Analysis of the concept and content of a studio production relevant to the commissioned production
Analysis of the concept and content of a studio production relevant to your pitched idea
Loose Women – Wednesday 18th January 2023 Episode
Logline - A panel of four women discuss topical issues, ranging from daily politics and current affairs to celebrity gossip.
Loose Women is a lunchtime talk show broadcast on ITV 1 every weekday between 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm. The panel are seated and discuss current issues and popular topics. There are often debates caused by different opinions and guests are welcome onto the show to be involved in these discussions and/or promote upcoming events/projects.
The show was previously known as Live Talk between 2000-2001, during this period episodes were only 30 minutes long (Adams, 2000). The show is hosted by a panel of four women, selected from a list of designated ‘loose women’. These women are influential/famous, often figures in the public eye. The list consists of women such as Charlene White, Stacey Solomon, Nadia Sawalha, Janet Street-Porter and Carol McGiffin (ITV N.D.). The all-woman panel is a good USP for Loose Women and it allows issues to be discussed from a female perspective. The episode I have chosen to analyse has a panel consisting of Dame Kelly Holmes, Christine Lampard, Coleen Nolan and Katie Piper
The show is produced by ITV and has been since the 1990s. The team of producers are knowledgeable of the format and is well-experienced in not only Loose Women but other types of talk/magazine shows. For example, Harriet Thurley is a producer for Loose Women and has been working on the show for just over three years, she has also worked as an assistant producer on This Morning and has experience being a researcher for both shows mentioned. It won the Daytime Programme award in 2021 (The Royal Television Society, 2021). Two decades after its launch the show remains “the only dedicated panel show presented by women, for women, on daytime TV” (Doran, 2019).
Loose Women is comparable to a US daytime talk show called The View, which began in 1997. The show covers similar topics to Loose Women e.g., fashion and celebrity gossip. It also has a panel of five women; these women have very different outlooks on politics, Hollywood and its stars and current events. This show is produced by American Broadcasting Company (ABC), Barwall Productions and The Walt Disney Company (IMDb, n.d.). Therefore, it is not an example of how the format has been changed to work in another country, but it is interesting to note that there is a similar show functioning for the same time in a different culture and country.
Loose Women targets predominantly middle-aged women with a socio-economic rating of ABC1 and possibly C2. This target audience is obvious as there is a fully female panel made us of mostly middle-aged women, this makes the presenters relatable to the audience and they have a similar amount of life experience to inform their opinions, there is a likelihood that the viewers and presenters will share some of the same views based on this. The presenters for my planned show will also need to have a relatable factor to them as it is vital for the audience comfortable and relaxed with them. The subjects discussed are also tailored to an older audience such as parents and homeowners, rather than a younger audience who would not yet have experienced these things and therefore cannot share similar opinions.
The show is introduced using a title sequence which shows various women on the panel laughing with one another all dressed in pink/purple (the shows colour scheme). These clips feel natural and relaxed and create a feeling of voyeuristic watching. A graphic then appears on the screen to reveal the name of the show. This involves the title pushing in and the pink/purple/blue signature animated background appears behind the text. The show has a very well-established house style which I am trying to recreate within my show. There is music which plays behind this graphic, once the show transitions from the opening title this music is dimmed while the panellists are revealed and take their seats.
Throughout the show, music and graphics are used to help punctuate the show and keep people interested. There is a clever use of lower thirds to identify the show and display what topic/question is being discussed. Other graphics are also used to add context and tease what other segments will be appearing later. The graphics are accompanied by the same music from the opening sequence at a low level. There is also music as the host segways from one conversation to another, when the discussion begins the music stops. Bumpers are also used before ad breaks; this is comprised of the same elements from the title sequence. These are good ways to segway between segments and reidentify the show between breaks.
Various VTs are used to break up the show, these tease segments which are features later e.g., a promo for ‘Nick Knowles’s New Year Clear out’, he later joins the panel as a guest to unpack this a bit more. There are also competitions in the form of VTs such as cash prizes and the opportunity to win cars. These are followed by VTs of people who had previously won these competitions who spoke about how amazing winning was and how it changed their lives. This content will encourage the audience to enter the competitions and become engaged with the show. The opportunity to win Loose Women tickets, to be part of the live audience, was also displayed as a VT. This would also encourage the audience to engage with the programme. I think the way the show has used VTs and graphics is very beneficial for the programme and I will definitely take on these types of VTs when planning my production. I think they work well to break up the show and segway from one segment to another which will also be a factor contributing to my planned show.
The show’s format was altered during the period when COVID-19 restrictions were in place, this saw the panel drop from four presenters to three and the live audience was axed. All these features have since been restored but these changes did alter the format of the show in many ways. For example, there were no audience reactions e.g., laughing which made the show feel less involving for the audience.
The show is multi-cam with a fixed wide and extremely wide shot, close-ups of each of the panellists and two shots between panellists sitting beside one another. I would suggest this is a 5-7 camera set up which allows full coverage. For my planned show we only have two presenters, so I am proposing a three-camera set-up allowing a wide and a single shot of each presenter.
Personally, I think the show is good as it provides women with a platform to share their opinions. The overall tone and feel of Loose Women is conversational and funny with a few darker topics also being discussed. I think the show is successful in appealing to its target audience which is proven by the longevity of the show (since 2001). However, as I am not the target audience of this piece it is not something I would tune in to watch on a regular basis but that is not to say I did not enjoy watching the show.
This was a particularly relevant show to analyse in the pre-production stages of our show development as it is similar in many ways. Firstly, both are talk shows with female presenters/panellists which allows female perspectives and opinions to be shared. This show gave a really good insight into the format we were aiming for and the tone of our developed show. However, the shows are also different in many ways which allowed us to create something original and loosely based on the style of Loose Women. Our proposed show is targeted at a younger audience aged 16-34 and is more unhinged, discussing more taboo subjects and scandals as this is what our target audience like to engage with. Our show has only two presenters and will be broadcasted later in the evening (9 pm) on one day of the week (Friday). This differs from Loose Women as it is a later time slot when our audience will be available. Having fewer episodes a week also allows us to avoid being too repetitive in our content. We will also not have a live audience and social media will be a huge part of the show we are proposing. Loose Women helped to define our idea and plan segments as well as segment lengths. Having this format to relate back to will help us.
References
Adams, K., Sawalha, N. and McGiffin, C. (2000). Live Talk. [online] IMDb. Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0287243/?ref_=ttco_ov [Accessed 25 Jan. 2023].
Doran, S. (2019). How Loose Women challenges attitudes to women on TV. [online] Radio Times. Available at: https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/entertainment/loose-women-doc/ [Accessed 25 Jan. 2023].
IMDb (n.d.). The View. [online] IMDb. Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0123366/ [Accessed 25 Jan. 2023].
ITV (n.d.). Panellists. [online] ITV. Available at: https://www.itv.com/loosewomen/panellists [Accessed 25 Jan. 2023].
The Royal Television Society (2021). Loose Women’s Judi Love, Brenda Edwards, Kéllé Bryan and Charlene White accept their Daytime Programme award. [online] Royal Television Society. Available at: https://rts.org.uk/video/loose-womens-judi-love-brenda-edwards-k-ll-bryan-and-charlene-white-accept-their-daytime [Accessed 25 Jan. 2023].
Comments
Post a Comment