Unit 22- A1 -Formats

The objectives i will  be touching up on in this essay

• Argue for each format, why they would be engaging for an audience (Serials, Series and one off specials)
• use subject terminology, including Audience uses and gratification 

I will be talking about Serials, Series and one-off productions and their impact on the audience with examples of single camera productions. Mostly, tv dramas/soaps.

Serials

Serials are productions where each episode picks up from the previous episode. So it continues. SOAP's tend to follow this format; they keep the full nature of the story hidden and revealing the basics episode by episode to keep viewers in tact and hooked to the show.
Examples are:

• Scream Queens
• Hollyoaks
• Eastenders
• Empire
• Game of Throne 
• Lost
• Pretty Little Liars 
• Neighbours 

Scream queens is a single camera serial production shown on E4 every tuesday which consists of one story arc/narrative arc that there is a College campus where sorority groups and house groups exsists and a 1995 sorority pledge which went wrong is now causing a series of murders in the college campus. On top of the story arc there are temporary issues which will obviously erupt such as when Grace's dad found out that there is a muderer(s) in the campus and he wanted her to leave but she didnt want to. This got him really angry and he didn't want to talk to her anymore. Another example, when Chanel no.1 found out her boyfriend had been cheating on her with one of the other Chanels. Here's a video of this scene.







Another example of a tv serial is Hollyoaks which is about the everyday lives of the inhabitants of Hollyoaks regarding relationships, love and career. That's the main plot. But other things happen on top of it like finding out that your step dad has been sexually abusing your little sister and the process of finding out would have happened after at least 3 years of the situation. In fact this happened recently with Pete Buchanan and Cleo Mcqueen. Pete had been having sexual intercourse with Cleo after she turned 16 even though he had the intentions to do so when she was underage. But being over age now, he took the opportunities. After the gruesome act had been found out by the rest of the family, more convictions had been confessed by Cleo's other sisters against Pete. This has landed Pete in Prison for his gross behaviour. I would say this plot could be classed as being very informative to the audience.


 However, people have said the wait is worthwhile as when you do find out about things like this you start to link episodes to episodes.

This is a screenshot showing peoples comments on Hollyoaks 

This screenshot shows people's reviews on Hollyoaks and how "addictive" it is despite the pathetic events that happen. So it's not so pathetic then if they are actually watching it! According to the screenshot it's also clear that Hollyoaks (being a serial) also allows social interaction. There are so many sites that talk about Hollyoaks and predict whats going to happen on the next episode.

Lastly, another example of one of my favourite serial is Empire. This is because it gives an insight of what happens in the hip hop music industry and how aggressive it is behind the scenes in terms of competition so that's the call to tell the world that hip hop is actually quite pathetic nowadays. Or it is just not easy to get into the music even if you have great potential.
Empire is shown every tuesday on E4. It's mostly for entertainment as we get to see different established celebrities performing and the artists just made for the show.
The main story is about a hip hop tycoon who has to choose between his three sons who are trying to take over his multi-billionaire dollar company, while his ex-wife cookie is trying to build her own company and make it big. However, as this is the foundation different ghastly events occur which audience find entertaining and having to wait for a whole week to see what happens next allows social interaction and makes it to become addictive to some viewers. 

  
This video shows Cookie and Anika fighting 

Series 

Series consists of new story line in every episode but you still have an insight on the background story (narrative arc). 

Example of TV series:

• Dr Who 
• Two pints of larger and a packet of crisp  
• How i met your mother 
• Family guy 
• Simpsons 
• Top gear 

I will be using series of How i met you mother to explain Series in depth. 

This is a screenshot from YouTube showing the different names of episodes in a season/series. The first every episode was called Pilot where the story started. Ted Mosby started telling his children the story of how he met their mother which was set in the future. Then episode 2 was named Purple Giraffe where the story had already began and can be classed as a flashback; Ted throws a party in order to see Robin but she didn't come so he kept trying and trying. 

The idea is that all the episodes would add together to actually help the audience find out how Ted Mosby met "the mother". We didn't get to find out until Season 9 which i think the use of non-linear narrative was smart and would have caused social interaction with the audience as it's like putting a puzzle together and when you finish you're satisfied. 

Season 9 we found out Lily was the mother who was in fact one of Ted's best friends and was secretly a nymphomaniac which meant her and Ted had been in a sexual relationship in the past. The sudden reconciliation of their relationship at the end of the season was surprising, i'd count that as the twist.  

One-off production 

One-off productions can be films or dramas  shown once on TV and not repeated as often.

Examples of these are:

• Mother love 
• The last train 
• Ultraviolet 
• Stone tape 
• Unloved 
• Recovery 

This is a screenshot from the end of Recovery which appeared on TV (BBC) in 2007 on the 25th of February. This story was obviously a close-ended narrative as everything was completed in this episode and there hasn't been a part 2. The story was about a happy young couple and one day the husband Alan got hit by a car and lost his memory which changed his personality and the way he acted. His behavior fluctuated from being childish and overly happy to being aggressive and overly angry. His wife Tricia tried to make him recover by reminding him of who he was. He started to recover after a while but was still finding it difficult. 

The whole episode must follow Todorov's theory because of the way the events have occurred. 

[See unit 22 Todorovs theory]