Discuss the ways in which people are represented in the extract.

In 'The Edge of Tomorrow' there is a key female, Rita, that acts as a supporting character to the main protagonist. In recent action adventure films female characters are beginning to play a bigger part in films and are showing strong , powerful and courageous traits e.g. Katniss Everdeen in 'The Hunger Games'. Although Rita isn't the main protagonist she shows a lot of the traits that the strong female characters do. These powerful traits break the stereotypical image of women, in a lot of films they are made to appear girly and set on finding love, however a lot of action adventure films are trying to break this image to prove that women can be strong characters too. The creators and writers have been transferring the traits that are commonly assosciated with men to female characters, creating a sense of equality. These changes have been made to reach out to a wider target audience that includes females of all ages so that they are shown that heroes and the protagonists can be women too.

Explain two ways the characters and/or events fit the action adventure genre.

The film 'The Edge of Tomorrow' has a number of different conventions that link it to the action adventure genre. There is a clear protagonist from the first scene of the film, William Cage, we know that he is the main character as he is the only character that remains while others appear and disappear in different scenes. This informs the audience that the main focus will be on him and that they will be watching his story evolve. The protagonist holds a formal approach at first as we understand that he had a high position in the army, when he loses his position and is sent to fight we see that he is still in the mind-set of someone in a higher role, he likes to be in control and this is clear from the beginning. In action adventure films the protagonist usually loses something or faces a problem that results in them having to change, in this film it is when William Cage is stripped of his high position and he is forced to adjust to having somebody else tell him what to do. Also, it is common for the protagonist to gain a sense of control and take situations into their own hands. However, in this film it is slightly different, at first we see the protagonist have a loss of control but this changes and he has to take control again to stop himself from reliving the same day repeatedly.


The action sequence is a key part of the film and shows a number of the main conventions that follow through nearly every action adventure film. For an action sequence it is important to create a sense of tension for the audience that will draw them into the scene. There are a number of key features of an action sequence that make it possible to achieve this feeling of tension. At the beginning of the sequence there is silence while the action is beginning to happen in the helicopter, this is done to create the initial build-up in tension as the audience watches the drama unfold but is still unsure of what is going to happen. The use of silence is effective as the audience relies on music and sound to predict what is going to happen, however silence takes this sense away and they don't know what will happen next. As soon as the protagonist hits the ground the sound comes back and it is overwhelming and creates more of an impact on the audience due to the loss of sound before. Different sound effects are used to create a successful action sequence, such as explosions, gunshots etc. The sounds and special effects are positioned close and far away to the camera so that the audience can understand the extent of the action. Every action sequence that involves a large number of people results in a number of deaths, in this particular sequence the camera pans around so that we witness a lot of these deaths. However there isn't a point when the audience feel bad about the death and it doesn't affect them as there are no ties, even if they have been introduced to him.

Compare how and why two programmes were scheduled on different channels.

Bad Education and Friday Night Dinner are both situation comedies aimed at different target audiences, this means that the air times will be slightly different. Bad Education is aired on Tuesdays at 10pm on BBC Three and Friday Night Dinner is aired on Fridays at 9pm on Channel 4. BBC Three has a target audience of mainly young adults and is popular for its comedy shows, this is why Bad Education is aired on this channel to fit in with the genre of programmes and the audience that usually watches it. Channel 4 has a slightly older audience made up mostly of adults, the channel is known for airing shows fit for the family e.g. Gogglebox. This may be why Friday Night Dinner is aired on there as it focuses on a family and should be good for slightly older families to watch together. With a slightly younger audience for the show than what is common for the channel, they may be wishing to extend their target audience to encourage younger viewers to watch, who they may have already gained from shows like Hollyoaks. Friday Night Dinner is commissioned by Darren Smith and Bad Education is commissioned by Zai Bennett who is the controller for BBC 3. The commission editor decides how the money for the show will be spent. Bad Education has a target audience of 16-21 year olds due to the nature of the show. The show is set in a school meaning that the target audience will be people that are students currently or were a short time ago to the point where they could still relate to the characters and the situations that they are put in. Friday Night Dinner has a target audience of people aged 21+ due to the age of the characters in the show, the show is based around a Jewish family and shows the different elements of a family. Parents would be able to relate to the situations that are presented in the show making it popular amongst them, however the target audience ranges from a younger age because of the two sons that are in their late teens. People around the age of boys will be able to relate to how their parents are and how they are with them. The target audience is slightly older than young teens because there are some rude themes in the show. Both shows are aired after the watershed time due to their style of comedy and the target audience as this is the time that they are more likely to watch TV shows because they have the inappropriate and rude themes that they enjoy to watch. Bad Education was produced by Pippa Brown who has also produced 'Physcobitches' and 'Walking and Talking'. Friday Night Dinner was produced Robert Popper who is also the creator of the show and has produced 'Hot Fuzz' and 'Look Around You'.

Discuss in detail how one programme offers audience pleasures (15 marks) - Bad Education

Bad Education is a sitcom set in a school, the characters are the same every time, this enables the audience to form a bond with both the students and the staff to the extent where they have an understanding of their personality. This feature of familiarity is an audience pleasure that encourages the audience members to watch further episodes and draws them into the programme. Even before the end of the first episode the audience is aware of the main character Alfie Wicker's personality and understands his foolish and immature nature. In one episode Alfie hides in a toilet cubicle to graffiti on one of the walls with something that would offend the deputy head, Miss Pickwell, his enemy. This action is immature for a teacher to do but by now the audience isn't surprised that he would do something like this due to what they have seen him do before, for new audience members they are given an insight into his character. When he leaves the toilet cubicle he is bullied by a group of students and again, as a act of foolishness he allows the students to bully and blackmail him, he goes out and buys them cider to replace one that had been confiscated; this pushes the boundaries of a student and teacher relationship. Later on he interrupts one of his colleagues who is dealing with an issue that the parents have, straight away the audience knows that the situation is going to go wrong and that he will say something stupid. This adds to the audience pleasures that they have as they enjoy to see him fail and can laugh at his expense without feeling guilty, especially as he put himself in that situation. Another form of audience pleasures that the programme uses is transgressive pleasures, this is shown in many ways by all characters but the staff in particular. In one particular scene a group of female students are performing to teachers to an inappropriate song in revealing clothing, the head teacher is dancing along showing that he approves of the sexualisation of the students. There are also occasions where the staff are racist or use sexual references, all of these shock the audience to the point where it is funny because it is pushing boundaries that they aren't used to seeing but they are not done in a way to deeply offend anyone. The show is able to push boundaries as they don't need to please big advertising companies because the BBC is a public service broadcaster so they don't have any advertisers. The audience also enjoy the sense of repetition and difference displayed in the show, in one particular episode toilet humour is used, although this isn't regularly used on the show there is always a common theme of old school and immature humour that follows along those lines.

Bad Education and Friday Night Dinner from alwebley1707

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