Question One

When we decided we were making a parody of The Only Way Is Essex, we needed to create a name which was associated with TOWIE. Throughout the series’ TOWIE cast members constantly use phrases such as ‘reem’ ‘shut ap’ and ‘Jel’ therefore we felt one of these would be a great name for our parody. After several discussions, we came to the conclusion that ‘Well Jel’ would be our name. We used conventions of TOWIE phrases but then developed them by adding ‘Well’ in front of Jel. The name of our parody means the audience understands our show is a parody.

PROGRAMME NAME

USED: The shot shown to the left can be found in a Geordie Shore trailer. Another scripted reality. I have allowed an original convention of a long shot from an existing scripted reality to influence my work.

DEVELOPED: I have developed this camera work as I have filmed it forward and straight on. This is in comparison to the Geordie Shore scene where the camera is at angle. I have done this so you can see more of the characters faces. This is one of the opening scenes to my trailer therefore I want the audience to see as much face as possible. As it’s unknown, the audience will not be able to identify the cast, unlike Geordie Shore.

CHALLENGED: I have not challenged much in this shot as I felt it was a really good shot. It looks professional and clearly fits the convention.

CAMERA WORK

USED: I didn’t want to use TOWIE’s location conventions much in my parody. I wanted to challenge the location conventions. TOWIE’s locations are usually set in bars, clubs and nice restaurants, this would make it hard to film in these locations as most of these establishments wouldn’t let us.

DEVELOPED: I have developed this with the two contrasting locations

CHALLENGED: I have challenged this convention massively. I wanted to contrast TOWIE’s typical flash locations with a tacky and common location, so we decided on McDonalds. This is not what’s expected in TOWIE but as it’s a parody we wanted to challenge this convention.

LOCATION

USED: I followed the costume conventions from TOWIE very carefully. TOWIE cast members typically wear dresses, designer clothes and suits. I wanted to follow this convention so the audience understand that this is a TOWIE parody.

DEVELOPED: We have developed this convention by putting the girls in heels during every shot. Females in TOWIE don’t actually wear heels ALL the time but we developed this convention by sticking them in heels constantly. As for males we were put in suits, leather jackets and lots of accessories. These type of clothes connote wealth and status.

CHALLENGED: I have not challenged this convention as TOWIE’s costume’s are so well known for what they’re, if I challenged it, the audience wouldn’t be able to relate Well Jel to TOWIE.

COSTUME

USED:A bandanna is worn by myself again to mock Joey Essex’s ‘out there’ fashion choices. Joey Essex is renowned for wearing strange accessories and so therefore I felt it was necessary to replicate the bandanna so the audience knows the character I am trying to imitate.

DEVELOPED: I have not developed much in this. I wanted the audience to recognise who I was imitating, therefore if I developed or challenged much, I would lose my identity.

CHALLENGED: Nothing much in the sense of challenging. We wanted to develop our sub-genre in order to create the parody feel, however going against what you’d expect in a parody wouldn’t make it a parody.

PROPS

USED: I wore swimming goggles throughout the filming trip, this matched the convention of TOWIE star Joey Essex who is renowned for wearing wacky clothes and accessories.

DEVELOPED: Instead of wearing skiing goggles which Joey Essex did, I wore swimming goggles. As a parody, we felt it was important to not entirely replicate the same props/clothes but to exaggerate them.

CHALLENGED: Nothing much in the sense of challenging. We wanted to develop our sub-genre in order to create the parody feel, however going against what you’d expect in a parody wouldn’t make it a parody.

PROPS

EYELINE

USED: I have used this mid close up, as you can see it is a replica of the TOWIE one, the exact same eye line is displayed. I wanted to use this as the eye suggests lack of intelligence as they’re looking up thinking, without being able to think of an answer straight away.

DEVELOPED: I have not developed anything really in this shot. I wanted to stick to this convention.

CHALLENGED: I have not challenged anything here. This is because I thought the shot worked well for mine therefore there was no need.

USED: I have used a similar two shot found in TOWIE. The two shots suggest best friends. I wanted to include this, as in TOWIE, there is always a strong best friend pair.

DEVELOPED: Zoomed out in to a mid shot. I wanted to show the girls were wearing the same material and design top. This further connotes their best friend relationship.

CHALLENGED: Nothing much in the sense of challenging in this shot.

OTHER

USED: Scripted Realities are bound to have elements of humour run throughout the series therefore I felt I needed a clip with someone laughing. Laughing obviously connotes good humour which suggests they’ll be moments of comedy in Well Jel.

DEVELOPED: Camera shot is zoomed out in Well Jel. I tried zooming in to show the facial expressions better but it became too blurry.

CHALLENGED: Challenging has been limited in this shot. We didn’t want to challenge much in our parody, only develop really.

OTHER