collages for ill manors

Focus Group

Focus Group

The concept of the focus group was to pitch our initial idea's and thoughts on the production which we were to make for our media coursework and receive critical as well as positive feedback in order to help us improve our idea's and concepts further. The group which I'm in consists of me, Vinisha and Hargio and we are pitching our idea in this focus group session. In the focus group, we explained to the audience our narrative idea and the concept of the rewind were each episode begins with the dilemma and the rest of the episode works up to this point to explain how this situation occurs. We explained why we did this and the reason for this which is the originality factor along with it sending out various enigma codes in order to keep the viewers interested right from the start of the episode. In terms of the narrative we also mentioned the fact that its going to have a multi-stranded narrative. Another (USP) unique selling point which we explained was the fact that we were thinking about having a different title sequence for every series/show as each show would be about a different character story. This therefore meant that each person would have a different daily routine and when the show was based around them, the title sequence would be their daily routine.
We also explained; to the group; our target audience and the channel which it can broadcasted and how this relates to our target audience (for example BBC 3 was mentioned as its a TV channel which broadcasts our programs of similar content to our own).

After explaining all of the factors consisting in our production and our pre-production research, we were then given feedback on our concept and whether or not the idea was good, along with other factors/feedback to help improve this (our concept).

Feedback... 
Firstly, our feedback was to re-think about the broadcasting times due to the fact that our targeted audience; teenagers; are usually busy on the weekends, going out constantly therefore we were given the idea to change this to possibly a week-day or even show this once in the week-day and repeated once again on the weekend.

We were also told to change the channel we were going to broadcast our production on as our target audience do not really watch programmes aired on there. Due to this piece of feedback, we have changed it to airing it on E4 as our production fits in with other shows which come on here. These are shows such as 'Top Boy' and our show Wasted is similar to this hence the reason why it fits in better on E4.

The people in the focus group also said that the show sounded very male dominated in terms of the characters and therefore suggested having a female character as one main character in the production. This would attract  slightly more female views and would not affect the amount of male viewers.

One person asked what the name of our production would be called and we were not too sure. We hadn't really thought enough about the name but more about what's going on in the production and our (USP) unique selling point(s). As our genre is urban crime drama; and has a multi-stranded narrative; the name for our production should resemble something quite gritty and out there. It should give away part of the genre and should portray a sense of realism. 

Holiday task

Task 1... 

Task 2... 

 Progress Report... 

  The progress report is a document which I will use to store all of my contributions in terms of our groups production work. We started of looking for pre-production information on similar genres. The genre of our production is urban crime drama as it links to the tasks demographic 15-35 year old such as E4's targetted audience.


Task 3... 





Task 4...
Media institutions...

The Media institutions vwhich should be looked into and researched for my MEST2 coursework have to be channels which screen other programs similar to our production. The channel which I've been researching in to is BBC3 as they air similar programmes to what our production is going to be based on. BBC3 is from the BBC broadcasting company which can be accessed via digital cable, terrestrial, IPTV, satellite platforms. The channel is on-air from 19:00 to around 05:00 each night. They air programs for the teen demographic audiences (15-35 year old) such as Family Guy and Top Gear. Our production is aimed at a similar audience to these programmes shown on BBC3 therefore this may be the perfect channel for our production. However, our production has to be pre-watershed and therefore if it's similar to these programmes then it may not work on this channel.

After the focus group session; which has gone ahead; we've been given advice to change the channel as it does not really fit in due to it having to be pre-watershed. One idea which we were given was to change the channel to E4 as we can make it similar to friends in the sense of just a group of people however change it to make it more urban and relatable to youths. I'm now going to look into E4 and it's shows and audiences/viewers.

E4 is a British digital television channel, launched as a pay-TV companion channel to Channel 4. It was launched in 2001. The "E" in E4 stands for entertainment which is one of E4's values as a television channel. The channel is aimed at the same target audience as BBC3 which is 15-35 year olds. It airs programmes from the US just like BBC3 does. E4 shows programmes such as The cleveland show, misfits, Hollyoaks, Friends (not aired any more) and The Inbetweeners. Our production is similar to Friends in some ways due to it having a multi-stranded and by each episode being based around one of the few main characters. In terms of what it's about, it's not very similar to another show shown of E4 and this could therefore be a good thing in some ways as it'll help stand out in E4's programme listings. 

Media's referring to Ill Manors

Broadcast...

References of Ill Manors which come under the broadcasting element of media are things such as cinema or television productions or promotions, advertisements via television channels, talk shows and also awards won by Plan B (possibly awards for Ill Manors).

Ill Manors was also promoted through the idea of synergy. Synergy is the element were one production of a product links to or promotes another. This idea is used in order to gain a greater audience in terms of the product to be sold/shown. In this instance; Ill Manors uses synergy as the soundtrack for Ill Manors (made by Ben Drew : Plan B) to help promote the film Ill Manors which have the same name. People who hear the soundtrack/album may like the messages being told deep in the lyrics therefore resulting in them watching the Ill Manors film. On the other side of this, viewers who have seen the film may like the film; as well as the short snippets of his songs played in the film; therefore meaning that they may want to buy the soundtrack/album.

The interview above is a form of broadcasting promotion in terms of the media for ill manors. The film; Ill Manors; was released around this time therefore this interview is aimed at audiences so that they hear more about the film and become interested therefore resulting in them going to the cinema and watching it. It's a good form of promotion as he is not telling people to watch his film, he's simply just talking about the main aspects and concepts related to the film Ill Manors so that people who find these aspects interesting would be drawn in to watching it in the cinema. 

As Plan B didn't fund a huge amount of money in the promotional side of the film, his team would have helped him get certain interviews; such as the one above; where he promoted his film just through the ideas or concepts about it and through is recent articles and exposure to the world. the more exposure on him would mean that more people would be talking more about him therefore news about him and his film would spread quite quickly through the media.

Print...

Ill Manors is promoted through certain advertising aspects, such as print promotional posters. The poster shown above is an example of an Ill Manors poster which was placed up in order to gain a large audience to watch the film. It consists of images of the main characters, release date, actors names, a quote from a popular magazine along with stars (ratings).

The print in terms of adverting can be important due to the fact that; if put in the right place; can attract loads of attension and exposure for the production. By the adverting poster for ill manors being quite bright however sticking to a colour scheme of red and black, it sort of stands out as red juxtaposes the black. On the other hand, this could not be that case as it may be too less colour and therefore may not grab a viewers attension at all.



I quite like this poster for ill manors due to the fact that it has all the necessary contents needed/required in order for the viewing audience to know when ill manors is coming out and some of the stars acting in the film. In terms of the colours on the poster, it consists of two which are black and yellow. These two colours are quite contrasting colours which juxtapose each other when next to each other. The fact that these colours are used may suggest to the audience that there is some sort of rivalry between two dominant gangs or just rivialy in terms of the storyline. The contrasting colours may also suggest to the audience that conflict occurs strongly in the film.



The line on the top is quite a bold, hard hitting line reading '...we are all products of our environment...some environments are just harder to survive in'. This is the case as it suggests violence and conflict in terms of the narrative of the film as it implies that the main character(s) live in an environment which is rough and hard to survive in. It also suggests that it not a movie about rich, upper class people, but in fact the complete opposite; working class estate youths and gangs.

E-media...



A form of e-media which helped/helps Plan B's film Ill Manors is his website. The website can be accessed by anyone with an Internet connection hence why a website can be a great form of advertising as there are billions of people surfing the web each day. The website for ill manors is creative therefore drawing in an audience due to it's unusual and unique layout and design. It's also very user friendly and can be used by even the most infrequent of users. The fact that everyone is on the web makes advertising quite easy as it can be a cheap way to promote your idea or production.

Another important part of e-media is the fact that most users go online; on the web; in order for social network sites. Millions of people daily visit site such as Facebook and twitter that advertising on sites likes these could make a huge different in terms of the income produced as well as profits. I'll Manors have taken this to their advantage by having both Facebook and twitter page were fans of the film can share their thoughts to others and others can find out more about the production. It also helps to
promote the film (as the film is aired in the cinema's and the DVD) as well as the ill manors soundtrack.

Plan B TEDxObserver lecture and Website for Ill Manors

Ben Drew (a.k.a Plan B) TEDxObserver lecture...

This subject is quite close to Ben Drew due to the fact that he grew up in a council estate and therefore knows how it is to be judged in this way by society. Plan B's beliefs are that kids or people in general who live on estates are associated with the word 'chav' and therefore society does not have any concern whatsoever for these citizens. "council house and violent". This is what Plan B thinks 'chav' now means due to the stereotypical ideologies of youths living in council estates. Plan B therefore states that this is wrong for society to look upon others, living in poor conditions than themselves, in this way. He feels that newspapers keep on showing articles which emphasis the problems with the youth but they are exaggerating certain points and stereotyping all youths to what  they think they do from what others have done in the past.
Plan B knows what these kids have been through and feels that society just ignores these people who come from dysfunctional families as they are stereotyping them with bad ideologies and opinions. The kids go through a lot and grow up with literally no one expect their neighborhood friends and Ben Drew knows how this is as he was once in this position.

Ben Drew was targeting the elder demographic as the audience due to the fact that he feels they would benefit more from a lecture like this. Its in order to show people that youths should not be sterotyped the way in which they are by the media. Ben Drew is also making an important statement which is that people should not believe everything they read in newspapers as they do tend to exaggerate points and leave things out in order to make dominant, ideologies stay dominant.
The psychographics in terms of the audience would be mainstreamers as they would want to keep to the trend and therefore would think the same as the majority of the world. If Ben Drew was to change mainstreamers opinions on the matter, then this may result in the overall dominant ideology to be less dominant. Another psychographic group being aimed at by Ben Drew is the psychographic group reformers as they would want to change the way different stereotypes are represented. This would also be aimed at carers as they would want to change the world for the better and also explorers as they would want to find out more about whether this dominant view is how its portrayed or not.

Plan B does not like the way that the media portrays these kids who live on council estates as they have been born into a world where they have been living in bad conditions with dysfunctional families and then on top of this are being stereotyped with a bad name.  "council house and violent". This is what Plan B thinks 'chav' now means due to the stereotypical ideologies of youths living in council estates. The media use this stereotype in order to create moral panics so that they read their newspapers. This therefore makes this opinion not really theirs however as they are kept on told this, it starts to make an impression on them therefore beginning to believe it.
According to Stanley Cohen, a moral panic occurs "When a person or group of persons emeges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests". Those who start the panic when they fear a threat to prevailing social or cultural values are known by researchers as 'moral entrepreneurs', while people who supposedly threaten the social order have been described as "folk devils".
Moral panics have certain distinct features such as concern. There must be some sort of awareness that the behaviour of the group or category is associated with some kind of negative impact on society.

Ill Manors website analysis...


The first page for the Ill Manors website consists of a number of different characters. As the film is a multi-stranded narrative movie, all the characters there are the main characters. The background behind the characters is a similar setting used in the film therefore suggesting to the viewer where the film may be based. The design for the website is very clever as it hints to the viewer (enigma code) the setting of the film as well as the main characters and its narrative. The design is very professional as well with an advanced tool bar/navigation bar besides the standard one. The scenes change when a user clicks on a different navigation word such as 'trailer' and 'synopsis'. The posters on the wall are the movie posters which were used to promote and broadcast the films publicity.

On the website, another fact which helps to promote Ill Manors is the fact that it consists of a lot of different images and unusual colours. The background is a desaturated black; in terms of its colour; which gives the webpage and feel to the film, a very urban, gritty vibe. The fact that they follow a theme throughout the web page, which is the background of an estate, therefore giving it a really urban vibe. The dark sky connotes that the film may be quite gritty; in terms of its narrative; therefore making the overall film look like a struggle for survival.

Also, the use of synergy is used as the album for Ill Manors helps to promote the film and vice versa. In fact, in the actual film, short snippets of Plan B's songs from his album Ill Manors are played in order to represent and portray certain emotions to the audience. On the website, you are able to buy the album to Ill Manors which is good promotional advertising as people who liked the film may want to buy the soundtrack and on the other hand, others who brought the soundtrack may want to go watch the film.

Placed on the website, are a number of different quotations by Plan B and other famous people such as the one below. These quotes are quite inspirational in terms of his point. He says that "...there is a lot to learn when we know all the facts".

"My reason for making this film is to show that there is a lot we can learn when we know all the facts; when we explain the why – not just the 'what' and 'how'."