Task 2: A range of methods and techniques.

Comedy.

Comedy is one of the oldest forms of drama. Comedy highlights that human beings are in fact ridiculous and cannot change. Comedies often confirm our view of the world.


Films.

Despicable me

In a happy neighborhood hidden beneath this home is a vast secret hideout. Surrounded by a small army of minions, we discover Gru, planning the biggest heist in the history of the world. He is going to steal the moon. Gru delights in all things wicked. Armed with his arsenal of 'shrink rays', 'freeze rays', and 'battle-ready' vehicles for land and air, he gets rid of all who stand in his way. Until the day he encounters  three little orphaned girls who look at him and see something that no one else has ever seen: a 'potential Dad'. The world's greatest villain has just met his greatest challenge three little girls named Margo, Edith and Agnes.

who does the main voices: 

Gru - played by Steve Carell
Margo- played by Miranda Cosgrove
Edith- played by Dana Gaier
Agnes- played by Elise Kate Fisher

Ratings: 7.6

Directed by: Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud

Produced by: John Cohen, Janet Healy, Christopher Meledandri

Written by: Ken Daurio, Cinco Paul

Review  (Cinema blend 2010)

'Despicable Me falls somewhere in the middle range of animated films targeted at kids, featuring none of the delirious wit of How to Train Your Dragon and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and certainly not the outright Pixar genius, but also absent the mindless pandering and obvious plotting we all fear in children's films. With a smart concept, some clever gags and well-choreographed action it moves along nicely, but it also squanders considerable voice talent and doesn't really take advantage of the twisted world it successfully creates. You get the feeling that a darker and more clever Despicable Me may have existed at some point before the studio, still trying to break into the animated market, defaulted to the safe side.

As Gru, a hunched super villain conducting all his plots from the suburbs for some reason, Steve Carell uses a constricted German accent to great effect, abandoning his typical Michael Scott comic persona for someone even more insecure and struggling. Gru gets the big idea to steal the moon after new kid in town Vector (Jason Segel) starts upstaging him with dastardly deeds of his own, but Gru's plan is foiled when the Bank of Super villains (formerly Lehman Brothers) won't float him a loan. Making matters worse, Gru's flashy new rival Vector steals the shrink ray Gru needed to capture the moon, and now all the evening news reports focus on Vector, with poor Gru stuck abusing his freeze ray and popping children's' balloons for his evil deeds. For pretty flimsy reasons Gru decides that the only way to steal back his shrink ray is to adopt a trio of orphan girls, whom he plans to use as bait and otherwise ignore while locking them in the kitchen and tinkering away in his underground lair.

The girls-- voiced by Disney star Miranda Cosgrove, Elsie Fisher and Dana Gaier-- have other plans, of course, and slowly go about melting Gru's heart even when he'd rather skip the bedtime stories and let them walk to ballet class. Gru's developing relationship with the girls doesn't fit all that well with the super villain rivalry plot, and the script by Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul bounces somewhat haphazardly between family bonding and Gru's scheming in the basement. Each has their moments-- a trip to the amusement park is fun and funny, and a heist at Vector's house is pure well-executed tension-- but you miss the airtight script of a Pixar or Dream Works Animation film, or even a plot that doesn't feel utterly predictable from moment to moment. It's also a shame to see all kinds of other talent, including Russell Brand as Gru's elderly lab assistant and Kristen Wiig as the meanie orphanage manager, either shoved to the side lines or forgotten about entirely by the scattered script.

Adding insult to injury, an incomprehensible amount of screen time goes to Gru's minions, those little globular yellow guys in the overalls who scurry around Gru's lab doing all kinds of jobs and bear the brunt of the film's physical comedy. Clearly the studio and directors Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud think they've come across gold here, but the minions never develop distinct personalities or even meaning within the plot, popping up from time to time to be cute but, like all the other disjointed plots, never amounting to much. The focus on the minions, so disproportionate to their actual quality as characters, speaks again to the disorganization of Despicable Me, a movie with a few good ideas and vocal performances and no idea where to go with them.' written by Katey Rich.

http://www.cinemablend.com/reviews/Despicable-Me-4684.html

Ted

John makes a Christmas miracle happen by bringing his one and only friend to life, his teddy bear. The two grow up together and John must then choose to stay with his girlfriend or keep his friendship with his crude and extremely inappropriate teddy bear, Ted.  When he was eight years old, John Bennett, friendless and thus lonely, wished that his only friend, Ted his teddy bear who had a voice recorded message "I love you", would love him forever. John got his wish as Ted miraculously came to life, which garnered Ted his proverbial fifteen minutes of fame. Twenty-seven years later, John and Ted have remained best friends. Although physically the same, Ted now has grown-up urges, as vulgar, perverted and immature as they be. Although she loves John and likes Ted as John's friend, professionally successful Lori Collins, John's girlfriend of four years, believes that John's emotional immaturity and lack of professional drive - John works in a dead end job at Liberty Car Rental - is because of his friendship with Ted, with who he parties all the time. Although Lori does see John as being her husband one day, that cannot happen as long as the current situation with Ted remains. But other pressures may prevent a John-Lori happy ending. One is Rex, Lori's wealthy boss, who does whatever he can to make himself look good and John look bad in Lori's eyes, despite she showing no interest in him whatsoever. And two and three are father and son Donny and Robert, super-fans of Ted's who will go to any length to have a talking teddy bear as their own

Who stars in it?:
John Bennett-played by Mark Wahlberg
Lori Collins- played by Mila Kunis
Ted ( voice )- played by Seth Macfarlane
Rex- played by Joel Mcahle. 

Ratings: 7.1
Directed by: Seth Farlane

Review (Empire online 2013)

'If you thought the crazed mind behind Family Guy’s legendary chowder puke-athon (season four, episode eight) had no greater horrors to inflict on living-room floors, think again. Midway through Ted, Seth Mac Farlane’s delirious feature debut, some weapons-grade pooling has put all that in the shade. That the culprit is not a hopped-up teddy bear — presumably saving himself for the next trip to the woods — but a stoned hooker called Sauvignon Blanc tells you everything you need to know about Mac Farlane’s comedy.

For those slow on the uptake, Ted probably isn’t the place to come for droll social comment or Woody Allen-esque introspection. There are memorable cameos galore, but none of them are by Marshall McLuhan. Instead, Mac Farlane straps us in for a red-band roller-coaster of lewd humour, fart gags, pop-culture references, blow-job jokes and killer lines that’s so dizzying it should come with a health warning.

The opening, narrated by Patrick Stewart with eyebrows set to ‘cocked’, plays like a twisted antidote to this year’s barrage of fairy tales. Friendless and shy, eight year-old Johnny wishes his toy bear Ted (voiced by MacFarlane) into existence one stormy night, creating a loyal buddy for himself in the process. His new best pal is hardly Harvey, though. For one thing, everyone can see him, beginning with Johnny’s terrified parents; for another, he quickly develops a potty mouth and a taste for the high life that would shame Kanye.

MacFarlane then spins us deftly through 25 years, showing the now-famous bear spitballing with Johnny Carson, signing autographs and living la vida loca in a terrific, E. T.-referencing montage, before dumping us back on the couch, where Mark Wahlberg’s thirty-something Johnny (now just ‘John’) and his cynical bear friend are found smoking bongs and indulging their love of Flash Gordon. Both of them have grown up, and neither of them have; an arrested development that frustrates John’s high-achieving girlfriend (Mila Kunis), who urges her man to dream beyond his next beer. All the while, she’s forced to fend off the advances of her sleazy boss (Community’s Joel McHale).

What follows, it should be stressed, is not Family Guy: The Movie. To borrow the term of the day, there’s plenty of DNA in common with MacFarlane’s multi-Emmy’ed animation — few could miss the similarities between Ted and Peter Griffin’s husky haplessness or the return of Family Guy alumnus Kunis — but those left cold by the Griffin clan are well catered for by some sharp writing and a winning comic turn by Wahlberg. Fast developing into one of Hollywood’s most versatile actors, he delivers the kind of loose charm and comic timing that Adam Sandler used to muster, and, in one tongue-twisting race through trailer-trash first names, flaunts all the verbal dexterity of a rapper. Go figure.

If the hell-for-leather gag rate and Wahlberg and Kunis’ sheer likability elevates this love triangle far above the likes of You, Me And Dupree, major kudos should also go to the film’s FX boffins. Utilising Avatar-grade mo-cap technology, they’ve created a wholly believable central character who just happens to have come from a shelf at FAO Schwarz. If Monsters, Inc. made fur fly in an animation, Ted brings incredible detail to a live-action environment. Inevitably there are flaws. The odd joke whizzes wide of the mark amid the mayhem and the climax sacrifices laughs for a gratuitous chase sequence. The film’s bad guy, Ted’s “biggest fan” (played with whiny relish by Giovanni Ribisi), spirals the plot across Boston’s seedier side via speeding cars, punch-ups and a deranged visit to Fenway Park that’s unlike anything we saw in Money ball. It’s fun but off-kilter — think Dennis Lehane on helium — and distracts from the fact that John’s biggest enemy is, of course, himself.'

http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=137714

(I have been commissioned to produce a 5 minute comedy programme for E4.)
RESEARCH: Currently, there are a number of popular comedy programmes.

Programmes on E4

How I met your mother - ratings: 8.5 million 

It is an American sitcom, the series follows the main character, Ted Mosby and his friends: barney Stinson, Marshall Eriksen, lily Aldrin and Robin Scherbatsky. all the events that happen lead up to him to meeting their mother. it is set in Manhattan. This is written by Craig Thomas and Carter Bays.

















Don't trust the B**** in apartment 23 - ratings:  6.8 million.  
It is an American sitcom created by Nahnatchka Khan.  The series follows June Colburn as she moves from Indiana to New York City to pursue her dream job, until she finds out that it no longer exists and she ends up moving in with a con-artist party-girl named Chloe. The two don't get along at first; however, when Chloe's attempts at scamming June backfire, they end up forming an unlikely friendship.

The Big Bang Theory - ratings: 8.6 million.
it is an American sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady . There are five main characters: roommates Leonard Hofstadter and Sheldon Cooper; Penny, a waitress and aspiring actress who lives across the hall; and Leonard and Sheldon's equally geeky and socially awkward friends and co-workers, aerospace engineer Howard Wolowitz and astrophysicist Raj Koothrappali. The geekiness and intellect of the four guys is contrasted for comic effect with Penny's social skills and common sense.

Rules of engagement - ratings: 6.8 million.
The series was produced by Adam Sandler's Happy Madison. Two couples and their single friend deal with the complications of dating, commitment and marriage. It looks at different relationships in various stages, starring Patrick Warburton and Megyn Price as a long-married couple, Oliver Hudson and Bianca Kajlich as newly engaged sweethearts, and David Spade and Adhir Kalyan

Review  http://www.imdb.com/user/ur1943467/?ref_=tt_urv



Questionnaire.

1. Are you male or female?

       Yes                          No

2.  What age group are you?

     Under 12       12-15    16- 20     21+

3. Wat gender do you like?

  Action    Adventure   Comedy   Drama       Historical
  Horror     Musicals      Sci-fi       war films   Romance

 4. What genders don't you like?

   Action    Adventure   Comedy   Drama       Historical
   Horror     Musicals      Sci-fi       war films   Romance

5. Do you ever go to the cinema to watch films?
 
      Yes          No

6. What is your favorite movie?

   ------------------------------------------------

This is our findings of people who like a certain film gender. Comedy and Horror share the same percentage and also the biggest.

Task one - Research techniques

TASK 1

Why is research important? 

The importance of research is to gather information for the target audience. It also produces knowledge that can be applied outside a research setting. It helps you to know what your target audience wants. Your target audience is such an important part for any type of project because they are the people who will potentially see, buy, use your product. The market research is important because this is where you find out answers to questions that deal with their local or national market for a product or service. Whether this is about price, quality or quantity. The idea with market research is to find out if someone will buy your product. This type of research can give you new, up to date, powerful information.

Quantitative research.

This is when you ask people for their own opinions about something in a structured way in order to produce facts and statistics. to get reliable results its better to do the survey in large numbers and make sure they are a representative sample of your target market.

 


An example of this would be surveys. This is when you gather information from people. Surveys have a variety of purposes, and can be coordinated in many ways. Surveys may be put together to gather information through a printed questionnaire, over the telephone, by mail, in person, or on the web. An advantage of this would be that the researcher could gather a huge range of different answers. A disadvantage of this would be that it would cost a bit if they are printed also it would use up some time which some researchers may need

Another example of Quantitative research is hits on a website. This is when a web page is uploaded from a server the number of hits or page hits is equal to the number of files requested. An advantage of this would be that it is easier to see if the website is popular or not. A disadvantage of this would be that if there isn't enough hits, then it could put people off looking at that website.

 



Another example of Quantitative research is a discussion. This is where you talk about a subject and give your own opinions. The advantages of this is that you get to hear a wide range of opinions which will give the researcher a wider range of ideas. A disadvantage of this would be that it would take up a lot of time.

Qualitative research.

Qualitative research is about finding out what and why people think about this subject. allowing people to talk about their opinions so you can understand their motivations and feelings.Using face-to-face interviews and group discussions are an ideal way to get feedback. Qualitative research can be valuable when you are developing new products or coming up with new marketing initiatives and you want to test reactions and refine your approach.

 

An example of this would be observations. In observation, the researcher observes the research , This method is used when the researcher wants to examine a subject in its natural environment or study naturally occurring behaviors. In this method, as with other forms of qualitative research, the researcher has to be very careful to not introduce personal bias into his observations. An advantage of observation is that often the person who is being observed is unaware that they are being observed, allowing their behavior to be observed naturally. a disadvantage of this would be that its time consuming.

Another example of this would be a focus group.In a focus group, many people are interviewed at once to gain their opinions on a subject or item. Researchers may create the focus groups by interviewing them or by observing the groups talking about an issue. This method could be used to find out what people think about a product or an advertisement. an advantage of this would be that it would give a wider a range of information. a disadvantage of this would be that there is a wrong mix within the  group which could cause problems and may not work correctly.

Primary research

Primary research is experiments, investigations, or tests carried out to collect together data first-hand, rather than being gathered from published sources. This is a skill that students must learn as it is useful for all different types of work and is a great technique to know.

 

An example of primary research is, face to face. Face to face to face are interviews will take place between an interviewer and the respondent in their home, a location chosen by the interviewer or a public place such as a shopping center. The interviewer will ask the interviewee questions and record their responses. Interviews can also be carried out on the telephone, for telephone interviews the researcher will ring the person they would like to interview or make a number of random telephone calls so that they have a varied selection of respondents. An advantage of this would be that it's their own opinion. A disadvantage of this would be time consuming.

Another example of primary research is Experiments and Trials. This involves using a new approach, new strategy or new product at a small selection of sites for a set period of time. The results are closely monitored and used to design future strategy and products. An advantage of this would be that you can try some things to see if it works. A disadvantage of this would be the cost or resources and time.

Another example of primary research is Postal Surveys. These are forms containing questions designed to find out people's opinion about a particular subject are posted to a group of people. Completed forms are analyses to draw out the information required. An advantage of this would be that you wont have to send people out to ask people questions, you could just send them through post. A disadvantage of this would be that it may take time for the surveys to be sent back, this could cost you time that you may need.
 

Another example of primary research is focus Groups. These are groups of people are invited to join a discussion about a particular subject. The chairperson  will introduce the discussion topics and ensure everybody has a chance to express their opinions. The group will be usually be allocated a set time to discuss each topic. The aim of the focus group is to produce qualitative data, opinions and attitudes on the topic being discussed. An advantage of this could be that an idea given could be built upon, making it stronger. A disadvantage of this could be that people may talk over people not getting much feedback from it so it could become a waste of time.

secondary research

Secondary research is a way of collecting data that has already been gathered by someone other than yourself. This technique is used for performing marketing research. This type of research is useful because it allows the researcher to identify a new topic other that one that has already been researched.  

 

An example of this is published statistics. this is where someone else has got the information and has created their own statics. An advantage of this would be that it would save time instead of you having to gather the information and then creating your own statistics. A disadvantage of this would be that you may like more of a range, so this could limit your answers.

 
Another example of this is books. This is someone else's research that is written into a book for someone else to use their research or information. an advantage of this would be that that the information would be there. a disadvantage would be that the research may not be that accurate.