His Dark Materials: Industry and Audience

 Audience

1) What audience do you think His Dark Materials is aimed at and why? Think about demographic and psychographic groups. You can revise Pyschographics here.

The show is targeted at middle class british teenagers. This is because the locations in the series match locating in london such as oxford.

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: teenagers, oxford

Personal Relationships: people who live in oxford can relate to some characters such as will and lyra

Diversion (Escapism): the show is dramatic and exciting.

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.

Voyeristic pleasure- magisterium cardinals

Vicarious pleasure- different worlds and realities

Viceral pleasure- chase scene and the witch torture scene.

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.

Critics thought it was great however there isn't as much wonder as there should be in the show.

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? 

Preferred- Some audiences might love the series for the actors, story or just because they have some sort of interest in the series.

Oppositional- However some audiences may not like it as the series may not be that exciting for them or they dont understand the story in much detail

Industries

1) Which companies produced this His Dark Materials series?

BBC, HBO, Bad Wolf.

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

There were 4.4 million viewers on BBC for the CSP episode. Comparing it to season 1, this episode was extremely popular.

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.

Making the show high quality to make viewers more interested in the show.

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.

Ruth Wilson, James Mcavoy, Lin-Manuel Miranda. They used these actors to boost popularity with both british and american audiences.

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

Bad Wolf are a independent tv company in wales that helped make shows such as doctor who and his dark materials.

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)?

in doctor who, camerawork and editing is clucky and bad howeever in his dark materials it is smooth and they use a large range in diegetic and non diegetic sounds.

2) What similarities and differences are there between Doctor Who and His Dark Materials in terms of genre and narrative?

doctor who is sci-fi whereas his dark materials is  fantasy and steampunk. 

3) How are representations of people, places and groups similar or different in the two shows?

gender stereotypes are reinforced in doctor who whereas in his dark materials they are subverted.