MEST2: Research and Planning

Existing product research

• Find five programmes similar to the idea or genre you plan to work with. Remember the E4 target audience specified in the brief.
• Research the target audience for each show and write about why the show would appeal to that audience.

One of the five programmes that are similar to the idea is E4's Top Boy. A urban drama which is not pre-watershed but it has a very similar target audience. Also the way they filmed Top Boy is very similar to the way I want to film because it has allot of handheld camera shots which gives a documentary feel to the program. The show appeals to my idea and also the first 2 minutes are similar to mine. The target audience for Top Boy are similar to mine but there target audience starts from 15-35 year old but mine starts at 13 year old which gives one of the reason which shows why the idea is pre-watershed. The target audience are mostly people who are middle class and lower class people also people that fit in the  demographic group of C2, D and E in the demographic group; which appeal to my target audience.

Another program that is similar to my concept is E4's The Inbetweeners which is a British sitcom which aired for three series. The program is not pre-watershed  but the audience is similar to mine. The narrative for the Inbetweeners is very real and not full of fake ending which ends up with a happy ever after. The Inbetweeners are very unexpected which fits into the Barthes theory of the enigma code. People like the program because they are not really following a normal narrative which makes them rebel against the Todorov theory because they do not end with a new equilibrium. They are also have a disequilibrium of trying to lose the virginity. Their audience are properly male and females and depends on the uses and Gratifications theory. 

The Wrong Mens is a show that is very similar to my type of filming I am going to do because they film in a very unique way. The program is has a very similar genre and it is very similar to my narrative. The program has allot of moments where I think links to Barthes enigma code. Which I want to include in my narrative.

Youngers is a program that links to my characters allot. There characters are all urban and have street knowledge. Which links to my main protagonist. He is a person who dose not have a feature in education, but knows how to work the streets just like one of the main characters in Youngers.

Bad Education is a program which has a similar audience but the program is a sitcom, but my program is not but I like to take reality feature from it and use it to my concept. The reality feature that is in the Bad Education is a feature that I admire because it makes the narrative and storyline more real and makes the audience feel more secure and think that is not fake.