towards our new Reality Tv program. Please answer as best you can.

1. What gender are you? Please circle one:

Male          Female         

2.  What age range are you? Please circle one:

10 or under          11-15          16-20          21-25          26-30          31-35         36-40          40+

3. What time are you likely to stop watching TV? Please circle one:

Earlier than 5pm          5pm          6pm         7pm          8pm          9pm         10pm          11pm+

4. What age range of film/tv do you most often watch? Please circle one:

Universal          PG          12          15          18

5. Do you enjoy horror/thriller films? Please circle one:

Yes          No

6. If you watch Reality TV shows then why do you enjoy watching them? Please circle all that are applicable:

I don't watch Reality TV          To spend time watching it with my family

To talk about it with my friends          I find them funny          Other (please state why):

..........................................................................................................................................................................

7. What social networks do you use? Please circle all that are applicable:

Twitter          Facebook          Tumblr         YouTube    BBM

Other (please state what):
.....................................................................................................................................................................

RESULTS

We surveyed a total of twelve people with an even number of males and females. We tried to expand the age range however due to accessibility a large number of our participants were teenagers (between the age of 16-20). We surveyed a young girl and a boy in the age category of 11-15,  a man and woman in the age range of 40+, a male and female of the age range 31-35, and the rest were adolescents.

Findings: We found that all age ranges stopped watching TV at around 9pm on weekdays (as they have work/school the next day) and 11pm on weekends, apart from the two 11-15 year olds who would stop watching after 9pm on both weekdays and weekends. The majority of participants watch 15+ rated media texts the most and 12+ second most. When asked if they enjoyed watching horror/thriller shows, the majority that picked yes were those ages between 16-20 years of age. For question 6, all of the 16-20 year olds said they watch reality shows because they are funny and everyone else who took part (other than one of the 31-35 years olds who said they watch them to spend time with their family and one of the 11-15 year olds who said they watch them to talk about it with their friends) said they watched reality programs because they are funny. Everyone other than one person in the 40+ category has Facebook, the majority of the 16-20 year olds have Twitter, and the other three vary.

Conclusion: In conclusion we found that due to most of the 16-20 year olds having two social networks (facebook and twitter) meaning that word about our show can spread, them enjoying reality shows because they are funny and they enjoy horror/thriller (meaning the genre of our show can be comedy thriller which has never been done with reality tv before) they would be the most suitable age range. Our show will be 15+, genre of comedy thriller, and be shown at 8pm as most people tend to go to bed around 9pm on weekdays due to early starts in the morning.



Research Into Genre

The genre of our reality tv show is thriller. The main elements of thriller are:

• Suspense
• Tension
• Excitment

They stimulate the audiences reactions and moods towards what will be shown giving them a high level of:

• uncertaintity
• surprise
• anxiety
• terror
• adrenaline

"Suspense is a crucial characteristic of the thriller genre. It gives the viewer a feeling of pleasurable fascination and excitement mixed with apprehension, uncertainty, anticipation, tension, and anxiety. " - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_(genre)

Sub-genres include:

• Psychological thriller
• Action thriller
• Crime thriller
• Horror thriller
• Comedy triller

etc...

The one that we are aiming for is comedy thriller

"Comedy thrillers are a hybrid genre that draw subject matter generally from comedy, thrillers, spy, science-fiction, action, horror and suspense. They include a disproportionate amount, relative to other genres, of humor." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comedy_thriller

Examples of comedy thriller in film are The Lady Killers, Project X and Mr and Mrs Smith. I have not found any comedy-thriller reality tv shows which is good because part of our brief was to come up with a new original and creative show.

One of the main aims of thriller and of any tv show is to keep the audience watching and wanting more. We are only showing the begining of our show up to the first break and our aim is for someone to want to keep watching, for someone to want to know what will happen next.

Title Sequence (Practice)

Using the practice photos I made using photoshop that I have previously posted, I have made a snippet of how I would like our title sequence to be. It switches from day to night however we will be using our actual characters when doing this properly and obviously there will be more than one person so it will be longer.

I'm A Celebrity: Reality TV Example

At the beginning of our show just before the title sequence our hosts will give a quick 10 second introduction to the show just saying what it is and whats happening at the moment (on this video it is show up until 11 seconds). This well give an audience a taste of the show and what is to come later on.
The hosts will be two people who are easy to get along with and who the audience will not get bored of watching. Every good reality TV show has entertaining hosts.

Story Board

This is the story board for my reality tv show. It states what will be happening, how long it will be happening for, what camera angle it consists of and the sounds that will be heard. The stick men are just a represenation of the characters that will be shown. The colours and tones are just an idea of what our show will example as we will not have a yellow or blue background, they just represent that in some shots we will have a bright background and in other shots we will have a darker background.