Does Blue Planet II target a global audience?

"Oops! There he goes again!" - the comical use of lexis provides gratification for even the youngest of audiences

Production values

Budget - The sophisticated use of colour grading connotes a luxurious paradise. Demonstrates the extremely high production values.

Soundtrack composed by Hans Zimmer provides emphasis on the determination of the fish, allowing even non-English speakers an opportunity to enjoy the narrative.

C/U of fish allows audiences the gratification of knowledge and understanding, to demonstrate exactly what the tuskfish looks like. Additionally, provides audiences with the gratification of escapism.

Celebrities

David Attenborough himself, who will be familiar to audiences from Planet Earth, The Hunt, Blue Planet I, Wildlife on One. He is an icon, an idol, an institution

Exotic countries

The clearly flowing montage editing allows the audience to focus on the extravagant setting and mise en scene of The Great Barrier Reef.

Anthropomorphisation

The tuskfish is cute, with the whimsical soundtrack anchoring this reading. Additionally he is "determined" and clumsy (C/U of fish dropping the shell, followed by reaction shot of fish's gormless face). Intertextual reference to slapstick comedy, popular around the world.

Verisimilitude

Lexis - The casual mode of address, "some fish are cleverer than others" allows audiences to identify with the unimaginably posh Attenborough. His clear and well spoken voice is easily understood and recognised around the world.

Simple, straightforward dialogue allows those with even a basic knowledge of English to understand.

Positioning techniques - "It's not easy if you have no hands", positioning the audience with somewhat ridiculous looking fish

Work experience account - My morning at BBC Cambridgeshire

On Wednesday November 1st, I was invited to BBC Cambridgeshire to work alongside the producers and to speak to Dave Harvey. Dave was someone who is very high up in the BBC Cambridgeshire company and was someone who I was in contact with for many weeks, discussing what I wanted for my future and the experiences I could gain from spending the day there.

When the day arrived, I was really excited. I had to be at the radio station at 06:15 to sit alongside the producer of the early morning shows. He showed me all of the equipment and spoke me through the morning itinerary. I got to see how they got everything to work, and run as smoothly as they do on morning radio. Most of the sections were actually pre-recorded and phone calls were always directed to the producer before they made it live on air. For me this was a learning process, it took awhile to get my head around how it all actually work. Radio being a sector that a would love to get into in the future, it was incredible to be a part of the production of it, even if it was just for a morning.

When the early morning news show, with Dotty, was finished I was sent upstairs to speak to Dave. Before I got to meet him officially, I was given a tour of the studio. The studio is so much bigger than you'd think. There was a lot of recording rooms, technical rooms, and meeting rooms. For such a broad building there was only a handful of staff, which was the biggest surprise of the day for me. I met around 20 people, all very friendly and welcoming, all incredibly informative too.

The main part of my day, the sole purpose of me going was my introduction to Dave Harvey. Dave gave me little activities to do, to discover potential news stories for the following day. When all of these were complete I was able to sit in on the daily meeting, where they discuss all of the stories they are covering over the next couple days. This was really interesting for me to watch, as it was more of a huge brainstorming activity. They bounced ideas around until they had a full plan. After this Dave sat with me a went through what I should do to get into broadcasting journalism/media. He gave me some proper sound advice which completely changed all plans I originally had for after leaving College. Because of the advice he gave me, I am now applying to university which before meeting him, I had not even considered.

This opportunity was only given to me because I contacted them myself. It was super easy to speak to someone who could help me. If you know which area of media you would like to go into then I can recommend contacting local places who could help you. Because of this experience It really helped me personally as I now know what needs to be done to improve my chances of getting into that area in the future, and what opportunities are out there to get experience and qualifications.

Thanks Jamie for this excellent write-up. Remember, if any of you get involved in anything media related, in, out or after leaving college, I would love to hear about it!

How is Blue Planet II entertaining for its audiences?

Examples to of things to talk about in your response could include... Storyline and plot... Genre conventions... Uses and gratification... Celebrities

• Size and scale of the whales emphasised by the use of extreme long shots, and further anchored by the pleonastic and bass heavy sound of the humpback whale entering. The MS of the herring parting functions as an enigma code (aka hermeneutic code), asking the audience to guess what is about to arrive. 
• Non-diegetic soundtrack gets progressively louder and more intense, especially at the appearance of the humpback whale. The intense soundtrack and swirling mise en scene of the fish is a convention of the action/adventure genre. 
• Attenborough's voice, in particular his soothing, awed whisper allows the audience to position themselves with his experience
• The binary opposition between herring and whale. The use of long shots emphasises the difference in size between these two characters creates conflict for the audience. This is a further example of anthropomorphism. 
• The emergence of the humpback whale, combined with the intensity of the bass signifies a disequilibrium for the audience, further creating a thrilling and involving narrative. 
• 'POV' shot from whale mounted camera spins with great intensity, yet another convention of the action genre

Hans Zimmer's musical score to the humpback whale scene helps to anchor the audience with the prefered reading that nature is both exciting and dangerous. 

How can audiences use or take pleasure from Blue Planet II?

Terns vs giant trevally

Anthropomorphisation - human qualities used to position the audience with the animal protagonists

Narration gives the birds feelings and emotions. "they are taken to the training ground". Training ground reference also an intertextual reference to athletes and perhaps even the Rocky franchise. Terns are represented as babies - fragile and defenseless. The use of MS's emphasises how small and fluffy they are, creating an emotional response with the audience, positioning us with the birds.

Verisimilitude - how a 'respective reality' is constructed for the audience

Submerged shot (50/50 in water and above water) demonstrates to the audience the divide between the licves of the fiash and the birds, and also functions as an action code, connoting the action and violence about to happen. Reinforces the fact that nature is violent and scary.

Education - the use and pleasure that the audience derives from the knowledge the text imparts

Audience made aware of name of fish through the use of the extra-diegetic narrative

Intertextuality - where a media product makes reference to the features and iconography of another media product

Contains conventions of action films. A conventional narrative is followed, where the protagonist manages to beat the antagonist. Use of CU of tern with slo-mo shot of trevalli stalking the bird, creating a thrilling and nostalgic for the audience, as the scene strongly resembles the Spielberg film Jaws. Iconography of piranhas also reminiscent of films like Piranha and Sharknado.

The iconography of the giant trevally scene makes intertextual reference to a range of horror films and monster movies. This allows audiences to engage with the documentary, providing them with a range of uses and gratifications

Using the music industry examples to answer industry questions

The MS4 exam appears scary, because technically any question could come up. You will need to be resourceful when applying your own knowledge of the text and media theories, as well as your own argument and point of view. While it cannot be guaranteed what will come up, it must be said that over the years the same key words crop up time and time again. Here are all the industry related key words from the last five or so years, and the kind of things you should be talking about when applying the music industry to them.

“Digital technology”

• Recording
• techniques
• Websites
• Videos
• Social networking
• Youtube
• itunes, spotify etc
• Live performances
• Production techniques.
• Distribution.
• Use of social media –twitter etc.
• Marketing – via website, youtube,
• Listening formats

“Marketing”

• Band/performer websites
• exposure – magazines, celebrity endorsement etc
• fan sites
• music press articles
• social networking sites
• viral campaigns
• iTunes etc.

“Distribution”

• Financial – ownership, budget, etc
• Industry – size, scope
• Placement, marketing strategies
• Internet.
Distribution may be interpreted widely here and discussions on performances, videos and music releases are all valid. Other factors may include star person and music genre. 

“Advantages of the internet”

• Internet develops audience engagement (e.g., through points noted below)
• Sites directly linked to the selected texts e.g. band websites, label websites,
• newspaper/magazine on-line
• Blogs
• Twitter (ultimate in uses and gratification!)
• Use of YouTube
• Social networking sites e.g. MySpace, Facebook, Bebo (lol), etc.

“Stars and celebs”

• Clearly important !
• Websites (official)
• Fan sites and fan fiction
• forums
• Videos
• Social networking
• Chat shows
• Magazines

“Regulation”

• Largely self-regulated
• Legal constraints in areas of copyright, licensing, downloading
• New threats such as peer to peer and torrent sites
• Parental advisory stickers
• Radio edits
• Censorship