A frequent media exam task is the analysis of opening credits for a TV programme. Such a task has featured programmes such as TV drama [Blackpool] cartoons [Simpsons] and documentaries [Peter Andre - Going it Alone].
Opening credits are a good product as they are supposed to offer audiences a rapid means of identifying the type of product, the genre, the suitability, the content and the narrative style. All encompassed within 2 minutes.
As such we'll look at one or two and see what ideas you have as to how successful they are in terms of the above.
The credits for True Blood are a good place to start as they attempt to capture the eerie, magical, fantasy of a Gothic-Swamp tale of a [slightly] future society in which vampires are both acknowledged to exist but co-exist in society. The stories are about the persecution of vampires by society and the vampires efforts to be seen as 'normal' and integrated into wider society and have access to the opportunities of the majority ethnic groups.
What do the credits tell us about:
- content
- audience
- possible narrative lines
Music is a key ingredient in credits and in your analysis of products in the Section A examination paper. Listen to these two credits:
- what genre is each?
- what cues are there in the product?
- what images would you anticipate?
TEXT A [AUDIO ONLY]
TEXT B [AUDIO ONLY]
Let's finish with an analysis of these two texts. Both are BBC productions and are of the detective / crime genre. they are all concerned with contemporary crime and set in London.
How is the 'idea' of the programme communicated?
How are the narrative styles different? What sort of 'story-telling' does each appear to offer?
How do they construct [similar?] audiences?
How are the two characters represented?
What ideologies of crime and detection are offered?
Sherlock clearly built on a 'known' character from literary history and popular culture. If we put aside this fact, Luther averaged 6,000,000 over 3 seasons and Sherlock 10,000,000 audience over 3 seasons. Are there indications in the sequences as to why there was such a difference in the audience reach for these detective programmes?
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