The American television series Madmen produced by AMC and only available to sky Atlantic viewers. looking at the certain episode "The other women " in season five and the way the audience was attracted. By using the uses and gratifications theory the producers aimed the episode to the middle to upper class, the educated. The episode has been cleverly constructed for example when don goes to warn joan to tell her she doesn't have to go along with sleeping with the jaguar man, the audience thinks that he has convinced her to not do it, until it blacks out and takes you to the board room and Don talking to the Jaguar company offering their ideas of the advert. The audience thinks that joan is sleeping with the man while this is going on when it then reveals that this had happened the night before and don was too late to tell her. The construction of this has been very clever, it keeps the audience engaged, thinking that Don was the hero but then goes backwards in the story and twists it to him not being fast enough.
I looked at another Television series, Lost, a more mainstream text aimed at passive viewers. One scene i focused on was a walk through the forest on the island; It started off with a crane shot looking down on the group of people walking through the rainforest, a non-diegetic high pitch sound is played rather quiet to begin with, two male members of the group start an argument about the radio, as there voices rises the diegetic sound gets higher building up tension for the audience, making them feel like something bad is going to happen, then a very loud non-diegetic sound, like a thud. The males stop argueing immediatly. All they hear then is the russleing of grass and a growling noise. The camera then changes to a handheld camera effect making the camera shaky the camera cuts back and forth towards the unknown animal heading their way, the audience can not see the animal but just hear a very loud noise and see long grass moving, it skips back to the group having a shell focus on each indivdial's face showing their scared facial expression, this has been done to create tension and get the audience excited and scared. cuts and whip pans are used to show the forest and the creature getting closer, the animal is being used as a mystery to make the audience more interested in the scene. the group starts running away with diegetic screams from the two girls, Sawyer stays, a close up shot is used of his face, he doesnt look scared but in thought to what it is coming towards him. He points his hand out and the audience doesnt see what is in his hand, it then cuts back to the rest of the group when you hear the sound of a gun shot, it cuts back to Sawyer with a wide shot as you see something big and white coming towards sawyer while he is still shooting at it. you see the white animal thud in front of sawyer but not seeing what the animal is, the group return to sawyer, noticing that the animal is a bear, the camera pans across the huge animal, not really giving the audience a clear view, this makes the audience still in question to what it is giving of enigma codes, the audience are passive not really thinking just watching waiting for the programme to give the answer. Kate then answers the enigma "its not just a bear, its a polar bear" a non-diegetic sound of a drum beat and a black out, this is to make the audience stay interested in the programme, and then ask why there is a polar bear in the forest while an advert on the tele comes on. This keeps the audience wanting to watch the programme to see what happens next.
Louis Theroux is a documentary film by the bbc and shows The worlds most hated family, this series attracts its audience by using shocking footage about the family's weird life. It informs and educates the curious audience that want to know about how they live and what they do. Louis Theroux attracts the audience more, he asks questions that everyone wants to know but will not ask, he says many things that he shouldn't but in a formal way. This makes the audience attracted in case a fight or an argument starts. This particular series has a lot of social interaction.
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