Stereotypes

Stereotypes
Genre:	Factual
Broadcast:	January 2005
Producer(s):	Kate Rushworth Pete Nichols

This was part of YSTV's freshers programme for 2004, which had an intensive series of events in the week following Freshers' Fair (Saturday Week 1).

Origins

Stereotypes originated from an idea on the YSTV Messageboard by Kate Rushworth in April 2004. The premise of the show was to ask a group of boys and a group of girls the same set of questions (e.g. opinions on life, drinking, celebrities etc.) and analyse the difference in their responses as well as their interaction with each other.

The original programme was mooted as being called 'He Says, She Says' (which was later to be a programme about the differences between men and women on BBC2). However, as with many programme ideas on the messageboard, it never materialised until it was suggested in September 2004 that it could be a suitable programme to complete over Fresher's Week, as no prior knowledge of anything was required to take part in the show.

Filming

It was decided that Stereotypes should be set over the weekend of Freshers' Week. Saturday was spent set building and planning (the sets were created to look like teenage girls' and boys' bedrooms, with most of the girls' bedroom Smash Hits posters being donated by Jonathan Bufton's sister!) and the programme was filmed "as live" in two sessions (boys and girls) on the Sunday.

The programme also featured a Psychology student to analyse the girls' and boys' behaviour. An initial idea to provide alcoholic drinks to loosen everyone up was dropped - partly due to concerns about allowing it in the station, and partly because a large number of the crew and participants had unexpectantly gone to a party the night before and were suffering from stinking hangovers! It was also Sarah Leese's first appearance on YSTV.

Editing didn't get underway until much later (January!) due to a lack of space for 4 hours of video on the station's Edit PC. The final programme (re-cut to eliminate the copyrighted title music) can be seen [on YTSV's website].

The show was mainly produced by Kate Rushworth and Pete Nichols, with the editing done by Kate Rushworth.