Killing Eve Research

(*I may edit and add more information later). 

As I start the magazine portion to my cross-media productions I've decided I need an example of how a successful show has decided to market in gaining an audience. The show I'm looking at is 'Killing Eve' which is a spy-thriller drama series produced for BBC America (an American network that is jointly owned by BBC Studios and AMC Networks - not funded by the British licencing fee). It is an eight episode show which airs weekly ever Saturday on BBC1 or you can binge-watch the series on BBC3 iPlayer.

The premise of the show follows a MI5 officer - Eve Polastri, played by Sandra Oh, who begins to track down a talented psychopathic, skilled assassin - Villanelle, played by Jodie Cormer. The show is based on the novel Codename Villanelle by Luke Jennings.

In terms of marketing, the show is primarily sold with the characters of Eve and Villanelle, as they appear on the majority of posters, and interviews. They are the focal characters, therefore are iconic to the shows branding.

For example in this poster you see both of the characters denoted where Villanelle is seen to be strangling Eve, relating back to the title of 'Killing Eve'. The title is seen in bold red which is eye catching and recognisable to audiences. From this poster you could infer that the main colours / colour scheme of the show are blacks and reds, which are common to horror, crime genres etc. The colours chosen don't suggests something bright and fun instead something dark; you could connote that the blood relates to blood or love etc. As a whole the poster is quite ambiguous as other than the characters the background is bare, with no setting or clues to the narrative, and you see Eve gradienting into the black.  

Here are the character profile for Eve and Villanelle that were on the BBC website, which explain about their personalities, their lives (in work and home) and how they build into the narrative of the story - Eve is tracking a 'new female assassin' and as she gets closer to uncovering who she really is, Villanelle becomes more reckless.

The characters themselves are portrayed in certain ways that engage the audience to find out more about them. Killing Eve uses 'messy intimacy with thrills of the traditional format, and to fill stock genre roles with female characters who turn cliches inside out'. - Vanity Fair. This suggests that as the focus is on the characters the writers have chosen to build the personalities and relationships of the character so that the audience may feel personal relations (use and gratification) to them. There are 'big swings in storytelling that out audiences loves, [but set] in this very female world', which explains why both leads are female (and also addresses/infers things such as same-sex relationships). 

(*Vanity Fair also has a lifestyle magazine which I will have to research up on, especially if they're covering topics that are similar to my own production).

In terms of narrative, the show could be seen as similar to mine as you are able to see the actions and behaviours of the villain/ criminal committing the crimes or acts of murder. Killing Eve is sold on the relationship between Eve and Villanelle and how they become obsessed with each other.

For my own production I want my main villain character to both seem so humane as well as having an irking psychotic nature. I think this could be seen in my contrasted scenes of her interacting with people as she heads home, sitting at home (loneliness) and murdering people. I think I need to make a bigger deal out of the killings as either wise the audience may not understand the extremities to her actions. As the show is 40-45 minutes long the show is able to use humour and emotional moments to build a deeper bond between characters; instead i will have to portray things in a 2-3 minute therefore every second shall count.