Explore the different ways in which audiences and/or users respond to your chosen text
Viewing Figures
- Series 4 (aired on BBC 4 in 2010 - free to watch) = 355, 000 viewers
- Series 5 (Sky Atlantic - pay to watch) = 98, 000
- Series 6 (Sky Atlantic - pay to watch) = 58, 000
The text was shown on a pay-to-watch channel as this targeted a high brow, niche audience due to not everyone wanting to pay to view the text. AMC placed their text on a niche channel because they did not produce the text in order to gain a profit, they did it to produce a high quality text.
Awards
Won:
- 15 Emmy's
- 4 Golden Globes
- Overall -> 68 wins
-> 177 nominations
The programme received a positive response through its large amount of nominations and award wins. This shows that the audience responded positively to the text, so much so, that they voted for the text to achieve best picture and best actors.
Thursday 30 January 2014
Thursday 23 January 2014
LOST - Audience Response
Viewing Figures
- The first season garnered an average of 15.69 million viewers per episode on ABC.
- During its sixth and final season, the show averaged over 11 million U.S. viewers per episode. - Wikipedia
(As the series progressed, the viewing figures decreased - this may have been due to the amount of enigma codes and the long amount time taken for the answers to be revealed. This may have caused more passive audiences to become disinterested as they do not want to decode the text themselves and rely on the answers being given to them. However, a more active audience will appreciate the enigma codes and will try to decode the text and figure out the answers before they are revealed. Therefore causing them to continue to view the programme to find out the answers and see if their hypothesises were correct.)
Awards and Nominations
- Lost was the recipient of hundreds of award nominations throughout its run, and won numerous industry awards, including:
-> The Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series in 2005
-> Best American Import at the British Academy Television Awards in 2005
-> The Golden Globe Award for Best Drama in 2006
-> Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Ensemble in a Drama Series
- 61 wins & 265 nominations. - IMDB
- In 2013, the Writers Guild of America ranked Lost No. 27 in its list of the 101 Best Written TV Series of All Time.
Criticisms of the Text- "Producers found many fans disliked the character of Ana Lucia. Her "tough girl" attitude turned many people off, along with her accidental killing of Shannon." - Lostpedia
- The first season garnered an average of 15.69 million viewers per episode on ABC.
- During its sixth and final season, the show averaged over 11 million U.S. viewers per episode. - Wikipedia
(As the series progressed, the viewing figures decreased - this may have been due to the amount of enigma codes and the long amount time taken for the answers to be revealed. This may have caused more passive audiences to become disinterested as they do not want to decode the text themselves and rely on the answers being given to them. However, a more active audience will appreciate the enigma codes and will try to decode the text and figure out the answers before they are revealed. Therefore causing them to continue to view the programme to find out the answers and see if their hypothesises were correct.)
Awards and Nominations
- Lost was the recipient of hundreds of award nominations throughout its run, and won numerous industry awards, including:
-> The Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series in 2005
-> Best American Import at the British Academy Television Awards in 2005
-> The Golden Globe Award for Best Drama in 2006
-> Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Ensemble in a Drama Series
- 61 wins & 265 nominations. - IMDB
- In 2013, the Writers Guild of America ranked Lost No. 27 in its list of the 101 Best Written TV Series of All Time.
Criticisms of the Text- "Producers found many fans disliked the character of Ana Lucia. Her "tough girl" attitude turned many people off, along with her accidental killing of Shannon." - Lostpedia
- "Michael's frequent screaming and obsession for his son was noteworthy and frequent enough for it to grate on the audience." - Lostpedia
"After the first season, many viewers of the show began to grow tired of the flashbacks. They were perceived by some to be repetitive and recycling information we were already aware of; flashbacks have gotten less important than they were in the first season, taking away from the on-island storylines." - Lostpedia
- "Many complain that Lost moved too slowly and there is a lack of answers in the show. This has turned many people off, even Lost fans over time." - Lostpedia
Tuesday 14 January 2014
LOST - Audience targeting
I believe that the intended audience for this ABC's Lost is a wide, mainstream audience. The text is written by JJ Abrams and is produced to target both, a passive and active audience by it's conventions. The American TV series first aired in September 2004 and concluded in May 2010. The series is based on a aeroplane crash causing a group of survivors to be stranded on a deserted tropical island and they must find a way to escape.
The first convention present that makes me believe that this is a mainstream text is the use of a non-diegetic score as the young boy is walking through the jungle to find his dog. We see a tracking shot of the boy walking, while the composer (Michael Giacchino) builds the timbre to create an eerie atmosphere and to create suspense and paranoia. The use of a score allows the audience to feel the character's emotions, this could suggest that the audience is passive as they put themselves into the character's emotions and believe what they are watching to be real. This is a common feature within many mainstream texts as it doesn't require the audience to decode the texts and work out characters' emotions as they are highlighted by the score.
Another convention that suggests that the intended audience for this text is mainstream is the repeated use of enigma codes. The technical conventions shows a close up shot of a pair of handcuffs lying on the ground in the jungle. This could imply that the intended audience is active so that they then question who's handcuffs are they? This shot is constructed to be shown before an advert break, so that the audience is enticed to continue watching in order to have the answers revealed. This will cause curiosity and therefore an active audience will want answers and therefore the producer achieves their aim of convincing an audience to continue watching the programme.
The text uses narrative conventions of Binary Opposition to emphasise the different lifestyles of Kate and Sun. Kate is a Western Woman, shown liberated, as a mid shot shows her dressed in just her underwear exposing her body. This is then compared to Sun, a timid Asian woman, who appears very reserved to the audience as we see a scene where she is forced, by her husband, to do up the top button of her cardigan. This is a common feature of the a mainstream text and allows the audience to be passive as they do not need to define character types as they are given to the audience and are exaggerated by positioning them next to their opposites to make them more obvious to the audience.
The first convention present that makes me believe that this is a mainstream text is the use of a non-diegetic score as the young boy is walking through the jungle to find his dog. We see a tracking shot of the boy walking, while the composer (Michael Giacchino) builds the timbre to create an eerie atmosphere and to create suspense and paranoia. The use of a score allows the audience to feel the character's emotions, this could suggest that the audience is passive as they put themselves into the character's emotions and believe what they are watching to be real. This is a common feature within many mainstream texts as it doesn't require the audience to decode the texts and work out characters' emotions as they are highlighted by the score.
Another convention that suggests that the intended audience for this text is mainstream is the repeated use of enigma codes. The technical conventions shows a close up shot of a pair of handcuffs lying on the ground in the jungle. This could imply that the intended audience is active so that they then question who's handcuffs are they? This shot is constructed to be shown before an advert break, so that the audience is enticed to continue watching in order to have the answers revealed. This will cause curiosity and therefore an active audience will want answers and therefore the producer achieves their aim of convincing an audience to continue watching the programme.
The text uses narrative conventions of Binary Opposition to emphasise the different lifestyles of Kate and Sun. Kate is a Western Woman, shown liberated, as a mid shot shows her dressed in just her underwear exposing her body. This is then compared to Sun, a timid Asian woman, who appears very reserved to the audience as we see a scene where she is forced, by her husband, to do up the top button of her cardigan. This is a common feature of the a mainstream text and allows the audience to be passive as they do not need to define character types as they are given to the audience and are exaggerated by positioning them next to their opposites to make them more obvious to the audience.
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