My main intention for our three-page website was to create something simple that was both eye-catching and appealing. I also wanted it to draw the audience in by showing them more about the show and allowing them to interact. I think that as a group we achieved this by using a aesthetic background and header that would attract the audience into reading more.
We have included both information about the show and "teaser" images that would intrigue the audience, making them want to watch the show.
E4 have stated that they are the 'entertainment destination for a cutting edge young audience' with 'mega hits like Skins, The Inbetweeners and Misfits.' By knowing this, we have created a sitcom based around the problems and comedic situations faced by young people, which is similar to the themes present in 'Skins', 'The Inbetweeners' and 'Misfits.' E4 also claim to have 'loads of Facebook appreciation groups' which shows us that social networking is popular within the E4 demographic. Because of this, we have created pages on Facebook and Twitter and linked them to our website. This ensures that we will attract a higher number of viewers from our target audience.
We decided to create a show in the comedy genre as other comedies on E4 have proven to be popular. A good example of this is 'The Inbetweeners' which has been so popular that it has gone on to produce both a film and an American series. We have also found that E4 doesn't show very many British sitcoms, only 'The Inbetweeners' and the new show 'My Mad Fat Diary.' Therefore by creating a British sitcom to be shown on E4, we can ensure it would be original and would encourage quite a wide audience. As a group we have researched into the codes and conventions our chosen genre. We have found out that other popular sitcoms use a combination of dialogue and visuals in order to create humour. An example of this in our own sitcom is the involvement of humorous dialogue (e.g. "We are SO going to get married") and humorous visuals (e.g. when Emily walks into a bin.) Another convention of sitcoms is the use of a voice-over which we have used in our own show to reveal the character's thoughts to the audience.
We looked at other websites for sitcoms aimed at our target audience so that we would know the codes and conventions that they included. We have used many of these codes and conventions in our own website to show to our audience that it is a website for a comedy programme. An example of this is slang and comedic language (e.g. "Funny Shizznick") which is also used in the websites for "Fresh Meat" ("Epic bants and dirty pants.") We have also included bright colours (which are used in the website for the inbetweeners) and comedic videos to create an upbeat theme.
We have targeted our audience by involving aspects in our video and website that we know they will enjoy. We have conducted a wide variety of research in order to back up our ideas. We started off by researching into existing shows that we knew were popular with our age group to see what they had done and create a similar effect. We then aimed our research specifically at our target audience as we wanted to find out exactly what they wanted from a programme and a website. To do this we conducted a series of polls, questionnaires and focus-groups. Our research shows that our audience wanted a sitcom based around friendship groups in a college and we have created that. Our audience also told us that they prefer sitcoms to be focused on the characters rather than the visuals which we have shown by focusing our sitcom around the relationships between our characters and only including a very small amount of visual humour. We have also used stereotypes such as 'geek' and 'hot guy' that are present in many of the popular sitcoms and are present in the society that our target audience lives in. We have managed to target our audience in our website by the use of bright colours that young people would enjoy along with school-themed images that they would recognise and relate to. There is a strong use of slang on our website which would appeal to young people as it will make them feel as though the show is on their wavelength. Our audience specifically said that they want a simple website that is easy to navigate which we have produced with the use of pages that aren't overly-crowded, and clear links to each page. The use of social networking sites particularly targets young people as social networking sites are a big part of their lives and is something they use on a daily basis. Having our show on social networking sites means that they will have a better chance of seeing it and will make young people interested in the show, especially if their friends are interacting with it. The whole concept of our sitcom is clearly targeted at young people as the characters, setting (a school environment) and narrative (problems faced by young people) are all things that our audience will be able to relate to and find funny.
As our sitcom is only two minutes long, a full narrative has not been created. However, it has started to include Todorov's narrative theory and this would continue if the video was longer. There is an equilibrium at the beginning with Emily going about her normal life in the library. The disruption occurs when Emily leaves the library and embarrasses herself in front of Tyler. Our research shows that our target audience enjoys watching a narrative based around the problems faced by young people in an educational environment. Due to our research, we have included this in our own sitcom. Our narrative is focused mainly on one character which is an aspect that can be seen is quite a lot of other sitcoms such as 'The Inbetweeners' and 'My Mad Fat Diary'
The main ideology portrayed in our sitcom is the idea that college life is full of problems. This is shown by the embarrassing situations that Emily gets involved in and the arguments the characters have at the end of the clip. However, we have also shown the good parts of college years by including the idea of friendships and fun. This is portrayed in the video by the involvement of Emily's friends in the scene. It is also shown in the website by having a fun, upbeat header photo where all the characters look happy.
Our sitcom includes characters from both genders in an attempt to portray each gender fairly. However, the roles included in these genders can be seen as quite sexist. For example, Emily is portrayed as being helplessly in love. She seems to act irrationally because of this love, which could be taken to mean that women are overly emotional. When Emily falls into a bin, Tyler comes to her rescue which confirms the stereotypical view that men are stronger than women and women need men to 'save' them.
As a group we have perhaps failed to portray the diversity of college life correctly. All of our characters are white, which is not usually typical to British colleges in the 21st century. However, all of the relationships shown in our sitcom are one-race relationships and this particular aspect is quite typical of British television programmes. Despite the use of diversity and the inclusions of other races in many programmes, specifically British soap operas, there are not many multi-ethnic relationships, as characters often tend to form relationships in their own race. Because of this, viewers may expect to see relationships between people of the same race rather than between people of different races. This means that the relationship between our characters Emily and Tyler are very typical to British sitcoms.
Our sitcom is based massively around the idea of stereotypes. We have found out that stereotypes are popular amongst our audience as it allows them to identify characters and therefore understand the narrative more easily. In our sitcom we have used the stereotypes of the 'geek' and the 'hot guy'. Like most other programmes, we have shown the 'geek' as being unpopular, slightly small, awkward and clumsy whilst the 'hot guy' is tall, attractive, cool and popular. We have also portrayed the 'geek' as someone who is interested in science and studying. This could be seen as quite a negative representation as not all people who study hard and enjoy science are unpopular and awkward.
If I was to apply my idea to a third media platform I would create a poster to coincide with the video and website. The poster will be displayed on billboards as well as in shopping centres, train stations, outside supermarkets etc. This would mean that it would be unavoidable and would be seen by a lot of people who would be intrigued by it and want to watch it. The poster would include an image of the cast members similar to the one included in the header and a chalk-like font which is also included in the website. This would show the audience that the theme of the sitcom was based around a school/college without going into too much detail. The poster would include the time and channel that the show will be on meaning they could glance at the poster and then know all the information they would need to be able to watch it. Most importantly the poster would include a twitter hashtag (e.g #Relations) to encourage the audience to participate in the social networking side of the programme. This would mean that people could get involved in conversations to do with 'Relations' and see what other people were saying about it. During my research into online media for television shows, I have found that by using hashtags, the shows gain more popularity. If the audience is encouraged to tweet during the show using a hashtag, then at the particular time the show is on, Twitter would be full of people all talking about the same thing. This may then intrigue people who don't normally watch that particular programme, to start watching it just to see what all the hype is about. In my opinion this is the best way to gain a wider audience.
