The document discusses conventions used in scripted reality television shows such as The Only Way Is Essex (TOWIE). Some of the key conventions mentioned include exaggerated real life situations, flashy props used by well-groomed characters, use of non-diegetic music, and a variety of camera shot types. The document then discusses how the author of the document chose to use and challenge some of these conventions in a parody film project about TOWIE.

1. Matthew Slater

2.  Scripted reality TV shows such as The Only
Way Is Essex (TOWIE) are exactly that,
scripted, real life situations, often
exaggerated for humour.
 Conventionally, females in TOWIE wear
designer clothing, also, the males in TOWIE
are well groomed, and appear tanned, both
to appear aspirational to the target
demographic of teenagers.
 Furthermore, props that are used usually tend
to be expensive and ‘flash’ or ‘bling’ for
example, the Cars they drive, and the
jewellery they wear. All this is done to draw
in their audience and portray their status.

3.  To reinforce their status they must live in
big houses, this appears to me to be another
convention of scripted reality TV shows.
Although not all of us live in big posh houses;
so the audience obviously aspire to be like
the characters in it.
 Conventionally, there is a lot of non-diegetic
sound used throughout these scripted
realities and their trailers, usually chart
music; this must reinforce the storyline.
 Scripted realities try to use as many different
camera shot types as possible, from
establishing shots to close ups, est shot to
set the scene for the target audience and CU
to show emotions on the characters faces.

6.  In my parody, I chose to use & develop the convention of
make-up we chose to put make-up on the guy’s faces
and to develop this, we put a lot of make up on, to make
it look humorous and to add emphasis to the parody.
 I chose to use the convention of non-diegetic sound
over my trailer. I chose the Ellie Goulding ‘Anything Can
Happen’ song because in one of the trailers I watched
whilst planning, the characters said, “anything can
happen”.
 I also chose to match the convention of a variety of shot
types in my trailer, I would have liked to develop this
convention and gone for using tracking shots in my
trailer, however we didn’t have a tripod dolly with us while
we were filming.

7.  I modelled my front cover on the Fabulous
magazine. I chose this magazine because of it’s
simplicity yet effectiveness. Also because it is a
classy magazine not a messy magazine with 10
features scattered.
 I chose to use the MS convention of male stars
on the front cover of the magazine. I also used
the convention of minimal features because in
my opinion this works well as it makes people
want to read more of what’s inside.
 I challenged the convention of the master
being behind the star’s head. It appeared to me
whilst researching this magazine, only big celebs
go in front of the master; and to me, TOWIE
stars aren’t ‘big celebrities’ however much they like
to think they are.

8.  After researching The Only Way Is Essex ancillary products, it
became clear to me that there was conventions of TOWIE
ancillaries were glamorous and featured the main
characters that appeared in the soap.
 I noticed that none of the ancillary products contained any
television branding. I chose to challenge this convention
and put an ITV 2 logo on my poster; thus adding
branding to the product. This worked for me because it
added the branding which was my initial intention, others
in my group chose to use the logo as well, however it looks
neater to me to put it in the bottom right hand corner where
as they put it in the middle of the page.
 Conventionally, the stars of the soap appear on the ancillary
products, so I chose to use this convention; I Developed on
it by only using 4 of my characters instead of 5 or more
which are traditionally used on these products. I chose to do
this so it didn’t look too crowded, I wanted to keep it as
clutter free as possible.