Introduction to tv drama

1) Who do you think are the main characters in His Dark Materials? Why? The boy and the girl. this is because the other characters were chasing them.

 2) What narratives (storylines) are introduced in this trailer? People are trying to hide and stay away from those searching for them.

 3) What settings appear in the trailer? Describe as many as you can. The setting that appeared in the trailer are woods,boat,prison cells,church 

 4) What genre (or genres) are suggested by this His Dark Materials trailer? You may find reading the IMDB page for His Dark Materials helpful here.   The genre that is being suggest is a tv drama, sub genre fantasy 

 5) Who do you think the target audience for His Dark Materials is? Give reasons for your answer. The think the target audience for this show is teenagers as it involves a lot of teen girl/boys.also for proplr eeho enjoy watching people running away and escaping 

 How does this His Dark Materials trailer meet the conventions of a TV drama series? Read this Guardian TV review from the first episode of His Dark Materials season two.

 What did the reviewer think of the episode? Also look at the comments from readers below the article - do they agree?  people acually loved the show this is proven by this comment  "An excellent first episode! Once again excellent production and design, and pretty much universally good acting now the cast has thinned out (I think the two young mains are actually better than most the adults"

Television: Industry contexts - the BBC

 1) What is the BBC's mission statement?

inform, educate​and ​entertain​.

• To provide information (that is supposed to be balanced)
• To support learning for people of all ages
• To produce creative output
• To have diverse content (such as with its representations)
• To reflect the United Kingdom, its culture and values to the world

2) How is the BBC funded?

The BBC's main source of funding is the licence fee

3) What must the BBC do to meet its public service broadcasting responsibilities? (Look at the five bullet points above)

4) What is regulation and how is the BBC regulated?

Rules are follow ed and inappropriate content is not broadcast to audience

5) How do Doctor Who and His Dark Materials help the BBC to meet the BBC's remit to inform, educate and entertain?

In doctor who its educate people about space and show them different places and travelling. 

Television: His Dark Materials - Audience and Industry

Audience

1) Read this audience rating guide for His Dark Materials. Based on the screening and this article, who do you think the target audience is for His Dark Materials and why? What about psychographic groups? You can revise Pyschographics here.
i think the target audience is 14 and above this is because it was said on the web that 14 and above will  be fine to watch the series
2) What audience pleasures are offered by His Dark Materials - The City of Magpies? Apply Blumler and Katz's Uses and Gratifications theory to the episode. Make sure you provide specific examples from the episode to support your ideas.

Personal Identity: an example of a group of people  seeing themselves reflected is though the black witch. 

Personal Relationships: one relationship is between will and lyra. As audience may be interested in how the relation will turn out.

 Diversion (Escapism): the audience will escape all of their problem as they will be so interested in the show and will make them forget their problem.   

3) Thinking of the 3 Vs audience pleasures (Visceral, Vicarious and Voyeuristic pleasures), which of these can be applied to His Dark Materials? Refer to specific scenes or moments in the episode to explain your answer. 

VICARIOUS PLEASURE as you get to experiencing something through the characters e.g time travelling, flying.

4) How did fans react to Season 2 of His Dark Materials? What about critic reviews? You can find some possible answers for this in this BBC website article on the critical reception for His Dark Materials and watch the fan reaction video above.

season 2 did not receive as much love as season 1 which lead to the view of episode 1 of season 2 to be less compared to episode 1 season 1

5) What might be some of the preferred and opposition readings for His Dark Materials? Why did some fans love it? Why have other people criticised it? 

Some fans loved it because it looked great its robustly made and there are amazing actors everywhere occupying a well built universe however some fan didn't like it because the series is about magical worlds but season 2 didn't seemed to have much magic involved in it also it for teenagers

Television: His Dark Materials - Language and Representation

 His Dark Materials: Language and Representation blog tasks

Create a new blogpost called 'His Dark Materials: Language and Representation blog tasks' and work through the following tasks:

Language and close-textual analysis

1) Write an analysis of the episode - using notes from the screening in class. Make specific, detailed reference to moments in the text using media terminology (e.g. media language - camera shots and movement, editing, diegetic/non-diegetic sound, mise-en-scene etc.)

You can currently watch His Dark Materials on BBC iPlayer here.

Camerawork, editing and sound: 

high angle shot of Lyra to make her look vulnerable/innocent. Low angle of Mrs Coulter to show power

Mise-en-scene:

different worlds ‘City in the Sky’, cave, rainforest, ocean. Far off exotic locations

Narrative and genre: 

witches, supernatural (daemon animals) reveal emotions of characters

You can access our notes from our close-textual analysis in class here - you'll need your Greenford Google login to open this.

2) How does His Dark Materials fit the conventions of the fantasy TV genre?

his dark materials is all about witches and different worlds . 

3) Applying Propp's character theory, what character roles do some of the main characters in His Dark Materials fit into?Hero/protagonist   Helper/sidekick

4) What enigma and action codes (Barthes) can you find in His Dark Materials? Make specific, detailed reference to the text using media terminology (e.g. media language - camera shots, diegetic/non-diegetic sound, mise-en-scene etc.)character driven and that plots develop from the decisions and actions of characters and how they function in a story.There are camera shots used to show meaning. High angle shots of Lyra to make her look innocent and vulnerable, low angle shots of Mrs Coulter to make her look powerful.

5) What examples of binary opposition (Levi-Strauss) can you find in His Dark Materials? How do these create narrative or drama for the audience? You can find reminder notes on all these narrative theories here - just scroll down to narrative. according to gender stereotypes, the man may be portrayed to be 'strong' whereas the woman is the 'damsel in distress'. It is important to see how these stereotyes have changed in media forms over time.

An example of binary oppositions that are found in His Dark Materials is good and bad people, and young and old. This helps to show the conflict and narrative of the story

Representations

1) How are women represented in His Dark Materials? Are gender stereotypes reinforced or subverted? Think about Lyra and Mrs Coulter here.
 Lyera  can't cook and takes anything she wants which subverts these gender roles. Mrs Coulter is powerful and a villain.
2) How are men and masculinity represented in His Dark Materials? Think about Will and Lee Scoresby here.
There is a subversion of gender roles as Will is in the kitchen cooking and caring more about his hygiene that Lyra
3) How is age (e.g. teenagers; older people) represented in His Dark Materials? Does the show reinforce or challenge stereotypes about young people? Think about Lyra and Will plus the abandoned children they meet. Also think about Mrs Coulter and other adults.

Most of the main characters in this series are children as well and are representing that they don't need adults or help from older generations
4) How is race and ethnicity represented in His Dark Materials? Are stereotypes reinforced or subverted?

American star it makes the series fit for a global appeal 

5) How are politicians, religion and people with power represented? Think about how the Magisterium are shown in this episode.

they aren't supposed to treat people badly and is showing a lot of demonic traits