2. Existing products
I have watched a number of similar projects to my final major project and taken
notes on they have been made (filmed, written, edit etc). I have gone onto YouTube
and seen parodies of the office and analysed them.
The projects all had a few things in common:
• They all are set in a high school or classroom.
• They seem to use a version of the office theme song for the intros.
• All seem to have little to no budget and have been made as a class project by a
group of friends.
• Using own creative jokes.
• Zooming in on characters.
3. Existing products
These are some of the contents that not all the projects shared but rather had
independently that made them better and more enjoyable.
• Have a teacher as a character.
• Students portray teachers.
• Portray their own characters rather than just copy ones from The Office.
• Using phone or video camera to record.
• Re-using jokes from The Office and adapting them into their environment.
• Getting loads of different people involved.
• Include bloopers after end credits.
4. Existing products: Mockumentaries
Another way of referring to the office and shows like it is the term “Mockumentary”, a style
of film and/or television show depicting fictional events but in the form of a documentary.
A mockumentary will have actors depict fictional characters as if they were real. There
have been other mockumentary shows and films such as:
• Parks and Recreation
• Borat
• What We Do In The Shadows
• Blair Witch Project
• This is Spinal Tap
• Incident at Loch Ness
• Trailer Park Boys
5. Facts and figures
• The Office US was Netflix’s most watched show in 2019 with viewers watching
around 45.8 billion minutes, Nielsen also confirmed that The Office was the most
popular show of 2020.
• The original UK series started as a homemade video by the shows eventual
producer Stephen Merchant. He sent the video to the BBC when he was applying
for a job. When the BBC saw it they requested to turn the video into an actual
series. In fact, many of the jokes you see in the series are developed from the
small film.
6. Audience Survey Response
Most of my audience (51.85%)seem to be aged 18-24.
9.26% seem to be under the age of 18.
7.41% of my audience are aged 25-34
3.70% of my audience are aged 35-44
18.52% of my audience are aged 45-54
7.41% of my audience are aged 55-64
1.85% of my audience are aged 65+
This shows that my audience is mostly adult and will likely prefer to see
a mature sitcom with adult characters and actors. They will want to see
mature jokes.
I will try to include some adult jokes and characters in my final major
project to help appeal to the adult audience.
7. Audience Survey Responses
From the survey I have found that 59.26% of my
audience are female and 40.74% are male.
This shows that most my audience are mostly female and
will likely want to see more female characters and actors.
To help appeal to this audience I will try to include more
female characters if possible.
8. Audience Survey Responses
From this survey I have discovered that 74.07% of
the people who answered my survey said they do
like sitcoms.
However 16.67% said that they do not like
sitcoms.
9.26% said that they have never actually seen one
which I found surprising.
This information shows that my audience have
very mixed feelings about sitcoms but most of
them seem to like them.
To appeal to this audience I will try to include
enough jokes to make the audience laugh as well
as other genre features(e.g. drama) to keep them
entertained.
9. Audience Survey Responses
From the survey I can see that 42.59% of my audience like
sitcoms that are live action.
33.33% prefer sitcoms that are live action but with an
audience.
24.07% of my audience say they prefer if a sitcom was a
cartoon/animation.
This information shows that my audience mostly prefers
sitcoms that are live-action and not a cartoon.
To help my project appeal to this audience I will make it
entirely live action. I could possibly animate the intro for
those who preferred animation.
10. Audience Survey Responses
The results from this question tell me that 53.70% of my
audience like the office.
However 18.52% said they do not like the office.
27.78% said they have not seen the office.
This shows that the office might not be a s popular as I
believe it to be, but still commonly praised. Or it could
mean the fact the office hasn’t been on for a few years
means some people haven’t watched it and have moved
on from it. However most of my audience seem to be
familiar with the show.
To help appeal to this audience I will include many
references to the office and include the same style and
filmmaking as the office.
11. Audience Survey Responses
From the answers to this survey I can see
what people’s favourite genre of TV is.
27.78% said they prefer comedy.
35.19% said they prefer drama.
9.26% said they prefer romance.
3.70% said they prefer crime.
0% said they prefer horror.
1.85% said they prefer cartoon.
7.41% said they prefer anime.
12.96% said they prefer documentary.
1.85% said they prefer reality.
From these results I can see that drama and
comedy are the two most popular tv genres
with my audience.
To help appeal to this audience I will include
lots of jokes as well as some drama between
the characters.
12. Audience Survey Responses
From the responses to this question I can make out where
my audience prefers shows to be set.
62.96% said they prefer shows set in the UK.
20.37% said they prefer shows set in the US.
3.70% said they prefer shows set in Europe.
12.96% said other.
From my results I can seen my audience mostly prefer
shows set in the UK. This is possibly due to the fact that
my audience are all mostly from the UK.
To help appeal to this audience my project will be set in a
college in the UK.
13. Audience Survey Responses
From this question I can see WHEN my audience like
shows to be set.
22.22% of my audience prefer shows to be set in the past.
74.07% of my audience prefer shows to be set in the
present.
3.70% of my audience prefer shows to be set in the future.
From this survey I can tell that my audience mostly prefers
a tv show to be set in modern day rather than past or
future.
To help my project appeal to this audience I will have my
project take place in present day.
14. Audience Survey Responses
From this survey I can see where abouts my audience
might live.
37.04% said they live in York City.
40.74% said they live in North Yorkshire.
1.85% said they live in Acomb.
20.37% said they live elsewhere.
From the responses to this question I can see that
most of my audience live in either York or North
Yorkshire. To help my project appeal to this audience I
will make my project set in York college in North
Yorkshire.
15. Production Research-Equipment
For my project I will need:
• One or more cameras to film.
• Microphone of some sort for the best audio quality.
• Camera-stand for the shots where we need still camera shots.
• Computer or device with editing software so I am able to edit the
project.
• Light source of some sort in order to get decent lighting for each shot.
16. Production Research-Actors
For my project I will obviously need people to help shoot it with. I need
at least two other actors and someone to work behind the camera and
film us. With COVID restrictions this could be quite difficult as there
may not be many people in college to help me film it.
There are ways I could make it work with only one or two actors should
it become a situation.
For the characters I will be creating my own and will only be slightly
inspired by “The Office”. I currently haven’t written a script for the
project but when I do I will write about 3 essential characters.
17. Production Research-Props
I already have a scene in mind. It is one where one of the characters
puts another characters money into a pot of jelly. So for this scene I will
need:
• A table.
• A pound coin.
• A pot of jelly.
I will need to use the PC’s in the classrooms as well as the classrooms
themselves to films students at work.
18. Production Research-Audio
In my feedback for my factual project one of the problems was part of the audio in a certain clip where I
was wearing a mask in a stairwell and my voice wasn’t too clear. I have done research on how to make
the audio better and clear for people to hear.
There are some ways that I can make the audio better and clearer. I have learned of an app called “iTalk”
by Griffin, it is a great app for recording audio. It makes it sound super clear and easy to understand.
There are loads of other apps in the App Store that are also a viable option for audio.
• Voice Memo
• Audioshare
• AudioNote2
• AVR-Awesome Voice Recorder
• HT Professional Recorder
• Multi-track Song Recorder
• Voice Record Pro
The other option is borrowing a microphone from college or buying a microphone for myself. But that
would be really expensive and I might not use it that often.
