His Dark Materials: Industry and Audience

 

1) What famous stars are in His Dark Materials and why do you think they were selected for the show? (Clue- look at the main actors and if they are American or British and what other shows they are known for) 

Some of the main actors are British such as the Asriel who is played by James McAvoy who is a Scottish Actor and the actress who played Mrs Coulter is played Ruth Wilson who is a british Actress, there is an American actor aswell called Lin-Manuel Miranda they were selected because some of the actors are well known.

2) How does His Dark Materials meet the BBC's mission statement to 'inform, educate and entertain'? (see your notes in your book) Reminder:
Inform- give information e.g. His Dark Materials gives us information about the fantasy genre (witches and 'dust' magic)
Educate- His Dark Materials educates us about how there are different universes or worlds and people who are interested in science by parallel worlds. Also people who are into geography with the northern lights.

involves science and parallel dimensions and also teaches diversity and morality. 
Entertain- relationships, action, excitement, death and villains and heroes, comic animals. 

3) What was American network HBO's role in making His Dark Materials and why is this important?
HBO's role in making His Dark Materials was that His Dark Material is co-commissioned with the BBC.This is important because the show was distributed on a number of platforms.

4) Why are streaming services like Netflix or Amazon Prime bad news for the BBC?

Why are streaming services like Netflix or Amazon Prime bad news for the BBC because to watch shows or movies from the BBC you have to pay a TV licence with Netflix or Amazon Prime you don't have to pay a TV licence just pay the a subscription.

5) How does His Dark Materials help the BBC to take on the big streaming rivals like Netflix and Amazon?

How does His Dark Materials help the BBC to take on the big screen streaming rivals like Netflix and Amazon because His Dark Materials is made with HBO is a popular American pay TV company.

Audience
1) Who is the target audience for His Dark Materials?
Demographics (Class / Age / Gender and Ethnicity) - use our notes from this week's lessons
Psychographics (what type of people would like this show?) 

The target audience of His Dark Materials is for families who are in the lower class for all different ethnicities and genders. The type of people who would like this show are people who love science because it shows about the northern lights opening Parallel worlds.

2) What audience pleasures are offered by His Dark Materials - The City of Magpies? Apply Blumler and Katz's Uses and Gratifications theory to the episode. Make sure you provide specific examples from the episode to support your ideas.

Personal Identity (which people can relate to this?):Young people who can relate to this are teenagers because Will and Lyra are depicted as adventurous, also they have family issues and they are trying to be independent. Additionally Lyra is the main character and Teenage girls would look up to her or they consider her as their role model. This is because thew stereotypes of teenagers are depicted as lazy and Will and Lyra are adventurous.

Personal Relationships (which characters do we care about and why?):

The characters we care about is Will and Lyra because they are a are teenage duo. This is because Will and Lyra are abandoned teenager trying to survive from the spectres and the audience would feel empathy for them.

Diversion (Escapism / Entertainment): think of any bits in the episode where there is action and adventure or comedy

There is comedy when Lyra first made an omelette with egg shells in it.Also there is fantasy where there is a Parallel universe where animals talk and shape shift into different animals.


Surveillance (Information / Facts): what kind of things do we learn about in this episode?

We could learn from this episode that If I would see such situation and how would I survive if I was in a different world.