Representation in Charmed (P5)

GENDER

In Charmed, women are often shown to be powerful and independent, and not reliant on men, the women shown on Charmed are often, but not always powerful witches, or demons, the Halliwell sisters on whom the show focuses, are not only powerful witches, but are also portrayed as strong career women, with all four having well payed and respected jobs, in which they are all successful, however, although all are shown to have successful jobs, three of them are jobs we would stereotypically associate with women, Prudence is an auctioneer, Phoebe is an advice columnist for a newspaper, and Paige is a social worker, Piper however breaks this stereotype and owns a successful nightclub in the centre of San Francisco, Piper is also a mother of two, and is shown to be busy all the time with managing the club and looking after her two small children, that in the last series of Charmed are often said to be at they're grandfather house. Men in Charmed are shown in many different ways, some are shown as honest and nice people, for example Leo, Pipers husband was once a "whitelighter" a kind of Guardian angel, and had given up his powers to be with his family, many men involved with the sisters are often portrayed as innocent, however most of the demons in Charmed are men, and are shown to be very evil, much like Cole, Phoebes ex-husband who was a high level and later turned into the source of all evil, and impregnated Phoebe with a demon baby.

ETHNICITY&RELIGION

Within Charmed ethnic diversity is not well represented, although being set in San Francisco, a very diverse city, there is only very few black, or not white characters in Charmed, many of them being demons. Although religion is not something often brought up or mentioned in Charmed, we know that the sisters are spiritual and not religious, although religion is not represented in Charmed we do encounter a lot of characters inspired by real life religion, mostly Christianity, for example, the Angel of Death, the Angel of Destiny, and the Source, a representation of the Devil. However in one episode Piper and Leo are possessed by two Hindu gods, the only mention of any religion other than hints towards Christianity.

FAMILY VALUES

Family is a strong theme throughout all 8 seasons of Charmed, with the show focusing on the three Halliwell sisters, other family members are recurring characters throughout the seasons also, been shown as both alive and as spirits. Family loss and sibling problems are also common themes in Charmed, the loss of Prue, and the finding of Paige shows the strength of the family and how they deal with grief and with the discovery of their long lost sister, with the finding of Paige also comes the problem of Paige dealing with the grief of her adoptive parents death, and how she blames her self and how she is able to cope, deal and move on with these feelings. Family is a large part of Charmed and many issues are brought up including divorce, death, grieving. Charmed shows a family that is broken and hit with tragedy on a regular basis but one that is still strong and supportive, it is a portrait of a non-nuclear family that as not been affected by their circumstances.

SOCIAL STANDING

Charmed shows a lack of social diversity, with everyone in the series is shown as been comfortable or well off at least, none of the characters are portrayed as struggling for money, or in a desperate situation, many of the settings, including the sisters cavernous family home are shown to be quite decadent and large. For example, Coles apartment is a penthouse with large windows showing a view of San Francisco, and Phoebes "condo" that she buys seemingly on a whim is large and decorated with tasteful artwork and chic furniture.

OVERALL REPRESENTATIONS 

Overall Charmed as a whole shows an outstanding lack of representation for ethnic groups, the disabled, those of low social standing and those of different regional or national identities, Charmed has a WASPish theme running throughout its characters with almost all being white middle class people, with well payed jobs and a house or apartment that seems to be nicely decorated and never looking scruffy or unkempt. We also do not see any unkempt or unsavoury looking people on Charmed as characters with all being seen as done up and dressed well all the time.

IMACT AND EFFECT

ETHNICITY AND RELIGION- The ethnic and religious diversity in Charmed is lacking greatly, this could mean that viewers of Charmed who are not white may feel left out, or invisible to society, although there is no active racism, there are very few black or mixed race characters.

FAMILY VALUES- Family is a strong theme throughout Charmed and various themes are explored such as, abuse, adoption, miscarriages and failed marriages, the way family is portrayed in Charmed is realistic and does not set standards that could not be met by the viewers, however Charmed portrayal of family could also influence younger viewers and normalise some actions that, if carried out in real life could be dangerous and fatal.

SOCIAL STANDING- The vast majority of characters in Charmed are shown to be well-off, or at least very comfortable, and having well payed, often high powered jobs, there is no representation of the poor, or less well-off in Charmed, this could alienate some viewers, as essentially they are watching a group of people achieving things they could never do, however this may also draw in viewers from the lower rungs of society, many watch tv as a from of escapism, and seeing how the other half live is one aspect of this, and this is what charmed shows.

ROLE MODELS

The main characters in Charmed could be seen as role models, they are shown to be upstanding citizens  who would willingly help anyone who may need it, they are also shown as strong, independent career women, this would set a good example to young girls who may be aspiring to follow in their footsteps, however many f their actions are extremely violent, and they are responsible for hundreds of deaths, the sisters have bon up apartments, restrained people in a forceful way, beaten up, set fire to and stabbed multiple people, so in this sense they are not good role models, for young girls, or older women. However over all, all of the violent actions carried out are a means to and end, the end being a peaceful world, so the role models presented in Charmed are a good example to follow, so long as their actions are not taken to literally.

Charmed Classification (P5)

The Complete Charmed Box Set is rated as a 15, i feel this scene from the earlier series of charmed demonstrates the sometimes graphic violence shown.
The first scene, from 55seconds in, demonstrates the supernatural violence shown in the series, as well as the mild horror in the form of seemingly unstoppable beings killing innocent people. The second scene from 2.00mins in demonstrates the highly choreographed fight scenes that are frequent in Charmed, this scene depicts very strong physical violence and use of a weapon, in the form of an Athamé, a small, serrated ceremonial dagger, a weapon used frequently by different characters throughout all 8 series. The use of weapons, and graphic scenes of stabbings, spontaneous combustion, and explosions and the aftermath of the violence, where injuries, and blood are often dwelled on has meant that, although on pre-watershed, the series as a whole has been categorised as a 15 by the BBFC.

These graphic scenes from Charmed show us the use of weapons, portrayal of injury and scenes of horror from across all the series of Charmed. BBFC guidelines say that in a 15, 'should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury', however, in the context of the show, this man who is on fire is a demon, and is portrayed as a "bad guy" and all of his actions are clearly disapproved off, before this scene, which is in self defence, within the show demons are shown to look like humans but with a alternate look, like the bottom left picture hidden within, and so are not presented as human beings, and so some ethical issues are taken away by the sub-human nature of the demons. Although violence is common, Charmed portrays gender equality, rather than the three sisters being cleaners, or stay at home mothers we see all four with well payed and respected jobs, Prudence was a prominent auctioneer, Piper owns a night club of which she is the manager, Phoebe is a journalist and writes an advice column in  a large newspaper, and Paige, the youngest is to begin with, a social worker, before giving up her to job to focus on her true calling, witchcraft. 

Paramount Pictures Corparation (P1)

Paramount is the fifth oldest surviving film studio in the world. Since its first film release "Les Amours de la Rien Élizabeth" on July 12th 1912, Paramount Pictures has produced thousands of films in all genres, raging from silent and black and white to modern blockbusters that cost hundreds of millions to make, as well as its film branch Paramount also produce and release several television series, including, Charmed, the original Star Trek, The Brady Bunch, Happy Days, The Untouchables, and more recently, Dr.Phil, NCIS, The 4400, and Criminal Minds. Since its relatively small beginnings Paramount has grown substantially, today Paramount's revenue is 1.2 Billion dollars, with a yearly operating income 300million dollars. Paramount pictures has been a key player in film and television for over a hundred years and has made some of the most iconic films of the last 50years. Paramount transcends genre and setting and makes consistently outstanding films, and has produced many of the decades most popular television shows. Paramount is a commercial company that is in direct competition with other film studios and other distribution companies such as Disney and universal studios. Paramount is one of the highest grossing studios in the world, grossing 1.92 billion dollars in 2011, while competitors, such as 20th Century Fox, grossed only 985 million dollars.

Distribution and Audience (P3)(P4)

DISTRIBUTION&CHANNELS
Charmed was originally broadcast on The WB television channel in America, Charmed was also broadcast in Sweden, Switzerland, France, Brazil, Israel, Argentina, Austria, Germany, UK, Estonia, Slovenia, Finland, Italy, Malaysia, Japan, Russia, Spain, Hungary and Mexico. After the end of its original run, Charmed was then broadcast mostly on Channel 4, and its subsidiary E4, Charmed was also shown on PickTV. Charmed is also available on both the UK and US versions of Netflix, and is available to watch on other sites on the internet. Charmed DVD's are still selling, and can be bought as a whole box set, or s individual series. This shows that the show was, and still is widely available for people to watch, this demonstrates that the show was popular with its viewers and remains so, because it is available on Netflix, this shows that the show can still pull in new viewers.

GENDER&AGE

 Most of the WB's programming is aimed mostly at women between 16-34, Charmed's first few series follow this pattern, by exploring the relationship between sisters and by having a girly fantasy theme, as seen in the first trailer above. Throughout the series Charmed has evolved into a more action based show, to accommodate for their growing and ageing audience, also by encompassing more action and special effects into the show it makes it more enticing to not just female but male audiences also. In the UK Charmed was first broadcast on Living Tv, a channel that, like The WB, broadcasts programmes mostly aimed at women, however Charmed is  now shown on Channel 4, E4, and PickTV. Living TV is mostly aimed at women who are in the categories of C1,C2,D, these categories suggest that although Charmed had a large fan base, the majority of these were women who were unskilled workers, or labourers, or did not earn much money, this co-incides well with Charmed's fantasy genre, as the show will give these people chance to escape into there fantasy world, while they watch the show. The spending power of the majority of the audience for Charmed is average or slightly below, the audience is comprised mostly of women who may have children, or younger girls that may have disposable income, but not a great deal of it, this would mean that the sponsorship and advertisements will be for main stream companies, with products of an average price, and that are easily available to but, for example a supermarket such as ALDI, or a car that is available on finance for a low monthly rate, rather  than advertising a BMW that costs £30,000 pounds or an expensive supermarket like WAITROSE, both of which would be well out of the budget for many of the viewers of Charmed.

  

LIFESTYLE

This website demonstrates that Charmed is mostly broadcast on E4, mostly in the morning between 11-12am, however Charmed is also shown on a range of other different channels. Before Charmed ended British cable and satellite TV channel broadcast episodes of Charmed back to back every weekday afternoon and broadcast the newest episode of Charmed on a Thursday evening between 5 and 6 o'clock, Living Tv was a channel that broadcast programmes predominantly to target its large female audience, which would work well with Charmed's large female following.  Charmed is mainly broadcast on E4, a subsidiary of Channel 4, which broadcasts many Us imports like, 90210, The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother,  Ugly Betty and Scrubs, Charmed along with these other programmes are mostly aimed at people aged 15-35, the most lucrative age group. (IMDb) An IMDb survey of its users revealed that the series as a whole scored an average of 8.6/10, with no episode being given less than a 6.5/10, this shows us that Charmed was and continues to be a very popular show.

POPULARITY&SIMILAR

 Charmed's first series attracted 5.5million viewers on average, and was ranked second in the WB networks most popular shows, ever since its first series, Charmed has never dipped below third in the networks top shows and has never dipped below 3million viewers on average per series, this shows that Charmed has been consistently popular and has kept its original fans as well as gaining new ones. Charmed could be compared to the immensely popular TV series Charlies Angles, in the way that the very basic premise of the show is much the same, in that three unassuming women are fighting crime and helping to change the world, not only te premise but also the viewers of the two programmes are largely similar, the programmes are both aimed at women between 15-35 and have incorporated more action scenes later in the series to attract a wider male audience.  Unlike Charmed, Charlies Angels has been re-invented and has had several remakes made and even a film made which has made it incredibly popular and well known.

ADVERTISING 
Charmed is not widely advertised now, due to it's lack of following after it ended. The episodes and series' are all on Netflix, however this also doesn't widely advertise the programme.
When Charmed was on regularly it was advertised a couple of days before it was due to air so that more people who viewed the channels it was on, were more likely to watch it. The more advertisements it had on prior to the showing, as well as the same day, more audiences were more inclined to watch the programme therefore increasing the ratings.
As well as this, when a season would end of season box set would also be made for fans which would be advertised equally as much as the series, if not more so that it would increase seasonal ratings on the distributing channel.

A trailer for the box set 1-6 is shown below.

CHARMED CASE STUDY (P2)

CHARMED

GENRE

Charmed is an supernatural action televised series with elements of horror and fantasy, Charmed was created and written by Constance. M. Burge, who has also written for and produced television series such as, Ally McBeal and Boston Public. Charmed's genre is somewhat unique, in the way that t combines supernatural action with family drama and even some crime and mystery, Charmed could be compared to television series such as Charlies Angels, that also focus's on 3 women who fight crime. In this way Charmed is repeating a successful formula of female witches or females involved in the supernatural, Charmed could be considered a contemporary of series like Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Supernatural, all of which could be considered as being made popular by fore-runners like the original Bewitched series. Charmed however, breaks many generic conventions by mixing genres, and combining fast paced, high octane action, with slow, family scenes that explore relationships, and love, this is what differs Charmed from related series, and what contributed to its major success with women.

PURPOSE&CONTENT

The show focus' on three sister witches, Prudence, Piper and Phoebe, and later when Prudence is killed, a long lost sister Paige is introduced into the family. The stars of the show are Shannen Doherty(Prudence), Holly Marie Combs(Piper), Alyysa Milano(Phoebe) and Rose McGowan(Paige), there is many supporting actors that play re-occuring characters throughout the series, most notably these include Brian Krause, who plays Leo, the sisters guardian angel and Pipers husband, and father to her children, Julian McMahon, who plays Cole Turner, Phoebes true love and soul mate, but also a powerful demon called Belthazor, who later becomes the 'Source', a powerful being with extraordinary supernatural abilities, and Kaley Cuoco, known for playing penny in 'The Big Bang Theory', who plays Billie a lost witch who is helped by the sister witches to find her true path. Charmed focus' on the Halliwell sisters and there powers, the three sister witches are the "Charmed Ones", a prophesied trio of witches who will once and for all destroy "The Source" a powerful demon who is believed to be the root of all evil. Eventually after losing there sister Prudence and finding a new sister, Paige the Halliwell sisters vanquish "The Source", only for his powers to be inherited by Phoebe's husband, Cole, who unbeknownst to the sisters was already a powerful demon. After we see the relationship between Phoebe and Cole deteriorate he becomes almost indestructible and does everything in is power to get Phoebe back. Eventually Cole is vanquished, but still exists on a spiritual plane through which he contacts Phoebe. The sisters spend much of there time fighting evil an correcting the wrongs that magic has created in the world,the sisters must also battle to keep there magic hidden from there mortal partners and to keep normal functioning lives in society. Charmed not only is a fantasy programme but explores relationships between family and friends and questions the morals of the sisters, they are often forced to choose between two great evils and are forced to make great personal sacrifices to save the world and keep people safe from demons itches and warlocks. The last episode of Charmed shows us that the Charmed sisters and there offspring eventually conquer evil, and are able o fulfil their personal goals of having a quiet family lifestyle, we see Piper and Leo in the ancestral family home, old and peaceful surrounded by grandchildren. The purpose of Charmed is to entertain, Charmed also sends a message about family, and relationships, and explores these themes constantly. Below is a list of Charmed series, with the number of episodes and that the date that each series premiered, and also the timeslot in which it was shown on its original run.

FORM&STYLE

Charmed is set in modern day San Francisco, the sets, except the Underworld, are all realistic, and the family manor is a real house located in San Francisco. Each Charmed episode is around 45 minutes long, and has a linear and serial timeline, so each episode will reference the one preceding it or will reference something form a much earlier episode. In Charmed imagery and costume is used frequently to show us who someone is, which side they are on, and even their mood, for example, demons are usually shot in dark places with only a little lighting from below, this coupled with their dark, usually black and tattered costumes show us their evil and deceiving nature, juxtaposed to this is the "Elders" angle like beings that are portrayed in long white and gold flowing robes, always brightly lit, usually from above, and are rarely seen on earth, and are frequently said to be "UpThere" which we would assume is a heavenly like place, this along with soft and never raised voices give us an image of a typical pure, gentle angelic character, which shows who they are and that they will not be a threat to anyone dealing with them. Charmed often includes fast moving fight scenes and so the way the camera moves to portray these are paramount to the whole feel of Charmed, the camera mostly focus' on which ever sister is fighting, and often jumps from a body shot to a long, or establishing shot, the fight scenes often dwell on the physical combat and injuries caused, often resulting in death.

PRODUCTION PROCESS

Charmed was first aired in October 1998, its last episode being broadcast in May 2006, during the eight year run of charmed there were 178 episodes of Charmed, with Holly Marie Combs being in every one of them, after the programme ended a series of spin off comic books were created that are still published and are successful today. Charmed was originally broadcast in America on WB television, at 8 o'clock on a saturday night, because of the timing the show must be family appropriate, for a pre-watershed show some scenes in Charmed can be quite violent and sometimes graphic, for example the fight scenes, one of which shows part of a woman's ear being ripped off, and when demons are vanquished by the sisters, they mostly catch fire and burst into a fireball.Produced by Spelling Television and Paramount Pictures, Charmed had a wide release and large audience, through the series the characters change and evolve, the action and focus of the series changes to accommodate for the audience growing up and to appeal to wider audience, for example as special effects developed they were used more in the series to create more action scenes, perhaps to entice a male audience, rather than the largely female following the series originally attracted.

Paramount Pictures After Charmed (P1)

in 2009 Paramount Pictures produced The Lovely Bones, a supernatural drama based on th best selling book of the same name by Alice Sebold. directed by Peter Jackson and produced by Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Carolynne Cunningham, and Amiee Peyronnet. While the film was based on the best selling book, it was adapted into a screenplay by Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Phillipa Boynes. The film was shot by Film4Productions and WingNut Films, and distributed by Paramount Pictures. With a budget of $65,000,000, the film only generated $116,616 in box office in its first week, because of its limited release the film was placed at 13thy on the box office chart for that week. As of 2010 though the film had grossed $50,717,618.

Paramount Pictures Before Charmed(P1)

Before Charmed, Paramount Pictures made many hundreds of films, including The Truman Show, with a budget of $60,000,000 the film was dubbed "the most expensive art film ever made", taking a box office of $264,118,201. Producers waned the film to be more funny and less dramatic.The film was shot on location and in sound stages at Universal Studios. The film received critical acclaim, as well as criticism. The film has been the subject of intense study and many interpretations into its story have been made. the film was named one of the top 10 most prophetic science fiction films of all time. The film was directed by Peter Weir, and produced by Edward Feldman, Scott Rudin,  Andrew Niccol, and Andrew Schroeder.The original screenplay was written by Andrew Niccol, the first fifteen drafts of the script was rejected before it was eventually deemed fit to film. The film was made by Scott Rudin Productions and distributed by Paramount Pictures