Textual analysis

The made in Chelsea trailer is an example of a scripted reality subgenre soap. From this type of soap we would expect to see a very glamorous and emphasised everyday lifestyle. We also expect the characters to be young, attractive and wealthy as they are generally aimed at a younger audience who aspire to be like the characters and want what the stars have. The storylines tend to be lots of gossip, relationships, friendships and love triangles. They also have a lot more humour than other soaps making them more light-hearted. These conventions are met by the use of lighting, sound, cinematography, mise en scene and the types of editing used. The clip both conforms to and subverts the typical conventions of the scripted reality genre. The establishing shot shows a setting of London which represents normal every day life where the characters actually live rather than an artificial setting in a studio. Another scene in the trailer is framed in a big, posh house which conforms to the convention that scripted reality represents expensive, luxurious lifestyle which appeals to the target audience as they aspire to live a similar lifestyle. Another aspect of the mise en scene used to adhere to the typical conventions is the props. For example they use fake tan and sunglasses to further represent expense, glamour and wealth and also show that the characters are young and attractive to appeal to a young and mostly female audience. They also use lots of bright lighting on the faces of the actors to make them look more attractive. One way in which the mise en scene in this trailer subverts the conventions of a scripted reality is some of the body language, for example we see eye contact with the camera which is not typical of soaps. However it is a convention of some scripted reality shows. They also act sarcastically in a way that mocks their own acting in a way that they are almost acting a parody of themselves to show that even they themselves know how fake their scenarios are e.g. When Andy touches his nostrils. This gives the trailer humour which conforms to the convention that scripted reality is less serious and more funny and light-hearted. Another way in which this trailer subverts typical conventions is that it only stars the male cast of made in Chelsea, this doesnt show any female gossip or relationships and therefore makes it stand out as a scripted reality trailer.

In the cinematography of the trailer we see a lot of C.U, M.C.U and B.C.U shots to show expression and emotion which adds to the realistic element of the genre as it shows how the character feel during their everyday life. E.g. at the start we see a B.C.U of Jamie, Andy and Spencer each in turn. However the trailer also subverts the typical conventions in terms of shot types as we would usually expect to find two shots and shot reverse shots to show the audience character relationships, socialising and everyday gossip, but this particular trailer only shows single shots in the form of characters talking to the camera in a mocking fashion. In one scene the camera is framed in a mirror showing a character fake tanning this shows that they care about how they look and represents glamour and appearance which is typical of this sub-genre. Throughout the trailer an emotional, slow tempo, non-diegetic soundtrack is used ironically as a binary with the fake acting and jokes present in the clip, this contradiction creates humour as its sarcastic and ironic. Although this does subvert the conventions that scripted realism represents normal everyday life, it does show it as being light hearted and funny so the audience can still relate to the characters and its still entertaining. The cast use lots of dialogue throughout the trailer that further mocks themselves e.g. Im ready to chew the corner of my sunglasses or Im ready to talk about relationship matters a lot this converts to the genre as he mocks the fact that they always talk about relationship which is a convention of scripted reality. Another example of diegetic dialogue used is look cool at parties which is appropriate for the target lifestyle representation that the characters are young and have a good time which makes the target audience envy their lifestyle. This type of mock language is also used to make the characters seem funny and likeable. The accent and language the cast use in the trailer is quite posh to show they are high class and glamorous. This is what we would expect to see from a scripted reality. Editing is used along with the music to make the trailer seem dramatic and tense e.g. the camera focuses in on an E.C.U shot of an eye and a slow motion transition. This is used along with jokes and mocking to create a binary that suggests ironic humour, this shows that made in Chelsea is a fun, light hearted but dramatic and over the top representation of reality. The trailer shows non-continuity editing to show that there is more than one story going on at once, however it

is not fast paced, this shows that MIC is a fairly normal representation of reality. At the end of the clip a title screen has been edited with the text #imready this shows that it is targeted at a younger audience who are more likely to have twitter, we would expect this from a scripted reality soap.