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1. A report of the conventions of the genre (form and content)
My Parents are Aliens is a children's drama series based on a foster family who the Parents are aliens. The programme in my opinion has a variety of genres; comedy, fantasy, sci-fi and family.
Form: This programme is a comedy, fantasy, family drama so typically I'd expect to see bright lighting and colours for the light hearted atmosphere that is needed in a typical comedy family drama of this callobar and this kind of scene has to be projected to the child audiences at home.
The acting is some what childish, but is portrayed in the correct manner to what you'd expect to, from the conventions of the plot and style of a childrens fantasy drama.
Each character has there own perks and individual personalities which in my opinion is for the target audience to relate to such as Lucy being a hard working academic of the family and feeling like an outsider at school and within her bizarre family, many children can relate to her situation which makes the audience feel involved with the programme.
The camera shots and angles used in the first and second series seem to all be very simple shots and angles (as to the ones in the later series start to use a more vast variety) this may be because of the lower budget. As the later shows seem to be more enticing for a young audience as it has more movement through camera shots and angles. In the episode I have been analysing (when swaps go bad, series two). The main camera shots used are long shots and panning movements so it shows, has the feeling of watching a theatrical stage performance which suggest's to me 'old fashioned' television.
In the editing of the programme, it uses quite basic editoral techniques such as cuts to compress the time or vary points of views between different characters, this technique is also used to build up an idea for the story for example when Lucy takes the laptop it cuts away from a medium shot to a close up (angled) shot of her hand writing a different name this is a good way to inform the audience and at the same time build up tension. In my opinion they've used this techniqued in a very clever way, as to doing very quick short cuts as an element of surprise and emphasis to situations in the narrative.
The mise-en-scene, the home of the family (crashed spaceship) is very bright, colourful, full of weird ornaments and oddly placed everyday objects this tell a story by its self, in the first moments of seeing the main setting the audience can see this is not the average everyday household and therefore this reflects on the characters. The lighting always seems to bright and cheerful nearly always day time, this bring a happy atmosphere to the show and to the audience at home - it shows that this show is a happy and fun show even just seeing those elements can draw in the audience.
The clothing worn by the characters defenaitly in my opinion define the characters individual personalities such as Brian and Sophie (the aliens) wear very odd sometimes handmand and mismatched clothes which make them stand out from any crowd. The children often wear there school uniform (which the target audience can relate to) but sometimes wear there own clothes; Josh wears laid back Hawaiian shirts which highlights his laid-back personality, Mel wears punky, outgoing clothing shows she is her own person and doesn't follow the ordinary and finally Lucy like to wear smart geekish clothing which obviously make her intelligence and geeky personality - shows she is a perfectionist. We learn a lot from the characters and the style and plots of the show just from the first few glimpses of it!
Content: Narrative - In the episode 'when swaps go bad, series two' where Brian and Sophie become over whelmed by the new school craze of swap cards and are determind to find the top card 'madonna' when to only realize they have totally wasted there time, effort and money for no reason. It ends up the family simutanously getting involved; Mel finds out and tries to stop them only to find their stashed money and start indulging herself without anyone knowing, Josh tries to secretly sell Brian and Sophie cards without the other family members knowing and Brian and Sophie steal Lucy's money from her piggy bank and her borrowed school laptop which they sale (to buy more cards) to a spotty geek who fortunately fancies Mel.
This is not the most usual plot but for this programme is just a rather typical episode which includes a number of bizarre scenarios.
Diegesis - There is not exactly there 'own world' but the characters do in their own way as there home is a 'morphed' spaceship which is meant to be disguised as a normal human family home. Inside the house it is like something out of this world as everything is in the wrong place or used in the wrong way; such as trifle and sausages for breakfast this is created by the characters outlandish personalities.
In my opinion in this episode and in many of the other episodes of iv seen the creators have used unrestricted narrative as the audience always seem to know what the characters know.
Narrative depth - we as a audience get unique access to really the 5 main characters we also seem to know what each character is doing most of the time switching from each one but in particular Brian and Sophie who always seem to be with each other (as a team). The audience are always are in the childrens
Tzvetain Todorovs Theory of Narravtive:
1- Family doing 'normal' routine
2- Brian and Sophie discover new card game / Take Lucy's laptop
3- The family realize the laptops gone and Brian & Sophie become deperate
4- Mel gets laptop back & Brian & Sophie realize what they've done
5- Family are back doing there normal routine and talking about 'what they've learnt'
modular Narratives used to divise the audience of time (used as a subject of manipulation)
My parents are Aliens is a Episotic type of programme as it is organised in an abstract series - elements of sequences.
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