Analysis of the concept and content of a studio production



When coming up with our pitched idea, I took to watching multiple different magazine shows to help with developing our idea further. One of the programmes that I watched that really benefited us with deciding on content for Trending was the One show. A magazine show contains "a variety of different items" (Brown et al, 2016:183) and they are usually quite long due to the amount of segments that they contain. Although the programme that juxtaposes this concept is the One Show as it is only 30 minutes in length, just as our As Live show has to be.


The One show begins with the recognisable opening sting (Brown et al, 2016:222) which is not just there to reinforce the brand identity of the show (Kellison, 2008:107) but it is also there to serve another purpose. Magazine shows are normally broadcast in the morning or the evening and are typically on in the background (Thompson, 2016:189) therefore they have to use stings and graphics to grab the viewers attention and "wake them up" (Thompson, 2016:189) as such. This therefore influenced us when first coming with the idea for Trending as we wanted to have a sting to be played with an opening graphic at the beginning of the show to wake them up and get their attention.

Fig. 1 Opening sequence

After the opening title we then seamlessly slip into Alex Jones and Jermaine Jenas giving the audience a 'tease' into what is coming up in tonights show. After watching this it instantly made me want to follow a similar pattern in Trending as the tease is exciting and if the viewer hears a topic they are interested in, they will want to keep watching the show (Thompson, 2016:189) hence we thought it would be good to include in Trending. As well as this, as the show that we were planning was potentially going to be made into a pilot, a viewer watching would not know the structure of the show when watching it for the first time hence a show tease is a good idea to "prepare them for what is about to come" (Graham- Holm, 2012:4) as well as how the show works.

Another aspect that I enjoyed in this opening segment to the show is that the presenters are sat in each side of the frame, and there is a monitor with a One Show Graphic on it. The reason that I enjoyed this was because not only are we getting to see the hosts together in their introduction, but we are also being reminded of the brand identity with the logo being present in the shot. It is vital to keep reminding the audience of the branding as it keeps our show unique (Brown et al, 2016:120) and well established.

Fig. 2 The opening shot

An aspect that I did not like of the One Show was that the set is quite flat, despite this it does "fit with the tone of the show" (Brown et al, 2016:40) however there is very limited movement and throughout the whole show they stay stationary whilst talking to guests and speaking to the viewer. I was not fond of this as it made the programme feel a little still and this is the last thing that a magazine/ chat show should be as it needs to wake the viewer up and get them watching (Thompson, 2016:189), however the fact that they did not move led to loosing my attention a little. In turn this contributed to us making the decision to wanting Trending to have a multipurpose set. Admittedly we only needed to have a basic idea for what we wanted for the set before the pitch, yet we knew we wanted there to be movement from the presenters and for there to be different areas that can be used to serve a purpose.

Another aspect of the show that I disliked, was when they were reading some news and statistics, this is because it was rather negative and Alex Jones was using words such as 'worrying' and 'concerning' which made me feel slightly on edge rather than entertained. With Magazine and Chat shows there is a certain "entertainment value" that needs to be retained, yet this segment of the One Show left me feeling quite dismal. Thus we knew that when planning Trending we wanted it to be more uplifting and light hearted with a positive tone to the show. We were able to then do this by planning fun segments such as a game, and a performance as these would bring the viewers energy up while watching.


Fig. 3 A VT

A particular part of the One Show that I liked watching were the VT's as all of them were quite captivating and also quick which was good as they held my attention. Through the use of light and upbeat music I was amused by them and would want our VT's to create a similar effect. Even though we only had a rough idea of what VT's we wanted, after watching the One Show it enabled me to create visuals in my mind of how we can use music and a short amount of time to amuse the viewer whilst feeding them information. From this we were then influenced to come up with the the idea of the 'Top Tip.' A concise and snappy  (Brown et al, 2016:185) one minute VT that tells the audience a fun tip. Hence I am glad that I watched the One Show as the concept of their Vt's then established the framework for the VT's in Trending.

A huge influence that the One Show had on Trending concept wise, was with the segment where they read through tweets that have been sent in from the audience. They are sat together with Ipads as they talk through each tweet. There was something about this section that really captivated me, and audience interactivity is so important to have (Swift, 2016:88) as it creates a whole audience online, hence this formed the basis for the Controversial Question segment in Trending in which the audience are asked to send in their thoughts about a particular topic via Twitter, and then the hosts discuss them later in the show. I personally feel that this is such a strong way to include an audience as their views are being shared and discussed on a television show. Not only this but it also opens up conversation and gets people talking which is also beneficial.


Fig. 4 Reading viewers thoughts

To summarise I did on whole enjoy watching the One Show and it had multiple impacts on our idea and concept for Trending, with not only inspiration for what segments we can include, but also what parts we would like to avoid. This helped me to improve my learning development as I was able to identify what will work and what will not. 

List of Illustrations:

Fig. 1 Emmerson, S. (2021) Opening sequence

Fig. 2 Emmerson, S. (2021) The opening shot

Fig. 3 Emmerson, S. (2021) A VT

Fig. 4 Emmerson, S. (2021) Reading viewers thoughts


Bibliography: 

Brown, L., Duthie, L. (2016) The TV Studio Production Handbook. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Thompson, N. (2016) The TV Studio Production Handbook. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Kellison, C. (2008) Producing for TV and a New Media: a Real World Approach Oxford: Focal. At: https://myuca.uca.ac.uk/webapps/blackboard/content/contentWrapper.jsp?course_id=_70230_1&displayName=Reading%20List&href=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Fblti%2FlaunchPlacement%3Fblti_placement_id%3D_300_1%26course_id%3D_70230_1%26mode%3Dview%26wrapped%3Dtrue (Accessed 15/04/2021)

Graham-Holm, N (2012) Fascination: Viewer Friendly TV Journalism. [online] At: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucreative-ebooks/reader.action?docID=858735 (Accessed on 24.11.2020)



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