Making an Advert (Shelter Advert)

Media Framework- Shelter Advert

-Who would be the intended audience for your advert and how is the best way to appeal to them?
- Who will be represented in the advert and why?
- Finally what media codes/ media language will you use to make the most effective advert?

a) The audience that the advert is going to be intended for is someone who has a similar problem as the characters in the advert. The audience will be shown  how they became homeless just after an incident with they parents. this would make the audience feel sympathy for them and more connected will the characters.

b) Two girls will be represented in the advert which tell a story of how they became homeless after their parents got into an accident and how they got help from 'Shelter'. They would present the younger generation and how hard it is to get a house as the prices are very high especially for someone young who has a hard time finding a job.

d) Media language to use: -Different range of cinematography
                                           - Keep the shots in dim light, so the characters look humble.                                                                   - Use examples of celebrities that helped these sort of organisations to                                                      encourage people to donate and help 'Shelter'.
                                           -The background sound should be serious and not upbeat music, more                                                      voice overs should be used.
                                           - Statistics about the homelessness should be part of the voice over.
                                         

Planning and presenting ideas for Shelter Advert

1) Narration- telling the story of what happened to the sisters.
2) Add in Statistics about the homelessness in London
3) Ideas suggestions for music
4) Visuals- low light- to give it a serious mood
5) Range of shots to get the audience involved such as close ups.


Ideas for the advert:

-Walking past with his back to her
-She looks sad and lonely
-Representational code is good as her face is looking down and also looking down, she present someone who is down cast, that whole image plays a audience emotions
-She looks ordinary (she looks like a normal person who became homeless)
-The colour scheme was red ( it attracts peopels attension) (Connotation-what will it mean)           (Denotation- description what you see)
-She is sitting against red fence which I choose to be the theme colour which connotaion suggest danger and also reminds people Shelter.
-She almost becomes invisible because she is homeless.
-It is a long shot (it works because it gives more information to the audience we get a idea of the weather which is  better than a close up as it only focuses on on object/person

Media Institution
Instagram sponsored posts, Facebook,Twitter

Audience
15% of women in whole UK are homeless
we mainly see men being homeless
It would appeal to Uk people as the weather is really bad and they will feel bad how homeless people and staying in this weather all the time
When taking about audiece talk about passive audiences and active audience and talk about the hypodermic needle.





Media Frame Work
Representation
Media Language-(colors font)

Stills from the Advert:

Making a Poster for Shelter from the stills above:

The representation I choose was of a young homeless woman sitting by herself which looked better than other still as it is more appealing to the audience.

The representation I choose to use for Shelter Poster was along shot of a young homeless woman sitting by herself witch works because it gives more information to the audience, we get a idea of the weather which is  better than a close up as it only focuses on one object/person.
This shot looked the best as we saw her face expression and the rest of the shot showed wet pavement, which showed how harsh it is to live on the streets in winter days. This shot also showed a person walking past her without noticing her. Also the representational code is good as her head is turned downwards which represents someone who is a down cast and almost invisible to other people just because they are homeless. This shot really plays on audience feelings, which is good because it will attract peoples attention.

Another, factor that was good about the poster was that it had many elements of red colour, which happens to be Shelters colour theme. The connotation of colour 'red' is associated with danger, blood, war etc. It this point 'red' suggests danger and also reflects characters feelings.

The reason we have chosen a young woman to play a homeless role was because now in many poster we a shown older men that are becoming homeless, but never woman especially young women. We have researched and found out that 15% of women in whole UK are homeless which is a shocking statistic. For this reason we wanted to have a younger woman in our poster to show that is doesn't matter the age or gender and that everybody can become homeless. This would make people be aware that homelessness is a serious issue and that the numbers of people getting homeless are growing throughout the years.

When making the poster I have used Photoshop to add statistics such as '1 million households are at risk of becoming homeless' and slogan 'Make a donation Save this Nation'. I have used different size front to show the importance of different words. I have also used a lot of colour 'red' to show the linkage to Shelter as it is mostly associated with red and white theme. Another, technique that I have used to get the audience to focus on the character is that I have made the whole image black and white except the character and the red fence behind her.

STATEMENT OF INTENT

Brief chosen:
Create an advertising campaign for Shelter aimed at raising awareness of homelessness amongst young people. Create a short advert for TV/online and a poster.

How do you intend to use the four areas of the media theoretical framework to communicate meaning and meet the requirements of your chosen brief?

The first area of the media framework is Media Industries. Before making our advert, we have researched about Shelters campaign and how they raise awareness about the issue of homelessness. We have looked online and managed to find Shelters official website and a YouTube channel where we found lots of their previous adverts. When researching we have found that Shelter uses social media to reach a wider audience and distribute their message about raising awareness about homeless people. Shelter uses Twitter and Instagram as it is popular among younger generation, knowing that it will get much attention through re-tweets, hashtags and shares. This is good advertising strategy, which is used by many charity campaigns. For our own advert we thought of uploading it on YouTube as this is the place where most people will see it. It could be placed on other videos and people would have to watch it before watching what their want. Another place would be Facebook as from our research I have found that there are 1.4 billion active users which visit Facebook on daily basis. This could increase the chance of people seeing the advert, who can also re-post it many times and reach an even wider audience. Another social media we would use is Instagram as it is more popular among young generation, which is our target audience. We would consider taking stills from our advert and posting them with the #donation4thenation which will link up with the poster campaign and any social media that we have used to promote our advert. Furthermore, we have considered to include a track called ‘Bridge over Troubled water’ by a famous artist Stormzy, as he spoke out about homelessness on many occasions. We could also ask him to re-tweet the advert which will grab more attention from the public because of his popularity among younger generation. The final idea about advertising our advert and poster was to display it on billboards outside Westfield shopping centre and on buses and underground in conjunction with TFL.

Additionally, it could be screened on TV, on channels such as ITV, BBC and Channel 4 between 5-6pm and in the mornings. The second area of the media framework is Audience. The target of our advert was to reach young people especially those under 25 and make them aware that homelessness is a serious and growing issue. This was not our only aim because we also wanted to show that it can happen with younger people as much as older people. The typical stereotype I advert are about old men who became homeless. As the director I wanted to change this stereotype and use younger actresses as this will appeal to our target audience and make them feel sympathy for them. We have researched that 15% of woman in whole UK is homeless. Therefore, we wanted to raise awareness about younger people who are homeless and especially woman because it is a serious issue, but not many people are concerned about it. The third area of the media framework is Representation. I chose to represent to young sisters who have lost a home due to an accident that happened with their parents. For example, we have used a long shot where the actress is sitting on the pavement, but she looks ordinary. The connotation is that she has recently became homeless, also suggesting to the audience that it can happen with anyone at any time. When filming the advert, we wanted to show that the characters looked vulnerable, which will play on people emotions and make them feel sorry of the characters. The final area of the media framework is media language. We have used a voice over in the advert to tell the story from the point of view of the characters. In the voice over we have included statistics such as ‘homeless people are 17% more likely to be attacked’. We had also used a flash back narrative in an mid eye level shot of the character talking to the camera to include with the voice over which portrayed a deeper meaning as the audience could see their face expressions and understand the terrible experience the characters went through. The main shots we have used were long shots because they gave more information about the character in the shot are their surroundings. One shot that I really liked and used it for the poster was a profile long shot of one of the actresses which was sitting on a wet pavement which connotates how harsh the conditions are on streets, which also makes the audience feel more emotive towards the character. Another key feature of this shot was that the actress was sitting next to a red fence and colour ‘red’ emphasises danger. In the beginning this shot was supposed to be used a time lapse, but we have thought that it looks good without the time lapse as you can see how people pass the character without giving her any attention. This show that people that are homeless are lonely and a considered as outcasts form that society as not pay any attention to them. Furthermore, when shooting the advert, we had poor weather which helped the shot look more grim and moody and show the reality of harsh conditions and how hard it is to survive during this kind of weather when you are homeless. Another, important element of media language we have used is adding emotive music to the background of our advert, which made it look more emotive and helped the audience understand that it is a serious issue. Finally, we have added graphics at the end of the advert such as contact number for Shelter and their website, so people would be able to fund the charity if they want. 

Product 2 (Shelter Poster)

The first area of the media framework is media industries. I have used a still shot from the advert to create a poster, which was a profile long shot of the actress sitting on the pavement. The media platforms I would use to advertise my poster would be Twitter, Instagram and Facebook as they are the most popular media platform among younger generation. When posting the poster, I would use #donation4thenation as this is the hash tag I used on the poster and this will also link all the media together. Now younger people know how to use hash tags, so this will bring their attention and they might research more deeply about our advert and the issue about homelessness in UK. We also wanted to place the poster on YouTube, but it will not work as it is a still and YouTube supports videos, so instead of YouTube we would contact TFL and ask them if they can put our poster on busses and underground stations. The second media framework is audience. The audience we are aiming the poster at is younger generation as from a research we have found out that 86,000 young people have asked their local council for help because they are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. In our poster we have used a younger woman because we wanted to show that anyone can become homeless, but there are charities such as Shelter which help these kinds of people. Through using this shot people will understand the struggle these people are going through and will raise awareness about this situation. Other statistics that I have mentioned earlier was that 15% of all woman in UK are homeless, so through this poster we want to target them and show that it is not only old men that get homeless, but woman too and hope that this will make people raise money for the homeless. The third media framework is representation. We have represented a young woman in a profile long shot which looked better than other shots because it showed her facing down showing that she was lonely and isolated from the outside world. This shot also shows people walking past the actress showing the contrast between homeless people and the public and how homeless don’t get enough attention and are almost invisible. Furthermore, in the shot the actress sits next to a red fence and colour ‘red’ happens to be Shelters colour theme. The connotation of colour 'red' is associated with danger, blood, war etc. At this point 'red' suggests danger and reflects characters feelings. The colour ‘red’ will also remind the audience about the Shelters Logo.


The last media framework is media language. When making the poster I have used Photoshop to add statistics such as '1 million households are at risk of becoming homeless' and slogan 'Make a donation Save this Nation'. I have used different size front to show the importance of different words. I have also used a lot of colour 'red' to show the linkage to Shelter as it is mostly associated with red and white theme. Another, technique that I have used to get the audience to focus on the character is that I have made the whole image black and white except the character and the red fence behind her. 


How do you intend to link your media products to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the digitally convergent nature of your media production?


To advertise our advert we would use social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube because this is the main and best advertising strategy. We would mainly use YouTube as this is where most people go especially young people. Our advert can be placed on videos, so when people watch something they will have to watch our advert before watching what they want. This may encourage them to help homeless people by donating money. To make the donation easy we could create a Go Fund me page where people would choose who to donate to. Also, it would be really important to place the advert on the official website of Shelter as people would see that it is not a fake advert, as it is on the official charity website.Finally, when posting our advert and poster we would include #donation4thenation on each social media platform we post on, so when people research this hash tag they wil find everything that is connected with our advert and poster. Hash tag is a really good starategy to link all media that has the same subject.



Shelter Poster:

Shelter Poster made using Photoshop

Shelter Advert Youtube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i9Tk_OEhSQ&list=UUXC3G4jDCRlfYWX6g1PgPlg&index=3

Making an Advert (Inspire Advert)

                                                                       Looking at Adverts

RESEARCH on ADVERTS (Looking at Examples)

 Brut TV advert- with Henry cooper and Kevin Keegan 1972

- Uses of Lighting and Colour is really dim/blurry and doesn’t look good

-You cannot tell that it is a deodorant advert ( no slogan)

-Only few camera angles

Dior Homme Intense City-2016

-Retro style makes it more appealing to women and men

-Editing- fast jump cuts

-many camera shots

-Character looking at the camera –direct address which is a better style when filming an advert

-Hyper-real referring him when in a film and in real life.

Dior Sauvage Johnny Depp-2017

-Many camera angles

-Symbolism- has city symbols which are compared to nature

What would make a good advert?

-Music which would be appropriate for the advert 

-Information about the product or thing that the advert is made for

-Doesn't have to be long quick and easy to understand 

-Direct address-looking at the camera 

-Using a slogan if nessecery

-Having different camera shots

-Black and White scheme which appeals to both women and men

Include the following techniques (inter-textual references, binary opposition, narrative theory)

-Inter-textual to a black and white scenery

What are the Advertising Standard Authority's codes?

How many codes are there?-  There are 32 broadcast codes

What is the new rule on gender stereotypes?- The new rule is to ban harmful gender stereotypes

What is the new rule on portraying people under 18 in adverts? - The new rule is that advertisements must not portray or represent anyone who is, or seems to be, under 18 in a sexual way.

Name 2 items that are prohibited from advertisements? -All tobacco products 

                                                                                         -Guns

Explain 2 items about causing harm and offense to viewers? - Animals not to be harmed or distrresses

                                                                                                  -Not to encourage crime 

Explain what an misleading advert is? - Has an misleading statement to misrepresent the product in a                                                                  different way than it is actually is in real life e.g.- a product is                                                                 actually different in size than it is shown in the advert.   

Filming an Advert Process:

When starting to plan our advert we have looked at other examples like Brut TV advert- with Henry cooper and Kevin Keegan 1972 which was one of the early adverts and Dior Homme Intense City-2016, which was totally different not only from the quality, but also the use different shots which looked really amazing especially the NYC views. Next, we needed to understand what aspects of the advert make it a good advert, so we discussed that, some of the ideas were that i should have: Information about the product or thing that the advert is made for, Direct address etc. 

It was also really important to look at the law of advertising and what is accepted by the Advertising Standards Authority to get an idea  of what we can put in our advert and what is illegal , so when we film our advert we stay in the line barriers of the ASA law. Next we have planned our script including the characters and the shots that we will be using. After we have have used a Go Pro and a camera to take stills and some shots using the Go Pro to get an idea of the locations we will be shooting and if the shots will look good and will fit the story line.

Pre-Production

1) First we have went to the locations and took stills, so we could discuss as a group if these were good locations.

3) Filming process:

 

Information about the Advert 

This advert was created for an  aftershave called Inspire, which has inter textual  reference to the famous Rocky montage sequence. We have decided to present the main character as a young male who is inspired to win a running competition and decides to train hard. The use of a younger character in the advert will appeal to a younger audience. The use of camera and different shots aims to show how the character has changed throughout the period he has decided to enter a running competition which was successful, as the different camera angles showed him training in the gym, running and his perspective. The target audience that the advert was aimed at was young people as well as everyone who wants to be inspired.



Script- Inspire Advert by Wave +Treatement

Scene 1: Int- We see a college student (female). Mid shot spinning on a chair.

Scene 2: Int- Mid shot of the same college student rocking from side to side. I will film this on green screen so I can add a background when editing the footage in Final cut Pro.

Scene 3: Int- Mid shot of the girl who is being shouted at by the people she is surrounded every day.

Scene 4: Int- Long shot of the Wave girl who comes gradually comes closer to the camera, using direct address.  I will film this shot using green screen and add background of lights, so it looks like cars are passing by.

Scene 5: Int- A close up shot on the college student face which will and when see looks at the camera (direct address).

Scene 6: Int-  A long shot of the college girl that has people around her which represent her problems. She will be crouched holding her head showing that she is frustrated and tired. As she stands up the people around her will fall which suggests that her problem were gone when she was inspired by the wave girl.

Scene 7: Credits e.g ( INSPIRE, by Wave, connecting with social media by #inspireaimhigher). 

Treatment: Outline of the advert

The advert shows a girl who is a college student who struggles and is not confident in herself. The advert shows how other people that surround her are not happy with her such as teachers and friends just like shown in the footage. This advert will show how she will be inspired by the Wave girl and get confident.

Audience Appeal

When making this advert we had aimed it for teenagers and young adults from ages 15-23 to show how you don’t have to be closed up in yourself, but try to open up to people and to the world and then you will be much more happier and be less affected by the problems in life. To have a wider appeal we have used a young female character that is shown as a very unconfident person, but is helped by the Wave girl which helps her grow from the inside. We see how she changes throughout the advert and becomes more confident when she stands up and the people around her fall, this represent the problems she has faced in the past.

Technical Codes

To make my advert emotional and inspiring I will use an upbeat music and put it as a background track. This will make the viewer more emotional and help understand how the main character has felt in the beginning. This also will give the viewer hope and inspiration that anything is possible. Another element in my advert I want to use is slow some of the footage down, for example in the beginning when the main character spins on a chair. This will create a really nice effect as the background music is also slower in the beginning. Finally I would use a green screen when filming some of the footage as this will give me an opportunity to put any background I want behind the characters.

  

Script- Inspire advert Advert+ Treatement

Scene 1: Int- Mid shot going into a long shot following the main character as he is about to leave the room.

Scene 2: Int- Mid close up shot of the main character as he opens the door to leave the room.

Scene 3: Ext- Long shot of the main character walking in a crowded street.

Scene 4: Int- Close up shot of the character looking and going through the poster that he saw when walking in the street.

Scene 5: Int- Extreme close up shot on the characters finger as he points to the reward prize on the poster as this poster is a competition poster.

Scene 6: Ext- Extreme close up shot showing the character tying shoe laces, which shows that it’s a new day and the character is getting ready to train for the competition that he saw on the poster because he wants to het the reward.

Scene 7: Ext- Mid close up on the character putting his headphones in. This gives more evidence that the character is going to train for the competition.

Scene 8: Int- Mid shot of the character lifting weights. This gives more evidence that he trains and getting ready for the competition.

Scene 9: Ext- Long shot of the character running past the camera. This will be like a training montage.

Scene 10: Ext- The character running past the camera which will go into a long shot.

Scene 11: Ext- Long shot of the character running.

Scene 12: Int- A mid shot of the character doing pull ups. Shows how he trains in the gym.

Scene 13: Int- Close up of the same theme, the character doing pull ups, but only the camera shows him from the side.

Scene 14: Int- A low level shot of the character doing push ups.

Scene 15: Int- Close up shot of the character doing push ups, but the camera will be placed in the front. As the character looks up the shot will cut to the credits.

Scene 16: Credits e.g ( INSPIRE, connecting with social media by #inspireaimhigher). 

Treatment: Outline of Advert

This advert shows a young man who is inspired to win a running competition. He starts training and we see how he progresses from the beginning from the montage of him running and training in the gym. The training montage an inter-textual reference to the famous Rocky montage training scenes.

Audience Appeal

My target audience for this advert were teenagers and young adults from ages 15-23, so I decided to have a theme about getting fit and healthy through doing sports, in the case of the advert it is running. To have a wider audience appeal I have choose to have a young male character whose age is similar to my target audience. This will make the audience understand the character more and be interested in the story plot.

Technical Codes

The technical codes that I was planning to use in the advert is to add an inspiring up beat music on the background which will create an emotional feel toward the viewers. I wanted the advert to have an inter-textual reference to the famous Rocky montage sequence, so I would cut my training and running shots together to create a montage. I was also planning to have some of my shots really dark, so you can’t see the main characters face only the outline of his body and how he is training. This will create a mysterious look and would be different from my other shots as most of them I am planning to keep the same lighting.

  

  

       Inspire Advert by Wave- STORYBOARD

LINK-https://drive.google.com/file/d/159VaN0chaq8HFP3ZyyrmtqLAqtrsoXmi/view?usp=sharing

        Inspire advert Advert-STORYBOARD

LINK-https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a2RBJMC89LvOjDKdYGtoUCjTRU86W6fh/view?usp=sharing




Inspire Advert by Wave   Youtube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHy0BV7fMIg

Inspire advert Advert   Youtube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-XJW-_-Mb8

Statement of Intent

Brief Chosen: Create and advertising campaign for unisex deodorants

 Media Industries:

Firstly, I have researched on other advert to have an idea of how our advert should look like and how adverts create and advertising campaign. I have looked online mainly on YouTube where I found most of old adverts. From the research I understood that my adverts should be short, but it has to give a straight message to the audience. I choose to advertise my advert on social media such as YouTube, Facebook and Instagram as these are the big industries that are used by many advertising campaigns to get their message across. Another reason I chose these media industries is because my target audience is young people, mainly those form 15-23 yeas of age. And these are the most popular media platforms among younger generation meaning that if I post a still shot form the advert on these media platforms they will get much attention form the targeted audience. On the other hand I can also use billboards and posters which can be put on different transport such as busses in conjunction with TFL.

The second area of the media framework is Audience. The target of our advert was to reach young people especially those under 25. We also wanted to show that there are many people who struggle in everyday life, but you must help one another and someone else would be inspired to her other people in their time of need just like in the advert the Wave girl helped the main character become more confident in herself. The typical stereotype I advert are about men who are bullied or treated badly. As the director I wanted to change this stereotype and use younger actresses as our brief is to make an advertising campaign for unisex deodorants.

The third area of the media framework is Representation. I choose to represent a younger woman in the advert because I wanted to have something different as I said earlier men are mostly used in deodorant adverts and I wanted to have a unisex appeal, so I have used a younger female actress.

The final area of the media framework is media language. I have used an emotional, but upbeat instrumental in the background to make the audience feel emotional and understand the struggles that the main character is going through. This also made the track seem more pleasant to listen too as it helped to understand the characters feeling and tell the sad, but inspirational story. Another key element of the media framework I have used is greenscreen as it has made the footage look better because I could choose any background I wanted for the shot. The only problem I have faced when editing is that the lighting wasn’t good, so some green was shown as lighting created shadow.

Product 2

Media Industries: The product 2 is the second advert I have created and edited myself using the footage that I shot and some of my classmates for the original inspire advert except I have made it different and have added text and my music.  The media platforms I would use to advertise my advert would be Twitter, Instagram and Facebook as they are the most popular media platform among younger generation. When posting the advert on YouTube I would take a still shot form the advert and add a hashtag #inspireaimhigher as this is the hash tag I used on the YouTube advert and this will also link all the media together. Now younger people know how to use hash tags, so this will bring their attention and they might research more deeply about our advert.

Audience

As I have said previously my target audience for this advert is under 25 years of age. Through this short advert I wanted to show that anything is possible when you put effort into it. In the advert I have showed a young person who get inspired to win a running competition and tries his best to get fit and be healthy through training. The message I want to get across to my audience is that anything is possible and encourage them to do more leisure activities such as running.

The third media framework is representation. In my advert I wanted to represent a young male character who is passionate about sports and winning a competition. I have used a younger male character because my target audience are under 25s.

The final media framework is media language. In the advert I have used an inspiring up beat song to have an emotional effect on the audience and understand the characters passion for sports. The background song has a female voice, and this is because I haven’t used female characters in this short advert, so I have decided to use a female voice in a song to have a unisex appeal. In the end of the advert I have created font that is simple and looks old style because it would appeal to the Inspire deodorant more than a bold title. I have also added the #inspireaimhigher so all the media platforms that I have used this hashtag to promote my advert will show up is you search this hashtag.

How do you intend to link your media products to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the digitally convergent nature of your media production? 

For our own advert we thought of uploading it on YouTube as this is the place where most people will see it. It could be placed on other videos and people would have to watch it before watching what their want. Another place would be Facebook as from our research I have found that there are 1.4 billion active users which visit Facebook on daily basis. This could increase the chance of people seeing the advert, who can also re-post it many times and reach an even wider audience. Another social media we would use is Instagram as it is more popular among young generation, which is our target audience. We would consider taking stills from our advert and posting them with the #inspireaimhigher which will link up with the poster campaign and any social media that we have used to promote our advert.

Long Form TV Drama-Codes and conventions of Long Form Narrative

                     Long form Drama

Why did it come out?
Audiences were tiring and getting bored of 'before tn water shed' programming' PSB (Public Service Broadcasting) such as BBC has a remit to 'entertain, inform educate' the TV channel is funded by the viewers through license. Therefore viewers have got a lot of say about what programmers are on there, but the remit of the channel is basically educational.

Arrival of cable channels such as HBO
And also the arrival of the internet has meant that audiences world wire can now pick up and watch cable produced programmes and those programmes are alos bought by the streaming sites such as Netflix, Hulu and also eventually by Terrestial TV channels.

audiences prefer 'time shifting viewing' watching programmes at their own leisure and digital technology has made all this possible even for BBC for instance bbc iplayer.

Genre:

Terrestrial channels were and are genre heavy when it comes to drama

Downtown Abbey- heritage drama
Costume drama such as adaptations of Charles Dickens

#Cop shows# are another big TV drama in UK Line of Duty

Genres have fixed codes and conventions

That the audience knows very well

Was based on Binary opposites=narrative
Levi Strauss argues that all drama is made from binary opposites ie
-Good cop/ Bad cop
-Hero/Villain
-Child/Parent (soap)
-Husband /Wife conflict (soap)

Long Form Drama breaks down a lot of traditional types of story telling

Sopranos-main character Tony Soprano
Sopranos had an interesting twist in that the head of the mafia was trying to learn to be 'good' he broke down the 'good/bad' stereotype.

Breaking Bad-
Breaks down the stereo typical good/bad opposites narrative

The Walking Dead
Explores corruption and survival, families and communities.

The Wire another popular widely viewed and considered Long Form TV drama exploring life in an area that has economically collapsed Baltimore.

Long form drama has more complex portrayals of life and people.

Multi-strand narratives which means they follow many character's lives.

The length of time that the dramas cover

Many years in some cases means the characters and the stories develop deeply.

LFD as been compared to soap opera because of this

However LFD has cinematic values they are shot some times with collaboration of film studios.

Really good camera work and technical qualities

Good use of cinema language range of shots and music

High Production values

True Blood
Horror/fantasy long running series about an American town which is inhabited by shape shifters, vampires werewolf

Why has LFD developed?

1) Cable channels aren't dependent on advertisers.
2) Terrestrial commercial channel like ITV #sell advertising space in order to survive in other words advertiser can make or break a programme.
3)Public service broadcasting channel on the other hand is controlled by license fees and also having a public service remit- so this restricts the range of programming.
4)Cable channels have less restrictions and have been able to experiment with more daring and shocking and unusual drama.

Genre
Long form TV dramas are 'hybrid genres' they combine several different genres together
They use a range of visual codes and narrative conventions.

Story-telling forms of narrative is new and original in Long Form Drama-
The stories can be told from multiple points of view.

Representation of characters-
Can be in more depth
Inter-sectionality- (theory of representation) by Bell Hooks
Intersectionality looks at the ways representation combines for instance #Working class,Italian, female#

#Young man with disability#

Patriarchy- are they reflecting a world that is run by men and what is a woman's role within that?

Stereotypes- shot cut to knowledge and they are reflecting genre.

Archetypal characters- are characters types we would expect to find in different genres.
for instance Sheriff in a Western .


Homework

Watch one episode of each of these long form dramas
-The Walking Dead
-Breaking Bad
-True Blood
-The Wire
-Sopranos


                                     Codes and conventions of Long Form Narrative


Write down definitions:

-Multi-strand narrative: is when stories have multiple plot narratives for example there could be 3 story strands that are linked at the end in the same story. (there are many plot lines this is used in e.g. Long form TV drama Soap Opera will have that). 

-Cable TV: is a system in which the signals are transmitted through wires to people who are subscriber of the cable TV instead of broadcasting.

-'Water Cooler' Moments in TV: is a segment of something that was shown on TV and will be shown the next day as it is a controversial or exciting topic. Moments that people will tali about.

- VOD- 'Video on Demand': is an interactive TV technology which allows a subscriber to download programmes or anything that is shown on TV and view them  later on their demand.

- SVOD- 'Subscription Video on Demand': is a service that allows a subscriber to have unlimited access to any TV programmes with full control allowing them to view anything they want at any time for a monthly subscription fee.

- Time shifting: is when you can record a program broadcast  and store it in your storage which you can view it after at any time.

-Verisimilitude: The appearance of being true or real which is similar to the truth of something. (Event that has happened which is filmed in a similar place and reenacted in the same way)

-Surrealism: is an art form which combines dream like sequence.

                                 Explain:

-Mid season break: when a Long form drama  have a break throughout the season ending on a cliffhanger, this cause the build up audiences excitement and suspense.

-Easter eggs: these are hidden messages which give a deeper meaning to the Long Form drama.

Inter textual reference- is when one text refers to another.

Post Modern style is to make reference to many other art forms and Stranger Things has a clearly post modern style and refers to the 80's culture.

Narrative Arc- how a traditional narrative is portrayed  throughout the story.

Ellipse- jump in time (this is uses in trailers)

Flash forward- looking into the future e.g. Breaking Bad when the first episode starts with the ending and then it shows how it got into that point throughout the film.

Narrative- the way the story is told.

In Mr.Robot- Breaks down the 'fourth wall' ( not looking at the camera) characters talks to the audience and narrates the story.

Fact file on Mr.Robot and Stranger Things

                                       Mr. Robot                                                  Stranger Things
Date first aired:         - December 13, 2017                                  -July 15, 2016
Channel:                    - USA Network                                           -Netflix
Viewing figures:        -1.210 million                                              -14.07 million
Genre:                        -Drama                                                         -Science Fiction, Horror
Narrative Structure: -Direct address ( breaking  the forth wall)   - Uses inter textual reference of ET
Visual Codes:              -                                                                     - Visually referencing 80's films



Key elements of Long Form Drama (particular looking at Mr.Robot)

-Narrative- how the story is told
-Visual Codes- lighting costumes camera, mise-en scene
- Inter-textual reference- the Long form drama makes cultural references to other pop culture and art

- Can run for years the title tells us that it is Long
-Non linear narrative can start form he back and show how it has developed to this point
-Walking dead refers to 28 days later which is a low budget film
-Long Form drama tend to be hybrid genres not one clear genre (The Wire combines 'detective/drama/crime/social issue/thriller' genres .
-Influence of a style called 'neo-noir' which we see in many Long Form dramas
-Stranger Things hybrid genre- 'adventure/supernatural/thriller/horror/sci-fi
-Coming of age and Goonies film to watch

Narrative structure
-How the story is told
-Narratives traditionally are 'linear' (theorist- Todorov) who wrote that a classic narrative starts with 'equilibrium' everything is normal... Then a disruption occurs in the character's life...
-Linear- means time moves forward i.e. the story starts at 6 am and move forward continually. Also called a 'classic hollywood narrative'.
'Cause and effect' (Stranger Things)- a boy goes missing which leads to his friends searching from him, his family search.
-In Stranger Things quickly it leaves the traditional 'narrative'.
-Multi characters and multi thread narrative is typical of Long Form Drama
-Non-linear narrative (flash back,flash forward,ellipsis- jumps in time.)
-Story is also told through inter-textual referencing, if the audience understand the references they create part of the story, they interpret parts of the story.

Characters in Long Form Drama
-Game of Throne? Multi-narratives, multi-characters- complicated characters are an important feature of LFD.
-Propp argues that there are only a limited number of charcters in any drama- his character types are: hero, villain, false hero, the helper/ friend, the donor (they give the main character something important), princess character, princess's father (king character/king type character) false friend.
-In modern films you can still see the basics of these characters but sometimes they can be combined e.g. heroes helper and donor.
-Levi-Strauss argued that character and narratives were always formed from 'binary opposition' e.g. two opposite characters hero/villain. You need to have clashes/disagreements/disruptions as they make up the story.
-Characters are hybrid and more complicated in Long Form drama- the characters develop and change quite drastically.
-Long Form Drama does not follow the conventions of traditional narratives or characters.

Long Form Drama and 'Noir' style
-Long Form Drama has the style and influence of 'film noir'.
-Film noir was a low budget genre which started in the 1930's/1940's in USA.
Film noir was described in this way because of the use of lighting. Lots of dark shadows silhouettes and dramatic lighting.
-Made by the 'b' units that made 'b' movies.
-Shot on locations, shot often in the evening.
Example of film noir: The Third Man where mystery is created through lighting.
Use of the 'unreliable narrator' in film noir ( the voice over not always says the truth and plays with the audience as they can not rely on the narrative character).

Long Form Drama essay- How does Long form Drama engage to the audience with a new experience compared to traditional genre TV Drama?
                                                                     Practice ESSAY
Long Form Drama engages the audience more compared to traditional genre TV drama because according to Neal audiences enjoy the repetition of genre as well as seeing new things added to extend the genre. This can be seen in the Long Form drama 'Wire' which has been going for approximately six years. From this we can conclude that audiences really enjoy sticking to one thing instead of jumping into different into different Long form dramas.

Also, Long form dramas intend to use hybrid genres where there is a combination of several genres together. This can be seen in 'Stranger Things' which has a combination of genres: sci-fi, horror fiction and supernatural. Hybrid genre also tend to use inter-textuality which attracts the audience more as according to Barthes theory 'texts that speak to each other' are more enjoyable to the audience. This means that Long form dramas that refer to other texts and have elements or other long form dramas tend to attract the audience more. This is shown in 'Stranger Things' as the main characters ride bikes in the style of 90' which has a reference to the film 'ET' where characters rode bikes as well.

Furthermore, in my opinion long form dramas engage the audience more than traditional TV dramas because people have the option of time shifting which means that you can watch any program at any time you want. This makes the audience more connected as they do not have to follow the time line of  the long from drama they are watching. The option of time shifting makes viewing experience totally different and more enjoyable making the viewer more loyal throughout the years of long form drama as he can watch anything at any time at their leisure. Today there are many streaming websites that provide one these options for example Netflix uses time shifting and tends to attract audience more that traditional TV.

Besides, time shifting long form dramas use unusual narratives that are not used in traditional TV dramas, for example in 'Mr robot' the main character is the narrator of the story and speaks straight to the audience. This is called breaking the forth wall which is really interesting as the viewer feels more engaged with the character. This can be linked to Stuarts Hall's reception theory that producers encode media texts in order for the viewer to decode it and to see the hidden messages. This is similar to Mr.Robot as the main character in not really talking to the audience, but everything we hear is all in his head, but the viewer intends to think that he is talking to the audience.

In conclusion, long form dramas engage the audience more with a new experience compared to traditional genre of TV Drama as not all of them follow the linear narrative as for example the 'Braking Bad' uses a not linear narrative starting the plot of the story from the end and then showing how it got there. This tends not to follow  Todorov's theory that all stories are told from linear narrative, but as an example of 'Braking Bad' non-linear narrative works great and still attracts many people.           

Revision 16th January Mock- What is Long Form TV Drama

JUNGLE BOOK HERE


What is Long Form TV Drama

Long Form TV drama began to emerge with series such as True blood, Breaking Bad, Sopranos and The Wire on cable channels. So called Long Form because the series run for years.

The plots are complicated and develop slowly and the audience gets to know the characters well in fact the audience sees the characters develop over a number of years so there are similarities to the Soap opera format which can run for decades.

How did Long Form Drama come about;
TV channels are dependent on advertising and audience ratings (profile factor)

Which theory does this relate to?

Also with film the importance of profit margins is very important therefore the films and TV programmes have become less adventurous


Narrative- storytelling is more experimental using flash backs, non-linear narratives.

More unusual use of technical codes to develop character voice overs, narration, multi-narrative.

Representation:

Stranger Things-? More wide representation of characters different age grounds and gender etc

Eleven is not a stereotypical girl character.-disagrees with Van Zoonen theory

Wide ranger of representation

Is the story created through binary opposition?

Yes

Intersectionaliy- theory of representation that says that we shouldn't just be considering gender we should also consider are there people with disabilities being represented? intersectionality considers the place where representation meets Bell Hooks-

Why do the audience really enjoy long form drama?

There's the repetition
The originality and complexity of the stories
Long running
Time shifting- that means the audience can watch it when they want (active audience).

Narrative is complicated and the audience have to work hard- active audience - audience can decode
(Hall theorist active audience which an decode)

Effects Theory- audience can be negatively effected by the media- (Bandura).

Time shifting is great in terms of convenience but the fact we can constantly stream drama (hypodermic needle- he wrote about effects Bandura)- media can be over powering

Cliff hanger ending and time shifting means that we can keep watching long form drama for days

Marshall Mchulan- said the medium is the message. The TV tells you when to switch it on and off kind of controlling people.

Essay Practice:

How does Stranger Things reference retro films to make an inter-textual reference for the audience?

In this essay I will be explaining how Stranger Things uses inter-textual referencing to appeal to the audience. Stories are often told through linear narrative meaning that story is told with an equilibrium, with a disruption, problem solving and a new equilibrium. Stranger Things doesn't use this narrative conventions, as it is told with a non-linear narrative, for example the first episode of Stranger Things starts with a disruption/action when the lab person is taken by a monster. The mise-en-scene in Stranger Things reference other retro films such as ET. This is shown when the boys in Stranger Things and in ET ride an 80's style bikes. Inter-textual reference is also used through technical code of music, for example the trailer of Stranger Things has a background music of Michael Jackson Thriller. The use of inter textual reference is important because while audience watch the films they can link ideas and actually become,e more interested in that media text if they liked the previous one.
Overall, Stranger Things reference retro films through the use of 80's style as many sections are taken from those films, for example the boys main characters are dressed as ghost busters for halloween, which is a really famous 1984 film.