Research

What needs to be here?

Primary and secondary research of 5 media of information links, books, and other media. 

PowerPoint Presentation.

The first version of PowerPoint. 

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The second version of PowerPoint.

 

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Video of presentation-

Notes I took in class for this page:

Questions- Open and Closed 

Closed Question- Do you watch comedy panel shows?
Open Question- What are your thoughts on a panel show and give some examples of them?

Closed Questions-

Do you watch Edutainment (educational and entertaining) game shows?

Open Questions- 

What do you think makes an Edutainment (educational and entertaining) show work?

Primary Research 1:

For my primary research I got a small focus group of different parts of my demographic, and some that were fully my demographic, to answer the questions that I also put on the survey. I did this to compare the results of my survey. I did word them slightly differently and tried to make all the questions closed to be able to aim it towards what the open questions gathered to see the opinion between the two surveys. The following photos are of the survey I put on Survey Monkey. 

My survey link 

Survey:

In the first question, I asked a simple closed 'yes or no' question to see if the people answering the questions actually watch this type of show.

In the second question is an open question to get a better idea what the participants thought made the show good and something would watch.

This is the clearest result I got, I asked if the personality of the host was important for the show and 100% of the people I asked said yes.

This result showed me that I should keep the comedic level equal to the brain Teaser side of the show, this means their needs to be an even split.

This question was asking how many rounds should there be and I found this question rounded on average around 4, however, if the tasks go shorter I will put in 5-6 rounds.

This shows when the participants watch TV, this was all around the same answer, evening tonight and in some cases midnight.  I believe this is why the show shows around 8/9PM-9/10PM.

Primary Research 2- Focus Group. 

I used the same and reworded some questions to the survey I put online. I have 10 people, 7 of which were as close to the target audience or they were the target and 3 people who had varying differences from the target audience and compared the differences. I concluded from this results shown in the pictures below that the gender isn't the primary part of the target audience and it is more the age range and what the view usually watches in general if they watch that genre of show. 

Secondary Research-

Secondary Research 5 mediums Intro:

For this section of my blog, I will be looking at outsourced information and applying it to my project.

 When coming up with what I wanted to do for this project I went through a lot of different shows, I went through dating shows, like take me out and baggage, when I got closer to what I wanted to do I was thinking of shows like, The Last Leg and loose woman, which are talk shows. I wanted to go for something with a comedic feel to it that is why I landed on Taskmaster. My dad and I recently started watching it and I wanted to know what goes into a show like that instantly. I then got this opportunity in my course to actually do exactly that. I thought I would shape my show around it, deconstructing it and then make a simpler version of it on a very limited budget.
The show consists of 6 rounds with 4 types, 3- all 4 end up in an episode. The four types are, prize rounds where the contestants bring in a prize to add to the winner's prizes for that show, this happens every episode with a different topic every time. Then there are the individual rounds, think of these as common rounds as in the show uses this one for definite every single show of every single season because they are the point of the show. These rounds can be 2-3 of the tasks and can be most of the show. Then there are the group tasks, this is where there is a group of 2 and 3 in the show, group in a certain way either age or in some joking way, to complete a task together receiving a possible total of 5 points each, or the taskmaster can distribute the points between the two teams if they so wish. Finally, there is the live round where they get given to complete something within 100 seconds, the person to do the task the fastest, or stay in the rounds (for example like the live round that consisted of them playing ping pong and running around the table until the last person standing.)
These VT's then are put together depending on how the contestants perform the tasks if they solve the task in the same, identical or similar ways the VT is a mash-up of what they did going back and forth between those contestants.

Channel One: Online Research

For this secondary research, I will be looking at a multi-camera set-up and how the final look of the setup and how the finished look of using that setup. To get an idea for what a multi-camera shoot should look and feel like I found a blog talking specifically how to set it up, Linked above, the company is called 'Fusion Studios' and they talk about when they had to set up a multi-camera shoot. I used Both the pictures and what the blog said within this segment below to help me set up and use the multi-camera, I didn't have to follow it exactly as I didn't have a live audience and my talent wasn't going to be moving that much, unlike this article showed, but I converted the information and still had people of static cameras as it was to monitor if the camera was unfocused or if the SD cards were going to fill. 

Channel  Two: Book Research 1

'Television studies by Sue & Wink Hackman' I took this book out and used the information within it on the 15th November 2018.
In this book, I used the information with the comedy section and game show section. This is because I wanted to make sure my multi-camera to have both elements of both types of genre of television. My show is a comedy game show, so it has to have both elements. In this in the comedy section, page 17 'comedy is perhaps the most popular form of the television program.' and goes on to say 'we are used to seeing comic programmes which are fast-moving and fun-packed. Television comedy is written and edited to be quickfire, and feels rather different from live comedy' to my project this is very true in both ends of the comedic television. My 'live' multi-camera will be written differently to skits and fast pace theme in comic animations or heavily scripted comedy. However, the VT's may have not been scripted the way they are edited are quick pack giving the feel of time passing faster and making sure the audience does not get bored of the content but also leave some long cuts if it adds to the comedic value. There is also a few different activities within this book and it had a very topical to this project. 

'Watch out for comedians at work in programmes on television this week. Try to find:'

• a comedian hosting a game show 
• a comedian starring in a situation comedy 
• a guest comedian on someone else's shows 
• comedians working as a pair 

I decided to do this activity and it really helped to see the difference between different types of situations and types of comedians and genres of comedy television. I watched different types of comedians for a week varying over these four types and I saw differences in each type. For Example:
A single comedian hosting a show, my example is Bradley Walsh from the chase, he is there as a comic relief for the contestants and the audience when things are getting stressful or intense. He is also portrayed on the side of the contestant as the 'Chasers' are the 'villains' within this game show, the person stopping them from winning. Whereas comedians working as a pair, or together, bounced jokes, setups and conversations off of one another, the biggest example of this would be Ant and Dec.

I also looked into the section of the book about game shows, I was personally interested in the activity they gave with an unfinished table, it talked about the hosts and how their personalities are what make the show, and the guests were not as, or in some game show not, important at all. 'Many programmes involve members of the public as contestants, for example in documentaries and street interviews. But overall, guests have a minor role and are carefully guided through the performance by an interviewer or host.' This to me proves my primary  search was correct with the 100% on the question 'is the attitude  important, for example, what they're on stage personality is like?' So I used this information when choosing my host personality type.

Channel  Three: Theory Research

Reception theory is my theory of choice as the audience ranges quite a lot within the British version of the show, as shown by my primary research the people who watch taskmaster on average ranged from 16-37. There were a few that were >16 and 50+ but they were the minority of the audience, I also brought my target audience down to the original as mine is a simplified vision of the show and could be seen as an 18-early 20's range, not younger as there is strong language but simpler tasks that could seem silly or boring to older viewers.  
This theory she that the audience can view certain things in different ways depending on the viewers:

• Age
• Beliefs
• Culture
• Gender
• Life experience
• The viewers' mood at the time of viewing

(List link)- views on the 30/11/18

This media theory says there are three different ways to see a piece of media; the first and the most important option within a piece and hopefully is the majority of the views a show will get.
This type is called Dominant or a Preferred reading, 'Audience members will take this position if the messages are clear and if the audience member is the same age and culture; if it has an easy to follow the narrative and if it deals with themes that are relevant to the audience.' To me, this basically is saying the target audience for a piece will understand the humour and get the jokes in that comedy or will be able to understand what the show is about. To be able to watch it with ease and really like the show for the reason the producer wanted people to like the show.
The second is Oppositional Reading, 'When the audience rejects the preferred reading and creates their own meaning for the text. This can happen if the media contains controversial themes that the audience member disagrees with. It can also arise when the media has a complex narrative structure perhaps not dealing with themes in modern society.' This to me is the polar opposite of the Dominant one and this is where the audience doesn't understand the show and come up with a new meaning, this could end up with the viewer being offended. This is due to misunderstanding messages, tones, subject and even things that are branded or companies, for example, wimpy burger chain restaurant. 
The final type of viewer that is within this theory is the Negotiated Reading, 'a compromise between the dominant and oppositional readings, where the audience accepts parts of the producer's views, but has their own views on parts as well.' This is the middle ground of the viewer this could be somebody who is part of the general target audience but they are an anomaly to the programme. 
The reason I looked at this is to show this is the reason why I simplified the show to be able to fit my target audience, I also decided to make my contestants more relatable to the viewers.