For component two section A, you will explore two very different TV shows which broadly exist in the same genre. Humans is in many ways a conventional science fiction TV show featuring androids, which focusses on family life, sex, society, and what it means to be human. Les Revenants is a French horror TV show which is pretty much unconventional in every way, taking a decidedly different approach to the zombie subgenre.
Both of these shows can be categorised as cult TV
Cult - a media product that specifically appeals to a smaller, yet extremely enthusiastic audience
Cult TV shows are often based round horror, sci-fi , or other more niche subgenres, though not always. The important thing is that a devoted fanbase should be able to interact with the show. When you pick your own example, think: does this show have a big online following? Are there plenty of memes about it? Have there been books written about it? Can you buy merchandise related to this show? If the answer is yes, then it is likely that it is a cult show.
Please choose a show which doesn't have mass market appeal. Love Island does have a cult following of sorts... but it's too mainstream to be truly cult... Basically don't pick Eastenders or Cash In The Attic or The One Show or The News At Ten or something
Task - pick a cult TV show, preferably one that fits in to the science fiction and/or horror genre, and answer the following questions.
Present your work as a single long blog post, and make sure it's illustrated throughout. Lots and lots of pictures. Make it look really good!
Media language - Scene analysis
Find a scene, or a trailer from your show, and conduct a detailed analysis using the toolkit for textual analysis. Remember to discuss how shot types, camera angles, colour, mise-en-scene and so on construct meaning for the audience. What does this show accomplish aesthetically that sets it apart from every other show?
Use this list to structure your response:
- Genre codes and conventions
- Genre theory
- Genre fluidity
- Camera work - framing and composition shot types, angle, position, movement
- Lighting and colour
- Editing – pace, type of edits, continuity
- Narrative construction, related to narrative theory
- Sound – dialogue, music
- Mise-en-scene – setting and location, props, costume/dress, hair/make-up
Representation - character analysis
Select three characters from your show. Find images of each one of them. What groups do these characters represent? What elements of media language construct these characters? To what extent are these characters stereotypes? Are they a positive representation of the group they represent?
(just so you're in no doubt, when I say groups, this could refer to ethnicity, age, sexuality, gender, location, physical appearance, superpower... it really depends on the show you have selected!)
Audience
Who is the exact target audience for your TV show? How do you know? Pick a key scene (which you can hopefully find easily enough on YouTube), and write a short bullet point analysis of how the product appeals to its audience.
Then, after you've analysed the scene, make a pen portrait of the exact 'perfect' audience who is targeted by your show.
Check out this site for a description of what a pen portrait is. It's a proper marketing technique, and it's strangely fun too!
Industry
For this, you're going to focus on advertising and marketing. This includes official marketing, and fan made products. Here's a list you should/could tick off:
- Posters
- Trailers (put in a screenshot!)
- Print adverts
- Publicity stunts
- Soundtrack CD
- Live events
- Magazine front covers
- Merchandise including clothing
- Fan produced material including parodies, fan art, and so on
- Social media posts, both official and fan made
What show should I do?
Below are some examples of cult TV.
So just pick one of these if in doubt! Some genres, for example horror, science fiction and anime are basically automatically cult!
- Attack on Titan
- Breaking Bad
- DEVS
- Discworld
- Dr Who
- It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia
- Empire
- The Expanse
- Good Omens
- Hanibal
- Jujutsu Kaisan
- Kaiji
- Lost
- The Mandalorian
- Maniac
- Neon Genesis Evangelion
- Riverdale
- Scream
- Sherlock
- Squid Game
- Star Trek (any series)
- Stranger Things
- Teen Titans
- Thirteen Reasons Why
- The Walking Dead
- Wandavision
- The Wire