His Dark Materials: Audience and Industry

 Audience

1) Read this audience rating guide for His Dark Materials. Based on the screening and this article, who do you think the target audience is for His Dark Materials and why? What about psychographic groups? You can revise Pyschographics here.

 I think the target audience for the show is 15+ even though there seemed to be some discourse about the rating. Since it does have some mature some scenes and discussions that most children won't understand. There is a fair amount of violence in the duration of the show as well even though it's meant to be a lighthearted genre, young children shouldn't be exposed to things like that , even if it's considered a a family show.  he psycographic group i would class this as is Explorers. 

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: Adventurous/Explorer

Personal Relationships: The relationship between Lyra and Will, both of them finding refuge in each other 

Diversion (Escapism): The fantasy/action, adventure

3) Thinking of the 3 Vs audience pleasures (Visceral, Vicarious and Voyeuristic pleasures), which of these can be applied to His Dark Materials? Refer to specific scenes or moments in the episode to explain your answer. 

    All three apply to His Dark Materials

4) How did fans react to Season 2 of His Dark Materials? What about critic reviews? You can find some possible answers for this in this BBC website article on the critical reception for His Dark Materials and watch the fan reaction video above.

    Some said it was  weaker than the first and that it doesn't leave as much wonder as it ought to.

5) What might be some of the preferred and oppositional readings for His Dark Materials? Why did some fans love it? Why have other people criticised it? 

    An oppositional reading for the show is why some people criticised it, people have criticised it becuse of the evil representation of Catholicism and the government. A preferred reading and why some people loved the show was the fantasy genre which some people may love.

Industries

1) Which companies produced this His Dark Materials series? HBO and the BBC

2) What were the UK viewing figures for A City of Magpies? How did this compare to season 1 of His Dark Materials?

    The UK viewing figures for HDM , A City of Magpies, were 7.2 million and for HBO were 423,000. These figures show how interested people in the UK are in fantasy genres.

3) What was American network HBO's role in making His Dark Materials and why is this important? Look at the notes above for more on this.

   HBO generated most of the revenue for the show , which is why the show is such good quality.

4) What famous stars are in His Dark Materials and why do you think they were selected for the show? Watch the Comic Con panel video in the notes above to see the stars talking about the show.

    Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ruth Wilson and James McAvoy. I think they were selected because they're all well  known and liked  American and British actors with huge fan bases that they would bring in to be a huge fan base for the show.

5) Who are Bad Wolf and what do they produce?

Bad Wolf  is an independent company producing over 50-high end dramas for it's broadcasters, Sky,HBO,BBC and AMC

Comparison: Doctor Who - An Unearthly Child and His Dark Materials - The City of Magpies

1) How are the technical conventions different between 1963 Doctor Who and 2020 His Dark Materials (e.g. camerawork, editing, sound and mise-en-scene)?

   Between 1963s Doctor Who and 2020s His Dark Materials the camera work is better in HDM this is because they have lighter cameras to work with which means they could do whip pans and dollys better because they could move the camera at a higher speed, compared to Doctor Who which had only one type of camera which was clunky and heavy. The editing difference between the two is quite different this is because editing like CGI and special effects hadn't come around yet in the television industry during 1963. Now in the 20th Century we have so much technology we can use .

2) What similarities and differences are there between Doctor Who and His Dark Materials in terms of genre and narrative? Both genres have theme of fantasy and fiction of course.

3) How are representations of people, places and groups similar or different in the two shows? representations of people places and groups are extremely different between the two shows. This is because they're both made in very different timelines. The representation of people eg. diversity of race and ethnicity is presented in HDM however in in Doctor Who there's no racial diversity whatsoever.  With places i think the two shows are quite similar as they both consist of very different places in scene connecting to their story line.