This is an amazing award-winning show that is intresting, gruesome and scary at the same time. This is aimed at people between 15 -50 year olds. This is a thriller.
They do have a comic book that is based on this and decided to turn itnot realife and make it into a T.V series. It has been a major hit in the US and in the UK.
The Walking Dead is an American horror drama television series developed by Frank Darabont, based on the comic book series of the same name by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard. Andrew Lincoln plays the show's lead character, sheriff's deputy Rick Grimes, who awakens from a months-long coma to confront an apocalyptic world overrun by zombies. Grimes reunites with his family and becomes the leader of a group he forms with other survivors. Together they struggle to survive in and adapt to a world filled with zombies and some humans who are even more dangerous than the zombies themselves.
It first aired in 2010 and is still going. Its going to be starting its season 6 in october. They say that this is aimed at most 18- to 49-year-old adult viewers but as many people watch it some viewers will be younger.
The first season writing staff consisted of series developer and executive producer Frank Darabont (who wrote/co-wrote four of the six episodes), executive producer Charles H. Eglee, executive producer and creator of the comic book Robert Kirkman, co-executive producer Jack LoGiudice,
The cast
Rick the main character has two children a baby and a teenage son called carl. The other main character have come from different parts of America and have grown a strong bond. Michonee is the other main charcter alongside Daryl and a couple Glenn and Maggie. There is another main character called Carol. They are the main characters that have been together since the first series. As there is a new season coming up some people join them and some dont as they dont want to be part of a group but they need to in order to survive.
Who is being represented? In what way?
By whom?
•There
are many people getting presented for example, the main 7 characters and the zombies are. They are
getting represented by us and by the way they have to be and how they act when
bad and good things happen almost like a split personality. There are lots of
representation going on for example, some teenagers are seen to be as bad
people, who are in gangs and have weapons. This has happened to one teen but
not as bad. As this world has been changed into a zombie world in order to
protect himself the teen had to be able to use a gun and knife to kill a zombie
when it was being approached by one. You have the main representations between
adults and kids seeing as adults seem to know best when in the show they are
seen sometimes as equals as the kids have been taught to use weapons etc.
Why is the subject being represented in
this way?
They are made to be seen in a specific way and we are
seeing them in that way. This is because it makes the series more interesting
and they want people to see what could potentially happen and how scary it is.
They need the show to be interesting and by having all of these representations
that in the way that hey are supposed to be makes it interesting as the
characters themselves show that its a struggle to adapt to changes from being
how they once were to know.
Is the representation fair and
accurate?
•I
think the representations aren't that accurate. This is because as their are
females and males both fighting zombies or killing other people, we would
assume that females cant fight or they aren't supposed to do that because women
are made to be seen as sensitive, caring etc. Which is still being shown
sometimes but not all the time as they are mainly killing and surviving. They
are seen with weapons and killing wild animals etc. The males in the series are
seen as doing what they would expect but in a more explicit way. Males are seen
as dominant, demanding, aggressive people and they are seen in that way in the
show. They have to do what they need to, in order to survive and stay safe. The
main character Rick has two children and needs to keep them safe. His son is
growing up throughout the series and had to know how to use a gun and kill.
He's still showing himself and progressing. You wouldn't associate young kids
knowing how to use a gun or kill someone. Sometimes in this day some teenagers
are seen to do that but its still shocking in a way.
What are the non-verbal structures of
meaning in the text (e.g. gesture, facial expression, positional communication,
clothing, props etc)?
•The
way that the characterds have to go around
are all different. As each character are different they have to play a
different role and they think in different ways that the other characters may
not. For example, Rick the main character is the dominate, leader type of person who gets violent and
aggressive when needed. As he is the main character he is seen as the leader of
the group telling his group how certain things will go and how it will be done.
As they don't get alot of things they need
to reuse and wear the clothes they have for a long time. They cant eat as there
may not be enough food to go round or because they wont have any. There clothes
are rugged, dirty etc and so are they as there isn't clean water in some parts
they go to or where they live. The other
characters will have the same clothes they wore when the apocalypse came out.
They clean when they can. They eat when they can as there are children they
make sure they eat first as they need their strength. But as a group they get
along, they are like family and work together to get supplies when there are
abandoned places or cars.
What is the significance of mise-en-scene/sets/settings
(CLAMPS)?
•The
mise-en-scene is the most
important thing. Costume is very important as the way that characters are
dressed you can tell that they haven't got new or spare clothes. You can see
that they have to wear it for a long period of time. A t-shirt that was once a
white top is now brown due to the things that they have. There are holes and
ripped jeans that are worn etc. The camerawork is being used in the series is very good. The way that it
uses close-ups, medium shots, extreme shots, tilts and crane shots are all
being used in various wayss. When they use these
camera shots they make sure that the audience don't get bored when watching the
series.Lighting is important to as
the show is mainly done during the day time they use natural lighting but when
its dark you can see when the lighting is shown. As when its dark the lighting
would hit the character and the zombies as that when the characters would know
something is going to happen. Lighting is effective in that way. The characters
would have torches and fire to show lighting on themselves and to see what's
around them. The actors/actresses have really good roles and have been doing a
good job of showing how there characters are throughout the show. They show alot of emotion and act
realistic in a way. Make-up is vital in
a zombie show like this. The zombies look realistic and scary and gruesome
which is what they want. They want the audience to look grossed out when they
see the zombies. The way the makeup and elements are done to the zombies are
from head-to-toe. For example, when a character sis killing a zombie, the blood
would shoot out, you will see how the zombies die and the sounds are realistic.
Even when a zombie is eating a human, its realistic in the sounds and make-up.
The make-up on the characters aren't done too
much to detail like the zombies are. The make-up is more plain and
realistic too on the characters. Fr example, like dirt on the face, dirty,
unwashed hair, making the characters look thin on the face, dirt in fingernails
etc. There are so many props being used is alot. There everywhere. The weapons, clothes, shoes, food,
scenery, vehicles etc. Everything is a prop as its being used in the series. Alot of detail goes into
it as its important that they use them.
What work is being done by the sound
track/commentary/language of the text?
•There
isn't much work going into the soundtrack and background music. This is because
there is always speech that background music only happens in the beginning and
when someone is getting eaten by a zombie or when a zombie getting killed and when someone dies.
What are the dominant images and
iconography, and what is their relevance to the major themes of the text?
•There
are many iconic moments in the series. For example, when Rick finds his family.
When his wife dies giving birth to their daughter and the son had to kill her
before she turned to a zombie. When the bad people come a take over and want to
kill etc. There will always be iconic moments in the series this would happen
around 5 times in each series.
What sound and visual techniques are
used to convey meaning (e.g. camera positioning, editing; the ways that images
and sounds are combined to convey meaning)?
•In
the series there are many things that would show a meaning. For example when
the camera does a close-up of a zombie or an object. This would mean that there
would be something bad happening. When the editing happens at a faster paced
this would mean that a character is getting chased or running away. When the
deep, interesting music comes it would mean that someone bad is coming etc.
There are many things that happen.
How is the narrative organised and
structured?
•There
is one main narrative in this series and that is to fight in order to survive.
This is the main thing as they are wanting to seek an answer to why and how
this all happened but haven't got that far yet. Its structured in a way that
they need to have a home/place to live but the viewers/audience always know
that there are going to be obstacles and things that get in their way .
How is the audience positioned in
relation to the narrative?
The audience is positioned in many ways as they are
always shocked or confused by what happens in the story lines. The show keeps
the audience guessing which is why it makes it even better and more interesting
to watch.
How are characters delineated? What is
their narrative function? How are heroes and villains created?
•When
there are heroes and villains in the story you can always see and guess who
they are and how the main characters wont get along with them. Its a very
distinctive line between them. When the main group of characters realise when
someone is a villain they have to get rid of them as they are very ‘bad people’
and need to know that the group are in charge.
What is the role of such features as
sound, music, iconography, genre, mise-en-scene, editing etc within the
narrative?
•As
this is an zombie apocalypse there are so many things and so much detail that
is used in the series. For example, lots of blood on the zombies and when
people are killing, weapons, the sounds of the blood splurging everywhere and
the noise of guns. The way the music in the beginning is quite chilling and
goes with the atmosphere etc. There are so many different things that are
happening.
What are the major themes of the
narrative? What values/ideologies does it embody?
This is a make believe programme. But as some people
believe in things like this they try to make the audience realise what it could
potentially be like for humans if this actually happened. They want us to see
what we would have to do to survive and how many things go wrong etc. They just
go with the flow of what they would think the world would com to and what would
happen to the people that live there. Most people would have died and the rest
would have been zombies. In the show you can see that its rare that they see
other people or groups or people that are good. You dont really know whats going to happen.
To which genre does the text belong?
It belongs to a thriller/horror
What are the major iconographic
features of the text?
•
There are many iconic features in the series. The way that they show that its a
horror is shown really well. You can tell that this will be a horror/thriller
series as there are zombies in the series and violent weapons etc. You can tell
that this isn't going to be a romantic chick flick as the scenery is dead and
the way the characters are dressed shows that they don't get clothes very
often.
To what extent are the characters
generically determined?
•The
characters are always determined. You can tell that through their acting they
are motivated and try very hard to be in their role and try to be that person that they are conveying.
To what extent are the audience’s
generic expectations of the text fulfilled or cheated by the text? Does the
text conform to the characteristics of the genre, or does it treat them
playfully or ironically?
•The
way that the audience see the characters is the way that they are supposed to
be seen. They make sure that take on their role properly so that they can be
the best people and be good actors/actresses. The way that we see them is the
way they want to be seen. They make sure that whatever they do or say is done
for a reason.
Does the text feature a star, a
director, a writer etc who is strongly associated with the genre? What meanings
and associations do they have?
•As
this is also a comic book the guy who directed the film is also the writer of
the comic book. There are many similarities on the comic and the series. They
wanted to make as identical as possible but obviously did change a few scenes.
As they have the comic book it would mean that they would want to make it as
realistic as possible and make sure that the scenes get done in that way. It
wouldn't be good if the series was just ok and just looked fake-they would have
to make it really realistic and make sure that its the best show and it is. The
director and writer would have known a lot about how they would have wanted to
portray certain scenes etc and they would have to know a lot about it.
What is the institutional source of the
text?
•The
company that airs this show is FOX. They are an American based channel and
shows shows that get aired in
the US in the UK. They have been around for a while and The Walking Dead have
been a great hit in the US and in the UK.
In what ways has the text been
influenced or shaped by the institution which produced it?
•There
isn't an way that they have influenced it.
Who owns and controls the institution
concerned and does this matter?
•FOX
T.V would own the show as its being aired on their company channel. There is
some violent scenes and contains some strong language sometimes but as most
programmes do nowadays people know what age to watch this and know who to show
it to. The programme is shown at 10pm that's after the pre-watershed time so
people know that things like this will appear on T.V at this sort of time.
•How has the text been distributed?
It has been distributed on T.V and DVD as its been a
great hit on T.V they wanted to turn the series into something they can watch
on.
What are the major values, ideologies
and assumptions underpinning the text or naturalised within it?
•The
main things about this programme is that its based on zombies and killing and
surviving. Some people may find these things offensive but as no one has
mentioned anything the show still went ahead. The main idea is to make people
realise that things like this could happen and some people believe in it just
like people believe in aliens. I think
some of the people that would be interested and there values match would be
Innovators, thinkers and survivors. This is because the people that are within
these groups match some of the ideas and values that are shown on the series.
What criteria have been used for
selecting the content presented?
•
The criteria that has been used is that a lot of guessing and predictions are
being used in this show. As this hasn't happened and they want people to believe that this could
happen later on in life just like some people believe in aliens. Some people
may not believe in that stuff but find it interesting to watch a show like this
as it is interesting and gives the audience alot of questions to think about.
To whom is the text addressed? What is
the target audience? (Demographics, Psychographics)
•The target audience
are people aged between 16-50 years old. This is because people this age would
be interested in things like this and have been attracting a lot of people. I
think this type of programme would attract
working class and normal class people as its something they can watch
after work or on their day off. These people would be normal average people,
everyday working people. Some of the people may be above working class and have
office jobs in London and watch this type of programme as it does attract
different people. This means people who are strugglers or reformers or
mainstreamers would be interested in this show.
What assumptions about the audience’s
characteristics are implicit within the text?
•You can tell that
when the audience watch the show that there many different ways that the
audience can see the show to different people. For example, a person can see
that a smile may indicate happiness or covering up true feelings, In the show
its easy to tell when someone's happy or sad as its a straight forward show
that has been through a lot.
What assumptions about the audience are
implicit in the text’s scheduling or positioning?
•The way that the
characters act are in certain ways depending on what they think might happen or
what place they may be in. For example, if they have found an abandoned place
and there are lots of zombies everywhere then they would have to act fast be quick
in what they do.
In what conditions is the audience
likely to receive the text? Does this impact upon the formal characteristics of
the text?
•They would see this
as something that they would expect as you can imagine being scared and violent
in some ways when dead people are trying to eat you alive. They would normally
watch this on T.V on channel FOX and they can watch the series on Netflix and
on DVD.
What do you know or can you assume
about the likely size and constituency of the audience?
•I think the size of
the audience is big. This is because this has been an ongoing series since 2010
and if it wasn't any good they would have stopped the show eventually and made
the story line shorter. As this is a big thing in the US it has also become
more or less a big thing in the UK. Some people don't know about the show as
most people go to bed so wont know what's on or some people aren't interested
in this type of shows. As this is a
series programme its better for the audience to watch it from season 1 as then
they will know the story line well and get used to it and understand it a lot.
What are the probable and possible
audience readings of the text?
•I think the audience
readings are probably between 50-65% that watch this show.
What are the audience pleasures, uses
or gratifications? (Refer to theory).
•There are many
gratifications and theories that have been within the show. For example, there have been some stereotypes as in males
and females. You would associate males being aggressive and violent and females
being kind and sensitive. But in the world that they are now living in females
have to be aggressive and violent in order to survive. Another thing is that
lines of appeal has been happening in the show. As there can be happy families
where everyone wants to belong and wants to be loved but in the show it wont
show that as they still need to fight and look after themselves even in the
world that they used to live in would be against the law. As the world isn't
what it used to be the zombies will still have to they don't have laws or
restrictions and they can do what they need to. There has been some enigma
codes and action codes that Barthes has mentioned. The audience control how
much they want to know. They get to choose how much they let on and how much
they don't and what they want to see.
How do you, as an audience member, read
and evaluate the text? To what extent is your reading and evaluation influenced
by your age, gender, background etc?
•I think that i have learnt a lot
and found this programme interesting from the first day i saw it. I think the audience and i have all same
questions as the characters do in the series. This is ‘where did the zombies
come from?’ ‘how long have people known about this ?’ ‘how can it be
stopped?’ ‘is there a cure for the
zombies?’ ‘can this last forever?’ etc . These are all things that would run in
people minds and be important to them as they want to find out too. As this
show has been on since 2010 i
have been watching it since i
was 12 years old. The show is aimed at 15/16 year olds. It depends on how much
you are interested and want to see and are ok with watching these types of
things that matter. I think males watch the show more than women as its
something that they would be interested in as males tend to like
thriller/action programmes where as females tend to like comedy or soaps. I
don't normally take an interest in programmes like this but as its
something that got interesting later on i
decide to carry on watching it.
