Blue Planet II - initial research

Sir David Frederick Attenborough

• Age 91
• Studied in Cambridge 
• Broadcaster and Naturalist
• Working with BBC since the 60s
• Narrated Blue Planet, the highest UK viewing figure 2015 with 14.1 million views
• Born the same year as the queen
• Doesn't count himself as an 'animal lover' 
• •The only person to have won BAFTAs for black and white, colour, HD and 3D
• Rejected for his first job he applied for at the BBC
• Served 2 years in the navy
• Has more then 10 plants and animals named after him 
• Thought to be one of the most well travelled people on the planet
• veteran english broadcaster and naturalist.
• Spouse: Jane elizabeth ebsworth oriel 1950-1997.
• siblings: richard, john, irene, helga.
• children: usan, robert.
• born: 1926 8 may, 91.
• british.
• born in middlesex.
• his parents fostered 2 jewish refugees from europe.
• best known for writing and presenting.
• former bbc manager.
• ONLY person to have won baftas for programmes in b&w, colour, hd, 3d and 4k.
• considered as a national treasure in britain.
• 2002 named one of 100 greatest britons.
• presenter of bbc radio 4.

Related merchandise

• Book, hard copy and Kindle version
• DVD, multiple different versions including 4K
• Box set of the two seasons 
• Posters
• Blue planet two box set - DVD and Ultra 4k
• Blue planet two book by James Honeyborne
• Blue planet two t-shirt - black and white
• calendars
• books
• dvds
• stickers 

Specialist equipment

• Low light camera
• Drones
• Underwater motion-control timelapse rig
• Submersibles
• high-tech submersibles carrying ultra HDand extreme low-light cameras
• macro-camera
• infrared cameras during night shoots and in the perma-darkness of the deep.
• One of the submersibles is fitted with 8K cameras in order to see the tiniest of creatures. 
• The shots of the baby sperm whale attempting to dive with the adults for squid were only made possible by attaching cameras to the whales.These small orange camera tags were placed on the whales using a fishing rod, and remained stuck on the mammals' bodies using suction caps. They were automatically released after 30 hours and the crew could locate the devices using the radio tags.
• They designed new camera equipment – a specialist float rig. This meant the camera could glide along the same currents at the jellyfish.
• The close up of the stingers were done in a specialist filming pen that could be attached to the side of boat using a macro camera. 
• Filming Walrus on iceberg: To get the shots, a specialist cameraman had to dive into the freezing Antarctic waters with a camera rig that weighs 50kg. It’s so big, it takes a team of three people to get it into the water.
• The Megadome
• Bespoke camera rig built specifically for the show, to film dangerous animals at water level, and minimise disturbance to the habitat. e.g. in the shots of the mother seal and her pup on a single iceberg.
• Three-seat filming submarine
• Built for the show at very high cost, used to film and explore deep sections of the sea, include the sea bed itself.
• Extreme telephoto zoom lens

The BBC

• Founded 95 years ago (October 18, 1922)
• Founder: John Reith
• BBC stands for ‘The British Corporation’
• The BBC is watched/listened by 96% of UK population
• Radio, TV and online programmes are available in 28 languages other than English
• It is Europe’s biggest provider of media and creative skills training
• 1 in 16 adults (worldwide) use BBC news
• The BBC license fee costs £145.50 a year (40p a day). It includes 4 TV channels, 10 national radio stations, network of local radio stations, internationally-acclaimed website, BBC parliament, world service, S4C, BBC monitoring and 5 orchestras and choirs.
• The broadcaster receives £3.7 billion a year
• Spends 76% of its fee income on TV content (more than any other broadcaster) (SKY only spends 34%)
• Headquarters are in London

Distribution

• England=  
• Series premiere took place at bristols cinema de lux - 11/10/17- with special guest appearance of the producers, wild life experts and attenborough
• International=   
• series broadcast on bbc earth channel
• pre-sold to several broadcasters - such as channel nine (australia) telefonica (spain) blue ant media ( canada. In China, the premiere took place at Shanghai's East China Normal University on 27 October 2017, with guest appearance by the producer Orla Doherty and Mike Gunton, the executive producer of Planet Earth II.

Critical reception

• Blue Planet 2 did exceptionally well, scoring 95% on Rotten tomatoes
• James Parker from the Atlantic said “Scenes of tremendous grandeur, thrashing pods of orcas, are switched dizzyingly with Attenborough's other specialty: the vignettes, the micronarratives.”
• According to the Guardian Blue Planet 2 was chosen by TV critics as the best show of 2017.
• Blue Planet 2 has proved a big success for the BBC and attracted more viewers than any other program this year.
• On IMDb Blue planet 2 is given 9.5/10
• The TV show Blue Planet II was the most watched show of the year in Britain
• The opening instalment of the show drew 14.1 million viewers
• Blue Planet II is the UK’s most watched natural history show in 15 years 
• The third most watched show of any king in the last five years, trailing only the 2014 World Cup Final and the Great British Bake Off
• The BBC said that 2.3 million of the viewers were in the crucial 16-34-year-old demographic

Social media and viral trailer 

• soundtrack Radiohead. audience appeal to fans of the group and of the song
• 'if the trailer of blue planet II is this good, I am going to lose my head when the whole thing comes out'
• Sir David explains how viewers are being taken on an ocean cruise unlike any other.
• direct mode of address talking to the audience keeping audience engaged with the soothing soundtrack relaxing audience
• "Its message, and the methods it employs to deliver it, makes this the most important television on right now." Hanh Nguyen, Indiewire
• Memes made on twitter, people re tweeting 

Thanks to P block for submitting this research!

Charity advertising and the 'white saviour' archetype

One common stereotype in charity campaigns is the utilisation of the 'white saviour' archetype, a white, Western celebrity whose presence connotes wealth, generosity, and an ability to solve issue overseas. This representation often encodes colonialist ideologies, the idea of a wealthy and dominant nation helping a less able, developing nation. This style of charity campaigning is now so unpopular with audiences that Comic Relief seem to be ditching them all together. You can read about it here.

A good point of comparison between the old fashioned 'white saviour' campaign is the Wateraid advert we studied in class, Claudia Sings Sunshine On A Rainy Day. In what ways does this campaign subvert traditional colonialist ideologies about race, ethnicity and African people?

The Jeremy Kyle Show and the manipulation of the working class

The Jeremy Kyle Show presents a consistently stereotypically negative representation of working class people. Through a process of selection of guests, editing techniques, and the anchorage of musical cues, working class people are represented as being unhealthy, idiotic, disorganised and unattractive. But why does a show that explicitly targets working class people use such brutally misleading representations?

A simple answer could be because it presents the audience with the gratification of seeing people with a similar lifestyle. But then why would the audience wish to see themselves in such an unflattering way? It is clear that the 'guests' are being 'othered' through the use of binary oppositions, and this meaning is anchored through the use of reaction shots of the working class audience looking in horror and fascination at the working class 'guests'.

How do we know that The Jeremy Kyle Show is targeting a working class audience? There are many aspects that tip us off. For a start, it is broadcast at 9:25am on weekday mornings, meaning that typically only those working part time, shift work and the unemployed will be able to watch it. The show has particularly low production values, from visible boom mics and cameras to a shot of Kyle falling over (to rapturous audience response). The costume of the studio audience suggests a working class background. Finally, Kyle's awkward use of slang suggests a middle class presenter desperately trying to communicate with his working class audience. The constant blunt repetition of "she's your daughter, mate" establishes a sort of catchphrase for the episode, and allows Kyle to adopt a working class lexis. 

From a Marxist perspective, The Jeremy Kyle Show is created by the ruling class. The ruling class can only continue to exist by manipulating the working class. Since the working class outnumber the ruling class, the ruling class must make the working class consent to the system of controls that exist in society. This form of ruling through consent is called hegemony. One powerful message to present to the working class audience is that working class lifestyles are undesirable. If the working class audience believe that working class people are fat, ugly, lazy and repulsive, then the ideology that working class people are to blame for society's issues becomes cultivated.

The consistent negative representation of working class people not only presents the poor as being unwholesome and detestable, but it may also effect the ways in which the working class are treated in every day life. "It's a bit Jeremy Kyle" can be used as shorthand for a 'working class situation' or location, and for the secondary audience, the representations on offer on the show become the only point of reference for people who may have never set foot in a council estate before. Additionally, negative representations can provoke a self-fulfilling prophecy, where working class people in desperation may eventually end up emulating the expectations placed on them.

All this might be pretty easy to dismiss if there were the equivalent of The Jeremy Kyle Show for posh people. However, there is no middle class equivalent that I know of. If you can think of anything, please let your teacher know!

The Jeremy Kyle Show - conclusory tasks

0 - Discussing production values (class discussion)

1 - Presenting a definite and argumentative opinion

i - Choose one of the following arguments:

"The Jeremy Kyle Show consistently manipulates it's working class audience by presenting a dominant ideology that the working class are stereotypically lazy, repulsive and to be laughed at. This further cultivates deeply held stereotypes and causes division in British society".

or

"The Jeremy Kyle Show presents a uniquely British form of comedy for an exclusively British audience. By using a range of character archetypes, editing techniques and subversive gratifications, The Jeremy Kyle Show is ultimately as entertaining as Westworld or Blue Planet". 

ii - Register with ITV Hub, and access the Thursday 15th March episode of The Jeremy Kyle Show. (If you would prefer to work from the examples in your notes, then please just do this, though having visual prompts would be beneficial)

iii - Screencap (CMD+SHIFT+4) 20 to 30 images from a section of your choice. Remember, you will have to watch adverts, which are an integral part of the show and the industrial context in which it is made. So screencap these as well if desired. Alternatively, you can just pause at a random point of the broadcast and analyse this image. 

iv - Create a shortlist of five images, and textually analyse each one in your books. Remember, the (new) golden rule is three visual and/or technical codes. It goes without saying at this point to check out the textual analysis toolkit!

v - select two audience theories that relate to the images you have selected.

vi - Write a PEA paragraph explaining how in no uncertain terms the argument you have selected is valid. 

2 - Exploring context and background

Research The Jeremy Kyle Show under the following headings:

• Controversies
• Production
• Process of applying to be on the show
• Global distribution
• Marketing strategies including social media presence
• Merchandise
• Memes and audience responses
• History and key dates
• Production values including budget and shooting schedules

Audience negotiation and The Jeremy Kyle Show

Below you will find notes made by R block and P block exploring reception theory when applied to The Jeremy Kyle Show. Audience theories tend to work well together, and this demonstrates how coming them can create excellent statements that will show off your superior knowledge and understanding. 

"I blame my dad for my brother being beheaded"

Audience manipulation - lexis - "his head was tooken off" [sic] - creates a binary opposition with Kyle's middle class lexis, further reinforcing negative representations of the working class

Oppositional reading - Dislike of Kyle's unprofessional treatment of Shona, who is left on stage while he consults her father. Handheld tracking shot follows Kyle

Preferred reading - Handheld tracking shot reinforces Kyle's authority, and encodes his commitment to restoring the equilibrium. Positions the audience with Kyle, reinforcing his power and agency

Audience positioning - Kyle consistently shot with low angle shots, positioning the audience as inferior to him.

Audience positioning - Audience positioned in a voyeuristic position, through the C/Us of the on screen audience, allowing the audience the pleasure of seeing people with a similar lifestyle

Effects model - If audience accept dominant ideology, Shona encoded as the protagonist and the father encoded as antagonist. Constantly hinted that the father has murdered the son. "I blame him for his death". There are significant issues with this reading, as it essentially presents a manipulative ideology to the target audience that someone is guilty without trial!

Uses and gratifications - "the first time she's spoken publicly" provides the audience with the gratifications of information and social interaction, a talking point for audiences.

Uses and gratifications - Provides the audience voyeuristic pleasure and details of murder and death. As Kyle discusses the crime, a montage of CCTV footage and grainy, low quality shots of crime scene investigations are played

"I proposed then my fiancee confessed to being a cheat! Lie detector results"

Preferred reading - Number to call the Jeremy Kyle show is straightforward. In order to participate, only an easy set of instructions need be followed. "If you think you're think you're being lied to". Preferred reading is that the target audience is positioned in a direct mode of address, and are being asked to question their own lives.

Uses and gratifications - Tracking shot of puppy in backstage area, a clear binary opposition to the exhausting and challenging narrative. Possible escapist gratification.

Audience positioning - Low angled shot of Kyle sitting on steps of stage, positioning audience with the studio. Informal mode of address.

Modes of address - Kyle continually shouts at his guest. Mocking tone, calls his guest a "doormat". Indirectly calls carol a "fat whale". However, instantly flips mode of address, and adopts a caring, comforting attitude.

Oppositional reading - Kyle is annoying and unfunny. His loud voice and confrontational body language, and sarcastic mode of address.

Preferred ideology - Working class people are unpleasant and stupid, and Kyle is always right. Costume is encoded as being vastly more middle class than his guests, emphasising his superiority.