evaluation..

In What ways does your media project use develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Director Interview Script

(Medium shot - interviewer looking straight at the camera)

Mark: Hello and welcome to todays edition of 'what is good for your children?' today we are focusing on television, and what we should and shouldn't be letting our children watch. New show Tigerlily hit the Cbeebies lineup last week and has been getting nothing but excellent reviews, so today I have with me

(Medium shot - Director)

Grace Robertson- the director and writer of Tigerlily, who is going to tell us all about the show and how it will help our children, as well as conforming to the usual childrens genre.

(Medium shot - Interviewer)

Mark: so Grace, I have a four year old son, and he has been watching your show and he adores it already, he even begged me to get the magazine. Of course, your show is extremely educational, as it shows a different moral message each episode, but what gave you the idea?

(Medium shot - Director)

Director: in order to fully understand what we expect from childrens programmes, i had to do a lot of research, and this involved me watching programmes and drawing comparisons between them. One of my main focus programmes was Bodger and Badger, a show i used to watch when I was young, and i used to really enjoy because of it's silly nature and good characters. It was that infact that gave me the idea of using puppets, it allowed me to use anthropomorphism, animals which had human traits. I also watched button moon, a show that was based at children around the same age that i was targeting.

(Medium shot - Interviewer)

Mark: so how does tigerlily use forms and conventions of a childrens television show?

(Medium shot - Director)

Director: It is obvious that a childrens show has to keep a childs attention, otherwise they are going to get bored and not want to watch it, so it was clear that I had to use things such as bright colours and bubbly and fun presenter that the children watching will like and will be interested in. The theme tune was also an important part of the show, as from my research i discovered that if a show has a successful theme tune, children will remember it and want to watch it again. Games and animals and friendships are also important things in a five year old's life, so tigerlily contains all 3 things, animals in the form of tiger and lily, games in the form of hide and seek, a popular game and the importance of friendships through tiger and lily.

(Medium shot - interviewer)

Tom: does tigerlily develop the convention of the childrens genre at all?

(Medium shot - director)

Director: I believe that it does, a lot of shows focus on educational aspects that children will learn in school, such as numeracy and colours and words, but i wanted to go to a deeper educational message, which is morals. I wanted to teach children that things such as lying, being nasty to others and cheating are wrong things, things that often are not taught until much later in school.

(Medium shot - interviewer)

Tom: In any ways does tigerlily challenge the forms and conventions of childrens shows?

(Medium shot - Director)

Grace: In many ways, it doesn't because of the fact that my target audience is so young, and i wanted to keep things simple so that the message i was trying to portray would come through clearly. The only way I have challenged the convention is through extending the educational aspect, which to me was really important.

(Medium shot - interviewer)

Tom: Wow, well thanks very much for joining us Grace, I'm so glad there is a show that I know i can put on for my son and that he will have fun with it as well as be learning an important life lesson.

Now, for the debate: 'is watching the news good for our children?'