AUDIENCE PLEASURES OF THE IT CROWD

Today I watched the IT Crowd and analysed the audience pleasures in it.

The IT Crowd was written by Graham Linehan, who said that his aim with the IT Crowd to write a 'sweet, old-fashioned comedy like Dad's Army'. For this reason, none of the episodes include vulgar language or poke fun at anyone or anything in a nasty way; it is a family programme and the traditional comedy, for example physical comedy and farcical situations are part of the audience pleasures of watching the show. The episode called 'The Work Outing' is a good example of this, because when Roy says that he 'doesn't know many heterosexual men who read Heat' it is not intended as a way of making fun of homosexuals, but instead as a way of highlighting Roy's own insecurities about his sexuality; the way he vehemently denies this when Jen suggests it is part of the comedy. 

The IT Crowd constructs stereotypical characters like Roy and Moss as 'standard nerds'. They are constructed this way because of how they look, for example despite the fact that he is in an office environment Roy does not wear a suit, but instead jeans and T-shirt. This makes him appear less adult and more childish. This trait is further constructed by the way his desk contains lots of childish items, for example a rubber duck, a comic book, a Rubix cube and two toy figurines; this displays his childish nature. Roy's desk is also very messy, for example it is covered in empty mugs and an apple core, suggesting that Roy is unable to look after himself or be responsible. There are posters all around the office of different bands, which look unprofessional and also show that Roy and Moss have childish mindsets. The computer hardware around the office, such as monitors, laptops, speakers and mobile phones demonstrates that Roy and Moss are very interested in computers and builds up the image of them as 'standard nerds'. The audience pleasure of seeing the way Roy is constructed is that his insecurities and flaws, such as his lack of responsibility and childishness, make the audience feel protective and affectionate towards him.  

Moss is constructed as very buttoned up and protective. He is constructed this way because of the way he looks, for example he keeps his shirt buttoned up to the neck, making him appear formal and closed off; this suggests he is insecure socially and likes to keep to himself. Moss wears big, chunky glasses and has a large mop of curly hair that he unsuccessfully tries to tame; this shows how he cannot control most aspects of his life, and mimics how he cannot control his social life. Moss is extremely neat and tidy, for example he has to know how many staples he uses each time and has an obsession with counting things like money. This suggests he likes to try and control his life because of his ineptitude in other areas, such as his social abilities. Moss always uses a lot of technical language, such as 'RAM', 'invalid memory' and 'firewall' and is very good at understanding computers, creating the stereotype of him as a 'nerd'. However Moss takes everything people say to him very literally, meaning he often doesn't understand jokes or what is appropriate to talk about and what isn't, for instance when they have an office party and Roy tells Moss to tell 'the story about Amsterdam' Moss doesn't think which story would be appropriate for a social occasion, or that he should invent a story, but instead tells a truthful one about how he and Roy hired prostitutes. Because of this, Moss easily alienates people he doesn't know very well, however one of the audience pleasures of the IT Crowd is understanding Moss's little quirks and finding them an endearing personality trait. 

Jen is not constructed as a nerd; she is the social relations manager of the office, and the IT department's link to the outside world. Despite the fact that the IT department is way down in the basement, forgotten about by the rest of the company, Jen manages to boost Moss and Roy's popularity 'upstairs' by using her social skills, for example when an office worker comes down to beat Roy with a shoe for being rude to her, Jen diffuses the situation by complimenting the woman's fashion sense, and offering to go shopping with her. Jen's easy, relaxed social manner makes her appealing to the audience because it is a familiar part of her personality. Jen is also constantly looking for a boyfriend, however her dates always go wrong, for example when she agrees to go to the theatre with a man who turns out to be gay. Jen's hapless love life is a running joke in the IT Crowd and her vulnerability in this area endears her to the audience; being part of the running joke is another of the audience pleasures of watching the IT Crowd. 

17/3/15 | CONSTRUCTION | FILMING THE SIGNING OF THE FORM

17/3/15 | CONSTRUCTION | FILMING THE SIGNING OF THE FORM

Today we filmed the shot of Erica’s medical forms being signed. We thought this would make Erica’s condition of multiple personality disorder and her early release clear. We panned across the form to show Erica’s medical details and personal information. We also got a shot of the form being signed. We are going to add this to the beginning of the film during the voiceover of the doctor talking to Erica’s parents about her medical record.  

HOW SUCCESSFULLY OUR PROJECT FITS THE BRIEF

HOW SUCCESSFUL OUR PROJECT IS AS A FILM OPENING

FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF OUR FILM OPENING SLIDES

These are the slides I created on the forms and conventions of our film opening, Erica:

MAKING OUR SECOND IDENT

10/2/15 | CONSTRUCTION | MAKING OUR SECOND IDENT

Today Amber, Harriet and I decided to make a second ident using iStopMotion. We wanted this one to be different from our first one to provide contrast, so for this one we used an ornate fan. The fan would open and when it closed it would revealed the name of our production company. Because of this we decided to call our company ‘Revealed Productions’. Like before, we used dafont.com to find a suitable font. We chose one that was an oriental style to go with the oriental theme of the fan.

This is the font we chose. We had to size it carefully to ensure it fitted beneath the fan and remained hidden until we wanted to reveal it.

 This was the way we set up the camera and the fan. We had to set it up carefully to ensure everything was in shot.

  

This was me opening and closing the fan to practise how to make the fan move slowly to make the animation look smooth and realistic. 

X MEN EXAM QUESTIONS

1.    Explain 2 ways in which the narrative (characters and events) fits the action and adventure genre. Use examples from the extract.

The extract is a fantasy-superhero action adventure hybrid. I know this because the people in it have supernatural powers, such as Quicksilver slowing down time. It displays typical codes and conventions of this genre, such as speed and motion. Time is slowed down in the extract as Quicksilver races around the room. The bullets fired from the guns stop moving in mid-air and objects falling, like the oven trays and pans full of soup, hang in the air. Quicksilver runs around the room at a normal speed, showing his power to control speed and time. Combat and conflict is another typical convention shown in the extract. The soldiers hold guns and fire them at the men at the door, showing conflict between the two groups.

There are also typical action and adventure characters in the extract. For example, Quicksilver is an archetypal heroic protagonist. He saves the lives of the men by the door, including Wolverine, by using his powers to move the bullets on their path to kill them. This is a heroic act. He also stops the soldiers from attacking them again by making the soldiers punch themselves or fall over. These acts of heroism construct Quicksilver as the heroic protagonist, as well as his heroic qualities such as the fact he is calm, cool and collected under pressure, never displaying signs of panic. However, as he causes harm to others like the soldiers, even willing to kill suggests he could be an anti-hero. There are also villainous antagonists; the soldiers. They are constructed as antagonists because they are trying to kill the hero, Quicksilver, by shooting him as well as trying to kill his friends. They also vastly outnumber the hero and his friends they are trying to attack, positioning them as antagonists.

2.    Explain how the following are used to create effects, using examples from the extract:

·        Soundtrack

There is non-diegetic sound in the form of the music when Quicksilver runs around the room. The music is calm and delicate, with an acoustic guitar; it is not fast paced or dramatic. This creates the effect of a contrast between the life threatening situation he is in and the calm way he deals with it using his superpowers. It is an almost comical effect as the contrast is so great.

There are also diegetic sounds such as when time speeds up the sounds of the metal and glass hitting the floor and shattering. This loud, crashing sound is violent and brings the audience back to the real time action. The suddenness of the sound also highlights Quicksilver’s powers over time. 

·        Editing

There is CGI, such as all the objects being suspended in the air, like the bullets and the pots and pans. This emphasises the extraordinary powers that Quicksilver has as he can change and move things before they fall to the ground.

Slow motion is also used, for example, while Quicksilver is running around the walls it slows down as he sticks his finger in some soup. This emphasises his calm and collected manner as he stops to try food. It shows how he has complete control over the situation.

·        Camera work

There is a close up of Quicksilver’s face putting on a hat and then suddenly speeding away. The effect of this is to show how quickly Quicksilver can move; he is there one minute and gone the next.

There is also a bird’s eye view shot to show everyone and everything falling down to the ground, demonstrates the hero’s powers and the huge effect he can have. It contrasts with the situation before (the X men were going to die) and shows how Quicksilver has managed to turn the situation around using his incredible skill. It also heightens the drama as the huge impact of what he has done at the speed of light hits the audience.

·        Mise-en-scene

The extract is set in a kitchen, full of dangers objects like pots, pans, knives. This heightens the tension and drama as it sets up a dangerous situation full of potential hazards, creating suspense. The risk is high and this makes it more suspenseful for the audience watching, therefore engaging them in the action.

Quicksilver wears a leather jacket, a hat and dark glasses. The dark clothes create the effect of a mysterious being, which is built on by the fact he has these supernatural abilities. It constructs Quicksilver as a supernatural, maybe even dangerous but incredible character and so makes him interesting to the audience.

CONSTRUCTION: MAKING OUR PRODUCTION IDENT

In today's lesson we created our production ident for our film company, which we had already decided would be called Vault 15 Productions. We printed off a picture of a vault door and our production company name in a font we felt suited our production company's messages and values: it was bold, clear but unique with the angular letters. We used a website called Dafont (www.dafont.com) to generate our production company logo.
Our idea for our ident was to have a vault door spinning and then opening (which we would use StopMotion for), with our production company name around it. This is what we created; we had to use two copies of the picture to make the  animation appear real. We had to use a scalpel and board to cut out the handles of the vault so we could make it turn in our animation. To make the animation look effective, we had to make sure the image stayed in the same place and that we used slow, smooth, small movements so the animation flowed.

INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXTS: QI AND THE IT CROWD

QI

Institutional contexts:

•                  The media channels‘/stations’ brand identities

 •                  The media channels’/stations’ ethos and histories (only relevant if they affect   programmes)

 •                  Regulatory (eg Public Service Broadcasting) requirements

QI is broadcast on Dave and BBC 2. Dave used to be called UKTV but re branded as Dave in 2007 to create a 'strong and noisy personality'. This new brand identity was based on the idea that 'everybody knows a bloke called Dave' to make the channel more relatable and memorable to its viewers, and give the channel a 'personality'. Dave shows programmes such as QI, Mock the Week and Have I Got News For You. Dave's brand slogan is 'the home of witty banter' and shows predominantly comedy programmes, such as QI. 

On the other hand, BBC 2 is a Public Service Broadcaster; it's aim is 'to inform, educate and entertain'. QI fits well with this remit, as it covers a range of 'quite interesting' information about subjects like history, science, nature and food. At the moment QI is on it's twelfth series (Series L). It is shown on BBC 2 every Thursday at 22:00 and 23:05 and every Friday at 22:00 and 23:05. Many QI repeats are shown on Dave regularly, for example on Tuesdays at 20:00, 21:00 and 22:00; as well as at 03:15, 04:15, 21:00 and 22:00 on Wednesdays; additionally it's shown on Saturdays at 21:05 and 22:30

 •                  The media channels’/stations’ target audiences.

BBC 2's remit is 'to be a mixed-genre channel appealing to a broad adult audience with programmes of depth and substance. It should carry the greatest amount and range of knowledge building programming of any BBC television channel, complemented by distinctive comedy, drama and arts programming.' QI fits this remit very well because it offers a range of knowledge and trivia on multiple subjects, as well as incorporating humour to appeal to a wide range of people. 

Dave describes their target audience as a 'core 16-34 male audience'. QI's broad range of topics and humour makes it a suitable programme for such a large age group: young men as well as older ones. Stereotypically, QI would appeal to a male audience as there is a lot of slapstick and often crude jokes. 

The IT Crowd

Institutional contexts:

•                  The media channels‘/stations’ brand identities

 •                  The media channels’/stations’ ethos and histories (only relevant if they affect   programmes)

 •                  Regulatory (eg Public Service Broadcasting) requirements

The IT Crowd is broadcast on Channel 4; a Public Service Broadcaster. 

"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."

The IT Crowd suits this remit because it appeals to a niche audience and focuses on an original 'situation' as part of the situation comedy: an IT department of a big business. Because of its ingenuity as a programme and the niche brand of humour, the IT Crowd also fits the remit as having a 'distinctive character'. The IT Crowd had four series as well as a special; repeats are not currently being aired. 

 •                  The media channels’/stations’ target audiences.

According to Channel 4, 'Audiences lie at the heart of everything we do at Channel 4. Our unique model means that we aim to have as wide an appeal as possible while also reaching out to specific demographics under-served by other broadcasters' 
The IT Crowd suits this target audience because of its niche audience it reaches out to 'specific demographics'; people a sophisticated brand of humour that is often subtle and clever, not just slapstick or physical. Channel 4 appeals to both males and females of a broad age range; The IT Crowd suits this because the comedy is not rude or offensive and can be watched by a family audience. 

CONSTRUCTION POSTS

These are my two posts on construction; the filming of our film opening, Erica. We have to get a couple more shots before we can edit, so I don't have an editing post yet but these are the two posts on constructing our films so far.

29/10/14 | PRODUCTION | FILMING

Over this half term break Harriet, Amber and I met up and filmed for a day. We filmed using a Canon 550D video camera and a tripod to create steady shots. We filmed several quick shots from when Erica (played by me) is at home and going to bed, when she gets back up and escapes out of her window and when she comes back to her room again and goes back to bed. Amber was in charge of makeup, I contributed costumes and Harriet did a lot of the actual filming. We all contributed in setting up shots as we each had our own ideas as to how to construct each shot and we each had a turn at filming. Amber did a lot of directing the shots.

We spent 4 hours filming these scenes as we tried to get the same shot from different angles and shot types to make the film more interesting and draw attention to certain shots. Overall this filming was successful as we managed to film quite a lot of the shots we needed and included a range of shot types such as close ups, mid shots and mid-long shots in order to add interest to our film.

3/1/15 | PRODUCTION | FILMING

Today Harriet, Amber, Nikki Granger and I met up at Harriet’s house to do some more filming for our film opening, Erica. We filmed using a Canon 550D video camera. One problem we faced was that as we were filming after dark the lighting wasn't very good, however we overcame this problem by using torches to create eerie lighting, and this worked quite well. We did not use a tripod for these scenes as we wanted them to be handheld so they were disorienting and created a spooky atmosphere. We filmed a lot of shots for the main part of the opening, when my character Erica is walking down the street, sees Nikki’s character being bullied by Amber and Harriet’s characters, and then stalks and kills them. Amber again did the makeup for the scenes and both me and Amber helped style hair as part of the costumes, for example I gave Nikki plaits to make her look young and innocent. Amber and Harriet directed most of the shots but we all contributed our own ideas. We also all took a turn filming. I was mainly responsible for organizing getting everyone together and finding someone to play Faith (Nikki’s character). 

We spent 3 hours filming these scenes and I feel it was successful. We got a range of shot types such as canted angles, close ups and tracking shots.

CALL SHEET FOR FINAL SHOOT

During today's lesson I created a new call sheet for the final piece of filming our group needs to do; the flashback bullying scene between Erica and two bullies at her school.

GCSE Media Studies Call Sheet for Psychological Thriller

Shoot date: 10/2/15

Location: Claremont Fan Court School, Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY

Camera equipment:

Canon 550D

Lighting equipment: N/A

 Crew: Eleanor, Amber, Harriet

Harriet Mobile:  07*********                                          Email Address: harriet@gmail.com

Eleanor Mobile:  07****556**                        Email Address: eleanormcchesney@gmail.com               

Amber Mobile: 07********                                             Email Address: amber@gmail.com

Props:

N/A

Wardrobe Erica:

School uniform (skirt, tights, jumper, school shoes)

Wardrobe Bully 1:

School uniform (skirt, tights, jumper, school shoes)

Wardrobe Bully 2:

School uniform (skirt, tights, jumper, school shoes)

THE IT CROWD

I read the script for an episode of the IT Crowd called Yesterday's Jam. This is what I analysed:

How are the characters constructed?
Jen - As a sociable girl who's not really very intelligent because of the way she can make friends instantly (such as with the woman who beats Roy with her shoe) but she is not very knowledgeable about things like IT, for example, when she doesn't realize her computer is not plugged in.
Roy - As short tempered and lazy but desperate to be popular and get a girlfriend because of the way he doesn't answer the phone for as long as possible when it rings and when he does he gets very angry when the person on the other end doesn't understand what he's saying ("why don't you come down here and make me then?"). However he also tries to impress girls like Jen when he first meets her by pretending to be intelligent and sophisticated ("I believe it was Tolstoy who said...").
Moss - As very clever when it comes to technology but completely uncomprehending of subtlety such as when Roy pretends to be talking about Tolstoy and he doesn't understand why ("When have you read Tolstoy?" "Why are you giving me the secret signal to shut up?")


In what way are Roy and Moss 'standard nerds'?
Things they say - use of technological language such as 'system core tablet', 'thread' and 'programming code' that no one except someone very interested in computers (a stereotypical 'nerd') would understand 
Things they do - they don't know how to interact with girls, for example Roy getting beating regularly by girls he's frustrated with on the phone; they sit alone in the basement all day and are surprised when they have a visitor like Jen (for example when they enter, look surprised, put on deodorant and re-enter to try and impress her); they order two books to check the text isn't different (when Moss says "I got the child edition and the adult edition just to check there are no differences in the text"), which is something most people would not be interested in doing.

What is comic about Jen's appointment as IT manager?
She seems to know nothing about IT (for example naming the same thing different ways "emails, sending emails, receiving emails, deleting emails") yet Denholm is taken in and says that "you certainly seem to know your stuff". Therefore it is comic because although it is clear to the audience that Jen is incompetent when it comes to computers Denholm seems to believe her. 

QI AUDIENCE PLEASURES

I went to the BBC website at www.bbc.co.uk and found clips of QI, a comedy panel game hosted by Stephen Fry and featuring permanent panellist Alan Davies. I watched and analysed the clip called 'A Mind Blowing Snack' from series L which you can see here.

Audience pleasures in the clip:

• You see familiar people (Stephen Fry and Alan Davies) who are in every episode and so you form an on screen relationship with them and their personalities (i.e. Stephen Fry as the erudite intellectual and Alan Davies as the scapegoat). Relationships is one of the four gratifications of consuming media in the Uses and Gratifications model, and is a way audiences get pleasure from watching TV shows like QI. You feel you know the characters and are included in their jokes and banter.
• Alan Davies is consistently the scapegoat and always falls into the trap of saying the most obvious answer rather than the 'quite interesting' one. In this clip he does just that by asking if the green food is wasabi causing the sirens to go off. This gives the audience pleasure because it makes them feel safe in that they can watch from the comfort of their own homes and answer rightly or wrongly without such public humiliation. It also endears the audience to Alan as they feel sympathy for him always being the one to get the question wrong. This also helps in creating the on screen relationship with the panellists.
• There is physical humour, for example when Jason Manford comically fans his mouth after taking a bite of the green horse radish. This exaggeration is humorous and so gives the audience pleasure.
• The audience gets pleasure from watching Johnny Vegas take a big mouthful of the horse radish and then realise his mistake as it is very spicy. This gives the audience pleasure partly because his pain is humorous as he over reacts even though you know it is not as bad as he says and partly because they are relieved not to be in the same situation (similar to the idea of not having the sirens go off if you get the answers wrong). Johnny's over reaction is humorous to the audience because they know he is mainly putting it on; he uses physical humour like pulling faces and irony, for example telling Stephen Fry it would have been useful if he'd put up the pictures of the horse radish first instead of 'giving us some and saying 'Put that in your mouth'". He also jokes that he will be "flying home" and that he can "see through walls", entertaining the audience and playing up to them. This kind of humour from comedians on the panel is typical of QI and is one of the pleasures as they get to see other familiar faces such as Jason Manford, Aisling Bea and Johnny Vegas in this clip.

3/1/15 | PRODUCTION | FILMING

3/1/15 | PRODUCTION | FILMING

Today Harriet, Amber, Nikki Granger and I met up at Harriet’s house to do some more filming for our film opening, Erica. We filmed using a Canon 550D video camera and torches to create eerie lighting as we were filming after dark. We did not use a tripod for these scenes as we wanted them to be handheld so they were disorienting and created a spooky atmosphere. We filmed a lot of shots for the main part of the opening, when my character Erica is walking down the street, sees Nikki’s character being bullied by Amber and Harriet’s characters, and then stalks and kills them. Amber again did the makeup for the scenes and both me and Amber helped style hair as part of the costumes, for example I gave Nikki plaits to make her look young and innocent. Amber and Harriet directed most of the shots but we all contributed our own ideas. We also all took a turn filming. I was mainly responsible for organizing getting everyone together and finding someone to play Faith (Nikki’s character).

We spent 3 hours filming these scenes and I feel it was successful. We got a range of shot types such as canted angles, close ups and tracking shots.