2. Treatment
• Synopsis:
• A ‘Work sitcom’ based around a girl called Emily, and the journey she follows at
college. This will fit best with our target audience 15-35, as I found out thought my
secondary audience research. This will follow the structure narrative created by
Tzvetan Todorov , where the narrative will have a closure at the end of every episode,
following the narrative of a traditional sitcom. I found this out through my secondary
product research looking through books based on sitcom’s. It will show Emily getting
into problems such as college work problems, friendship problems, and embarrassing
moments throughout her days at college. She will be a teenager as our target
audience is based around that age, which will attract them more. As teenagers prefer
to watch the same age range as them, in which they can relate to. Emily has a best
friend called Sam, who is the funny character.
3. • Emily is also in love with the ‘Hotty’ of the college called Tyler, and when ever she
sees him; she seems to have an embarrassing moment, for example being stuck in
the library doors. She isn’t very popular and is the stereotype of a geek, and spends
most of her time in the library. The difference about this sitcom, is its from the kids
point of view, so you wont be watching a sitcom about adults, or even adults making a
sitcom about kids, but kids making a sitcom about kids. Therefore it will all be
completely relatable to the target audience, as well as the humour fitting in with the
humour of kids today. The sitcom will be narrated by the voice over of Emily, and at
the start of each episode she will introduce the new narrative. My sitcom will include
the codes and conventions allowing the audience to identify the genre as a sitcom.
Such as the stereotypes included, such as a geek and also the conventions which
relate to the genre, such as it being a ‘work sitcom’.
4. • This will also include a fun and exciting website, it will follow the same
theme of the programme e.g. the colour scheme will be green. The
paradigmatic choice for choosing green is because it is unisex’s colour, and
won’t be biased or gender specific. I decided to do this because when
looking on the E4’s website they use the colour purple as this is not gender
targeted. Also it is very calm colour, connoting the relaxed feeling from our
sitcom , also green is seen as a young colour, fitting in with our target
audience 15-35. From primary product research our group completed, we
found different ways in which to set up our website. After some research
Lois found through creating a poll people prefer a website to have a simple
layout to, therefore our website won’t be to extreme and will have a clear
and simple structure to follow.
• The website will be a chance for the audience to find out new things about
the characters, watch behind the scene clips and watch interviews with the
main cast. This will be so that the audience can interact with the programme
through the WebPages. There will be a navigation bar at the top of the
webpage, making it easy for the audience to follow through the site. And
also through Georgie’s Primary Product research, she found out the
navigation bar emphasises the interaction of the site for the audience.
5. • Format
• D3100 Nikon, camera with a Tripod and lights. It will be a 30 minutes HD sitcom .
1920 x 1080 , with a 16:9 aspect ratio.
6. • Estimated Duration
• After researching into sitcoms such as I.T crowd and Inbetweeners,
I found out they only run for around 25-30 minutes, so our whole
programme would consist of that duration, following one of the
conventions of a sitcom. However as we our just making a 2 minute
clip, I felt it would be best to create a sequence, in which introduces
the 3 main characters and location to the audience, attracting them
to the programme. As well as this we are to create a 3 page fan site,
attracting audience through a different type of platform. The website
will include interactive elements for the audience such as behind the
scene videos, fun quiz’s they can take part in and interviews with the
cast, as well as pictures of the cast and crew. As members of the
group have researched into websites and the semiotics of a website,
this should be a straight forward process.
7. • Intended Audience
• Our target audience is the same as E4, 15-35 years. Therefore the idea of creating a
work sitcom fits great with this target audience as when researching onto audience ,
they mostly watched programmes with the same age characters as them or a little bit
older , so setting it in a college with attract a lot of teenagers/ young adults.
• Targeted at B class and C1 , C2 and D audience this means: Demographic
classifications in the UK refer to the social grade definitions, which are used to
describe, measure and classify people of different social grade and income and
earnings levels, for market research, social commentary, lifestyle statistics, and
statistical research and analysis. Such as B being middle class such as intermediate
managerial, administrative or professional, C1 is lower middle class such as junior
managerial, administrative or professional, and C2 being skilled working class such
as skilled manual workers. Therefore the sitcom should target a wide range of
different social classes.
• The website it also targeted as this audience, so must fit with our aims of the show,
e.g. the colour scheme.
8. • Style
• A sitcom. This is influenced by our target audience being 15-35 years , we have
focused a lot on E4 and the type of sitcoms there produce , such as The
inbetweeners as they cater to the same target audience , therefore through research
one of the most popular shows on E4 is The inbetweeners , I believe this is because
of the target audience watching , as many teenagers watch this because it is about
boys at a sixth form , therefore I hope by setting our sitcom in a college it attracts lots
of college kids to watch it . We also looked at the I.T crowd, Fresh Meat and The
Might boosh . In which we felt Fresh meat and the I.T crowd fit well with our target
audience therefore we wanted to find out what parts attracted people to them. This
fits in great with our target audience being 15-35. I believe my idea was influenced by
the stereotypes used in the I.T crowd as my sitcom features a stereotype of a geek.
Also the location from the inbetweeners, as its set in a college. I was also influenced
by new girl when creating this idea, as through primary research in our focus group a
number of teenagers mentioned their favourite sitcom was new girl , as they liked the
stereotype’s and the narratives of the programme.
• The website will be influenced by the E4 website, as it targets the same audience as
us, 15-35; therefore there is some helpful stuff in which will help us to reach our target
audience, as well as idea’s for interaction aspects of our website.
9. • Rationale
• This sitcom is relevant to our target audience because it is set in a college, and most
college kids or teenagers spend a lot of their time watching TV, and specially sitcom,
such as friends. From our focus group we found out that teenagers love the funniness
in a sitcom’s, which you can’t get from dramas. Therefore we need to make sure are
sitcom consists of funny dialogue and action. Sitcoms are a very popular genre. The
inbetweeners still gets over a million viewings, Friends is still in high demand even
after 10 years. This shows there is room for a brand new and exciting sitcom.
10. • Our sitcom should be commissioned because it’s unique as no other sitcom is
produced by teenagers, giving a fresh new perspective to the genre and creating lots
of new ideas. Also when looking at my results of my focus group many people
enjoyed watching new girl, and this storyline relates to new girl, in the sense of it
being based around a girl who gets herself in awkward problems. However what is
unique about my concept is it is set in England, about a girl who goes to college,
which in way is completely different to new girl. No one has created a sitcom about
this before and I believe it could be a great success. Including both males and female
characters , attracting both genders to watch the sitcom.
11. • Feasibility
• This production will be a workable project as it is located in a college and we
have access to a college and rooms. One scene will be shot in Costa coffee
in college , but we can ask for permission to film before hand. We also have
a lot of people we can use to star or be extras in our sitcom, costumes can
be provided by us as we have clothes which match the style of teenagers,
and are capable of completing this by the deadline set.
12. • Budget
• The budget shouldn’t be too much, as a lot of the things, e.g. location and cast we
have there for us, if we do need money we can raise funds to gain money to help us
with production. I would say £50 pound just in case of any props or costumes
needed.
13. • Deadlines
• Planning should be complete by the 30th November, and production should be
complete by the 25th of January 2013.
