Humans and Le Revenaunts question 2

Component 1 section B

i) How do the producers of video games ensure financial success for their product?

ii) How do the producers of media products  ensure financial success?


How do you get marks in an Industry questions
-Statistics
-Dropping names
-Facts

In what ways are Humans and Le Revenants shaped by specialised forms of production, distribution and circulation?

Knee jerk reaction: both set texts are fundamentally shaped by their contexts of production, distribution and circulation at a technical, narrative  and an audience level. In both instances the show can be seen to be standasied products, shaped by industrial contexts to ensure maximum profit. 

Horizontal integration
Vertical integration
multimedia integration 
Conglomeration
production values
digital Convergence
cult audience
success for their genre
budget and funding
marketing and advertising  
Trailers: missleading?
websites
reality vs fiction
themes of paranoia = make audience feel uncomfortable
Intertextuality
referential codes


Curran and Seaton: Power
Hesmondhalgh: industry integration/structure
Livingstone and Lunt: Regulation (or lack of)

Controversial aspects in Humans: Niskas vape/sex scene in Brothel
Controversial aspects in Le Revenauts: young Lena sex scene

cast: Gemma Chan- British Asian type cast? (Anita)
Katherine Parkinson- British (Laura)



Atypical of horror/zombie genre- no blood gore or slow walking corpses
Atypical of sci-fi genre- set in modren 21st century day

-Both text feature relatable middle class families-

both distributed by Channel 4

avalblibe on DVD and blue ray

LR was avalble on netflicks briefly

Channel 4 initially started 1982 as a subversive ideology tv channel however far more mainstream now

both mid budget

(11.5 mil for LR)

6.1 mil views on first eposides of Humans 

English Humans vs Swedish Humans 

• The look of the actors
• The setting and style of house
• The opening of the show was far more hard hitting
• tone of the show- more tongue in cheek
• far more explicit and violent 

exported to the US: fits into exotic sci-fi like DR Who and Sherlock

Channel 4 are selling audience to advertising companies through ad breaks
make revenue through selling adverting space and through franchising series
motivated by profit and power

Nearest competitors for Humans includes Doctor Who, Black Mirror 

Standardised production:

clear standardised narrative eg. begging middle and end

Narrative theory: Todorov 

Equilibrium- disequelibruim -restoration of equilibrium 

range of clear and identifiable character arcs

clear serial narrative, cliff hanger ending 

range of enigmatic hermeneutic code