P2 - Proposal

Draft / Practise Proposal -



Final Proposal -

M1 - Strengths and Weaknesses of Ideas

Idea 1: The Detective
Idea 2: Missing Man
Idea 3: Stick's and Stone's

I conducted a focus group compromised of six individuals who listened to my three ides and then commented on what they though of the idea. The focus group I pitched to consisted of four females and two males all between the ages of 17-18 which is good as this is the target market for my TV Drama; unfortunately I did not find the average social grade of the social group as I thought it was inappropriate to ask and has the chance to upset members of my focus group.

Their initial reactions to my ideas seemed some what positive, they thought that my first idea was interesting although I'm not sure they actually understood the idea to its full extent. Two members of the group seemed to really like my second idea and the rest did not react much, this could have been to them not listening or not liking the idea. My third idea seemed to get the best reaction as they all seemed curious and engaged more when I was explaining my idea to them, which I took as a positive thing, then listing this as my best idea.

SWOT Analyses of Idea 1: The Detective

My first idea, The Detective, is a TV Series where the main protagonist is a detective who is also the murderer and solves his own crimes to get some recognition from the people around him. I thought this was a strong idea as it seemed to me like it had a unique selling point and was an original idea however upon research I found a few other programmes which had the same basic idea. The TV series would fit in with the BBC 3's ethos as it deals with a social issue and the whole programme can be filmed with a small cats I relatively cheap locations. The idea was directly inspired from he primary research I conducted from the BBC 3's target audience with the favourite genre being crime drama.


SWOT Analyses of Idea 2: Missing Man

My second idea, Missing Man, is a TV series idea that is based around the social issue of depression and how it can make people feel invisible and if they are not seen, so I took this concept and made it literal so a boy is thought to be missing however people just don't recognise him and don't interact with him, almost as if he was invisible and so he then begins to use this to his advantage and we follow him in doing so. This idea again fits in with the BBC 3's ethos as it tackles a social issue that is prominent in every day life for many people, however when I pitched the idea to the focus group they did not understand the idea very well and were not very interested in the idea so this is a weakness to the idea. If I went forward with this idea I would have to be very careful in the way I portray mental health so I do not upset anyone and the story of the show means that it may be difficult to create a second series as the main plot is already known.

SWOT Analyses of Idea 3: Stick's and Stones

My third TV series idea is for a programme called "Stick's and Stones" and originally it was a comedy docu-drama about a group of teenagers and we follow them about there daily lives and the troubles that they get into, however due to recent events I may change the disruption of equilibrium to a virus breaking out and the teenagers being put on lockdown. This idea is good as it satisfies all three audience needs, escapism, personal identity and personal relationships so hopefully they will be able to connect to the TV programme no matter the reason the audience watches TV. The TV show also allows for a wide range of stories to be told so the audience will not get bored of a possible recurring plot. The TV series however would need a fairly large cast of around 5-6 actors although as its set as a documentary-drama the actors don't need to have lots of experience since it will make the programme more real. The filming technique of a comedy documentary-drama, similar to the programme "This Country" is quite a unique filming technique which can be used to advertise successfully but may also turn audiences away if they do not like this technique. The TV series being quite an open one means they will be time to give the characters depth and allow the audience to connect with the characters they see on screen and open the opportunity for a second or even this series.

Unit 1 - Representation

To create an idea for a media product you first have the real life inspiration, which the gets mediated, and then it becomes the final media product. Mediation is simply how you choose to recreate real life to create something interesting for the audiences to watch and by doing this you then re-present this to the audience.

For representation to be meaningful to audiences there needs to be a shared recognition of people, situation, ideas etc. All representations therefore have ideologies behind them.

What sense of the world is it making?

The media creator creates a world where it seems that working class youths are stereotypically violent and go around committing crimes in the new equilibrium they working class youths repel to the stereotype 

What does it imply? Is it typical of the world or deviant?

It implies that young children who live in council estates may be violent and commit crimes.

Who it it speaking to? For whom? To whom?

People who fit into the stereotypes shown in the film, it also shows a new representation of the youths which may change peoples perception of that stereotype which could impact the person real life actions.

What does it represent to us and why? How do we respond to the representation?

It represents stereotypes throughout the movie so that the audience can relate to them and then flips these stereotypes around to give the audience a new perspective on their existing stereotypes.

We often judge a media products realism against our own view of culture, whats "real" can therefore become subjective

Walter Lippmann had a theory that films used stereotypes often as a shorthand way of portraying certain groups, but of course this comes with the risk of misrepresentation people in the media.

Tessa Perkins in contrast to Walter Lippmann said that stereotyping is not a simple process, she identified that some of the many ways that stereotypes are assumed to operate aren't true:

   - They aren't always negative

   - They aren't always about minority groups or those less powerful

   - They are not always false, supported by empirical evidence

   - They are not always rigid and unchanging

Perkins argues that if stereotypes were always so simple then they would not work culturally and over time.

Does Attack the Block contain stereotypes and how are these constructed:

Gang members ( Moses and gang ):
Stereotypes are constructed through language, clothing, crime, drugs

The Police:
Police are represented as monsters and an all white, 30-50 police force all with recognisable uniforms.

Brewis:
Brewis tries to subvert his stereotype when he comes into contact with the gang members by trying to talk to them

Ron:
Represented as a sweaty thirty year old with no stable job and is not capable of looking after himself.

Ideologies and Representation (MARXISM)
A hegemonic view of society - fundamental inequalities in power between social groups. Groups in power exercises their influence culturally rather than by force.

Concept has origins in Marxist theory - ruling capitalist class are able to protect their economic interests.
Representations are encoded not mass media texts in order to do this - reinforce dominant ideologies in society

Gender and Ideology (FEMINISM)
Masculinity and felinity are socially constructed, ideas about gender are produced and reflected in language O' Sullivan et al (1998).
Feminism is a label that refers to a broad range of views containing on e shared assumption - gender inequalities in society.

"Men act and women appear". "Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at" - John Berger

In attack the block we have the representation of Samantha as a female and the group of girls who live in the block along with the main protagonists. However Samantha and the group of girls are represented differently as the group of girls relate to stereotypes where's Samantha does not satisfy norma stereotypes.

Martin Barker (1989) - stereotypes are condemned for misrepresenting the "real world" e.g. reinforcing that the (false) stereotype that women are available for sex at any time. He also says stereotypes are condemned for being too close to real world ( e.g. showing women in home servicing men, which many still do )

Exam Question
Evaluate whether the representations in Attack the Block are simplistic and reinforce dominant ideologies so that the audience can make sense of them. ( 12 Marks )

P1 - Stereotype of gang members changes forms the start to the finish
P2 - The gang members perspective on Sam changes front he start to the finish
P3 - The girls are represented as a sexual object, use context from a theorist and Samantha does not conform to dominant ideologies
P4 -Talk about Brewis and how the gang members are represented using their language and clothing and then Brewis subverts to this language stereotype when he is with them as he begins to talk like them.
P5 - Holds a strong hegemonic view throughout the movie with their being strong divisions of social class which changes perspectives and how people act.