His Dark Materials: Audience and Industries

 Audience

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

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: people who enjoy fantasy would like the show and also a younger audience mainly female.

Personal Relationships: By having lin manuel mirander in the show he would be bring his fans with him meaning that some fans would already have a personal relationship with him  

Diversion (Escapism): diversion is provided through the fantasy genre as people will be seeing things you wouldnt usually see in the real world. 

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. 

visceral: visceral pleasure is provided during the scene where the witch is being torture. the audience gets to experience a sense of anxiety as they wonder whether or not the witch will be saved from Mrs coulter or not.

vicarious: the audience get to feel a sense of vicariousness as they watch the good witch save the witch who is being tortured from Mrs coulter. they get to watch the witches fly through the sky and also get into a fight with the magisterium providing a sense of anticipation.

voyeuristic: the audience get voyeuristic through watching the magisterium meeting and seeing a meeting between such powerful men and seeing a decision be made when they wouldn't usually see it considering the fact that the magisterium represents the government

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.

From what was seen on most social media platforms some people thought the show lacked the magic element that was there in season 1 however overall most people enjoyed it.


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: most people like it and enjoy the show, they are on lyras side and will carry on watching the show to find out if lyra gets to safety

oppositional: people don't like the show, they think the acting is bad and that the opening episode was boring and lacked the magic element that sci-fi/fantasy should have.

Industries

1) Which companies produced this His Dark Materials series?

bad wold in association with new line cinema for bbc1 and hbo.

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

the launch of the first episode had 4.4 million views and season one episode one had 7.2 million viewers meaning that they lost viewers after season 1.

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.

it allowed the bbc to produce a top quality, high budget fantasy series. by collaborating with an American company gives them the chance to target a wider audience. and get more viewers.

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.

James McAvoy was selected to be in the series as Lord aisrael. He was the face of a big hit movie names "split" meaning that he already had a fanbase attached to him that he could bring with him to his dark materials. They had Lin-Manuel Miranda who is a songwriter and actor who stared in a hit musical "Hamilton". He was probably picked to

be cast as he has also got a large fan-base and fans that would watch something just because he was in it.

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

They're a British tv production company known for their high end drama series.

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 the camera work was very slow and clunky. The acting is also very bad. It’s over exaggerated and it’s clear they were on a low budget. In his dark materials you can see the it had a higher budget not just because of the great use of CGI but also because of the well known actors they have got. The difference in sound is also very noticeable as you can clearly hear very word being said in his dark materials whereas in dr who some conversations are unclear.

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

Both shows have aspects of travelling from one universe/town to another. They both follow the journey of a young girl who is seen as clever and strong. They also both have some sport of discover in them: the teachers discovering the TARDIS and Will and Lyra discovering the Spectors. They both have basic aspects of fantasy and genre.


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

Representations of men are different in both shows. This is clear where Will is the one who is seen to be more calm and collected than Lyra where she acts out and is more aggressive. Will is presented as domesticated and kind unlike the men in dr who who’re controlling and dominant. Women in his dark materials are also represented as strong and capable unlike how in dr who they’re weak and reliable on the protection of men.