Magazine

For a bit of real-life research into the parents' claim that children go for the magazine with the best toy, I took my nephew and his friend (both in our TA age range) to a shop to buy them both a magazine. They very briefly surveyed the options available to them, and then decided almost instantly that this was the magazine they would opt for... and guess what; it was in fact the one with the most toys. Even though it wasn't the magazine for their favourite programme, they were fascinated by the free toys and would take no attempt of persuasion!


Here is the magazine (with free merchandise) they chose.

Whole 'pack'

Front cover

Back cover

Incl. colouring book 

Incl. mobile phone

Incl. character cards

Incl. 'magic' paint book

Incl. stickers

Questionnaire results!

So, here's the average results of the data we gathered!




Age: 3 years old.
Time spent a day watching television: 3 and a half hours.
Most frequent television 'package': Freeview.
Most commonly favourite channel: Cbeebies
Favourite programmes: Peppa Pig, followed by Charlie and Lola.
What time they watch television: AM and PM.
Buy magazines of the programme: Sometimes
Buy DVDs of the series: Yes.




So from these results of children in our target audience, we can 'presume' some things. Firstly that we have used very popular influences for our programme (Peppa pig and style of Charlie and Lola). Also that Cbeebies would be a really good choice of channel to exhibit on as this was by FAR the favourite channel (and is on freeview, and more expensive television packages so everyone will have it) and to attempt to screen our show in morning and afternoon. Also, from verbal feedback gained from parents of the children, the child is most drawn to a magazine if it has a really good toy(s) attached to the front as is largely a picture based front cover. 

Sound types

Obviously, all of the sound in our piece will be put in post-production (becuase that's the nature of animation).


Examples of diegetic and synchronous sound in our piece: characters speech and sound made by objects in the scene.


Examples of non-diagetic asychronous: voiceover and music.

(To create the sounds made by the objects in the scene, we will have to act like Foley artists.)

A further look at intertextuality and auteurism

Intertexuality can be thought of as a never-ending onion; onions have many layers, and so does intertextuality. For example, if you peeled away the layers of a film, underneath you would find layer after layer of other experiences and influences. If you peel back one layer, you will find the scriptwriter. If we peel back their layers, we would find things like other scripts they had written and read and how those have influenced their writing. If the script has been adapted from a story, you will find the author's layer. Peel back their's and you will reveal all their past writings, experiences and things they have read. And so it goes on, in what seems to never end - thus the term 'never-ending onion'!


Julia Kristeva was a French theorist who first coined the term intertexuality in the late 1960s. Intertexuality indicates that a text is not self-contained but is produced from other texts and that there can never be a definitive reading of a text - there will be many interpretations, depending on the reader. In the 'Death of the author' by Barthes, he said that a text is a "tissue of quotations drawn from innumerable centres of culture".






Auteurism suggests that a director is the primary and most important creator of a text (even though the text will be processed and added to by numerous other individuals, the auteur's creative voice is said to still shine through). A director who is a considered an auteur is seen to have something instantly recognisable about their work which allows you to know it was produced by them. For example Alfred Hitchcock used particular framing and editing techniques throughout his films and make cameo appearances - if you saw these techniques in a film, you would instantly know it was 'a Hitchcock'.


Another well respected auteur is Spanish director Pedro Almodovar. An example of one of his 'instantly recognisable qualities' would be his strong interest in female narrative and tendency to use particular actors. He makes no apologies for the fact that he is an intertextual director and openly acknowledges he is a big fan of Hitchcock in his films. Pedro Almodovar is an example of an auteur who is proud to layer his work with the influence of others.


This is a brief, graphic outline of the development of auteur theory through three phases, from Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts by Susan Hayward.

Obviously our piece will be intertextual, as you cannot avoid this. We will not directly reference any other text, but our creation will be shaped by our own experiences of texts from the same genre. For our piece, Joe and I could consider paying homage to Pedro Almodovar by using his technique of pulling the subject into the foreground.

Influences for our typography

Concept board

Concept board! on Prezi

Decision time!

Joe and I have decided, that the initial idea we will focus on is idea 1! This is the idea featuring introduction of characters. We chose this initial idea to focus on because we felt that having Barnaby and Hazel introduced to the audience before each episode would increase familiarity and build a stronger relationship between viewer and characters. In turn, this will also hopefully boost DVD and magazine sales if the child feels more attached to the programme and characters featured within it.

Obviously our final OTS narrative will have developed greatly from the initial storyboarded idea we had, but this is merely just a focus of direction that we will travel in.

Now that we have settled on a focus, we will be able to fine tune our narrative ideas for the OTS and come up with our final idea and then animate it!